Classic Rewind: Rodney Crowell – ‘I Know Love Is All I Need’

A song from The Houston Kid:

Classic Rewind: Carlene Carter – ‘Easy From Now On’

In memory of Susanna Clark who wrote this great song with Carlene, and who died yesterday:

Single Review – Carrie Underwood – ‘Blown Away’

The modern state of country music finds songs fitting into one of two categories – southern party anthems (usually sung by those unwilling to accept their 20s are long over) or tunes primed for the pop world (usually sung by female artists or acts like Lady Antebellum and Gloriana). Very rarely does a song stand on its own truly as a piece of country music.

“Blown Away” attempts to fit into that third category by resurrecting the long forgotten era of murder ballads, a sub-genre made famous by the likes of Johnny Cash (“Banks of the Ohio”) and Porter Wagoner (“Cold Hard Facts Of Life”) in the 1960s and more recently, Martina McBride (“Independence Day”) in the 1990s and Brad Paisley (“Whiskey Lullaby”) about nine years ago.

This time, a daughter is seeking revenge on an abusive father by keeping him “passed out on the couch” during what appears to be a very strong tornado, powerful enough for her to “lock herself in the cellar” and wait it out.

Unfortunately, the similarities end there, with “Blown Away” underscoring Underwood’s grave failure as a storyteller – her inability to grasp the art of subtlety. She, and producer Mark Bright, mistakenly turn the song into a pop power ballad, where the overwhelming production and bombastic vocal become the focus instead of the fabulously dark storyline.

How many people, in the times “Blown Away” has been given television exposure in the past two months, actually know what the song is really about? The tune’s presentation, complete with a distracting wind tunnel and falling debris, only manages to dilute the overall storyline and water down what could (and should) be one of the greatest country singles of the year.

For a lyric this promising, I only wish it had been given more room to be the star.

Grade: B

Classic Rewind: Crystal Gayle – ‘Wrong Road Again’

Album Review – Rodney Crowell – ‘Sex and Gasoline’

It’s clear, through listening to Rodney Crowell’s recordings, he doesn’t like classifications or being placed in a box. Just when you think you have him categorized, he takes a turn and makes an album bound solely by is own originality and uniqueness.

Sex and Gasoline, released in 2008 by the Work Song/Yep Roc label is one of those projects. Following on the heels of the Houston Kid/Fate’s Right Hand/Outsider trilogy, it defies expectations by going in a completely different direction that drums up bizarre results.

Artsy songs are fine, and often they make for compelling listening. But these ambiguous lyrics are as strange as any I’ve heard. Crowell, who solely wrote all the material here, is a fine songwriter but these songs will only appeal to a small niche population of his fan base.

Tracks like “Moving Work of Art,” “The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design,” and “Truth Decay” are marred by their lyrical packaging and take so much mind strength to unravel, the average listener won’t have the patience to decode their meaning. Same goes for equally weird tracks like “Funky And The Farm Boy” and the mumble of “Who Do You Trust.”

The slow and dreary “Forty Winters” continues the trend, offering little to grab onto amidst the sparse arrangement and vocal. At least “Closer to Heaven,” the closing track, opens with some ear-catching lines and provides the most clever lyric on the whole project:

I don’t like humus, I hate long lines

Nosy neighbors and the venation blinds

Chirpy news anchors alter my mood

I’m offended by buzz words like awesome men do

Luckily the album does contain a few bright spots, namely “I’ve Done Everything I Can,” a wonderful break-up ballad that’s reminiscent of his best work. The same can be said for “The Night’s Just Right,” another relationship-centric song about not taking life so seriously. The other standout is the title track, the only tune to get the folk sensibilities Crowell was going for just right.

Overall Sex and Gasoline adds up to less than the sum of its parts. Nothing seems to be working in the album’s favor, from the slow and prodding production work of Joe Henry to Crowell’s lazy vocal style that transforms him from country singer to Dylan wannabe.

But it’s still worth checking out, and will easily appeal to a very niche sector of Crowell’s audience. I’m just not among them.

