The legends deliver this week.
CeCe
westbound
In 2023, Katie Noel went viral with “Southern,” one of the worst things ever committed to record. CeCe here took that as some kind of perverse dare, since she’s now dropped an entire album of tracks exactly like that. Abysmally sung and rapped lifestyle posturing. Miserable.
Asleep at the Wheel
Riding High in Texas: 50 Years in Texas
Texas Superiority is one of my least-favorite country subgenres, and these wily vets are one of a small handful of acts I’d ever let get away with a full album in that vein. Spirited collaborations further elevate this perfectly-performed set. Love this crew.
Jessica Simpson
Nashville Canyon Part 2
Shocking, truly, how much better this is than the Part 1 from just weeks ago.
For the first time in her career, she sings as though she understands that words have actual meaning when strung together in phrases, and like she has actual control of her voice.
Now, it’s not great, but these are certainly the five best tracks she’s ever recorded, and the production is fully in service to the moody and solidly-written songs.
I’m not going to pretend to understand her learning curve over the last six months, but I’m happy to give credit where it’s due.
Marcus Hummon
Songs For Emily: The Album
:
It’s fine enough, if a bit dull, for what it is: A collection of some of Dickinson’s most well-known verses, set to polished modern folk arrangements. Ultimately, none of those arrangements really add to the poetry, and they lack some of the playfulness of her work.
Rodney Crowell
Airline Highway
Punchier, bluesier production than his late-career norm, and it suits him well on a particularly feisty set of songs. Some references show his age in a way he usually avoids, but not in a way that pulls more than a moment’s focus. He remains a vital talent.
Zach Top
Ain’t in it For My Health
Reaffirms that he has charisma for days, can choke the absolute hell out of a guitar, and can sing just well enough to set himself above the other men clogging up country radio. There are bigger stars with far shallower wells than what he’s drawing from.
But it also reaffirms that the songs, by and large, simply are not there. He’s still stuck on obvious pastiche instead of finding his own voice, which draws attention to the superior singles (“Chattahoochee,” “Brokenheartsville”) he’s aping. He’s yet to answer why not to listen to those, instead.
CMAT
Euro-Country
A wild and wildly uneven ride, but when it comes together (“When a Good Man Cries,” “Coronation St.”), she’s really and truly got something here worth building upon. Her writing’s maybe a bit too clever at times, and her voice will be an acquired taste, but I’m on board.
…”pearly white overbite” – try and make a really entertaining song out of that. not even loretta went anywhere near that challenge. rodney crowell dared and rhymed corvette with cate blachett on top of everything in the sumptuous “sometime thang”. speaking of “thang”, did anyone else see that “thong” (google had heard it too) that margo price originally left in the truck stop dinner “close to him” turning into a “phone” in the matter of a week or so on youtube? don’t even want to picture what you could turn a pair of ol’ y-fronts into these days.
nice little shout-out to ms simpson under the “the legends deliver…” header. long overdue, if you asked a boot-fan.
not sure, whether zach top’s new old stuff is a sign of abuse by older men around him or a reckless attempt to be more bold than old. still, the album actually is rather agreeable in a planet of the apes kinda way (before it gets out of hand there) – and his jackson is better than braxton keith’ tracy lawrence.
I promise I hadn’t intended for “legends” to include Jessica Simpson; I’m long on record as not being a fan even a little bit. But she’s dropped a quite good EP here, and I’m curious where she goes next.
I don’t begrudge Zach Top his success– I’d take him over Nate Smith or Tucker Wetmore or Russell Dickerson or (…)– even if there’s very little on his agreeable record that I can imagine returning to on purpose.
Both in sound and look, Zach Top reminds me of the “jukebox junkie” Ken Mellons.
…that debut album of the “jukebox junkie” sits snuggly among my little “treasures” of which mr. saros has been highlighting quite a few recently and provides a good reference for zach top’s stuff indeed. ken mellons’ sophomore one still has its moments but didn’t quite fulfill the promise of the debut. let’s see, whether zach top will come up with something “new” of the quality of wade hayes’ “she left tulsa (in a chevy) in the future.
Texas Superiority is one of my least-favorite country subgenres
BITE YOUR TONGUE, HERETIC. (I write this as I sit about a half-mile from where the San Antonio Spurs play.)
In all seriousness, AATW can take pretty much anything and make it worth listening to. They did among MANY other things, of course, a really fun cover of Huey Lewis and the News’ ”I Want A New Drug” on 1987’s 10 Gonna have to hear this one.
I went and listened to some snippets of the CeCe album on YouTube in an incognito window, and your assessment was spot-on. I don’t know how anyone could find that sort of thing acceptable.
I mean, it’s truly the only state with its own subgenre, and there are reasons for that! They’re just… not mine!
I remember that Huey Lewis & The News cover! I also loved the long-running Internet rumor that Ray Benson was married to Jodi Benson, voice of The Little Mermaid and the Toy Story franchise’s Barbie as a random AATW pop-culture connection.
The CeCe album is truly in the bottom 1% of albums I’ve ever heard. I didn’t think anyone would let Jessie Murph or Graham Barham off the hook for having this year’s worst album, but here we are, and it’s only September.
I mean, it’s truly the only state with its own subgenre, and there are reasons for that! They’re just… not mine!
Heh. I say it all in good fun. As the Austin Lounge Lizards put it, ”Our Lone Star flag’s the waviest, our fried steak’s the cream-graviest.” :D Even as a Texan I can see how that sort of thing can get off-putting, though.
(Properly-prepared chicken fried steak topped with cream gravy is the food of the gods, though, and I will fight anyone who argues otherwise.)
I’ve never been a fan of “Texas, fuck yeah” songs either. It’s why I love Kenny Rogers’ “Planet Texas”, because it’s a fantastic send-up of that subgenre.
…basically the thought of something fried with gravy on it makes me cringe. however, even though it borders on blasphemy i can remember having enjoyed “wiener schnitzel” (pan fried really thin (hammered) veal almost the size of giannis antetokounmpo’s hands) coated in bread crumbs) that got accidentally soaked in brown sauce quite a bit in my younger days (as well as soaked fries). serious questions now, pistolero: what exactly is the sensation that makes chicken fried steak (which you can’t find on any menu here and i never dared going near when in the u.s.a up to now) “the food of the gods”? and does it appear that way, when it’s only slightly soaked (still somewhat crispy) or when it’s totally soaked by gravy? is gravy compulsory to go with it and what would it come with traditionally? the classic “wiener schnitzel” comes with potato salad (not colder than room temperature) – fries are good fit too though – and a slice of lemon on top of meat.
Tom:
Wienerschnitzel is also good, for the record.
As far as what makes properly-prepared CFS so good — the best way I know to put it is that it’s the melding of all the flavors & textures. I hear tell there are places that serve it without any kind of gravy — the local paper’s food critic reviewed one of these places and basically said that CFS with gravy was an indicator that the CFS wasn’t prepared properly — but I always thought that a bit, shall we say, suspicious. I can say I’ve never eaten it without gravy, except on a sandwich, which also works. The gravy’s gotta be thick for it to work, but I go for the gravy covering it completely. As far as sides go, I usually go for mashed potatoes (or french fried) and fried okra.