Classic Rewind: Sammy Kershaw – ‘Matches’

Album Review: ‘Brad Paisley Christmas’

The following review was written by MKOC reader and commenter Ken Johnson:

My favorite holiday albums are those that reflect the true style and sound of the individual artist. Nothing has been more disappointing than when my favorite country star abandoned their distinctive style to morph into Nat “King” Cole or Bing Crosby complete with a lush orchestra and chorus. Brad Paisley did not make that mistake. His 2006 Brad Paisley Christmas CD mixed all-time standards with original holiday songs to perfectly mirror his style, personality, humor and versatility. Those are also the very qualities that helped Brad to win the Entertainer Of The Year Award from the CMA this year.

A bright and twangy “Winter Wonderland” leads off the collection. Brad modified the lyrics by adding lines about fellow Grand Ole Opry member Jim Ed Brown. He gave nods to two of Jim Ed’s best known hits: “Pop A Top” and “The Three Bells.”

In the meadow we can build a snowman and pretend that he is Jim Ed Brown.
We’ll sing “Pop A Top” with Mr. Snowman with chapel bells a-ringing all around.

“Santa Looked A Lot like Daddy” revives the Buck Owens – Don Rich 1965 holiday classic. Garth Brooks and Travis Tritt both recorded versions for their Christmas albums during the 1990’s that have kept this song alive on country radio holiday playlists. Brad doesn’t spare the twang here either by adding extended improvisational instrumental solos.

“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” begins with the song’s often deleted original intro.

I am dreaming tonight of a place I love even more than I usually do.
And although I know it’s a long road back, I promise you
I’ll be home for Christmas…

Brad’s laid back vocal blends perfectly with understated orchestration punctuated by outstanding lead guitar solos and smooth steel guitar and fiddle fills. This is my favorite track on the CD.

Classic Rewind: Brad Paisley – ‘Letter To Me’

Album Review: Curly Putman – ‘Write ‘Em Sad – Sing ‘Em Lonesome’

Curly Putman, now 80 years old, is one of the great country songwriters. This record (apparently released via Curly’s publishing company Sony/ATV), allows him to offer his own interpretations of some of his classic songs. While his aging voice is not up to much technically, I always enjoy hearing songwriters deliver their own material, and he can still hold a tune better than some of today’s big names. His phrasing is perfect (as one might expect given that these are his own songs), and he is able to convey the emotions effectively. The album is well produced by Curly himself with percussionist Adam Engelhardt in traditional country style, with some fine musicians backing him and plenty of fiddle and steel. And the quality of the material is absolutely exceptional, with a focus, as the album title suggests, on the sad songs that form the heartblood of country music.

There are three duets with female vocalists, which are among the highlights. 80s star turned successful Music Row songwriter Deborah Allen joins Curly on a downbeat and tuneful version of ‘Only Oklahoma Away’, where the male protagonist’s longing is palpable. Dolly Parton sounds lovely on the tender love song ‘Made For Loving You’, one of the few positive-themed numbers. Sarah Johns is a revelation as the duet partner on ‘My Elusive Dreams’, a semi-autobiographical song which Curly released as a single back in 1967, just before Tammy Wynette and David Houston’s classic version. This is one of my favourite tracks, with Curly’s abraded voice (redolent of failed ambition) contrasting with Sarah’s pure, sweet voice (much better here than on her 2008 solo album Big Love In A Small Town, where she sometimes sounded shrill). It makes me hopeful for new music from Sarah in the future.

The tragic drama of ‘Radio Lover’ with its spoken verses and sung chorus, and the heartbreaking ‘Wino The Clown’ (also partly-spoken) were both written with Bucky Jones and Ron Hellard and recorded by George Jones in the mid-80s. Curly’s versions work well and are extremely convincing (although I think he was probably wise to avoid tackling his very best known George Jones cut, ‘He Stopped Loving her Today’).

My favorite track is the tragic prisoner’s dream ‘Green, Green Grass Of Home’, one of Curly’s most recorded, and greatest, compositions. There is a long and delicate instrumental intro leading into a low-key mournful vocal which sounds doomed right from the start, with every word sounding as though it comes straight from the heart. Technically speaking, I have heard better versions of the gorgeous sad ballad ‘Couldn’t Love Have Picked A Better Place To Die’, but once more, Curly’s version does effectively convey the intensity of the protagonist’s despair.

