Category Archives: Articles

Tribute to Johnny’s Home

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Chet Flippo has written another insightful Nashville Skyline (yeah, I know how perilously close to a fan-boy I am at this point) on the burning of Johnny Cash’s lakeside home he shared with his wife June Carter-Cash.

The house had become a virtual shrine. There were tourists out there every day, but it never took on the atmosphere of Graceland. The visitors were respectful. It was a homing site for country music fans and country music stars alike. To the point that aspiring country music songwriter Kris Kristofferson once landed his helicopter on Cash’s lawn to hand him a song demo for “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” I’m sure you saw the house in the movie, Walk the Line, and in Cash’s music video for “Hurt.” The house was a central character in both and clearly possessed a character of its own.

It just begs the question that I’ve had about real estate vs history. The Ryman was almost torn down in the 80’s and Johnny’s house was put on the market, bought (By frikin Barry Gibb!) and put in a situation to be burned to the ground. Maybe Nashville could stop shoveling crap for a few moments and try and preserve it’s legacy. At least the parts that are within the Tennessee border.

Country Music Is Not Dead

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CMT, the channel that doesn’t entirely suck, gives me another reason to think so by featuring Chet Flippo and his always thoughtful and enlightening commentary on The Nashville Skyline section on their web site.
Chet has a nice recent commentary about rescuing a frightened turtle of a feeder road off Highway 100 west of Nashville and sees this terrified reptile as a symbol of the recording industry in the twenty-first century, the myopic economics of radio programming the strong-arm tactics of Wal-Mart and, alas, the inevitable death of the CD.

“But what does country music really have to offer these days? I think it offers more than the exploiters see on the surface. I think the many layers of talent in country have never been fully presented commercially, and, of course, if I knew how to do that, I would be a rich man today. And country has a steady stream of fresh new talent, most of whom will likely not ever get a chance to gain wide exposure because of the changing nature of the marketplace. Already, a number of new artists are having their debut releases postponed because of the market.”

Though I take exception to Chet’s argument that Nashville needs another mega-star like Garth or Shania (I think the mindless pursuit of cash cows is part of the recipe for crap), I do agree with his fundamental point that county music needs to take chances and risk alienation of some fans in order to survive. And I hope indy labels, local bars, the internet and blogs like this one and my other twangy-blog buddies can help usher in a new dawning of country music.

If not, we’ll have a damn fine time trying.

By way of The 9513.

“Everything But Country” at Pitchfork

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Over at Pitchforkmedia.com Stephen M. Deusner has written an article titled “Everything But Country” which is overtly a review of Shout! Factory’s box set “Legends of Country Music: Classic Hits  from the 50s, 60s, and 70s” and is more subtly is past and present country music’s place in the American cultural landscape and Nashville’s role in inadvertently cultivating great alt.country acts. The title of the piece is taken from the typical response to “What kind of music do you like?” which is “Everything but rap and country.” Nice, thoughtful stuff.

An excerpt: Mainstream hip-hop has been filtering into indie culture for a few years, but contemporary country music has been slow to take root beyond safe alt- holdovers. Perhaps it’s because the music as played by corporate radio stations is perceived to be simplistic, jingoistic, and sentimental– which is true to an extent– or simply because Arcade Fire fans don’t want to be associated with NASCAR fans and Wal-Mart shoppers. As a result, indie faves Neko Case and Jenny Lewis are considered to be merely dabbling in country, and Tim McGraw covering “Stars Go Blue” doesn’t mean Ryan Adams is the new Kris Kristofferson. Instead, older country music gets a pass, and artists like the Carter Family, Dock Boggs, and Bob Wills are perfectly acceptable to indie ears, perhaps because there was no rock’n’roll to compete with at that time or because they’re so far removed from our current music climate that they don’t register as country anymore. Even the next few generations of country artists have found an audience among younger listeners: Willie Nelson is a favorite due to his ceaseless experimenting, Loretta Lynn found a new audience working with Jack White, and Johnny Cash is more popular with the indie (and every other) crowd dead than he was alive.

Stephen King’s Top 10 Music Picks of 2006

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Anyone that has read Stephen King knows he’s got great taste in music. AC/DC did the soundtrack for his 1986 filmMaximum Overdrive and a Ramones song makes an appearance in Pet Sematary and they wrote a song for the movie and he wrote the liner notes for the Ramones tribute album We’re a Happy Family.

The King of Scream has released his top 10 songs of 2006. Some of the choices fit the mold for this site and some, not so much, but instead of picking and choosing I’ve decided to post the whole list. Considering the source I’d say this a soundtrack for your nightmares.

10. ”Drunk All Around This Town,” Scott Miller & the Commonwealth/”My Drinkin’ Problem,” Hank Williams III (tie)
I no longer drink, but I love songs about boozing, and these are beauts. The Hank III album is called Straight to Hell, and I imagine the Nashville establishment wishes young Mr. Williams would go there, posthaste. Me, I hope he sticks around. This is the real country: hollow of eye, pale of face, and bursting with the rhythm of the damned. Also, check out Hell’s ”Low Down.”

