Single Review: Jamey Johnson – ‘Playing The Part’

Jamey Johnson’s new single ‘Playing The Part’ (co-written with Shane Minor) should whet fans’ appetites for his new album, due next month. This mid-tempo track sounds like a more natural progression from That Lonesome Song than the other two tracks which have so far surfaced (‘Macon’ and ‘My Way To You’).

In some ways it sounds like a more commercial companion piece to the brilliant ‘High Cost Of Living’, although it isn’t in quite the same class as that dark-tinged masterpiece. The disillusioned protagonist is based in Hollywood rather than Nashville this time, but once again a dream has soured on him, leaving him to reflect wistfully on

A time
When the only LA I knew was Lower Alabama
Back when me and Hannah
Was wishing on a southern star

Clearly, whatever has gone wrong is at least partly his own fault, as he wonders with more self-blame than self-pity,

Promises break like an egg on the hot asphalt
What the hell was I thinking
Drinkin’ like I’d never get caught

The story is not fully fleshed out, and we are left wondering about the details – did Hannah leave him when he drank too much? What exactly was his Hollywood dream – actor, writer, director? But I think we get the gist of the story, enough to explain the emotion resulting from the situation. We gather that he achieved his goals, but found that the prize was not worth the price he had to pay, as he concludes in the second verse.

These high dollar women and the fame and the fortune
Ain’t worth the ticket I bought

It is a really effective snapshot of a man who has lost his way in life, no longer sure why he came in the first place, and pretending to be someone he’s not,

Acting like I’m playing the part

The emotions of this man are regret and an inward sense of failure, even though others may ring true. Jamey’s rough voice has an intrinsic believability factor which makes the character he is playing here as convincing as on the personally inspired songs on That Lonesome Song.

The song proper is over after two and a half minutes, with a long instrumental break seguing into some odd (but not unpleasant sound effects, including a child’s music box; no doubt this will be stripped off the radio edit. I’m not sure what the point is of these, but perhaps it will make sense on the context of the full album.

It is a very good song, which avoids the problems the superior ‘High Cost Of Living’ had making its way on radio playlists (i.e. no radio-scaring references to prostitutes or drugs other than legal medication for depression). It may still be too downbeat for contemporary radio tastes, and with too little to appeal to juvenile listeners who have yet to experience this kind of disappointment and cannot relate to it, so it may not be a big commercial hit. But personally, I definitely like it the best of the songs we’ve heard from the new album.

Grade: A-

Listen here.

Classic Rewind: Oak Ridge Boys – ‘Y’all Come Back Saloon’

Album Review: Joe Diffie – ‘Honky Tonk Attitude’

April 1993 saw the release of Joe Diffie’s third studio album on the Epic label. Honky Tonk Attitude would continue Joe’s ascent to country stardom as it produced 4 hit singles, the first 3 of them hitting the top 5.  Likewise, the album itself was Joe’s first to place inside the top 10 on the country albums chart, and would also be his first to earn platinum certification.  As Honky Tonk Attitude continued the success Diffie had earned with his prior albums, it found the singer shifting gears a bit, away from the ballad-heavy albums that came before it. Still, Joe ably wraps his warm and flexible baritone around a couple of decidedly traditional country numbers and a handful of up-tempo ditties ranging from clever to silly.

The lead single and title track to the album is one of several Joe Diffie singles that sort of gel together into one giant ball of loud in my head.  Other artists are guilty of this sort of overindulgence into up-tempo with wailing guitars and tongue-between-teeth lyrics.  Brooks & Dunn’s massive success with ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ certainly helped fuel this wildfire of line dance-inspired country hits.  This tune about getting on your ‘Friday night, get right honky tonk attitude‘ peaked at #5 just about the time of the album’s release.

Proving that when given a better lyric, he could inject just the right amount of humor when the song calls for it, Joe’s performance on the clever ‘Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox (If I Die)’ finds the singer showing maybe why he recorded so many songs of this nature: he’s actually really good at them. This time he fared just a bit better with country radio, and rose to #3 with this single.  Still not breaking out of the novelty mode already set by this album, the next single tells the story of Billy Bob (repeatedly) painting his and Charlene’s name on the water tower to profess his love.  And to prove his devotion – and also make sure everybody could see it – he uses the bright green color of John Deere tractors.  It’s a rather endearing story song, and writer Dennis Linde draws on very specific images to give a very clear picture in your head as the song plays.  ’John Deere Green’ would be the third top 5 single from Honky Tonk Attitude.