Opening track ‘Older The Violin’ (a late hit for Hank Thompson in 1974) is a sprightly lightly swinging defiance of middle age (the protagonist is 45) along the lyrical lines of the Johnny Paycheck 80s classic ‘Old Violin’, with the protagonist telling the woman who seems to be putting him out to grass in favour of a younger rival:

The older the violin, the sweeter the music
These specks of gray that’s in my hair
Just make me look distinguished
That don’t mean I’m over the hill
Baby I’m not extinguished

There are a few songs I hadn’t heard before, including the last-mentioned. Of the others, ‘That Runaway Woman’ is a Caribbean-flavored tale of a man chasing through various beach destinations after the woman who has left him, and fetching up in a bar somewhere to drink away the pain, which Curly wrote with Don Cook. ‘Magnolia In The Snow’ is a slow and rather depressing song about leaving Colorado for the sun, and regretting what has been left behind, which seems to include a dead child.

Ending the album on a more positive note, there is a moving expression of absolute faith in the face of a troubled life, in the emotionally sung religious closing track ‘Foot Prints’, a co-write with Don Cook and bluegrass singer Ronnie Bowman (who, with his wife Garnet, sings harmonies throughout):

I sail my ship in deep and troubled waters
I drift so far I cannot see the shore
Sometimes my soul feels lost at sea
And all my hope is gone
He left His footprints on the water
So I can find my way home

Before I knew, my heart believed
He loved the broken heart of me
He sacrificed His precious life
So He could give me mine

The proceeds of the sales of the album are partly devoted to the Sean Putman Memorial Fund at Cumberland University, Lebanon, TN, in memory of Curly’s grandson who died of cancer as a child, and to whom the record is dedicated.

This is a fascinating example of one of the greatest living country songwriters singing some of his best songs, and given his age, perhaps the last opportunity to do so.

Grade: A-

It is available on iTunes, or as a hard copy CD from CDBaby or Amazon.

You can sample some of the songs via Curly’s Facebook page.

Classic Rewind: Hank Williams and Anita Carter – ‘I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)’

Week ending 11/27/10: #1 singles this week in country music history

1950: I’m Movin’ On — Hank Snow (RCA)

1960: Wings Of A Dove — Ferlin Husky (Capitol)

1970: Fifteen Years Ago — Conway Twitty (Decca)

1980: Lady — Kenny Rogers (Liberty)

1990: Come Next Monday — K.T. Oslin (RCA)

2000: Just Another Day In Paradise — Phil Vassar (Arista)

2010: As She’s Walking Away — Zac Brown Band feat. Alan Jackson (Southern Ground/Atlantic)

Week ending 11/27/10: #1 albums this week in country music history

1965: Jimmy Dean – The First Thing Ev’ry Morning (Columbia)

1970: Ray Price – For The Good Times (Columbia)

1975: John Denver – Windsong (RCA)

1980: Kenny Rogers – Greatest Hits (Liberty)

1985: Ronnie Milsap – Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (RCA)

1990: Randy Travis – Heroes & Friends (Warner Brothers)

1995: Alan Jackson – The Greatest Hits Collection (Arista)

2000: Alan Jackson – When Somebody Loves You (Arista)

2005: Kenny Chesney – The Road and the Radio (BNA)

2010:Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Big Machine)

Classic Rewind: Travis Tritt & Marty Stuart – ‘The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’ Anymore’

Classic Rewind: Brad Paisley – ‘When I Get Where I’m Going’

Album Review: Brad Paisley – ‘American Saturday Night’

Brad Paisley’s 5th Gear album marked the beginning of a subtle shift to a more contemporary sound, a trend that continued with his follow-up album, 2009′s American Saturday Night, his least traditional-sounding album to date. The familiar tongue-in-cheek pick-up tunes, semi-rowdy party and fishing songs, and odes to domestic harmony are still present, but the electric guitars are amped up a little more than on previous albums. The end result is somewhat of a mixed bag; there are plenty of enjoyable moments but overall the album is the weakest in Paisley’s catalog.

Brad co-wrote all of the songs on the album, many of them with long-time collaborators Chris DuBois (who is also credited as executive producer), Ashley Gorley, Kelly Lovelace and Tim Owens. Although this group of songwriters has served Paisley well over the past decade, his continued reliance on them is the most fundamental flaw of this album. This time around, they seem to have run out of things to say, and as a result, much of American Saturday Night is a rehash of previous Paisley albums. The lead single “Then” is virtually a reincarnation of “She’s Everything” from 2005′s Time Well Wasted; “Water” seems to be a slightly less crass version of “Ticks”, and “Anything Like Me” is strikingly similar to “Letter To Me.” This play-it-safe approach worked well as far as radio was concerned; all of these tracks made it to either #1 or #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and “Then” was certified platinum for digital sales exceeding one million downloads.

