Classic Rewind: Dwight Yoakam & Kelly Willis – ‘Take Me’

Album Review: John Anderson – ‘Bigger Hands’

After an unsuccessful attempt at another comeback in 2007 with the John Rich-produced Easy Money, John Anderson’s latest album Bigger Hands was released last month on the small label Country Crossing. It reunites him with co-producer James Stroud, who produced his early 90s records, and the result is mostly fairly understated, and is generally more sympathetic to John’s voice and style than Easy Money. John is in great voice, and wrote all the material with a variety of co-writers.

The most immediately familiar song here is John’s version of ‘Shuttin’ Detroit Down’, which he co-wrote with John Rich, who of course had a hit single with the song earlier this year. I always liked the song itself, and thought it a laudable response to current economic issues, but I was distinctly underwhelmed by Rich’s disconnected vocal. John Anderson always commits 100% to his material, and has a history of recording this type of subject matter, going all the way back to ‘Havin’ Hard Times’ on his debut album almost 30 years ago. It should come as no surprise that I vastly prefer his take on the song to that of his co-writer; John Anderson’s stronger voice and more intense approach give the lyric a massive added punch. I really believe him when he sings here about being “fightin’ mad” about the situation. It seems a shame that John Rich’s release of the song as a single has prevented Anderson from doing so.

Instead, the label is pushing the more frivolous ‘Cold Coffee And Hot Beer’, written with longtime collaborator Lionel A Delmore. Since Warner Brothers couldn’t get John back on the radio a couple of years ago, his new indie label may not have much hope, no matter how good the material, which is, in the words of this song, “a cryin’ shame, like cold coffee and hot beer”. It is a highly entertaining song whose narrator is fabulously hopeless at all aspects of life as he laments the loss of his wife; not only can he not make coffee or put his beer in the refrigerator, he can’t manage washing up the cups, and it seems that she brought in the paycheck too. No wonder she left.

The familiar theme of honky tonking is represented by the cheerful, if rather generic, ode to ‘Bar Room Country’, as John paints the picture of a “jumpin’ honky tonk on the county line“, the sort of place where “every night’s like Saturday night“. Much better (and a track which would have been a big hit if recorded at John’s commercial peak) is the witty chugging opening track, ‘How Can I Be So Thirsty’, written with fellow-veteran Billy Joe Walker and the younger songwriter/artist Jerrod Niemann. Here John utters a ironic complaint about a well-deserved hangover – “How can I be so thirsty, after all I drank last night?” he asks plaintively, after listing all the reasons why.

Classic Rewind: Charlie Rich – ‘The Most Beautiful Girl’

Listening and learning

I’ve been listening to country music since I was 9 years old.  When I was a kid listening to some of these songs, I just sang along, memorizing the melody and the lyric, never really knowing what the song meant.  It wasn’t until I got older that I realized Garth Brooks was singing about murder, Reba about prostitution, and what people meant Faith Hill was doing under those sheets. See, I’ve learned so much from the music I play.  I’ve learned to love, learned what heartache is, learned to forgive, and to hold on.

The introverted and heavy-hearted lyrical stylings of Mary Chapin Carpenter have kept me sane during the craziest times and they still feed my brain regularly.  This is in contrast to Alan Jackson, who takes a straight-forward and bare-bones approach to his songwriting and his music feeds the simple soul in me, the country boy that remembers catching crawdads in the creek and how great it felt to come home muddy and dirty.  And while Alan doesn’t directly sing about those things much – or I’d have already gotten bored with him – he just gives off a good ol’ boy energy in whatever he does.  I need reminded there are still good ol’ boys in the world now and then.

I couldn’t begin to tell you everything country music has taught me.  But I can tell you about some of my favorite albums, and what I learned from them, and how they shaped me into who I am today.

Alan Jackson – Here In The Real World … Alan’s debut album is the best example of his simple and universal appeal. Maybe it’s because it was my introduction to Alan Jackson, so I have a soft spot for it.  I learned all about Music Row and ‘how the wheels turn slow’ from ‘Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow’, I’ll never forget there’s no place like ‘Home’, and that love can still be just as strong after a decade – from this record.

