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Best Country Singles of 2009, Part 1: #40-#21

Dan Milliken — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:28:10 +0000

Here’s hoping you haven’t gotten completely burned out on countdowns yet. 2009 was hardly a favorite musical year for many of us, but amid each year’s glut of throwaway items, there’s always a good’un or two (or forty). The following is the first installment of our Best Singles of 2009 list, which will conclude tomorrow morning. Best Albums will follow next week.

As with the Singles of the Decade feature, this countdown has been compiled through combination of four equally weighed Top 20 lists by Kevin, Leeann, Tara and myself. An inverted point system was applied to the individual rankings (#1 on a list meant 20 points, while #20 on the list meant 1 point). The songs were then ranked together by number of total points, greatest to least. The final result is another rather stylistically diverse set.

As always, we hope you enjoy the countdown, and welcome all the feedback you can muster. Happy New Year!

#40

Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”

The trio puts a country spin on an old school pop sound, but without forsaking raw emotion. The highlight of the song is Hillary Scott’s smoky performance, which draws out all the anguish and regret you’d expect from a desperate, 1 AM lover’s call. – Tara Seetharam

#39

Joey + Rory, “Play the Song”

While Joey + Rory’s image appears to be squeaky-clean, it is fascinating that their songs have displayed some of the most attitude in the mainstream country music world. After releasing the sassy “Cheater, Cheater”, they have appealed to radio (the very people holding part of the duo’s career in their hands) to stop limiting their playlists with safe choices and to just “play the song.” – Leeann Ward

#38

Toby Keith, “Cryin’ for Me (Wayman’s Song)”

A heartfelt tribute to a friend that has passed on, with a vocal that once again proves Keith to be among the finest the genre has ever seen. – Kevin Coyne

#37

Rosanne Cash with Bruce Springsteen, “Sea of Heartbreak”

On her 2009 covers album, Rosanne Cash includes a rendtion of Don Gibson’s “Sea of Heartbreak.” She turns the song into her own with a jaunty production and the inclusion of revered rocker Bruce Springsteen, who channels a smoother sound than usual. – LW

#36

Zac Brown Band, “Toes”

As tired as I am of picturing Zac Brown’s ass in the sand, his group delivered the best Jimmy Buffett send-up the genre has seen in many years of them. “Toes” is light and silly, to be sure, but light and silly can work when you paint them with detail and don’t over-amplify them. – Dan Milliken

#35

Joey + Rory, “To Say Goodbye”

The matter-of-fact presentation somehow enhances the sadness by underplaying it. – KC

#34

Charlie Robison, “Feelin’ Good”

Charlie Robison’s album Beautiful Day reflects his varied emotions after his divorce from Dixie Chick Emily Robison. While there is a lot of dark reflection on the album, there are sparks of hope for the future as well, though forced they may sometimes be. “Feelin’ Good” is one of those songs; it’s mixed with both optimism and leftover pain. – LW

#33

Trace Adkins, “All I Ask for Anymore”

A humble confession of a man’s shifting priorities, sung with sturdy conviction and quiet confidence. It’s nothing groundbreaking for Adkins, but a home run nonetheless. – TS

#32

Kellie Pickler, “Best Days of Your Life”

The chorus that will not quit helped make this the closest that Taylor Swift has ever gotten to heavy rotation in my world. – KC

#31

Montgomery Gentry, “Long Line of Losers”

Yeah, I know. But I can’t help it. Every time my brain tells me to forget this sensationalized celebration of white-trash lineage, I listen to it again and the smile comes right back. There’s just something cool about being willing to accept the role your family has in shaping your identity, especially those parts of it that outsiders might look down on. – DM

#30

Steve Azar, “Moo La Moo”

Good to know that the working man still has a voice being offered to country radio, even if they don’t choose to play him. – KC

#29

Cherryholmes, “This Is My Son”

A mother’s prayers draw a sad parallel between her soldier son and her savior, as she realizes each has been sacrificed for “a people who don’t care that they’re free at the cost of his life.” It’s a wonder the group was able to make such a provocative message sound so pretty. – DM

#28

Charlie Robison, “Reconsider”

Robison’s vulnerability is palpable in this song that wonders if he could somehow repair his failed relationship. While he asks “would you reconsider?”, it’s evident that he already knows the answer and it’s not good. – LW

#27

Tim McGraw, “It’s a Business Doing Pleasure with You”

Funny as all get out, McGraw returned with an “I Like It, I Love It” for the new millenium. $48 and a thrown shoulder at the county fair would be getting off easy these days. – KC

#26

Holly Williams, “Mama”