Classic Rewind: Mel Tillis – ‘New Patches’

The truth behind the music

A few pieces of news struck me last week. Apparently the new biography of Buck Owens paints him as a sometime-unscrupulous businessman, and Sugarland lead singer Jennifer Nettles’ comments on former band member Kristen Hall’s contributions to the band make her sound more than a little arrogant. A little earlier in the week, John Berry admitted to having been “a rude and arrogant individual who wasn’t much of a team player, I’m afraid. It was my own fault that they dumped me off the label”. Much as I would like to believe all my favorite artists are nice people, I fear he is unlikely to have been unique.

So that conjunction led me to think about how our perception of an artist’s personality affects our appreciation of their music. My gut reaction was that art is not an aspect of morality, but thinking about it more seriously -and honestly – it is a more complex issue. For me, it depends in part on how much I liked the music to start with.

Both George Jones and Keith Whitley were destructive alcoholics who must have been very difficult to live with in real life. Knowing that does not affect my love of their often sublime music at all. George in particular actually used his alcoholism to create great music many times, in classic songs like ‘A Drunk Can’t Be A Man’, right up to ‘Ol’ George Stopped Drinking Today’. After he sobered up he even felt able to refer back jokingly to that period in songs like ‘No Show Jones’ and the video for ‘Honky Tonk Song’.

In contrast, I’ve never been able to think kindly of Troy Gentry since the tame bear-killing incident. But I was never a big fan of Montgomery Gentry to start with – I quite liked some of their singles but they never made it to my purchase list. Their chart success does not seem to have been much affected by the controversy – unlike the reaction of some Dixie Chicks fans to their political storm.

It has been suggested that Sara Evans’ messy divorce contributed to her slowing career in the last few years, and the breakdown of LeAnn Rimes’ marriage, and that of her new boyfriend, has attracted a lot of online opprobrium. Only a minority of country stars seem to find divorce hurts them professionally; perhaps it depends on the level of publicity, and who is perceived to be at fault, or perhaps it depends partly on their fans’ level of investment in their public persona?

Country music is so often rooted in real experience that sympathising with an artist’s real-life tribulations often feeds into our appreciation of their music – think of Loretta Lynn’s autobiographical songs about living with a philandering husband and Tammy Wynette’s many tales of marital breakdown which mirrored her own chequered marital career. There is an added frisson listening to Vern Gosdin’s deeply sad Alone album knowing it was largely inspired by the collapse of his marriage. Hearing that an artist wrote a particular love song for his or her spouse (for instance, when Trace Adkins wrote ‘The Rest Of Mine’ for his wedding) often makes it strike home with a little more emotional force. But then if the relationship fails, does the song stand on its own? I confess personally to finding Vince Gill’s ‘I Still Believe In You’ less resonant as a love song after he left his first wife (for whom it had been written) – but my own reaction is also colored by that song’s conection for me with a failed relationship of my own. Many years later, I can appreciate the song’s beauty again in its own right.

In parallel with these thougts about whether an artist’s bad behavior affects how their music is perceived, I have noticed that many younger fans appear to believe that their special favorite should be immune from criticism because of that artist’s sterling character. Personally, I think being either a nice person or a total jerk does not affect musical ability – although either may conceivably limit someone’s ability to convey a full range of emotions in a song. But what we know about the background does often affect us, sometimes subliminally.

What do you think? Have you ever soured on an artist because of their offstage actions?

Classic Rewind: Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton with the Wilburn Brothers: ‘Daddy Was An Old Time Preacher Man’

Week ending 8/7/10: #1 singles this week in country music history

1950: Why Don’t You Love Me — Hank Williams (MGM)

1960: Please Help Me, I’m Falling — Hank Locklin (RCA)

1970: Wonder Could I Live There Anymore — Charley Pride (RCA)

1980: Dancin’ Cowboys — The Bellamy Brothers (Warner Bros./Curb)

1990: Good Times — Dan Seals (Capitol)

2000: I Hope You Dance — Lee Ann Womack (MCA)

2010: Undo It — Carrie Underwood (19/Arista)

Week ending 8/7/10: #1 albums this week in country music history

1965: Buck Owens – I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail (Capitol)

1970: Tammy Wynette – Tammy’s Touch (Epic)