Randy Travis – Storms of Life …  If nothing else, it taught me to appreciate traditional country music, especially in this neo-classic form.  These songs were already country standards by the time I got to them, and were still relevant.  This album told me about the reasons to cheat, broken-hearted madness, and assured me there’ll always be a honky tonk somewhere.  God knows we need one after all that.

Mary Chapin Carpenter – Come On Come On … I call this album my ‘school of hard knocks’.  Mary Chapin Carpenter is a deep soul and also one that has stumbled more than once on the road of life, and it comes across in her songs.  ’The Hard Way’ and ‘I Take My Chances’ were lessons in the real world for me, pointing out all the grim realities.  Other songs like ‘Passionate Kisses’ and ‘I Feel Lucky’ keep the album from being too abysmal.

Reba McEntire – Rumor Has It … This one taught me just how great a country album really can be, from start to finish.  Reba mixes some stone country numbers with a few snappy tunes and also a few soaring ballads.  Maybe just playing these songs so much embedded them into my consciousness and because of that, their lyrics are closely tied with my own intuition.  I find myself assuming the bitter character in ‘You Remember Me’ or the indecisiveness of ‘Now You Tell Me’ too often.  And I’m constantly ‘waiting for the deal to go down’.

Trisha Yearwood – Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love … This album was released just when life went a little nuts for me.  I found myself right in the middle of each of these songs.  It taught me about losing and letting go.

What albums  and song have shaped your life?  Tell us what they are and what you learned from them …

Recommendation: Songs of marital discord

Yesterday while driving around from one place to another, I decided I needed some real country music, so I popped in Lee Ann Womack’s There’s More Where That Came From in my car’s CD player. I only got this CD last August, but it became an instant favorite the first time I heard it, just because it’s so country and so well-made. The CD played as I drove and sang along, and eventually one of my favorite songs came up, “He Oughta Know That By Now”, a #32 hit on the charts back in 2005. This song is just one of many songs about a marriage going wrong, here due to the man working too much.

Some of my favorite songs are about “marital discord”, like the turn-the-tables “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” by Patty Loveless or dealing with a cheating man on “Paint And Pillows” by Julie Roberts. It seems that today, songs about these kinds of issues between husbands and wives are becoming more and more rare, probably because they don’t make people feel happy, something radio wants to avoid.

This is why I’m so glad Lee Ann Womack still isn’t giving up these songs, sad songs about real problems. This leads to my real recommendation, “Either Way”, from her latest set Call Me Crazy.

This song paints a bleak portrait, a lie of a marriage where both parties pretend it’s all okay, but it’s not:

We pass in the hall
On our way to separate rooms.
The only time we ever talk
Is when the monthly bills are due

We go to work, we go to church,
We fake the perfect life
I’m past the point of give a damn
And all my tears are cried…

This all leads to the kicker of “Baby you can go or you can stay/I won’t love you either way.” Ouch. It’s a gorgeous song with a great guitar lick that underlines it while Lee Ann gives a killer performance. This is the stuff true masterpieces are made of, and I think you need to check this song and album out.

What are your favorite songs about marital un-bliss?

Classic Rewind: Skeeter Davis – ‘The End of the World’

Album Review: John Anderson – ‘Nobody’s Got It All’

After the brief resurrection of John Anderson’s career in the early 90s, it died down again in the later part of that decade, although he has continued to release some excellent music on a series of major labels. One of my favorites is this release from 2001, on Columbia. It was produced by hot producers Blake Chancey and Paul Worley, and has some excellent songs, but sadly the chosen singles failed to catch on at radio, and the label deal lasted only for this one album.

The song which is most likely to be familiar is a cover of John Scott Sherrill’s ‘Five Generations Of Rock County Wilsons’, a farmer’s son’s lament at the destruction of his childhood home by developers, previously recorded in the 80s by Dan Seals and in the 90s by Doug Supernaw, but perhaps surprisingly never losing its sense of topicality. I like all three versions of this fine song, but John’s is probably the best and most committed vocal, as you feel the narrator’s pain as it turns to smoldering anger and then defeated sadness as he leaves town:
“I stood on the hill overlooking Red River where my mama and her mama lay
And listened to the growling of the big diesel Cats as they tore up the fields where I played
I said, ‘Mama forgive me, but I’m almost glad that you’re not here today
After five generations of Rock County Wilsons
To see the last 50 acres in the hands of somebody who’d actually blow it away’.”