Grade: B-

Classic Rewind: Rodney Crowell – ‘My Past Is Present’

Random playlist 5

Here are five songs I’ve been playing a lot recently…

Elizabeth Cook – “Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman” … I’ve been re-watching my Weeds DVDs in anticipation of season eight’s premiere (it’s this Sunday!) and thanks to the show’s excellent taste in and use of popular music, I was reminded of the sorta-title track to Cook’s 2007 Rodney Crowell-produced album. This bit of raucous ear candy is bitingly funny in its flippant take on the old gender double standards.  Even if it’s not your style, it’s worth a spin if only to hear the lady sing the word “honey”. It’s great.

Waylon Jennings – “You Asked Me To” … I’ve been adding to my limited Waylon Jennings collection lately. After I got a copy of Waylon’s Honky Tonk Heroes set, it was this top 10 hit I kept spinning. It’s a straightforward confessional from a man devoted to the woman he loves and his lack of regard for much else. Because it’s Waylon, it comes with a powerful bass line and plenty of the singer’s strong-jaw personality . Co-writer Billy Joe Shaver later recorded it with Willie Nelson and Elvis even took a shot at it, but Waylon owns this one outright.

Carrie Underwood – “Wine After Whiskey” … I hope the Carrie Underwood camp releases this to radio at some point. It has all the elements of my favorite classic country music: a tale of lost love told with an alcohol metaphor. Underwood turns in an unusually understated performance on this track she co-wrote with Dave Berg (of current Rodney Atkins’ hits fame) and heavy hitter Tom Shapiro, and the steel guitar flourishes almost make up for the lack of fiddles.

Dwight Yoakam – “Intentional Heartache” … Woman scorned, gets pissed, takes revenge. Not so much an original concept. But one should never underestimate Dwight Yoakam’s ability to make a retro theme sound like the first time you heard it. Could be because in this snide tale of said scorned woman motoring to North Carolina to return her man’s prized possessions – “boots, Bud cap, and signed Dale Jr. poster” (but not before spraypainting them and his Monte Carlo neon green) – Yoakam sounds positively delighted to not be on the receiving end this time. That’s my theory.  And a blistering bluegrass meets rockabilly band jams while it all happens.

Reba & Kelly Clarkson – “Up to the Mountain (Live in Dayton, Ohio)” … I was at this show, but I didn’t capture this video. On their 2 Worlds, 2 Voices Tour, the two spent the entire evening turning their respective hits into duets. The result was a vocal showdown of shouting and warbling for the most part. But they kept their showboating to a minimum on this verse-trading number (and a few others) and with a simple piano backdrop turn in a definitive performance of my favorite Patty Griffin song.

What’s your current fancy on your chosen listening device?

Classic Rewind: Mel Tillis – ‘Detroit City’

Country Heritage Redux: Mel Tillis

An updated and expanded version of an article previously published by The 9513.

“I figure we live in two worlds – public and private. It seems like I’ve got to prove myself in both all the time. I’ve got to climb mountains right to the top and then find new ones to climb. Whenever I finish writing a song, I always ask myself, “Well, Stutterin’ Boy, is that all you’ve got?’” — Mel Tillis

Introduction to Stutterin’ Boy – The Autobiography of Mel Tillis (1984)

“It seems like just yesterday that I left Florida head’n for Nashville, Tennessee in my ’49 Mercury with a busted windshield, a pregnant wife and $29.00 in my pocket. 2002 marks my 46th year in the music business. If I lost it all tomorrow, I guess I could say it only cost me $29.00 and it’s been one heck of a ride!”

From the biography on Tillis’ website.

Texas journalist and noted music critic John Morthland once described Mel Tillis as a journeyman country singer, intending it as praise. While he never quite reached the top echelon of country music stardom, he had a long and distinguished career as a singer and songwriter, writing many hits for other artists and having many hits of his own. His compositions continue to be performed and recorded today and he has left an additional legacy in the form of daughter Pam Tillis, an excellent singer in her own right, and Mel Tillis, Jr., who works mostly behind the scenes as a record producer.