1975: Merle Haggard & The Strangers – Keep Movin’ On (Capitol)

1980: Various Artists – Urban Cowboy: Original Soundtrack (Asylum)

1985: Alabama – 40 Hour Week (RCA)

1990: Clint Black – Killin’ Time (RCA)

1995: Shania Twain – The Woman In Me (Mercury)

2000: Dixie Chicks – Fly (Monument)

2005: Toby Keith – Honkytonk University (DreamWorks)

2010: Lady Antebellum – Need You Now (Capitol)

Classic Rewind: Joe Diffie – ‘If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)’

Classic Rewind: Faron Young – ‘Four In The Morning’

I bet you’re in a bar, listening to a country song …

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved country music. I’ll admit that I wandered into the genre in the 1990s, like most, a fairweather fan of hugely popular acts, and didn’t know anything about its past. It wasn’t long before country music, with its charm, simplicity, and oh-so-relatable themes had won me over completely. I’ve since spent a great amount of my time listening to and learning the makings of and history of country music. Likewise, I’ve began to love every cliche’ image commonly found in the country song, and I’ve made it a point to familiarize myself, at least to some degree, with everything from the neon signs of the smoke-filled barrooms to the wide open fields and even the prison cells.

Luckily, I’ve had no experience with prison cells (except what I see on Lockdown), and though I have enjoyed the view, I’ve not spent any great amount of time in corn fields either. No, my time under the country music atmosphere has mostly been spent at any number of watering holes on the east side of the Mississippi River. I can honestly say I know just how great it feels to plant your tired ass on a bar stool and order up a remedy for your broken heart. As any of my friends will tell you, the first thing I like to do upon arrival in a new city is to go visit their various restaurants and pubs. And then, after some sight-seeing or event-going, I’m usually the first one ready to sample the liquor at a different establish the next night. I enjoy people, I enjoy socializing, and without sounding too god-awful pretentious, the modern-day bar scene is really the last bastion of the kind of face-to-face networking and general person to person contact that has all but vanished from society. How much of your contact with other people is limited to your time behind a screen, be it computer or cell phone?

For that reason alone, the occasion of listening to a great song with a room full of friends and strangers is a satisfying feeling. At least it is to me. But I’ve also found that atmosphere affects your listening experience, sometimes to the point that it can color your like or dislike for certain sounds and lyric combinations. Some songs just sounds better in different places. This is why I always stay put in those clubs that have elected to provide one of those dandy TouchTunes jukeboxes, instead of the now-standard karaoke deejay. Lately I’ve noticed there’s usually only a handful of us brave enough to risk alienating themselves to the entire room by taking the long walk over to that screen and choosing a handful of songs. I could categorize us, but I won’t. Depending on where we’ve stumbled into, I’m still likely to find another protege of Alan Jackson’s instructions to not rock the jukebox.

The American Legion’s Post 471 in Portsmouth, OH has an excellent club right downstairs from their meeting house. Now, most weekends, you’ll find the locals belting out the hits themselves, but if you go in on a weekday, you’re likely to find a nice little lady playing country sounds on that digital jukebox. And you’re just as likely to see me standing in line, dollar bills in hand, behind her waiting my turn to fill the room with my own favorite country songs, and even a few that aren’t so country. But they fit my mood at the time, so they work just as well as my country standards. On my most recent outing, I decided to jot down the songs I was playing on the old jukebox and wondered if everybody has pet songs to play on the jukebox, or just to a room full of people in general. I know I like to show off what I consider my own good taste in music, and I’ll bet you do too. Here’s what I played this week:

Classic Rewind: Garth Brooks – ‘Shameless’

Album Review: Joe Diffie – ‘Regular Joe’

Joe Diffie’s sophomore release continued to build upon the winning formula of 1990′s A Thousand Winding Roads and went on to become his first gold album in 1992. While listening to it for the first time in quite a while, caused me to experience a severe case of 90s nostalgia. The first notes of the opening track, “Startin’ Over Blues”, a single that peaked just outside the Top 40 caused me to stop what I was doing and listen in amazement at the excellent and non-pretentious picking and singing, something that I routinely took for granted in the 90s but sorely miss from most contemporary releases. Like its predecessor, Regular Joe was produced by Bob Montgomery and Johnny Slate. Diffie had a hand in writing four of the album’s ten songs.