A more unexpected (and less successful) cover comes in the form of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Atlantic City’, a dark tale of a couple on the edges of the crime world which came to John’s attention via a version by The Band.

John did not contribute many of his own compositions this time around, but one of the songs he did write is one of my favorites, the heavy-hitting ballad ‘I Ain’t Afraid Of Dying’, written with Dean Dillon. It is a trenchant look at some of the darker aspect of modern society and fears for the future, with no punches pulled:
“Some father says in the name of God he took his baby’s life
Well, I don’t think so, the God I know wouldn’t believe that’s right
I may not have the answers when it’s all said and done
Sometimes I have to question where they’re coming from
I know where I’m going when they lay me to rest
Oh, I ain’t afraid of dying, Lord – it’s the living that scares me to death.”

The pair also wrote ‘Go To Town’, a pleasant but not that memorable piece about a party girl and a “smooth operator” growing up and settling down, ending with their children heading off to the excitement of the town in their parents’ stead. The other track John co-wrote was the melodic love song ‘I Love You Again’, written with Craig Wiseman, which is very listenable and sincerely delivered, but doesn’t stick in the mind.

Classic Rewind: Merle Haggard – ‘Hungry Eyes’

Album Review: Tammy Cochran – ’30 Something And Single’

Former Epic recording artist Tammy Cochran, best known for her autobiographical top 10 hit ‘Angels In Waiting’ in 2001, is back with a new self-released album. Having experienced mainstream success and a stint with an independent label (Shanachie released her Where I Am album in 2006), she now claims to have no desire to be back on a major label, and is concentrating on making music she can be proud of. I think she has achieved that aim with 30 Something And Single, which is a very good example of modern country which is still rooted in tradition. It may be the best work Tammy has produced, and it is certainly her best since her debut.

Tammy has written or co-written all the material apart from a respectful cover of Tammy Wynette’s trademark song, ‘Stand By Your Man’, which is very faithful to the original. She does not quite have her namesake’s heartbreaking vocal quality, although her throaty soprano is capable of conveying real emotional depth on her own songs. These range from the deeply personal to some with a dry sense of humor which she has not previously shown on record.

The most personal song here is ‘Half The World Away (Shawn’s Song)’, which is about Tammy’s experience adopting a baby from Guatemala. Other country songs have been written about adoption, but this is the first I have heard on the international variety, and, rather like ‘Angels In Waiting’, which was written about Tammy’s brothers who died young (and gets a pointless remake here), it escapes accusations of sentimentality by its truthfulness. Addressed to her little boy, it is a tender expression of her feelings awaiting his arrival:
“You don’t have my eyes,
But in your eyes I can see my life
And all my dreams I thought were gone
Came true when you were born
You’re the answer to every prayer
You’re the reason God put me here
To love an angel from half the world away”.
Tammy does not forget her son’s birth mother:
“When you’re grown I hope she’ll know
The man that you’ve become
And I will thank her once again
For letting you go and making my life complete
For bringing all the happiness
Without you I would have missed
‘Cause you’re her little angel too,
Half the world away”

Classic Rewind: Charley Pride – ‘All I Have To Offer You Is Me’

Album Review: John Anderson – ‘Seminole Wind’

After a couple faltered albums on the Warner Brothers label, where John Anderson scored his biggest successes in the 1980s with hits like ‘Swingin’ and ‘Black Sheep’, the singer moved to MCA.  He recorded two albums under the guise of label-head Jimmy Bowen. (Read Occasional Hope’s review of his first MCA release here.)  In 1991, he signed with BNA Records, working with producer James Stroud.  His first release for the label would turn out to be his most prolific in terms of sales, radio success, and artistry.  Seminole Wind would spawn 4 top 10 singles and go on to be certified double platinum for sales of over 2 million.  It remains John Anderson’s best-selling album to date.