9. ”Over My Head (Cable Car),” The Fray
Old-school pop; for me, there’s nothing better. Another of its ilk is ”Rudebox,” by Robbie Williams.

8. ”Face the Promise,” Bob Seger/”Real Mean Bottle,” Bob Seger and Kid Rock
Not all of Seger’s new album is great — ”Wait for Me” is schmaltz — but these tracks are magnificent. They’re part of a specific hard-swing genre; see below.

7. ”I’m a Rat,” Towers of London
There is something to be said for straight puke-on-your-Dingo-boots rock & roll. Towers of London are mostly a joke, but this track — beginning with the shrieking air-raid siren — is, like those two priceless tracks on the Seger, the real deal.

6. Snake Farm, Ray Wylie Hubbard
Hubbard, an alt-country Southern rocker (his most memorable tune is called ”Screw You, We’re From Texas”), is one mean motorcycle. Snake Farm is a double-wide load of blues guitar and sly humor, your basic old-school boogie. Best tracks: ”Heartaches and Grease” and ”Live and Die Rock and Roll.”

5. Zoysia, The Bottle Rockets
The Bottle Rockets are often categorized as alt-country — by people who need categories — but what they really are is America’s premier bar band. Zoysia (I don’t know what it means either) is their best album ever — tuneful, soulful, and best of all, loud. Primo cuts: ”Better Than Broken,” ”Feeling Down.”

4. ”Chasing Cars,” Snow Patrol
Call me a sloppy sentimentalist if you want; I love this song. In fact, I never met a Snow Patrol song I didn’t like (runner-up: ”You’re All I Have”). If that makes you want to call me a sap, I can take it; that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

3. ”Hey Valerie!” The Derailers
The best country single of the year (from the album Soldiers of Love), but of course it got no airplay on the Top 40 country stations (duh). Country runner-up: a gorgeous love song, ”Would You Go With Me,” by baritone Josh Turner.

2. ”God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” Johnny Cash
You could argue that Cash saved the best for last and get no disagreement from me. This is the voice of an Old Testament prophet on his deathbed, eerie and persuasive, full of power and dust and experience. The entire album (American V: A Hundred Highways) is a masterpiece, but this and ”Like the 309” are the ones I keep coming back to.

1. The Animal Years, Josh Ritter
The best album of the year in a walk, and maybe the best album I’ve heard in the last five. Mysterious, melancholy, melodic…and those are only the M’s. Songs like ”Girl in the War” simply do not leave the consciousness once they’re heard, but the album’s real gem is the strange and gorgeous ”Thin Blue Flame.” This is the most exuberant outburst of imagery since Bob Dylan’s ”A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” in 1963. The Animal Years is an amazing accomplishment.

November Vanity Fair Country Music Spread

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The November issues of Vanity Fair magazine has a pretty decent spread on country artists. There’s obvious -Cheesney, Hall and Oates…er…I mean Brooks and Dunn- the legends, Willie, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, I still get a heat flush looking at that woman! Then there’s the presence of Mr. Who Cares…Kid Rock? How does this no-talent yankee still get play. I guess there’s a lot of people that want to get to Pam…
Shooter, Shelby Lynn, Dwight, Rosanne, Lyle….all there. I could squabble about the obvious omissions (Hank III, Scott H. Biram, Gary Allen, Old Crow Medicine Show) but whatever…it’s a nice feature.

Sugar Hill CEO Barry Poss Featured in the Wall Street Journal

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There a great article on Sugar Hills Records CEO, and recipient of the 2006 Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award, Barry Poss in today’s Wall Street Journnal. poss does a great job describing his vision in championing artists “with one foot planted firmly in the traditional world, but were young enough to be exposed to pop music of the time. These artists include Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Tom O’Brian and Marty Stuart. I believe Poss best underscores that the recording industry will need to get back to it’s, pardon the pun, roots when he says “If you stay close to your fan, if you work hard and are passionate about the marketplace and the music, you can be fine at this (market) level, even with all the changes that may seem a threat for some of the recording industry.”   Amen brother! 

New York Times – Recalling the Twang That Was Alt-Country

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The New York Time has an article featuring interviews with ex-Jayhawks and Golden Smog member Gary Louris and Tift Merritt about the demise, or the actual existence ever, of the “alt.country” genre. I think the article leans far too heavily of the Jayhawks as symbols of the genre rather than looking at the whole environment as an alternative to pop country, but it’s still a good read.

Covert Twang Infiltration

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There’s a great article at PopMatter by Andrew Gilstrap providing steps to win friends and influence their aversion to twang. Step one is:

Realize Your Limitations
Straight off, admit to yourself that you probably won’t get anyone to replace their Celine Dion or Sting CDs with Hank Williams or Jason & the Scorchers. If they’re that far gone, there’s really no helping them anyway. So be realistic, and merely hope that your friends will begin accepting twang with the same tolerance with which they might greet their jovial but slightly off-kilter uncle at Thanksgiving.

More excellent advice on cultural infiltration after the link.