The singles “American Saturday Night” and “Welcome To The Future” are more original. The former is a celebration of the melting pot that is America and is my favorite of the cuts that were released to radio. “Welcome To The Future” received a lot of attention when it was released for its reference to the historic 2008 US presidential election. The song doesn’t quite work because it attempts to tie a breakthrough moment in race relations to the marvels of modern technology that dominate the first half of the song. Though the writers undoubtedly had good intentions, the triumph over decades of social injustice is trivialized by the comparison to smart phone apps and video conferencing.

Not only does American Saturday Night borrow heavily from the themes explored in Brad’s previous albums, it also relies on some of the same production gimmicks, namely the rowdy party chorus on the end of “Catch All The Fish”. While this may have worked well on previous records such as “Alcohol” and “I’m Gonna Miss Her”, it seems like out of place here. How many people can there possibly be on board that fishing boat anyway? But despite the production misstep, “Catch All The Fish” is one of the best tracks on the album,with some excellent steel guitar and fiddle playing by Randal Currie and Justin Williamson, respectively. Ditto for “The Pants.” Another favorite is “No”, which was co-written by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall. Although it is bound to invite some comparisons to Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers”, it at least explores some territory that is uncharted for Brad.

Despite its flaws, American Saturday Night is not a bad album, but it seems doomed to become one of Brad’s least memorable albums due to its lack of originality. Most of what he has to say here, he has said before, and more effectively. For his next project, I’d like to see him to take a few more risks instead of playing it safe, and perhaps engage the talents of some outside songwriters in order to gain a fresh perspective.

American Saturday Night is widely available from retailers such as Amazon and iTunes.

Grade: B-

Classic Rewind: Travis Tritt, Sara Evans, and Joe Diffie – ‘Harlan Howard Tribute’

Three country stars pay tribute to one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived.

Thanksgiving Rewind with Johnny Cash

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Classic Rewind: Vince Gill – ‘I Still Believe In You’

Classic Rewind: Alan Jackson – ‘The Sounds’

Single Review: Brad Paisley – ‘This Is Country Music’

Premiering a new single at the CMA awards show is not necessarily a fast track to making that single a hit – but it certainly gets the song mass exposure. High profile launches we remember include George Strait and Alan Jackson’s attack on pop-country, ‘Murder On Music Row’ and Jackson’s intense response to 9/11, ‘Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?’, both of which were intended as one-off performances which took on lives of their own and became modern classics. But for every song that hits the audience like a hammer blow of truth, other songs launched at the CMAs have gone on to flop when exposed to radio.

Newly crowned CMA Entertainer of the Year Brad Paisley, and our own Spotlight Artist this month, performed this ode to what country music can do for its listeners at the latest awards show. But such a high-profile launch tempts fate as well, and there has already been some unfavorable comments from those who see this song as self-congratulatory or pandering to a thoughtless sense of pride in country music. Initial signs are that this is indeed one of the songs which genuinely sparks fans’ interest, as the studio version has been rush-recorded for release earlier than we might otherwise have expected, given that it does not appear on Brad’s just-released hits collection and his next album must be a fair way away from completion. You can also tell it’s struck a chord because there are already cover versions up on YouTube.

I think this song is perfectly sincere and appears to represent Brad Paisley’s approach to his music. I think it also mostly works as a composition. If it is not exhaustive, it still bears witness to an important part of what country music can offer at a level deeper than entertainment – expressing sometimes difficult individual emotions in universal terms. Not every song is going to speak to everyone all the time; but whatever the problems in your life, there is almost sure to be a song somewhere in the recorded repertoire of country music which will act as your own personal soundtrack. And even fluffy party songs represent reality to some degree. It is of course not an original idea, most recently tackled in Trace Adkins’s ‘Songs About Me’ a few years back, but it is one worth approaching again.

It fails to include the broken-hearted (in romantic terms) in its litany of those country music can speak to, and that’s a major failing. There’s nothing wrong with songs about “tractors, trucks and little towns and mama”, and they are indeed a solid part of country music as a genre, even though they have dominated at radio more than they deserve in recent years, and sad songs are so integral a part of the genre that it makes the song feel incomplete. Religious songs, drinking songs, and ‘Take This Job and Shove It’ all quite rightly get included, but there is nothing for struggling in financial hard times or the pain of broken families, which might have as strong a claim to be remembered. (I can’t say I’m sorry Brad omits the beach or high school, though.)