The album opens with the chugging ‘Who Got Our Love’, which served as the lead single.  Though the song stalled at a disappointing #67 on the singles chart, Seminole Wind was just getting started putting John Anderson back on top of the country charts.  The second single was the now-barroom classic, ‘Straight Tequila Night’, a song about a woman whose memories all come back when she drinks tequila.  Luckily, on this night, she’s ‘only sipping white wine’ and the narrator thinks he might have a chance of winning her heart.  The tune shot to the top in March of 1992 and signalled that John Anderson was back in a big way.  Featuring twin fiddles and a chorus that you just have to sing along to, it’s still a very popular recurrent on country radio today.

Following the mega success of ‘Tequila’, BNA released ‘When It Comes To You’ as the next single.  The bluesy tune has a swampy Louisiana feel and Anderson wraps his warm vocals around the lyric like a wisteria vine in a perfect marriage of lyric and interpretation.  It would go on to the #3 perch of the chart.   The song’s writer, Mark Knopfler, had originally recorded it with his band Dire Straits for their On Every Street album.

Classic Rewind: Ricky Van Shelton & Patty Loveless – ‘Rockin’ Years’

Week ending 7/25/09: #1 this week in country music history

1949: One Kiss Too Many — Eddy Arnold (RCA)

1959: The Battle of New Orleans — Johnny Horton (Columbia)

1969: Johnny B. Goode – Buck Owens (Capitol)

1979: You’re The Only One – Dolly Parton (RCA)

1989: What’s Going On In Your World – George Strait (MCA)

1999: Amazed – Lonestar (BNA)

2009: People Are Crazy – Billy Currington (Mercury)

Classic Rewind: Connie Smith – ‘It’s Not Easy To Say Goodbye’

Classic Rewind: Tammy Wynette – ”Til I Can Make It On My Own’

Classic Rewind: Ricky Skaggs & Bill Monroe – ‘Uncle Pen’

Album Review: Darryl Worley – ‘Sounds Like Life’

After almost ten years of varying degrees of success, Darryl Worley’s latest album came out recently on Stroudavarious Records. It is produced by Jim ‘Moose’ Brown and Kevin ‘Swine’ Grantt, and Darryl himself wrote or co-wrote almost all the material. One of the few exceptions, ‘Tequila On Ice’, written by Rivers Rutherford and Marty Dodson, served as the lead single, but faltered outside the top 40. The lyric is rather silly, but the tune is pretty and Darryl gives it a sexy, sultry delivery which is very pleasing.

Somewhat surprisingly, Darryl has scored a hit single with the title track, reviewed last week by Meg. It’s not a bad song, and certainly more listenable than most of today’s chart fodder, although there is something of a disconnect between the friend’s troubles, and the cheery message of the chorus. Darryl sounds more sympathetic in ‘Slow Dancing With A Memory,’ which is, deplorably, repeated from his last album, but sees a heartbroken man lost in memories of his beloved, and drinking as ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ plays on the jukebox (it’s obviously a very high class bar with such a well stocked jukebox). The protagonist here tells the bartender to leave the poor guy alone.

My favorite track is the beaty opener, ‘Honky Tonk Life’, written by Marty Dodson and Sean Patrick McGraw. This good-humored account of life as a traveling musician feels very authentic in its depiction of the positive and negative aspects: he doesn’t know where they are, they misspell his name on the publicity,
“If we hurry they’ll feed us before we go on and I’ll work it out with the man
Sometimes the beer’s free and sometimes it’s half-price and sometimes there’s no beer at all…

I could quit all this road stuff, go back to my real life and put in a straight 9 to 5
But I love the neon and I love the people and I love the honky tonk life”

Classic Rewind: Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, & Emmylou Harris – ‘Those Memories of You’

Album Review: Brandon Rickman – ‘Young Man, Old Soul’

Brandon Rickman is a very talented bluegrass singer and guitarist, with a grittily soulful voice which is very distinctive. Although this is his debut solo album (on the always-admirable Rural Rhythm Records), he has spent some time as lead singer for the Lonesome River Band. Rickman co-produces with Jimmy Metts, and they have made a record with a surprisingly full acoustic bluegrass sound, despite the small number of musicians; many tracks just feature Brandon’s voice and guitar, although others feature members of the Lonesome River Band and other musician friends. Brandon also co-writes almost all the material.