Lonnie Melvin “Mel” Tillis was born in Tampa, Florida on August 8, 1932. His stutter developed during childhood, the result of a near-fatal bout with malaria. As a child, his family moved frequently around the Tampa area, but sometimes further as in the family’s 1940 move to Pahokee, FL, on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. In high school he learned to play drums, marching with the Pahokee High School Band. Later he would learn to play the guitar.

In late 1951 Tillis joined the United States Air Force. It was while in the Air Force that he started songwriting. One of his first songs was “Honky Tonk Song,” which became a major hit for Webb Pierce in 1957. While stationed in Okinawa, he played at local nightclubs with a band he formed called The Westerners.

After leaving the military in 1955, Tillis worked at various jobs. At some point he met Buck Peddy, who briefly served as his manager. Peddy and Tillis moved to Nashville in 1956. Initially unsuccessful at landing a writing deal, Tillis met Mae Boren Axton (writer of “Heartbreak Hotel”) who put in a good word for him with Jim Denny at Cedarwood Publishing. The first hit out of the box was “I’m Tired,” a song which was pitched to Ray Price. According to Tillis’ autobiography, Price wasn’t ready to issue a new single at the time the song was pitched to him by Buck Peddy but Webb Pierce heard the song and wanted it. Pierce only heard one of the verses so he had Wayne Walker write an additional verse and that’s the version that became the hit. Tillis only received a third of the royalties on this particular song, but it was a start. Unfortunately, it was also the start of a pattern; for the next few years he would suffer the addition of “co-writers” to most of his recorded songs, the chief culprits being Buck Peddy and Webb Pierce (a practice not uncommon at the time).

From this point forward a torrent of great songs flowed from his pen – over a thousand songs, of which over six hundred have been recorded by major artists. While it would take too long to list all of them, the following is a representative list of songs and artists:

•“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” (Johnny Darrell, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition)

•“Detroit City” (Billy Grammer, Bobby Bare)

•“Emotions” (Brenda Lee)

•“I Ain’t Never” (Webb Pierce)

•“Burning Memories” (Ray Price)

•“Thoughts Of A Fool” (George Strait)

•“Honey (Open That Door)” (Ricky Skaggs)

In 1958, Tillis finally secured a recording contract with a major label, landing on Columbia Records. That same year he had his first Top 40 hit, “The Violet And A Rose,” followed by the #27 hit “Sawmill.” Unfortunately, while he made many fine recordings for Columbia, his singing career failed to catch fire. His records mostly charted but there were no big hits. During this period other artists continued to record his songs, both as hit singles, and as album tracks. From Columbia, he moved to Decca from 1962-1964.

In 1966 he moved to Kapp Records where he made many noteworthy records. In fact his first recording for Kapp had him performing on a Bob Wills album. “Wine” finally cracked the Top 20 for Tillis (#15), followed by “Stateside” (#17), “Life Turned Her That Way” (#11), “Goodbye Wheeling” (#20), and finally in 1969 that elusive Top 10 record, “Who’s Julie” (#10). After “Who’s Julie” the hits came easier as “Old Faithful” (#15), “These Lonely Hands of Mine”(#9), “She’ll Be Hangin’ Around Somewhere” (#10), and “Heart Over Mind” (#3) followed in quick succession. The Kapp years also found Tillis becoming more of a presence on television, first as a regular on the Porter Wagoner Show, and later on the Glen Campbell Good-Time Hour. He also guested on various other television shows.

In 1970 Tillis moved to MGM where, in my humble opinion, he made his finest records. A long string of hits followed in “Heaven Everyday” (#5), “Too Lonely, Too Long” (#15), “Commercial Affection” (#8), “The Arms of a Fool” (#4), “Brand New Mister Me” (#8), “Untouched” (#14), “Would You Want the World to End” (#12, but #1 in several regional markets), and finally in 1972, a #1 record in “I Ain’t Never” (which had languished at #2 for nine consecutive weeks for Webb Pierce in 1959). He continued to record for MGM through 1975 where he scored two more #2s in a remake of “Sawmill” and “Midnight, Me and The Blues” and three more #3s in “Neon Rose,” “Stomp Them Grapes,” and “Memory Maker.”

