“Pride attaches undue importance to the superiority of one’s status in the eyes of others; And shame is fear of humiliation at one’s inferior status in the estimation of others. When one sets his heart on being highly esteemed, and achieves such rating, then he is automatically involved in fear of losing his status.”
- Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher
This week’s iPod challenge requires you to check your shame at the door. Too often, there is embarrassment associated with our favorite music. We worry about the cool factor.
When I started Country Universe, I was determined to write honestly about what I like and dislike, regardless of how it might affect my credibility in the eyes of others. But I often keep mum about the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures.
So with this iPod check, I’m hitting shuffle and listing the first twenty songs that I’d normally be too embarrassed to share. Just to keep it fully honest, I’m using my “Favorites” playlist, the 3,000 or so songs that I truly enjoy, so you know these aren’t songs that I like. They’re songs that I love:
Kellie Pickler, “Best Days of Your Life”
Grease 2, “Back to School Again”
Mr. Mister, “Broken Wings”
N*SYNC, “Pop”
Paula Cole, “I Don’t Want to Wait”
Alabama, “Love in the First Degree”
Guns ‘n Roses, “November Rain”
Blondie, “Rapture”
Billy Ray Cyrus, “In the Heart of a Woman”
Neil Diamond, “Yesterday’s Songs”
Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Doug Stone, “Little Houses”
Trick Daddy, “Nann…”
They Might Be Giants, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”
Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Come On Eileen”
TLC, “No Scrubs”
Arrested Development, “Tennessee” (A game of horseshoes!)
Michael Bolton, “How Can We Be Lovers”
Olivia Newton-John, “Have You Never Been Mellow”
Shakespear’s Sister, “I Don’t Care”
Cast off your shame and share your own list in the comments!
A couple of summers ago, I picked up the 3-disc The Essential Bruce Springsteen album in an El Corte Ingles in Granada, Spain. I was road-tripping it around the country and needed some good tunes. But somehow, the third disc completely escaped my notice until a few weeks ago. It turned out to be comprised of a number of previously unreleased songs recorded over a long and fruitful career. After popping it in, I gleefully discovered a couple of new fantastic, classic Boss songs.
I experienced the same excitement earlier this week when I picked up Springsteen’s 18 Tracks while browsing in Barnes & Noble. That album similarly includes rarities, B-tracks and outtakes. (How did I ever miss “The Promise,” which is apparently a continuation of “Thunder Road”?) I felt like a kid who had just gotten herself locked overnight in a candy store.
Although few artists are as prolific as Springsteen, many artists have a lot of work floating around out there that has not made it onto a studio album. Much of that work is either pre-fame or covers, found on random bootlegs or videos, but every once in awhile you can find a previously unheard original that simply never made it onto a studio album. The best part, for fans, is that these tracks come with zero expectations and a big payoff. It’s simply an opportunity to acquire a more all-encompassing view of a favorite and to achieve new insight into them as artists.
What are your favorite non-(studio) album tracks by your favorite artists?
(If you are attaching a YouTube video, you simply have to place a “v” after “http” so it looks like “httpv://” when posting the URL)
Katie Armiger served as GAC’s Artist of the Month in February, and she recently released “Trail of Lies,” the third single from her album, Believe. The Texas-born 17-year-old called Country Universe recently to discuss her burgeoning career.
The youth movement on Music Row continues to pick up steam. Artistically, how do you stand out from the crowd of young women who are trying to establish their careers?
I think there are a lot of differentiations in our styles. There are a lot of younger artists now for sure, but we have different vocals and different influences. I come from a more empowered standpoint and want the songs to have that view.
What singers most influenced you during your childhood? Is there someone that served as a model for the career you would like to create?
I would say that Martina McBride would be the big one. I’m also a huge fan of Patsy Cline and Linda Ronstadt, but Martina is my favorite.
Trace Adkins’ new album, X, is being offered as part of Amazon’s Friday Five deal for today only.
