Classic Rewind: Gene Watson – ‘Farewell Party’

Album Review: Brooks and Dunn – ‘Tight Rope’

The duo’s sixth studio album, 1999’s Tight Rope, saw them in bit of a rut. After a string of multi-platinum sellers, this album remains their only studio effort to date (apart from their latest, Cowboy Town) not to be classified platinum, and none of the three singles was a really big hit. Each of the previous albums had elicited five singles, with all but two making the top ten, with a good proportion hitting the top of the charts, until ‘South of Santa Fe’ had faltered outside the top 40 just before the release of Tight Rope. Poor Kix never got another single released after this catastrophic failure.

This really is an album of two halves. Not only did Kix and Ronnie divide the vocal leads fairly evenly, they contributed six songs each as writers, each singing lead on his own songs, with Ronnie also getting a bonus cover. Furthermore, although the duo are credited as co-producers throughout, one suspects this was a matter of courtesy. Kix’s tracks were co-produced by old friend Don Cook, but Ronnie’s were co-produced by Byron Gallimore at another studio. All the singles came from Ronnie’s half. As a whole the album sounds their most pop-influenced to date.

Only three singles came from Tight Rope, and the first two failed to crack the top 10. ‘Missing You’, a 1980s pop cover, reached #15. The arrangement may have been a little too pop for country radio, with its whispery call-and-response background vocals, but Ronnie’s lead vocal is excellent. The cheerful rocked-up honky tonker ‘Beer Thirty’ barely squeaked into the top 20, despite being in the same vein as many of their past successes, and the chart failure of this must have been a shock. The big declaration of love ballad ‘You’ll Always Be Loved By Me’, their only single released in the year 2000, deservedly did better, reaching #5. This was the song which provided the album title, from the line “trust is a tightrope we all have to walk”.

Ronnie is in great voice on this album. The brooding ballad ‘Hurt Train’ and the sad ‘All Out Of Love’ have a slightly pop feel, but are very well sung. ‘Goin’ Under Gettin’ Over You’, which opens the set is a fairly brisk number about getting resigned to heartbreak, which might have been better with a more subdued vocal. It did actually get a small amount of unsolicited radio airplay.

Classic Rewind: Trisha Yearwood – ‘Try Me Again’

If they were starting out today …

A lot has been written during the past week about The Night The Music Died. I read an excellent post in the past few days on Twang Nation about the state of modern country music. It speculated that country music icons like Hank Williams and Dolly Parton would not be able to find success in mainstream country today, and that if they wanted careers they would have to do so on the Americana side of the tracks. A similar sentiment is expressed in “Murder on Music Row”, which states that Hank Williams and Merle Haggard “wouldn’t stand a chance on today’s radio”, and it’s a topic that I’d like to examine a little further. I came up with a list of some of my favorites and tried to decide if they’d be able to find success in country music today:

1. Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, and Johnny Cash:
There is little doubt in my mind that Hank and Loretta would be labeled “too country” for country radio today, while Cash, whose music never fit neatly into any one category, had an independent streak that would probably get him into trouble today. He’d likely be kept off country radio for “political” reasons. I can definitely see all of these artists finding success in the Americana camp where they’d likely find cult followings, but would not have the impact that they found in the mainstream in days gone by.

2. George Jones and Merle Haggard
It’s hard to imagine country music without its greatest singer and its greatest songwriter; both have become the standard bearers for virtually all of the male artists that came after them. Despite their reputations as traditionalists, both of these men had very polished vocal styles. Jones in particular proved to be very adaptable with the changes in the musical landscape. His earliest recordings were clearly in the vein of Hank Williams, but it is his more countrypolitan-flavored work with Billy Sherrill for which he is best remembered. If they were starting out today, I think both Haggard and Jones could escape the “too country” label, but they’d have difficulty overcoming the fact that neither one had the classic good looks that have taken precedence over musical ability in recent years.

3. Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire
These two women have had similar career paths and have had success in a variety of different aspects of the entertainment industry. I can definitely see Dolly finding a success as a new mainstream artist today, thanks in no small part to her legendary good looks and sex appeal. Reba, while not possessing the same — assets — as Dolly, has demonstrated that, like Dolly, she’s willing to do release pop-oriented music in order to cater to the preferences of county radio. The only obstacle that I can see facing these two women is that both struggled for a number of years before becoming successful; in this day and age, it would be difficult to find major record labels that would release their albums and keep them on their rosters while they were waiting for their breakthroughs.

Who are some of your favorite legendary country artists, and how do you think they would fare today if they were just starting out?

Classic Rewind: George Jones – ‘If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)’

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘If You See Her’

Brooks & Dunn spent 1997 on tour together with Reba McEntire as co-headliners.  One night Reba would open for Brooks & Dunn and the next night they’d switch.  At the end of that tour, Reba and Ronnie Dunn would perform ‘You Don’t Know Me’ as a duet before being joined onstage by Kix Brooks for a song I think was called ‘Cotton Fields’.  But Reba and Ronnie’s take on the Cindy Walker classic was really the highlight of the evening. Between them, they possess two of the finest voices in modern country music.  But that 1997 tour was supposed to be a one time deal, and besides, Ronnie Dunn already had a duet partner at the time.

In early 1998, both acts were working on new albums.  Reba and Kix Brooks both heard a song called ‘If You See Him’ (or maybe it was called ‘If You See Her’ and Reba intended to change the lyric – that part I don’t know) and put it on hold, unbeknownst to each other.  When they found out what happened, they decided to do the song a duet between the two acts, becoming a sort of trio at the end.  Recording that duet set the wheels in motion for another national tour pairing between the redhead and the pair of cowpokes, plus it set the stage for a really innovative cross-label promotion of the albums that would contain the song, now titled ‘If You See Him, If You See Her’.  I’ve always been impressed with the album-counterpart idea, and given the success both acts had I’m surprised the idea hasn’t been repeated.

I’m not sure a duo had ever taken on another star pairing for a single release in country music’s history, but Brooks & Dunn did just that with the release of the single. Likewise, both albums were released on the same day.  Reba would call hers If You See Him and the duo’s would be billed If You See Her.  They both hit stores June 2, 1998.  The Brooks & Dunn disc would bow at a #4 peak on the Country Albums chart and eventually sell two million copies – on the strength of three chart-topping singles and a fourth top 5.  A fifth single release would fail to crack the top 40 – the first of their career – and so far the only release – to do so.

After the chart-topping title track, the mid-tempo ‘How Long Gone’ was sent to radio. Melodic and melancholy, it continued the style the pair had set for themselves, and sailed to the #1 spot as well.  A cover of Roger Miller’s country and pop hit from 1966, ‘Husbands and Wives’ was the third consecutive #1 from the set.  This tune finds the narrator observing the number of marriages breaking up, and finally concludes, ‘It’s my belief, pride if the chief cause/In the decline of husbands and wives‘.  The mournful waltz seemed tailor made for Dunn’s smooth tenor.

Classic Rewind: Lee Ann Womack & Jamey Johnson – ‘Give It Away’

Songs about adoption

I was adopted as a baby, and because of that the subject has always drawn me in fiction. In fact I’ve read some really bad books and watched some bad TV purely because of the topic. One of the things I appreciate most in country music is the range of topics it covers, and I feel inspired to bring together some of the best songs I’ve heard over the years on the subject of adoption.

Actually, one area that seems a bit lacking is songs about the experience of the adopted child. One of the few that does start from that point is Jeff Bates’ autobiographical ‘Rainbow Man’, title track of his 2003 debut album. Although the song goes on to talk about race and the American melting pot, I definitely identify with Jeff’s questioning of his identity.

Moving on to adulthood, I love the story song ‘Cactus In A Coffee Can’, a delicately realized third-person tale of a plane encounter with a young woman who has been reunited with a drug-addict birth mother just before the mother’s death. I first heard it ten years ago from Jerry Kilgore on his Love Trip album on the short-lived Virgin country imprint, and it was beautifully revived by the excellent Melonie Cannon on her most recent album, And The Wheels Turn. You can check both versions out on last.fm. There’s also a version available by Steve Seskin, who co-wrote the song with Allen Shamblin, where his more fragile vocals add a certain vulnerability.