Tillis left MGM for MCA in 1976 where the string of hits continued, albeit more heavily produced records with more strings, keyboards, and background singers and far less fiddle and steel guitar. The string of hits continued. He scored nine Top 10 records, including four #1 records in “Good Woman Blues,” “Heart Healer,” “I Believe In You,” and the infamous “Coca-Cola Cowboy.” At #2, “Send Me Down To Tucson” just missed reaching the top on Billboard. A switch to Elektra in late 1979 saw Tillis rack up five more Top 10 singles, including the 1981 #1 “Southern Rain,” but by the end of 1982 his run as a high charting artist was over. There was one last Top 10 record, “New Patches” (released on MCA in 1984). He continued to record for a few more years, releasing an album for RCA in 1985, but eventually he faded off the major labels except for reissues and compilations.

Tillis had about an 18 year run as a top charting artist. He won many BMI awards, including Songwriter of the Decade. In 1976 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame and that same year he was a surprise winner of the Country Music Association’s (CMA) Entertainer of the Year, beating out Waylon, Willie and Dolly for the honor. In June of 2001, he received a Special Citation of Achievement from BMI for three million broadcast performances of “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town.” He received two long-overdue recognitions in 2007 as he was finally inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2007 (his daughter Pam performing the ceremony), and in October 2007 he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Along the way Tillis recorded more than 60 albums with 36 top ten singles, appeared on numerous television shows, starred in several movies (Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II, Smokey and the Bandit II, The Villain, W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, Uphill All The Way and Every Which Way But Loose) as well as several television movies, including Murder in Music City and A Country Christmas Carol.

Although it has been more than two decades since Tillis was a regularly charting artist, he has been anything but quietly retired. In 1998, he combined with old friends Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, and Jerry Reed to record a two-album set, written entirely by another old friend, Shel Silverstein, titled Old Dogs (later condensed into a single disc). Also in 1998, he recorded his first gospel album titled Beyond The Sunset and served as spokesman and honorary chairman for the Stuttering Foundation of America. In recent years he has recorded a Christmas album and a comedy album.

He continues to tour occasionally and for years he had his own theater in Branson, MO (1994-2002). He has since sold the theater, but still appears there during the holidays. He records only occasionally and enjoys life. He is an avid fisherman. In February 2012 he received the National Medal of the Arts, presented to him by President Obama.

Classic Rewind: Marty Stuart and Del McCoury – ‘What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul’

Album Review: Rodney Crowell – ‘The Outsider’

In 2005, Rodney Crowell once again found himself on the roster of Columbia Nashville, but The Outsider is a far cry from the earlier work he released for the label during his commercial heyday. This time around he was clearly not targeting the mainstream country audience; there’s very little fiddle or pedal steel guitar to be found. Instead the album leans more towards rock, with electric guitars dominating the arrangement of most of tracks. More importantly, it differs from the mainstream fare with the substance of the songs’ lyrics. Crowell wrote ten of the album’s eleven songs, which delve more into social and political commentary than his previous efforts. Although the songs are often critical of contemporary culture and the political system, Rodney manages to make his points in an even-handed manner that is not overtly partisan, which makes the album less polarizing than much of what was being played on country radio at the time.

