Archive for the ‘Say What?’ Category
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
From Kip Moore’s Facebook page:
i leave for NY in a few hours. i’ve always heard how fast pace everything and everyone is up there, so i’m thinking i’m gonna find the person that seems to be in the biggest hurry, step rt in front of them and start walking as slow as my country ass can and every time they try to go around me, i’ll step in front of them and act as if i’m sight seeing. wonder how quick i’ll get the “F” bomb dropped on me.
Listen, Kip. I love your single and everything, but if you get trampled today, I have no sympathy. People who come to my city with pre-emptive rudeness on the fallacious assumption that New Yorkers are the rude ones get no love.
I slow my pace down when I’m down south. Pick yours up when you get here.
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
From an interview with New Country in 1995:
It bugs me when I do something that I really think is great and they don’t acknowledge it at all. It’s kind of weird for me, but I don’t slit my wrists. What would kill me is if I did something that I didn’t believe in at all, that I hated, just because they said you’ll have a hit, and then it wasn’t a hit. That, to me, would be death.
Thoughts?
Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Charley Pride, 1984:
Music is only a product, like anything else. You pick out what you feel your audience will like, and do it. At first, I recorded a lot of things I didn’t like. After I reached a point where I had some say-so about what I record, I try now to record what I like.
Thoughts?
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
Marty Stuart, April 1994:
At the end of the day, when nobody’s looking and I’m just alone, my favorite thing to do is get my mandolin or acoustic guitar and sit in the corner with one light bulb hanging down in the dark and sing about sick people or dead people.
Thoughts?
Monday, October 11th, 2010
From an interview with The Boston Globe, via Country California:
Country music has always been filled with artists who write their own songs. But I think in the ’80s and ’90s it went through a phase where everyone was recording songs written by other songwriters; which gives those songwriters great success and a way to provide for their families, but I think the fans also love to hear what the artist has to say from the artist’s mouth. And that’s, I think, one of the reasons why Taylor Swift has done such an amazing job and has been so successful, because she’s baring her heart to her fans and it’s so relatable. – Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum
Where to begin? I’ll start with the fact that Scott is wrong on the merits. There were plenty of artists who wrote their own songs during the eighties and nineties, though the best ones had the good judgment to balance their best compositions with great songs written by others, rather than weaken an album by not recording outside material that’s superior to what they’ve written themselves.
I have more of an issue with the idea that today’s country artists have improved on what came before them with this supposedly new approach. I’m sorry, but today’s current crop of country stars are collectively less talented, less compelling, less interesting, and quite frankly, less capable with a pen, guitar, and microphone than even the B-list stars of the eighties and nineties. There aren’t that many who can sing or write, let alone do both.
Study Taylor Swift for her marketing acumen. There’s a lesson to be learned there. But for all that is good and holy. please look to Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, and just about all of the other big eighties and nineties stars for how to produce good country music. For Scott to think that her generation is actually improving the genre, she must either have remarkably bad taste in music, or a nineties record collection that runs no deeper than Linda Davis.
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Here’s what Tim McGraw told New Country Magazine after his third album, All I Want, was released to surprising critical acclaim in 1995:
If 10 albums from now, it’s not better than this one, I shouldn’t be making them.
That’s a lofty goal, isn’t it? I think that just about every McGraw album released since All I Want has been of higher quality, but I don’t know that I’d argue that each one was better than the last. But is that ever true about any artist?
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Kathy Mattea. I think that her recent run of Roses, Joy For Christmas Day, Right Out of Nowhere, and Coal have shown significant growth from one set to next.
Can you think of any artist with a decently long career that has consistently improved from album to album?
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
In an interview with Gibson.com , Terri Clark reflects on her hit-making days:
Country radio was good to me for many years, but it also pigeonholed me. After my first album, I was expected to fill the slot on their playlist for ‘fun, up-tempo female.’ That provided me with a space to fill on that playlist, and a string of turntable hits, but in my entire career I had only two ballads that broke the Top 10.
There have been quite a few songs, songs that never got released as singles, that I felt were stronger than a lot of the singles that came out.
Lamenting the restraints that their former labels placed on their artistic freedom is a common refrain of country artists once they go indie. But in Clark’s case, I see her point. Her first wave of hits included two ballads, but most of the biggest hits were uptempo rockers like “You’re Easy On the Eyes” and “Better Things To Do.” Her second wave was only three hits deep, a trio of upbeat numbers that all reached the top two. Radio essentially walked away when she took a turn for the serious.
Interestingly enough, she fell out of favor during Gretchen Wilson’s meteoric rise, who essentially filled that “fun, up-tempo female” slot. Radio embraced Wilson more than they ever embraced Clark, but also tired of her quickly. Radio has since backed more female artists than it did in the early part of the decade, with Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Sugarland regularly topping the charts. But it could be argued that Clark’s niche has never been filled again, much like Mary Chapin Carpenter and Patty Loveless were never succeeded by a younger counterpart.
Do you agree with Clark that radio pigeonholds its artists to the detriment of their music? If so, what artists are currently being the most limited by this mindset?
H/T: GAC
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
As reported by Billboard, Carrie Underwood’s response to being offered a free copy of Miranda Lambert’s new album, Revolution:
No. I’m going to buy it.
Gotta love that!
Billboard’s been previewing some new tracks from Underwood’s upcoming third album, Play On. I’ve found “Temporary Home” and “Mama’s Song” to be far more promising previews of the new set than lead single “Cowboy Casanova.”
Check out the entire interview with Underwood here.
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Here you go.………………………………………………………………………..
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Anyone who reads Bob Lefsetz’ “The Lefsetz Letter” knows that Lefsetz is a fairly new country music fan, but a passionate one all the same. I frequently disagree with his current assessment of country music, particularly country radio (although recently he has clued in to its frequent vapidness and monotony), but he’s a fantastic voice out there championing country music.
In a recent letter, he made some interesting statements about his desired role for the future of country music (i.e. the classic rock of the future). After approvingly citing the recent Newsweek article which bemoaned the current state of country music, Lefsetz stated:
Country used to have an edge. My buddy Pete Anderson would love to bring it back. But I’m thinking we’ve just got to move the needle a little bit, and suddenly we’ve got the rock business we used to have, the one that triumphed in the seventies.
He went on to state:
If they just took off the cowboy hats and lost the banjos they’d be closer to Lynyrd Skynyrd than Dolly Parton or George Jones. When are the country acts going to go after their rightful audience, boomers who lived through the seventies and younger people who want melody!
***
The future is in country, or something quite like it.
It’s not the final resting place for has-beens like Bon Jovi or wannabes like Jessica Simpson, but a phoenix ready to rise if it’s taken seriously, adds a bit of true cred, emphasizes electric guitars and is willing to have an edge.
As fans of country, new and old, how do you feel about this assessment of the future of country music?
From Kip Moore’s Facebook page:
on 
on 
on 