Classic Rewind: Reba & Brooks & Dunn – ‘If You See Him, If You See Her’

Nothing novel?

I recently stumbled on this Roger Miller medley on The Muppet Show.  Songs include ‘Do-Wacka-Do’, ‘Dang Me’, ‘My Uncle Used To Love Me But She Died’, and ‘You Can’t Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd’.  These are real novelty songs.  If you like these shortened versions, be sure to check out the entire songs at Roger’s Last FM page.

Certainly, in every era of country music since Miller’s hey day, there have been those artists whose catalogs have been chock-full of humor and irreverence.  Tom T. Hall was a master a conveying pathos with humor in a lyric.  Listen to ‘The Year That Clayton Delaney Died’ or ‘Ballad of Forty Dollars’.  And then others made entire careers out of comedic music, such as Ray Stevens and Cledus T. Judd.

The 1990s saw the rise of the likes of Joe Diffie and Tracy Byrd, who still injected humor into traditional country music, but gone were the sad overtones, and any sign of irreverence. I don’t blame Diffie, or other of his ilk, but it just seems to me that the shift in the usage of the novelty song in country music sparked forth the desire for more and more artists to venture into the comical side of their music in order to hit on the charts.  Humor began to exist as a commodity rather than an extension of the art, and essentially it began to take on a larger role in the genre’s form.  Now we’re to the point that the term novelty song doesn’t really describe the attempts at humor, mostly because there’s nothing novel about most of them.  But I digress.

For me, the best way to enjoy the real wealth of country music’s novelty songs is in its past, and not the ditties of today.

What do you think?  And what are some of your favorite novelty songs?

P.S.  I didn’t realize it – or had forgotten about reading it – until I googled ‘novelty songs in country music’ to do a little research for this post, that Country California already asked you what your favorite novelty song was back in January, so be sure to check out their post too.

Classic Rewind: Kelly Willis – ‘Not Forgotten You’

Week ending 11/14/09: #1 singles this week in country music history

1949: Slippin’ Around — Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely (Capitol)

1959: Country Girl – Faron Young (Capitol)

1969: Okie From Muskogee – Merle Haggard (Capitol)

1979: Come With Me – Waylon Jennings (RCA)

1989: Burnin’ Old Memories – Kathy Mattea (Mercury)

1999: I Love You — Martina McBride (RCA)

2009: Toes – Zac Brown Band (Atlantic)

Week ending 11/14/09: #1 albums this week in country music history

1984: Willie Nelson – City of New Orleans (Sony)

1989: Randy Travis – No Holdin’ Back (Warner Brothers)

1994: Mary Chapin Carpenter – Stones In The Road (Columbia)

1999: LeAnn Rimes – LeAnn Rimes (Curb)

2004: George Strait – 50 Number Ones (MCA)

2009: Taylor Swift – Fearless (Big Machine)

Classic Rewind: Patty Loveless – ‘I’m That Kind of Girl’

Classic Rewind: Dolly Parton & Vince Gill – ‘I Will Always Love You’

A few thoughts on the CMA awards

We didn’t do too well with our predictions of this year’s CMA Award winners. In part, that’s probably because we gave the CMA way too much credit for artistic integrity. Next year, I’m going to take a look at the nominees and predict the very worst person in each category, and I suspect I’ll do better than I did this year.