Peter Coleman acts as co-producer, as he had done for Crowell’s previous two efforts, 2001′s The Houston Kid and 2003′s Fate’s Right Hand. The album opens with “Say You Love Me”, a re-recording of a song that had originally appeared on Jewel of the South a decade earlier. The lyrics aren’t as heavy as most of the album’s songs, but beginning with the second track, the album takes a sharp turn into the realm of political and social discourse. “The Obscenity Prayer” takes a swipe at a culture that is often greedy, superficial and demands instant gratification, with the line “give it to me” constantly repeated throughout the song. “Don’t Get Me Started” is even more critical. This song deals with a variety of topics from corporate greed and crooked Washington politicians, to the wars in the Middle East, to the ever-growing US national debt. “Ignorance Is The Enemy” starts out as a prayer sung by a chorus, including Buddy and Julie Miller, that sounds like a church choir, with special guests Emmylou Harris and John Prine joining Rodney on the verses’ spoken lyrics. Though well done, this tune comes off as a bit preachy, which makes it a little less effective than the other political/social commentary tunes. These songs all have weighty topics, which can leave the listener with a feeling of great despair, but the closing track “We Can’t Turn Back Now” — a plea for people to get involved — offers some hope that all is not lost.

Not all of the album’s songs deal with political and social issues, and the ones that do not are the ones to which I am most drawn. My favorites are “Glasgow Girl”, a song about a Texan who finds romance while traveling in Scotland and “Shelter From The Storm”, a cover of a Bob Dylan tune, which is performed as a duet with Emmylou Harris. As one of the few songs on the album to feature the steel guitar, “Shelter From The Storm” has a more country feel than the rest of the album, and in a more sane radio environment would have had hit single potential. However, only two singles were released — “The Obscenity Prayer” and “Say You Love Me”, neither of which charted.

Though The Outsider peaked at a modest #37 on the Billboard country albums chart, it received a great deal of critical acclaim. Though not everything on the album will appeal to hardcore country fans, the songs are all well written and tastefully produced. Inexpensive copies are easy to find and are worth seeking out.

Grade: B

Classic Rewind: Rodney Crowell – ‘Many a Long And Lonesome Highway’

Week ending 6/23/12: #1 singles this week in country music history

1952: The Wild Side of Life — Hank Thompson (Capitol)

1962: She Thinks I Still Care — George Jones (United Artists)

1972: The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA — Donna Fargo (Dot)

1982: Slow Hand – Conway Twitty (Elektra)

1992: Achy Breaky Heart — Billy Ray Cyrus (Mercury)

2002: Living and Living Well — George Strait (MCA)

2012: Springsteen – Eric Church (EMI Nashville)

Week ending 6/23/12: #1 albums this week in country music history

1967: Eddy Arnold – The Best of Eddy Arnold (RCA)

1972: Charley Pride – The Best of Charley Pride, Vol. 2 (RCA)

1977: Waylon Jennings – Ol’ Waylon (RCA)

1982: Willie Nelson – Always On My Mind (Columbia)

1987: Randy Travis – Always & Forever (Warner Brothers)

1992: Billy Ray Cyrus – Some Gave All (Mercury)

1997: Tim McGraw – Everywhere (Curb)

2002: Kenny Chesney – No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems (BNA)

2007: Big & Rich – Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace (Warner Brothers)

2012: Alan Jackson – Thirty Miles West (Capitol)

Classic Rewind: The Browns – ‘Party Doll’

Classic Rewind: The Oak Ridge Boys – ‘Break My Mind’

Album Review: Rodney Crowell – ‘Fate’s Right Hand’

The successor to the critically acclaimed The Houston Kid was released in 2003 on DMZ Records/Epic. Rodney wrote all the songs solo this time, and there is quite a personal feel to most of them, with the overall theme of dealing with a midlife crisis. Stylistically, it really falls outside the boundaries of any particular genre; nothing about it sounds particularly country, and it seems clear that Rodney had moved on.

There were two unsuccessful singles, ‘Earthbound’ and the title track. ‘Earthbound’, Rodney’s last charting single (an unimpressive #60 peak) is not very memorable and too repetitive, but it is at least a bit better than ‘Fate’s Right Hand’. The latter has a dense politically inspired lyric (the one comprehensible section is about Bill Clinton’s sex scandal) but one that doesn’t hang together very well, with Rodney rattling out the words seemingly at random to virtually no melody, with 90% of the song being chanted on a single note. Sending this virtually unlistenable song to radio feels like a deliberate statement that Rodney had no further interest in the country mainstream. Radio returned the favor.

