Saturday music musings, 11.11.17

Apparently Washington Post music critic Chris Richards is hellbound and determined to throw every bit of his credibility away. First it was “Sam Hunt…(is) far and away country’s most forward-thinking stylist, and he deserves to be recognized as such,” and then it was, “Maren Morris…is a straight-talking, forward-thinking fountain of dash, and she’s funneling it into some great country music.”

And now, there’s this, via Saving Country Music:

…not one artist found the courage to say a single word about gun control after 58 fans were shot dead at a country music festival in Las Vegas last month….today’s country stars are singing about an apolitical no-place that doesn’t actually exist.

Apolitical no place that doesn’t actually exist. Apparently this dude has never heard, for example, anything from Jason Boland’s latest album, or the Turnpike Troubadours’ “1968” or “Southeastern Son,” or Corb Lund’s “Gettin’ Down on the Mountain,” the title track to the Jason Eady album When The Money’s All Gone, or…you get the idea. Now, you could very well make the argument that what Chris Richards says is true, but we all know that he’s making this argument for entirely the wrong reasons. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that 2010s country music (the mainstream component of it, at least) is a near-total wasteland, from the whole bro-country business to Kelsea Ballerini, Thomas Rhett, Jerrod Niemann, Chris Lane, Walker Hayes, and, yes, Sam Hunt and Maren Morris. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone like Chris Richards would say something like this under these circumstances, but it just rings so incredibly hollow and hypocritical. Small wonder so many people have lost faith in the media, with people like him writing for ostensibly credible and respected outlets.

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Well, this was rather disappointing…

Aaron Watson’s a good, good guy from everything I can tell, but to be frank, as an artist, to see him associate with somebody like Granger Smith is rather unsettling. I mean, Watson’s no Jason Boland even on his best day, but he’s still way the hell ahead of Granger Smith for the most part.

But with this latest album, I gotta admit, I wonder…

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Trigger posted a fine review of my favorite Lee Ann Womack album. I heard the first single, “I May Hate Myself In the Morning,” and knew I had to have the album; it was a Day One buy for me, and when I heard the twin-fiddle opening of the title track, I knew I was in for something really special. Killer album from start to finish. If I had to pick a least favorite track it’d probably be “What I Miss About Heaven,” but I still don’t ever skip it. I also really liked her covers of “Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine”…

and “Just Someone I Used To Know.”

The latter, of course, was a hidden track; I remember hearing the end of “Psalm 151” and the cd still going, wondering what was next, and BAM! More twin fiddles. “Oh, I know this song!” Gorgeous, gorgeous ending to a gorgeous album. Lee Ann has done great stuff since, but There’s More Where That Came From remains her masterpiece.

On the Texas church shooter…

…who shall not be named here…

Apparently he was a violent little punk who should still have been in jail:

According to case records, Kelley assaulted his then-wife and her baby, his stepchild.

The baby suffered a fractured skull in the assault, prosecutors said.

But we need more gun control. You know what people advocating more gun control are advocating here? They’re advocating for more laws to be enforced by a government that couldn’t even be bothered to keep people in jail for cracking a baby’s skull.

More gun control, huh?

Yeah.

Pull the other one. It’s got bells on it.

Friday music musings, 3.11.17

When Lee Ann Womack is right…she is right:

“I’m a country singer,” Womack said proudly when discussing her new music with Chris Shifflett recently on his Walking The Floor podcast. “There’s no doubt about that, and that’s what I always aspired to be. It’s odd for me, because real country has sort of been pushed out. . .What I call myself is a real country singer, and [most of] what you hear on country radio right now is NOT real country.“

Not really much can be said in addition to that…well, maybe for this.

I saw some of the commenters at SCM bashing Womack for this statement, saying that it was hypocritical of her to bash pop country after having made her money playing it for so long. Which I might agree with, but for the fact that’s predicated on the assumption that pop country has always sucked, and quite frankly that’s a load of shit. I mean, I know there are people who think it has, and they’re entitled to that opinion, but I’ll never understand it. I have heard people, straight-faced and stone sober, compare FGL to the Dixie Chicks, and I was like, “really?” I have said it before and will say it again: Pop country isn’t bad by default; it just used to be a whole lot better, even good.

What I thought really interesting, though, were Lee Ann’s comments on The Song That Shall Not Be Named:

“I was the girl who was writing and singing ‘Am I the Only Thing That You’ve Done Wrong’ and ‘Never Again, Again’ – these really hardcore country songs,” she told Chris Shifflett. “Then all of a sudden, I had this positive message, and I had my kids in the video, and I think that people just thought that I was something that maybe I wasn’t….“

Well then. I mean, it’s one thing when a no-name blowhard like me says that song was not the best representation of who LAW is as an artist, but when she all but comes out and says it outright herself (albeit in not so many words), that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. I am well aware that we are almost 20 years removed from that, but I was thinking the same thing back then too, especially after I heard “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good” and “Does My Ring Burn Your Finger.” One never knows, but I like to think she was thinking it back then, too.

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I saw this come off the wires earlier today…

The media guidelines were clear: Don’t ask questions about the Las Vegas massacre, gun rights, politics or “topics of the like” at the CMAs next week.

The backlash was swift: Seriously?

The Country Music Association apologized on Friday and said it lifted those restrictions for its awards show next Wednesday.

…and hand to God, the first thing I thought was, “Ohhh, PLEASE let Florida-Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, or Thomas Rhett be interviewed on the red carpet at the CMAs on national TV and talk about how we need more gun control laws. That would be like manna from heaven. Absolute best late birthday present EVER.”

(I turn 40 on Sunday.)

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Sabra and I went to see Corb Lund a couple of weeks ago at Sam’s Burger Joint…

…and WOW, was it great. It was an acoustic show, and I was a bit skittish about it at first, because I am not normally that big on just acoustic performances as opposed to full band shows, but pretty much all of Corb Lund’s stuff lends itself very well to that. Of course it helps that he can actually play the guitar and does songs about more than just parties on tailgates and whatnot. (I mean, really, can you picture Luke Bryan taking his dancing chicken act into that environment?) It is one of the true tests of an artist, to see if they can pull off their craft with just a guitar, and Corb Lund passed it with flying colors.

He didn’t play “Student Visas,” my favorite song from him, but he did play “Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!” and that was more than good enough. “Time To Switch to Whiskey” was a lot of fun too. Funny story he told about that: he was playing Odessa one time, and he sang that song, and somebody came up and told him what a great cover of the Kyle Bennett Band song he did. (Lund was the one who wrote and originally recorded the song; the Kyle Bennett Band recorded it a few years later.)

We shall HAPPILY go see him if and when he comes back, full band or not.