In addition to the aforementioned “Startin’ Over Blues”, Regular Joe spawned three other singles, including two top five hits — “Is It Cold In Here” and “Ships That Don’t Come In” — which I consider to be the two finest performances of Diffie’s career. The former examines a dying relationship, while the latter is a conversation between two men in a bar — a younger one who is discontented with his life, and an older, wiser one who points out that there are plenty of others who are far worse off. It’s not exactly the type of song that would find a home on country radio today, but it’s the kind that the format so desperately needs. It’s difficult to decide which song I like better, though if forced to choose, I’d give a slight edge to “Is It Cold In Here”. Diffie shares songwriting credits on both of these masterpieces. Either one could have and should have been considered his career record; it’s a shame that he is better remembered today for his uptempo semi-novelty tunes. Following these two consecutive top five successes, Joe faltered a bit on his next single, the upbeat “Next Thing Smokin’” — another of his co-writes, which only made it to #16 on the charts. “Startin’ Over Blues” fared even worse, stalling at #41, despite being one of the more radio-friendly tracks on the album. Possibly it didn’t receive enough promotional support from the label. In the early 90s, artists tended to release albums more frequently than they do today. The lead single from Diffie’s next project was released slightly more than a year after Regular Joe, which may have been to the detriment of “Startin’ Over Blues”, his worst performance on the singles charts up to that time.

In addition the album contains several solid tracks that were not chosen for single release. Diffie turns in a fine vocal performance, reminiscent of George Jones on “Ain’t That Bad Enough”, which he wrote with Ron Moore and longtime collaborator Lonnie Wilson. The closing track “Goodnight Sweetheart” could have been subtitled “The One That Got Away”; it went on to become a Top 10 hit for the now-forgotten David Kersh in 1996. It’s surprising that Epic didn’t send this one to radio, particularly in light of the chart success of the album’s other ballads.

Despite all of these fine performances, Regular Joe is not without its flaws. It is marred by two tracks in particular — “Just A Regular Joe” and “Back To Back Heartaches” which both suffer from a now dated-sounding line-dance style beat and production which make them sound out-of-place with the rest of the album. However, both of these missteps are forgivable, detracting only slightly from the enjoyment experienced from listening to this fine album.

Grade: A-

Regular Joe is still in print and available from vendors such as Amazon and iTunes.

Classic Rewind: Joe Diffie – ‘Home’

Album Review: Darin & Brooke Aldridge – ‘Darin & Brooke Aldridge’

Husband and wife Darin and Brooke Aldridge style themselves the Sweethearts of Bluegrass and have recently released their second record together on the independent label Mountain Home. Recorded in North Carolina and produced by songwriter Jerry Salley (who contributes backing vocals on a number of tracks), there is a careful mixture of sacred and secular (but predominantly positive) material. The musicianship is exemplary, largely coming from the couple’s regular band (with Rob Ickes guesting on dobro on a few tracks). Multi-instrumentalist Darin plays guitar and mandolin, but the focus of the album is on wife Brooke.

She has a sweet, pure voice not dissimilar tonally to Rhonda Vincent, and a subtle interpretative ability. She takes the lead on the majority of the songs, including the charming mid-tempo opener ‘I Thought I’d Seen It All’, a positive travelog-cum-love song about the surprise love brings, written by Burton Collins and Lisa Shaffer.

Her voice has a more piercing quality on the pastoral ‘Corn’, also written by Shaffer, this time with Bill Whyte, about the joys of rural living and true love. Producer Salley and Donna Ulisse wrote ‘It Moves Me’, a thoughtful take on appreciating the beauties of nature, this time on the Gulf Coast “where I swear I can see God’s hand”. This is that rare thing, a beach song I can truthfully say I like.

The outstanding track is the religious ‘The Last Thing On His Mind’, a beautiful and moving reflection on Calvary, written by Dennis K Duff. The optimistic ‘The Light From Heaven’ (about hope), which precedes it, pales in comparison but Brooke sounds good. I really liked the pure bluegrass lament for a failing relationship, where she can’t make ‘Something Out Of Nothing’. This is the only sad-tinged song here, no doubt a reflection of their real-life relationship.

The pair both sing in close harmony with alternating solo lines on a delightful version of Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson’s ‘Sweetest Waste Of Time’. This couple’s version is sweeter sounding than the rawer original, although the arrangement is broadly similar (check this), and is one of my favorite tracks.