The album immediately seizes attention with the arresting opening track, ‘Always Have, Always Will’, an excellent song which Brandon wrote with Chris Stapleton of the SteelDrivers. This portrays a man who cannot stop drinking and lives with the cost, as he declares his undying love for the woman who could not live with it:
“I’ve fought it time and time again
But the whiskey always wins
I got regrets I try to kill
I always have and I always will …
I know the Devil way too well
But I knew the price when I made the deal.”
The song is well complemented by the arrangement, with some fine playing, especially from Aaron McDaris on banjo and Jenee’ Fleenor on fiddle.

Two songs are written with Craig Market. ‘Here Comes That Feeling Again’ is a rather good country song about a love that should be over, but somehow keeps sneaking back into his heart “out of nowhere, out of thin air, it just comes rolling in like an old song”. Even better is ‘What I Know Now’, a thoughtful reflection on past mistakes and growing up, delivered very simply, just Brandon and his guitar:
“I don’t like to dwell on what I’ve done wrong in my life
Chalk it up to being young and full of youthful pride
You can’t go back – and I know that – but if I could, somehow,
I might’ve stayed a little longer, loved a little stronger, done right where I done wrong
If I knew then what I know now.”
Another introspective take on growing older comes with ‘So Long 20s’ as Brandon hails turning 30, again in very low-key style. He wrote this song with one-time Lyric Street country act Kevin Denney, and shares feeling which will be all-too-familiar to most of us:
“The older I get, the more I’m afraid
It’s not my age that scares me, it’s how fast I got here …
Seems like I laid down, took a nap around 18
Woke up this morning like it was all a dream.”

Buddy Owens helped Brandon write the less interesting ‘Wide Spot In The Road’, about a small hometown. I preferred the similarly themed ‘I Take The Backroads’, written with Jerry Salley (who also contributes harmonies), which has the protagonist returning home to a town which has changed out of recognition, thanks to a new freeway. Salley also co-wrote (with Brandon and Justin David) the regret-filled tribute to a prodigal’s loving mother, ‘Wearing Her Knees Out Over Me’, which is one of my favorite tracks.

R-r-r-r-remix time!

Remixes are a foreign concept in country music- in my opinion, good country music shouldn’t ever have to be remixed in any other way. A remix makes me think “What, it wasn’t good enough the original way? Why is this better?” Usually country songs, if remixed, will be remixed for pop radio, like Taylor Swift’s new single “You Belong With Me”. I honestly like “You Belong With Me” a lot, although I never got the chance to review it here. It’s a fun teenage-drama song, that can get annoying, but is usually an enjoyable song. I thought it was a great pop song, and make no mistake it is a pop song. Just when I thought it couldn’t be less country, I was proven wrong by the abysmal pop remix, featuring a quasi-techno beat with annoying electric guitars (Listen to it here). Sure, pop music now is all electronic, but why change the original version? An exception for me is when an artist tries to take their music overseas, say like Shania Twain who used pop remixes to appeal to her fan base overseas. However “You Belong With Me”, as well as “Love Story” were already pop and needed no remixing.

If you can’t tell, I don’t usually like remixes. However today, I looked at the iTunes store and saw an acoustic version of Lady Antebellum’s #1 hit “I Run To You” (See it here). This intrigued me because I like the song, and I had wished for a more country version for a while now. I bought it and found a wonderful version that had vocals that sounded almost live, acoustic guitars and some soft dobro that made me like the song that much more. It’s not drastically country, but way more than the slick album version that’s flooded the radio. It’s very close to a remix, more like a live/acousitc version, but it got me to think about country remixes… What if we had country remixes of Keith Urban’s “Sweet Thing”, Martina McBride’s “I Just Call You Mine” or even “You Belong With Me”? All these songs that I like would probably become songs that I like a whole lot more. I doubt that this countrified version of “I Run To You” will ever be played on the radio, but it’s definitely better than the original, so check it out.

What do you think of remixes? Any pop-country songs you would want to see with country remixes?