Super Summer Giveaway

Update: We hope everybody enjoyed our John Anderson coverage for July and hope you’ll be sticking around as we sort through Reba’s catalog this month.  And thanks to everybody who entered our giveaway.  A chance to win Reba’s new album is just around the corner.  The winners names are next to the album you won below.  Congratulations and check your inboxes soon!

The dog days of Summer are here.  The mercury is shooting up and the only place to be is ‘on a creek bank layin’ in the shade’.

In hopes of making the sticky Summer a little more pleasant for you, My Kind of Country is announcing our Super Summer Giveaway.  We’ve put together a prize package of seven great country CDs to give away to seven lucky winners.  Thanks to various means, we have hits packages from George Jones and our spotlight artist John Anderson as well as the latest albums from Charlie Robison and Adam Hood.

dale schmucker John Anderson - Super Hits … This Sony release contains most of John’s hits from his 1990s comeback like ‘Straight Tequila Night’, ‘Seminole Wind’, ‘I Wish I Could Have Been There’, and more.  His biggest hit to date is also included, a re-recording of 1982′s ‘Swingin’.

Kathy P John Anderson – Greatest Hits … John Anderson’s career with Warner Brothers is highlighted here.  ’She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs’, ‘Wild and Blue’, and ‘Black Sheep’ are just a few of the stone-country classics on this set.

Jessica, Jordan Stacey Adam Hood - Different Groove … Adam wrote or co-wrote each of the 10 songs on this set, 5 of them with producer Pete Anderson.  Tight playing and clever lyrics drive this sophomore set from the Alabama native.  Two winners will each get a copy.

Amanda, plain_jo Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day … The latest from the Texas music titan chronicles his divorce from Dixie Chick Emily (Irwin) Robison. Read The 9513′s review. Two winners will also get a copy.

Melvyn George Jones – Super Hits …  Finally, to round out our giveaway, these are The Possums’s best -loved hits.  From ‘White Lightning’ to ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ to ‘Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes’, this is George Jones at his apex.

What’s your favorite Summer memory?  Or your favorite song about the Summer time.

Single Review: Jamey Johnson – ‘My Way To You’

After constantly hearing amazing things about Jamey Johnson’s sophomore album, That Lonesome Song, I had to buy it. I enjoyed most of it, but it didn’t quite blow me away like I thought it would. Now, hearing about his new single, I heard similar hype, but I didn’t quite believe it all. From what I read, it sounded like a bland and inspirational song that sounds like all the other garbage on the radio, but I’m glad to say I was pleasantly surprised.

The lyrics might be unoriginal with clichéd lines about burning bridges, chasing dreams and wrong roads, but it manages to be a good song (No, a great song!) despite all that. With a quiet steel guitar intro, leading into a dark backing track that is undeniably country, it’s the gritty sort of song that never gets on radio these days. Acoustic guitar, steel guitar and organ all combine together to make the song something special. The song is also believable because Jamey’s been this low and this song sounds like the kind of revelation to get him back on track- we all know he’s been there. For the most part, his vocal performance is full of emotion and perfectly suited to this song.

I only have one problem with this song: the middle section. After the second rendition of the chorus, an annoying electric guitar solo comes in and trails a whole mess of bombast behind it. It’s too loud and just unnecessary, and strains Jamey’s voice way too much. However,after a minute, the song fades back into being the quieter, better track it was before the bridge. If the production just stayed dialed back the way the beginning was, this song would be my new favorite song, but it just gets too loud for me.

This song is great, one of the best songs I’ve heard on country radio that I’ve heard in a while, but it’s too loud while saying a tiny bit too little. I think Jamey’s better than this, and I hope his upcoming album is more like the first 2.5 minutes of this song.

Grade: B+

Written by: Jamey Johnson and Charlie Midnight

For today (August 3rd) only, go to Jamey’s website and download “My Way To You” for free.

Classic Rewind: Ronnie Milsap – ‘A Legend In My Time’

Album Review: Reba McEntire – ‘My Kind of Country’

Reba McEntire’s rise to the top of the country music world was long and slow. Her first single for Mercury Records, 1976′s “I Don’t Want To Be A One Night Stand” peaked at #88 on the Billboard country singles chart, and the next few singles stalled in the 80s as well. She didn’t reach the Top 20 until 1979 and didn’t reach the Top 10 until the following year. She finally scored her first #1 in 1982 with “Can’t Even Get The Blues”, a song that had been intended for Jacky Ward, but which she fought hard to be allowed to record.

Dissatisfied with the material Mercury was providing for her, Reba left the label when her contract expired in 1983, and signed with MCA Records. Unfortunately, her tenure at MCA got off to a rocky start when she found herself in another situation where she had little say in the material she recorded. Her 1984 debut album for the label turned out to be another slick, overproduced, pop-oriented record, that was almost indistinguishable from the albums she’d released for Mercury. A frustrated McEntire made an appointment to see Jimmy Bowen, who had just taken over the helm as president of MCA’s Nashville division, unaware that he had already decided to drop her from the label. Bowen quickly rethought his decision after meeting Reba in person. He not only allowed her to make another album, he let her choose another producer and gave her complete control over song selection. The result was 1984′s My Kind of Country, a pivotal album for Reba McEntire and for country music. Produced by Harold Shedd, it helped kick off the New Traditionalist movement and began a new phase of Reba’s career. Gone were the lush string arrangements and electric guitar solos, and back in front and center were the fiddle and pedal steel.

Two singles were released from the album — “How Blue” and the Harlan Howard and Chick Raines-penned “Somebody Should Leave” — both, of which became #1 hits. Five of the remaining songs were covers of older songs, since it was difficult to find new traditional-sounding songs in early 1980s Nashville. Reba spent hours going through the back catalogs of the publishing companies, to find the kind of songs she wanted. She ended up choosing songs that had been made famous by the likes of Faron Young (“He’s Only Everything), Carl Smith (“Before I Met You”), Ray Price (“I Want To Hear It From You”) , Nat Stuckey (“Don’t You Believe Him”), and Connie Smith (“You’ve Got Me Right Where You Want Me”). She sings each of them with an enthusiasm and zeal that had been lacking on most of her previous releases. It was obvious that she was finally singing the kind of music she really loved, and having the time of her life in the process.