Their gorgeous close harmonies are also showcased on ‘Let’s Not Go There’, a pretty song written by Tom T Hall and his wife Dixie about not dwelling on past relationships or mistakes:

The past is all behind us now
The future’s ours to share
There’s nothing back there for us
Let’s not go there

Let’s not go there there’s nothing we can change
Let’s not go there
Let’s not relive the pain
Wondering who was to blame
Won’t get us anywhere
Everybody has a past
Let’s not go there

Listen to this live here.

‘Remind Me Again’ is another nice romantic duet, this time rekindling the flame of love in an established relationship, written by Jerry Salley (who sings harmony vocals on a number of tracks) and Tammi Kidd.

Classic Rewind: Jeannie Seely – ‘Mr Record Man’

Album Review: Joe Diffie – ‘A Thousand Winding Roads’

Joe’s debut solo album was released on Epic in 1990, and immediately propelled him to stardom; overnight success (at the age of 32) which was thoroughly deserved, because this is an excellent album, and a fine exemplar of the neotraditional movement which all too briefly dominated the genre. It was produced by Bob Montgomery (then also working with Vern Gosdin) and Johnny Slate. They provided a sympathetic backing which showcased Joe’s vocal prowess.

The lead single ‘Home’ (written by Andy Spooner and Fred Lehner), which has the disillusioned protagonist looking wistfully back to his childhood, took Joe right to the top of the charts. It set records as the first ever debut single to hit #1 on all three of the major charts then in existence (Billboard, Radio & Records, and Gavin). The nostalgia feeds on the protagonist’s disillusionment about the dreams he has been pursuing:

The rainbows I’ve been chasing keep on fading before I find my pot of gold…

Now the miles I put behind me ain’t as hard as the miles that lay ahead
And it’s way too late to listen to the words of wisdom that my daddy said
The straight and narrow path he showed me turned into a thousand winding roads
My footsteps carry me away, but in my mind I’m always going home

The pained ballad ‘If You Want Me To’ was almost as successful, reaching #2 in 1991, and is my personal favorite of the four singles from this project. One of Joe’s own songs (written with Larry Williams), it was the first showcase of the apparently effortless slide between registers which is Joe’s most remarkable gift as a vocalist, as the narrator gently tells his beloved he is prepared to do whatever she wants from him, even if:

If it takes good-bye to make you happy
Then I’ll just walk away if you want me to

‘If The Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)’, written by Kim Williams (Larry’s brother) and Ken Spooner, took Joe back to #1, with its witty western swing twist on being broke and too easily swayed by a persuasive car salesman. The optimistic final single was written by Joe with his friend and regular co-writer Lonnie Wilson (who also plays drums and sings backing vocals on the album), about finding a ‘New Way (To Light Up An Old Flame)’. The only really happy song on the album, it was another #2 Billboard hit, and cemented Joe’s status as one of the brightest new stars of the early 90s.

Heartbreak also comes uptempo with the drinking-to-forget-the-heartbreak song ‘I Ain’t Leavin’ Til She’s Gone’ (written by Joe with Wayne Perry and Lonnie Wilson). Joe wails,

One drink’s too many
Ten ain’t enough
Lord, but she’s still here
So I’ll have one more

More western swing is on offer with the similarly themed ‘Liquid Heartache’, another of Joe’s songs, this one written with the veteran Red Lane, with a great groove which really lets the musicians stretch out.

Giveaway: George Jones Starter Kit

Congratulations to Andrew.  He’s our winner this month.  We’ll be in touch, Andrew.  Keep reading for coverage of this month’s Spotlight Artist, Joe Diffie, and for your chance to win new music from Joe.

When I think of George Jones, I tend to think of the sad songs which form the core of his repertoire. From ‘The Door’ to ‘A Good Year for The Roses’, ‘A Picture Of Me (Without You)’ to ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ (voted greatest country song of all time), and a host of other classic hits. He is almost unparalleled at distilling heartbreak within the three minutes of a country song. Sad songs have always been the heartblood of country music, but they have become less prevalent particularly on country radio, which seems to prefer a cheery diet of positive sentiments to the songs of broken hearts. Apparently it’s also almost a kiss of death to release a slow-tempo’d song as a summertime single these days.