Songs that pay tribute to Mama are rather common in country music. Holly William’s version of the Mama tribute is different, however, as it looks through the lens of a daughter who is grateful to a mother for not trying to sabotage the daughter’s relationship with her father, even with plenty of valid ammunition to do so. The fact that we know that Holly Williams is the daughter of Hank Williams, Jr. only helps to add to the weight of the song. – LW

#25

Brad Paisley, “American Saturday Night”

Paisley serves up his own brand of playful patriotism with this infectious ode to our melting-pot nation. It’s a splash of truth mixed with a heck of a lot of fun – a signature Paisley recipe. – TS

#24

Zac Brown Band, “Whatever It Is”

There is no mainstream band who manages to sound more at ease than the Zac Brown Band. “Whatever It Is” magnifies the relaxed vibe that the group seems to naturally exude. Furthermore, the fact that they’re able to do it with a love song is refreshing in and of itself. – LW

#23

Sugarland, “Joey”

Never-ending questions that will remain unanswered, fueled by guilt and helplessness that are unabated. – KC

#22

Mark Chesnutt, “She Never Got Me Over You”

A slice of pure, timeless classic country, written by the late Keith Whitley and performed beautifully by one of our most talented traditional male vocalists. – TS

#21

Emily West, “That Kind of Happy”

This is one of those rare instances when pop and country successfully collide to create a piece of irresistible ear candy. Emily West seems to be good at that. – LW

Album Sales Update: July 2009

Kevin John Coyne — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:19:45 +0000

It’s time for an album sales update, our first since May 23. Brad Paisley is off to a strong start with American Saturday Night, selling 130k in its first week. That’s about 70k less than his previous two studio albums – Time Well Wasted and 5th Gear – opened with, but not a terrible drop-off, considering the state of the music market.

Meanwhile, the new studio albums by Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban are slowing down considerably, now being outpaced on a weekly basis by 2008 releases by Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum.

Among younger acts with a new album in 2009, the most impressive sales are coming from Jason Aldean, while 2008 releases from Kellie Pickler, Billy Currington, and Randy Houser are showing new signs of life.

Biggest disappointments? It’s hard not to look in the direction of Martina McBride, who has barely cleared the 100k mark on her new studio set. Lee Ann Womack’s 2008 set just made it over that mark, too. Then again, one only needs to have sold 455 copies to make the chart this week, with the anchor position going to Wynonna with that total. Her covers album Sing – Chapter 1 has sold 41k to date.

Here are the latest totals for albums released over the past three years that are still charting:

2009

Rascal Flatts, Unstoppable – 842,000
Keith Urban, Defying Gravity – 452,000
Jason Aldean, Wide Open – 384,000
Kenny Chesney, Greatest Hits II – 281,000
Dierks Bentley, Feel That Fire – 219,000
Martina McBride, Shine – 104,000
John Rich, Son of a Preacher Man – 103,000
Eric Church, Carolina – 94,000
Rodney Atkins, It’s America – 88,000
Jake Owen, Easy Does It – 81,000
Randy Travis, I Told You So: Ultimate Hits – 78,000
Montgomery Gentry, For Our Heroes – 64,000
Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie & The Wheel – 56,000
Steve Earle, Townes – 47,000
Colt Ford, Ride Through the Country – 45,000
Jason Michael Carroll, Growing Up is Getting Old – 45,000
Wynonna, Sing – Chapter 1 – 41,000
Hank Williams Jr. – 127 Rose Avenue – 34,000
Ryan Bingham, Roadhouse Sun – 15,000
Tracy Lawrence, Rock – 11,000
Darryl Worley, Sounds Like Life – 8,000
Holly Williams, Here With Me – 5,000
Charlie Robison, Beautiful Day – 3,000
Tanya Tucker, My Turn – 3,000

2008

Taylor Swift, Fearless – 3,464,000
Sugarland, Love on the Inside – 1,683,000
George Strait, Troubadour – 914,000
Alan Jackson, Good Time – 869,000
Darius Rucker, Learn to Live – 754,000
Kenny Chesney, Lucky Old Sun – 721,000
Zac Brown Band, Foundation – 681,000
Rascal Flatts, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 – 680,000
Lady Antebellum, Lady Antebellum – 674,000
Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits – 652,000
Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song – 509,000
Toby Keith, That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy – 403,000
James Otto, Sunset Man – 374,000
Julianne Hough, Julianne Hough – 314,000
Kellie Pickler, Kellie Pickler – 261,000
Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits – 255,000
Brad Paisley, Play – 247,000
Dolly Parton, Backwoods Barbie – 208,000
Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits Vol. 3 – 206,000
Billy Currington, Little Bit of Everything – 191,000
Trace Adkins, X – 185,000
Montgomery Gentry, Back When I Knew it All – 184,000
Joey + Rory, Life of a Song – 167,000
Blake Shelton, Startin’ Fires – 165,000
Eli Young Band, Jet Black and Jealous – 108,000
Lee Ann Womack, Call Me Crazy – 102,000
Craig Morgan, Greatest Hits – 81,000
Hank Williams III, Damn Right Rebel Proud – 80,000
Randy Houser, Anything Goes – 79,000
Lost Trailers, Holler Back – 69,000