None of us expected Taylor Swift to walk away with four awards, including Entertainer and Female Vocalist. After she delivered yet another poor live performance on the telecast, the Association looks like a set of idiots whose critical faculties have been drowned out by the jangle of cold hard cash. Yes, commercial success has always had an impact on CMA and other award voting, and that’s probably fair enough – it’s one of the factors that measures any artist’s impact on the genre. Carrie Underwood’s three wins as Female Vocalist were largely based on her high sales and radio play rather than her vocal prowess per se, but never, in my experience, to the degree that someone as poor a technical singer as Taylor, who doesn’t even sound good with ProTools, and whose vocals are truly horrific without them, is rewarded quite so generously with so little artistic merit. I wouldn’t have given her Album of the Year myself, especially when Jamey Johnson’s near-masterpiece was on the ballot, but at least there was some possible logic underpinning that decision. It is fairly widely agreed that Taylor’s main strength is in writing songs that appeal to young girls, rather than actually singing them, and this at least rewarded her for her body of work. And in this category, rewarding sales figures does make some sense. But Entertainer for a teenager who has only been recording for a few years and Female Vocalist for someone who manifestly has trouble singing in tune both bring the Association into disrepute. I said, “making her Female Vocalist would rightly attract derision, especially if she sings live on the telecast,” and after watching her performances on this year’s show, I feel I was absolutely right.

On a happier note, there was one award I was thoroughly pleased by – ‘In Color’ winning Song of the Year. It should have won Single too, as it was by far the best record in that category. It appears that the industry really likes Lady Antebellum, though. It was good to see them winning Group of the Year, if only because they aren’t Rascal Flatts. Lady A aren’t really country to my ears, but their music is pleasantly inoffensive melodic pop or AC– that’s a major improvement over Rascal Flatts, who make my ears hurt. I wasn’t very familiar with the Zac Brown Band’s work but I think I could get interested in them.

It was also nice to see the voters weren’t swayed by the sentimental thought of Brooks & Dunn breaking up. Perhaps they too realized that in all likelihood they’ll still be on the ballot next year. In fact, with a big farewell tour planned, they would be eligible for Entertainer of the Year next time around, and they could even win it. Of course it will be even more overdue for Brad Paisley then, but I’m starting to wonder if he ever will win this award, having lost out to Taylor this year.

Back to our predictions, and I am happy to report that Chris was the best predictor among the MKOC staff, with six accurate picks. His faith in Lady Antebellum and Sugarland paid off there. Meg and I got four each, and J.R. and Razor only managed two each. Congratulations, Chris!

Classic Rewind: George Strait & Alan Jackson – ‘Murder on Music Row’

This just seems appropriate today.

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Borderline’

Brooks & Dunn’s fourth studio album for Arista Records was released in April 1996. The title — Borderline – is an unusually though probably unintentionally descriptive one, as it sums up perfectly the quality of this uneven and somewhat disappointing collection.

A month before the album’s release, things got off to a good start with the advance single, an excellent cover of the 1973 B.W. Stevenson hit, “My Maria”. It was somewhat of a departure for the duo, as it marked only the second time they released a cover song as a single. The first was 1992’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”, which although it was an original Ronnie Dunn composition, had previously been recorded by Asleep at the Wheel. Despite its pop origins, “My Maria” quickly soared to #1 on Billboard’s country singles chart, where it spent three weeks. It was also the publication’s top country song of the year for 1996.

The follow-up single and second track on the album, “I Am That Man”, was written by Terry McBride and Monty Powell. Despite being a bland and somewhat forgettable song, it managed to climb all the way to #2. Things continued on a downward trend with the third single release, “Mama Don’t Get Dressed Up For Nothing”, on which Kix Brooks takes over the lead vocals. Written by Brooks and Dunn along with producer Don Cook, “Mama” is a line dance number in the same vein as “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” that fails to recapture the magic of that earlier hit. The lyrics require an attitude and sassy delivery that Brooks fails to provide. He sounds like he is phoning in his performance; the song could possibly have been saved if Dunn had sung the lead, though it is questionable whether his stronger voice would have been enough to overcome the banality of the lyrics. Radio was apparently in agreement with me on this one, since “Mama” stalled at #13, becoming the first single the duo released that failed to reach the Top 10.