Despite the fact that his sad songs are the ones on which his reputation rests, George Jones can also turn his hand to fun up-tempo and novelty songs from ‘White Lightning’ (one of his biggest hits) and ‘Love Bug’ early in his career to later efforts like 1988’s ‘The King Is Gone (So Are You)’ and the 90s hit ‘I Don’t Need Your Rocking Chair’. He also has some classic love songs in his repertoire, ranging from ‘Walk Through This World With Me’.

If you’re a country fan and you have only heard a few of George’s biggest hits, you’re missing out on arguably the greatest country singer of all time. We hope our coverage of George’s music this month is whetting your appetite to explore his catalog.

Just tell us if you prefer to listen to sad songs or happy ones before midnight on 31 July, and one lucky reader will win a copy of The Great Lost Hits, the new compilation showcasing the best of George’s years on Musicor, plus The Essential George Jones, which includes most of his biggest Epic hits and a sprinkling of other classics from his debut hit ‘Why Baby Why’ to 1999’s ‘Choices’.

Classic Rewind: Lefty Frizzell – ‘I Love You A Thousand Ways’

Spotlight Artist: Joe Diffie

Joe Diffie hit the country music scene just months after the fabled Class of ’89, and like several of the 1989 alumni, Joe’s first releases to country radio shot right up the charts, and he was on his way to a decade-long run of success that includes 16 top 10 hits, five of which went to #1. In the meantime, Joe Diffie racked up 4 consecutive gold-selling albums, with two of these going all the way to platinum for shipments of over 1,000,000 copies. Best known today for his sometimes clever, always fun, novelty songs, mostly about the joys and simplicity of rural life, Diffie was also an able balladeer, and his best performances come from not the lightweight charm of songs like ‘Bigger Than The Beatles’ or ‘Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox’, but from his neo-traditional offerings like ‘Home’ and ‘A Night To Remember’.

Joseph Logan Diffie was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on December 28, 1958, but his family would make several moves across country before settling back in Oklahoma for Joe’s high school years. His father was a guitar and banjo player and his mother a singer. The family also performed together regularly, and as part of Joe’s aunt’s country band. It was in this band that Joe made his first public performance, at age 4. Joe would go on to college to pursue a degree in medicine, but dropped out after marrying for the first of three times in 1977. While working several blue-collar jobs on the side, Joe continued to pursue his music career, performing in the gospel group, Higher Purpose. Later, he would front a bluegrass band billed as Special Edition.

In 1986, following a divorce from his first wife, and and after some initial songwriting success, Joe made the move to Nashville to follow his musical ambitions full-time. The legendary Hank Thompson had recorded Joe’s ‘Love On The Rocks’. In Music City, he found work as an in-demand demo singer and continued to hone his songwriting skills. In 1989, Holly Dunn had a top 5 hit with ‘There Goes My Heart Again’, a song Joe had co-written with Lonnie Wilson and Wayne Perry. A recording contract with Epic soon followed, and Joe issued his debut for the label in September of 1990. The album’s first single, the unforgettable ‘Home’, quickly shot to the top of the country singles chart, and the album produced another chart-topper and 2 #2 hits as well.

Following the success of his debut album, Joe went on to release a string of highly successful albums for the Epic label between 1990 -99. His years at Epic would ultimately prove to be his most commercially successful. Shortly after his exit from Epic, Joe moved over to Monument Records and his only album for the label, In Another World, earned him another top 10 hit in the title track. Subsequently, another label change to the independent Broken Bow netted him another top 20 hit in 2004.

Recently, Joe has signed to Rounder Records, and the label first issued a live album, recorded at the famous Billy Bob’s in Fort Wort, Texas, on the singer in 2008. Last year saw The Ultimate Collection, which consists of re-recordings of his Epic hits for the Rounder imprint.  Joe now plans to release his first new music in 6 years.  Also from Rounder, Homecoming: A Bluegrass Collection arrives August 24.

Joe Diffie, to me, was always a bit of a double-personality artist. There was the goofy, fun-loving moustached and mulleted singer of up-tempo ditties. And then, even with the same look, Joe could be just as convincing while nailing you to the wall with a great country lyric, as he does with ‘Is It Cold In Here’. But the interesting aspect about Joe was that he seemed to have a firm grasp on both personas and maneuvered them both very well. This month, we’ll be taking a look back through the catalog of Joe Diffie, and offering our own take on both sides of Joe Diffie’s musical personality.  We hope you enjoy reading our thoughts, and that we re-discover some of our old favorites, and maybe introduce some of you to some great music along the way.