The song actually ends with a roll call of iconic songs, starting with ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’. It is perhaps unfortunate that each of the songs referenced is a markedly better song than this one, but maybe that is unavoidable with a tribute of this kind. I would have liked this part of the song to nod musically towards the songs referenced, rather than drowning them in excessively loud guitar

Musically I think the melody of the chorus is too ambitious, and Brad struggles to hit the high notes vocally. The showy guitar playing is too prominent at times. It works best on the emotive third verse, where a hushed Brad empathises with those bereaved:

Are you haunted by the echo of your mother on the phone
Crying as she tells you that your brother is not coming home?

Specifically this is linked in with a patriotic message, but I think it is expressed broadly enough to include others as well. And that, I think, is the underlying message I come away with listening to this. It is a brave attempt at conveying the breadth of country music.

Grade: B+

Listen to the single here.

Classic Rewind: Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss – ‘Whiskey Lullaby’

Single Review: Josh Turner – ‘I Wouldn’t Be A Man’

Josh Turner has had a spotty track record with country radio over the past eight years. During that time frame, he’s released eleven singles, most of which have peaked inside the Top 20, but only five of those made it to the Top 10. The five that made the Top 10 all peaked at either #1 or #2. He seems to have found his commercial niche with his latest release Haywire, a decent but somewhat uneven album which has spawned two #1 singles so far. Turner and his label are hoping that they can make it to the top of the charts three times in a row, with the release of his newest single “I Wouldn’t Be A Man.”

Originally a Top 10 hit for Don Williams in 1987, “I Wouldn’t Be A Man” is less traditional than most of Wiliams’ hits and it is one of his less remembered songs today. It was revived in 1996 by Billy Dean; his version stalled at #45 on the charts, and deservedly so. Turner’s version is more faithful to Williams’ original than Dean’s cover. Dean’s producers went for a completely contemporary — for the time — arrangement; Josh’s version prominently features the pedal steel guitar throughout, which helps keep the R&B-flavored tune rooted in country music.

The tune was written by Mike Reid and Rory Michael Bourke, and the record was produced by Frank Rogers. The sultry lyrics work well with Turner’s bass, which gives the record a sexy feel that should appeal to female listeners:

There’s a slow moon risin’
It’s shining on your skin.
The way your body moves me,
I know there’s no holding back:
No holding back

I wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t feel like this.
I wouldn’t be a man if a woman like you,
Was anything I could resist.
I’d have to be from another planet,
Where love doesn’t exist.
I wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t feel like this.

Turner’s rendition doesn’t quite pack the same punch as Williams’ version, but expecting him to do so would be setting the bar unreasonably high. Many of today’s fans are likely unfamiliar with the original, which should help Turner avoid any unfavorable comparisons.

The past few years have provided a tough environment for traditionalists like Turner, who have struggled to be relevant at radio while still staying true to their country roots. Josh’s inconsistent performance on the airplay charts reflects this struggle. A record like this one seems like a good compromise; it’s contemporary enough that it should appeal to radio programmers, but not so contemporary that it will alienate country fans.

Grade: B

Classic Rewind: Lorrie Morgan & Jon Randall – ‘By My Side’

Week ending 11/20/10: #1 singles this week in country music history

1950: I’m Movin’ On — Hank Snow (RCA)

1960: Wings Of A Dove — Ferlin Husky (Capitol)

1970: I Can’t Believe That You’ve Stopped Loving Me– Charley Pride (RCA)

1980: Could I Have This Dance — Anne Murray (Capitol)

1990: You Really Had Me Going — Holly Dunn (Warner Bros.)

2000: Best of Intentions — Travis Tritt (Columbia)

2010: As She’s Walking Away — Zac Brown Band feat. Alan Jackson (Southern Ground/Atlantic)

Week ending 11/20/10: #1 albums this week in country music history

1965: Jimmy Dean – The First Thing Ev’ry Morning (Columbia)

1970: Merle Haggard – The Fightin’ Side of Me (Capitol)

1975: John Denver – Windsong (RCA)

1980: Kenny Rogers – Greatest Hits (Liberty)

1985: Ronnie Milsap – Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (RCA)

1990: Garth Brooks – No Fences (Capitol)

1995: Alan Jackson – The Greatest Hits Collection (Arista)

2000: Faith Hill – Breathe (Warner Brothers)

2005: Martina McBride – Timeless (RCA)

2010:Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Big Machine)