Our own Blake Boldt had this to say about Adkins’ latest album:
“Although not a leading light in the genre, Adkins’ reputation as a reliable hitmaker has afforded him creative choices, and X demonstrates a surpassing ability to connect to the core concepts of country music. It’s an album that supplies more art and less compromise. With his flesh-and-blood depiction of a country boy, Adkins proves that he can take risks and be rewarded. If justice is served, his under-the-radar routine won’t be a permanent act.”
So, head over to Amazon and grab an MP3 copy for just $5.
Buying instructions: click on the big “Play” symbol to play the clips. When they start playing, a little box with information about the track will appear at the bottom of the box. Click where it says the album’s name (X) to reach the full album. Alternatively, you can click the yellow “Buy MP3″ button to go to the page of the individual song that’s playing, from which you can also reach the full album’s page.
The Country Music Association, mere weeks after inducting its 2009 class, has announced a change in the Hall of Fame criteria. Per the CMA website:
Three inductees will continue to be announced as new members of the Country Music Hall of Fame annually, each selected from a different category. Beginning in 2010, the categories will be renamed and defined as follows:
Veterans Era – This category will be for professionals that have been in the industry longer than 25 years. It combines the former “Career Achieved National Prominence Between World War II and 1975″ (which was voted on annually) and “Career Achieved National Prominence Prior to World War II” (which was voted on every third year in rotation) categories into one.
Modern Era – This category will be for professionals that have been in the industry at least 20 years, but no more than 25 years, and takes the place of the former annual “Career Achieved National Prominence Between 1975-Present” slot.
Rotating Categories – The third slot will continue to be a rotating category, with each group in the spotlight every third year. The Recording and/or Touring Musician and Non Performer slots will remain, joined by a new Songwriter category.
The Modern Era category seems far too limiting, especially given the numerous artists and industry insiders that are fully deserving of this honor. The change does present Randy Travis, Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson the opportunity to be inducted within the next two to three years, but also leaves legends such as Connie Smith, Jean Shepard and the Oak Ridge Boys to ”compete” with newer acts such as Reba McEntire and Hank Williams, Jr. for one solitary spot each year.
Eventually, all of those artists appear to be locks for the Hall of Fame, but, as My Kind of Country alluded to earlier in the week, very few artists in modern-day country music will truly be remembered. Here’s a list of ten contemporary artists who could make the Hall of Fame one day. Although their careers aren’t complete, they have the potential to be lauded for their talent in the coming years. Sound off in the comments with your opinions on who is in, who is out and who could still make a case for induction. Feel free to add any other artists you’d deem worthy. This is not my judgment of who should/should not be included, but a random listing of ten artists who could at least present interesting cases in, say, 2020. Feedback it up. (For a glance at near-future candidates, see Six Pack: Hall of Fame Inductees. Barbara Mandrell, Roy Clark and Charlie McCoy are the 2009 honorees.)
Entertainment Weekly writer Whitney Pastorek shares exclusive new touring information about her favorite country act, Sugarland. Kristian Bush says about the tour,
”You may see Jennifer Nettles play the piano or a bass guitar. I love throwing down the challenge to all the other country musicians. Sometimes you have to choose the fork in the road: the entertainer, or the musician. You go down one road long enough, and you end up Alison Krauss and Union Station. And you go down the other road, and you end up Kenny Chesney. Not to say that Alison isn’t a great entertainer or Kenny isn’t a great musician, but a lot of times that was traditionally the choice you had to make. We’re gonna challenge it, and say, ‘We wonder if you can do both.’”
Last week, I berated producers that I could count on to produce bland, generic albums that I inevitably would not enjoy. As promised, I’ll be more positive this week.
As previously noted, producers play a very integral part in the outcome of the albums that we hear. Good producers will put aside their egos and create music that compliments their artists’ strengths.