2006-2007

Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift – 4,129,000
Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride – 2,918,000

Win an Autographed Copy of Charlie Robison’s Beautiful Day

Leeann Ward — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:05:38 +0000

As a recent convert to Charlie Robison’s music, I am pleased to announce that Country Universe is giving away an autographed copy of his new album, Beautiful Day, thanks to the generosity of dualtoneRecords.

Despite the album’s seemingly positive title, Beautiful Day is mostly the exploration of the emotional upheaval that resulted in the aftermath of his high profile divorce from Dixie Chick, Emily Robison. In this superb album, you will detect a variety of emotions including sadness, resignation, tentative hopefulness and other feelings that naturally occur upon ending a union that was meant to last forever.

As usual, any comment will count as an entry for the random drawing. However, if you’re looking for direction, here’s what I’ve got:

If you could have anyliving country artist hang out with you in your very own living room, who would you choose?

Random question, you say? Well, there’s a method to my madness. As reported by Country California, Charlie is currently running a contest that involves a private house concert and Twitter. If you are one of his Twitter friends, you could have a chance to win a private house concert and invite up to 25 friends to join you. All you have to do is follow these simple instructions:

STEP 1: Go to
twitter.com/charlierobison
and follow Charlie

STEP 2: Re-tweet the below message to be entered into the contest (must include #crcontest)
“#crcontest Charlie Robison’s new record out now, RT to win a Living Room Concert. http://bit.ly/4aMvY”

STEP 3: Keep tabs on Charlie’s tweets for the announcement of the winner! Winner will be announced on September 1, 2009.

After entering our giveaway, if you’re so inclined, head on over to your Twitter account and enter Charlie’s contest too. Ours will have better odds, but why not try your luck, anyway?

While you have until September 1 to enter Charlie’s Twitter contest, ours will end on Sunday July 12 at 9:00 Eastern.

Good luck.

Charlie Robison, “Reconsider”

Leeann Ward — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:28:20 +0000

While I’m always interested in learning the story behind a song, I generally insist that a song must be able to stand on its own without the support of a back story to prop it up. In that vein, I typically balk against unconfirmed assertions regarding motivations for a song as a justification for the song’s existence. With that said, it would be remiss of me to deny that a confirmed story behind a song often positively helps to inform an artist’s performance of the said song.

Therefore, it’s not farfetched to assume that Charlie Robison’s fairly recent divorce from Dixie Chick, Emily Robison, has had a tangible effect on the maudlin “Reconsider”, which was recorded in the aftermath of the highly publicized 2008 divorce. While Robison did not write the song, his emotion is palpable enough to make us forget such a technical detail.

In “Reconsider”, which will be available on his June 23rd release of Beautiful Day, Robison beseeches, “If I tried, would you reconsider/Would you reconsider comin’ home/And if I cried/Would you reconsider/would you reconsider comin’ home? Instead of asking this question with hopefulness, however, his resigned resignation to the fact that he already knows the answer is clearly evident in his emotively subdued performance. To further his self loathing, he sadly observes, “I hate the way we folded, Baby/And was I ever good enough?”

With its simple melody and frugal production, this song is not destined to be a hit on mainstream country radio. It does, however, demonstrate the ability for raw, sincere emotion to successfully carry a song, which, in turn, heightens anticipation for an album that will undoubtedly provide insightfully intriguing songs as a result.

Written by Keith Gattison and Charles Brocco

Grade: A-

Listen: Charlie Robison, “Reconsider”

The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be

Lynn Douglas — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:36:11 +0000

As I was scouring the neighborhood around 9pm last night after work looking for an open pet store, I flipped through the local radio stations looking for something new and interesting. I really didn’t expect to find much, but after awhile, I finally hit something with a cool beat and lyrics. Something that I hadn’t heard before and sounded different. I kinda liked it, but couldn’t place it.

It turns out that the station was previewing the new Green Day album, 21st Century Breakdown, (due out in stores and online today). I consider myself somewhat of a Green Day fan, despite the fact I only own Dookie and American Idiot. (And there’s a good, somewhat funny concert story related to the band mixed in there as well.) As such, I’ve been cautiously optimistic about their new album.