Things picked up considerably with the fourth single, “A Man This Lonely”, which returned the pair to the top of the singles chart when it became their eleventh #1 hit in February 1997. This was followed up by another lackluster single, “Why Would I Say Goodbye”, which, like “Mama Don’t Get Dressed Up For Nothing” featured Kix on lead vocals. It seems an odd choice for a single release; it was possibly chosen in an attempt to give Brooks some more radio exposure as a lead vocalist. Though it peaked at #8, I had totally forgotten that this song had even been a single until I started doing research for this review. I can’t remember ever hearing it on the radio. I would have by-passed it in favor of “One Heartache At A Time”, a Ronnie Dunn-led effort. Written by Brooks with one-time Vince Gill band member and former Wynonna Judd fiance Tony King, “One Heartache At A Time” is my favorite song on the album. Another gem is uptempo fiddle-and-steel driven album closer “White Line Casanova”, which was probably not sufficiently commercial to release to radio. Nonetheless, it’s a standout track on this frustratingly inconsistent album.

The remainder of the songs on the album are generic filler and not worthy of any lengthy discussion. The production is solid throughout the album; it is somewhat baffling to come up with an explanation for why Brooks and Dunn weren’t able to come up with stronger material as they had on their previous releases. Borderline relies a little more on outside songwriters than the previous albums, but this actually one of the collection’s strengths, particularly in the case of “My Maria”.

Despite its flaws, Borderline became the second Brooks & Dunn album to reach #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Certified double-platinum (about 1 million units fewer than its predecessor Waitin’ On Sundown), it marked the beginning of a leveling-off of the duo’s album sales. It is still in print, available at Amazon and iTunes, but is not essential listening as the singles are available on various hits compilations.

Grade: C

Trace Adkins – ‘Til The Last Shot’s Fired’

She didn’t link back to it for this recommendation, but Occasional Hope wrote an excellent editorial/review of this song back in February. It’s definitely worth revisiting.
- J.R

Album Review: Anita Cochran – ‘Serenity’

Former Warner Brothers artist Anita Cochran achieved one #1 hit, ‘What If I Said’, in a duet with Steve Wariner, in 1997. None of her solo singles came anywhere near the top of the charts, and it’s not as if her label didn’t persevere – they released two albums and nine singles over a seven year period. She is a talented musician and multi-instrumentalist, and has been touring as part of Terri Clark’s road band. She also produced an album for the unrelated Tammy Cochran in 2007. After several years’ silence on her own account, Anita re-emerges with a new album on her own Straybranch Records.

Her distinctive swooping voice sounds as good as ever, and this is an example of contemporary country which is not over-produced (an example her current boss might have profited from). Anita wrote every song and plays a long list of instruments on the album, including electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, banjo and harmonica. She also arranged the strings (which feature talented Terri Clark bandmate Jenee Fleenor) which are used on several tracks, and produced the set with co-label-owner Mark Thompson.

The controversial former single ‘I Wanna Hear A Cheatin’ Song’ (the last time we heard from Anita) is included here (at least on the physical CD), although no doubt due to licensing issues, it is not available on the digital version on the album. It is actually an excellent song with a lyric about longing for more sad songs which is easy to relate to, as a heartbroken caller to a radio show appeals:

All I hear in this day and time
Are fairy tales and pretty words that rhyme
Everybody’s lovers, everybody’s friends
Same old thing over and over again

I wanna hear a cheatin’ song
About somebody done somebody wrong
A story that’s about my life
With a simple melody

Forget about the I love yous
They weren’t for the heartbroke fools
I wanna hear a cheatin’ song
Dedicated to me

The DJ agrees, and so does a listening Anita. So far, so good, but 2:50 into the song some tacked together segments from old Conway Twitty recordings are incorporated. I appreciate that it was done out of respect for Conway and his musical legacy, but this musical necrophilia makes me cringe. This could have been a standout track if Anita had only decided to rerecord the song solo (as she does with her hit ‘What If I Said’, which sounds great here, with a lovely emotion-infused vocal and some tasteful strings), or using a living partner. If no one was available, she could have used Ty Herndon, who helps out on a couple of the other tracks here, but who seems underused.