I’ve noticed that much of the work from producers that I like tend to be the result of producer/artist pairings. For example, as discussed in the comment thread of last week’s discussion, I’m not always crazy about Tony Brown’s production choices. However, he helped to create the bulk of the music of my favorite artist, Vince Gill. In fact, he’s the one who saved Gill’s career from being destined to obscurity. Interestingly though, Brown took over Vince’s career from Emory Gordy Jr., who admittedly did not do his best work with Gill. Gordy, however, went on to create some wonderful music with Patty Loveless.
To go even a step further, I specifically mentioned that I did not like Dann Huff as a producer in my discussion last week. Our Dan Milliken, however, noted that he thought that Huff has done good work with Keith Urban, which is a point with which I actually cannot disagree.
So, it seems that many of my favorite producers have come from famous producer/artist pairings. Some people just click. Therefore, all of this leads to:
Who are your favorite producer/artist duos?
If you’re looking for a bigger challenge, tell us who your favorite producer in general happens to be.
Some of my favorite producer/artist collaborators include, but are not limited to:
…And finally, the total rankings for this month. It was a very close showdown, and you should all be very proud of your showings. That said, please join me in congratulating our very first prize-winner:
Harlan Howard is one of the most distinguished songwriters in country music history. When interviewed about his #1 hit for the Judds (“Why Not Me”), he made an interesting statement about the need for repeating certain titles throughout a song:
“Why Not Me” wasn’t a great title. To get a really good record, you’ve gotta write a hell of a song when you’re dealing with a title that average. The only thing I know to do with songs like “Why Not Me” and “Busted” – which I never thought was a good title – is to put the title in there often so that people remember it. The weaker the title, the more you gotta hear it.”
“Why Not Me” earned the Judds the Country Duo/Group Grammy and the CMA award for Single of the Year. “Busted” was hit for both Johnny Cash with the Carter Family in the sixties and John Conlee in the eighties. Both songs feature the titles repeated endlessly.
I think this quote is fascinating because it provides a window into how two songs from different eras were crafted by the same writer. I never noticed the similarities before reading the quote.
I’d also add that the Little Texas hit “My Love” and the Brooks & Dunn hit “That’s What It’s All About” show how the rule can be taken too far, in my opinion, and turn into just an annoying song.
Maybe it’s just because I have so many songs on my iPod to begin with, but I’m often surprised when I put my iPod on shuffle. Songs pop up that I didn’t know I owned, along with others that I’d completely forgotten about.
You know the drill. You buy the album because you like the lead single, listen to it once, then you go back to the old stuff you always listen to. At least that’s what I do. I won’t even get into the albums that are sent to me for potential review.
So I thought this would be a fun iPod Check:
Put your mp3 player on Shuffle, and type the first ten songs that you either forgot you owned or didn’t know you owned at all.
Here’s my list:
Shelby Lynne, “Track 12″
Johnny Cash, “Slow Rider”
Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to the Moon”
Sylvia, “Snapshot”
Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”
Little Anthony and the Imperials, “Goin’ Out of My Head”
Loretta Lynn, “Jackson Ain’t a Very Big Town”
Foster & Allen, “Sweet Offaly Lady”
Cat Stevens, “Lady D’Arbanville”
Doug Stone, “Come in Out of the Pain”
I’m pretty sure I picked up Doug Stone’s hits collection in a bargain bin for road trip amusements. I totally forgot about buying the Sinatra classic.
A couple of summers ago, I picked up the 3-disc 
Trace Adkins’ 
The Country Music Association, mere weeks after inducting its 2009 class, has announced a change in the Hall of Fame criteria. Per the CMA website:
Entertainment Weekly writer 
Last week, I berated producers that I could count on to produce bland, generic albums that I inevitably would not enjoy. As promised, I’ll be more positive this week.
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Maybe it’s just because I have so many songs on my iPod to begin with, but I’m often surprised when I put my iPod on shuffle. Songs pop up that I didn’t know I owned, along with others that I’d completely forgotten about.
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