Fortunately, from what I heard in between futile stops at closed pet stores, it sounded pretty good, and I decided to buy it today. But as I made that decision, I realized that there are very few albums coming out soon that I’m genuinely looking forward to with anticipation and excitement. And I was truly surprised by how ambivalent I really felt about this release by a band that I know I like. Maybe that’s because as we get older, we become more picky and more frugal. Or perhaps we just haven’t heard anything awesome in such a long time, we figure it might be best to wait and see if we hear some buzz before we cautiously download a song, much less an entire album.

Who knows.

What I do know, is that the only albums I can currently recall that I am looking forward to are the upcoming Patty Griffin, Charlie Robison and Levon Helm albums. Griffin is always fantastic. Robison’s album has good advance buzz and is bound to be interesting given the time period in his life in which he wrote it. And I’m a recent Helm fan. But, help me out…there’s gotta be more!

Which albums coming out soon are you most looking forward to?

Satirical Songs

Leeann Ward — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:05:05 +0000

I’ve known about Kinky Friedman for some years now. Actually, I should be more specific and say that I’ve known Kinky Friedman’s name for quite some years now. Because, to be honest, the only thing I really knew about him until very recently is that Willie Nelson supported him for Texas Governor in 2006, which should have peaked my interest enough to research him back then.

It wasn’t until recently, after doing an Amazon search for stray Todd Snider songs, that I realized that the colorful and fascinating Friedman, while politically extreme at times, was quite the singing satirist. On the 2006 album Why The Hell Not…The Songs of Kinky Friedman, I discovered an incredible cast of artists (Willie Nelson, Todd Snider, Bruce Robison, Asleep at the Wheel, Delbert McClinton, Charlie Robison, Dwight Yoakam, Kevin Fowler & Jason Boland) doing covers of Friedman’s songs, many so sharp that I was more than a little taken aback at first. Through satire and, sometimes, even seriousness, Freidman offers a lot of social commentary that is often colorful and always intriguing.

Although Friedman’s original versions aren’t especially appealing to me, the tribute album is engaging. Two songs in particular caught my attention right away. Kevin Fowler’s cover of “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven” and Todd Snider’s version of “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” are both addictively catchy and amusing. Snider’s song would easily fit next to his own socially charged compositions while Fowler’s choice is performed with a charming cheekiness.

While it would be violating Country Universe’s comment policy to quote Todd Snider’s song that deals with racism, I will provide a sample of the lyrics from Fowler’s deliciously ridiculous ditty, which is hopefully extreme enough to be obviously satirical in nature as social commentary.

Verse 1: You uppity women I don’t understand
Why you gotta go and try to act like a man,
But before you make your weekly visit to the shrink
You’d better occupy the kitchen, liberate the sink.

Chorus: Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed
That’s what I to my baby said,
Women’s liberation is a-going to your head,
Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed.

Kinky Friedman’s brand of social commentary may be understandably too inflammatory and extreme for many people, but my call to Country Universe readers tonight is to recommend a satirical song that you find appealing.

Themed Albums

Lynn Douglas — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:08:08 +0000

Kathy Mattea’s brilliant album released last year, Coal, reminded me of how much I love themed albums. There is something unique and special about an album that addresses a single topic from varied angles or transports the listener on a purposeful ride. It’s not just a random collection of singles with little to coalesce them together. Rather, like great movies, themed albums demand that you listen from the first note to the last, lest you miss something important in between.

Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger is one of the most famous themed albums in country music history. The entire album is based on the conceptual story of a preacher who shoots his cheating wife and her lover before going on the run. However, the theme doesn’t have to be as concrete as the one in Red Headed Stranger or as narrow as the one in Coal, which endeavors to shine a light on the coal-mining industry, to be included in this category. It can be as amorphous as “love” or “heartache.”

Just for fun, I culled through my musical catalog (and all 5 million or so country songs about love, heartache and partying on Friday night) and put together my own themed album very loosely titled: America 2009:

Filthy Rich (Big Kenny, John Rich, Bill McDavid, Freddy Powers, Sonny Thockmorton)
Workingman’s Blues #2 (Bob Dylan)
If We Make It Through December (Merle Haggard)
Dirt (Chris Knight)
What’s A Simple Man To Do? (Steve Earle)
The Ballad of Salvador & Isabelle (Dave Quanbury)
If You Don’t Love Jesus (Billy Joe Shaver)
Ellis Unit One (Steve Earle)
Dress Blues (Jason Isbell)
It’s a Different World Now (Rodney Crowell)
Everybody Knows (Gary Louris, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison)
Up to the Mountain (Patty Griffin)
Reason to Believe (Bruce Springsteen)

If you were to create your own themed album, what would it look like?