The philosophical opener. ‘Still Learning How To Fly’, which Rodney wrote back in 1997 and previously recorded on the self-titled album by The Cicadas, a one-off band project which allowed Rodney to exercise his inner rocker, is pretty good. It has a more hopeful mood than the remainder of the record, and perhaps might have worked better as the closing track (as it was on The Cicadas).

I liked the slow part-narration ‘Time To Go Onward’, the story of a man gathering the courage to explore his psyche and conscience:

Prison bars imagined are no less solid steel
Time to go inward
Would you believe that I’m afraid
To stare down the barrel of the choices I have made?
…
They say a man without a conscience
Is like a man without a country
Or something like that

It leads appropriately into the fiercely excoriating self-examination of ‘The Man In Me’, which has an excellent and engrossing lyric, but once again no tune to speak of:

I don’t like him at all
God, I gotta get away from the man in me

‘Preachin’ To The Choir’ is equally confessional about Rodney’s failings but with a cheerier feel and quite a catchy arrangement.

‘Ridin’ Out The Storm’ is a beautifully written and sympathetic portrait of a homeless man in New York, who

lies sleeping like an angel while his heart pretends to beat

as he sleeps in a cardboard box. Kim Richey harmonises, and the song proves that Rodney had not lost the knacking of writing a pretty tune.

‘It’s A Different World Now’ has a gentle melody belying the accusatory lyrics as Rodney contrasts youthful idealism with the state of the modern world.

In the name of self defense we built bombs to prove a point
And we’d drop them on our neighbors when their nose got out of joint
To sell the same hamburger rainforests had to go
Hell, we don’t need no air to breathe, but just don’t tell us no

…

In life’s rich beauty pageant we put children on a stage
Say flash your soft white belly child but just don’t act your age
Sell sex like cotton candy to young and old alike
When you’ve outlived the fantasy, girl, you can take a hike

It’s a different world now, but what to do
We had our fifteen minutes and we blew it right on cue
We used up mother nature like a twenty dollar whore
It’s a different world now
There ain’t no more

The tender ‘Adam’s Song’, comforting friends for this loss of a child, is quite pretty with a hushed acoustic backing. The mid-tempo ‘This Too Will Pass’ offers consolation to those enduring difficulties in life. It is apparently in part a tribute to Beatle George Harrison, who died in 2001, and inspired by the latters 1970 song ‘All Things Must Pass’.

I didn’t like ‘Come On Funny Feelin’’, a fluffy little song about wanting to fall in love with an unattractive arrangement.

On this album, interesting lyrics are too often marred by lack of melody. While it was received well at the time of its release by many critics, perhaps still in the thrall of the still much admired The Houston Kid, few if any of the songs would be included on many lists of ‘best songs by Rodney Crowell’. Sales were relatively poor. Used copies can be found very cheaply.

Grade: B-

Classic Rewind: Rodney Crowell – ‘I Know You’re Married’

Album Review – Don Williams – ‘And So It Goes’

In the eight years since Don Williams released My Heart To You he seemed to go comfortably into retirement. His warm baritone and mellow style, indicative of the 1970s and 1980s where he found major success, was far out of touch with the beer chugging and hot girl chasing boys who’d taken over country radio, and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame aside, there was no real incentive to return.

So it’s a welcome surprise to see And So It Goes, Williams’ new ten-song collection out on Sugar Hill Records. Produced by his longtime wingman Garth Fundis (who should be hard at work on Trisha Yearwood’s next album), it comes across as a visit from an old friend, that never forgotten person from your past who you’re so glad to see again, someone who hasn’t changed a bit.

By sticking to the familiar, Williams has created an impressive collection of songs that perfectly display his distinct and mellow style, all wrapped in his warm baritone (an instrument that hasn’t shown any distinct wear and tear). Each of these songs would also stand up nicely against any of Williams’ classic recordings.

A few even rank among the strongest songs released this year. “I Just Come Here For The Music” a gorgeous duet with Alison Krauss, finds their voices blending effortlessly on a gentle weeper about a man in a barroom for the music, only to find a woman instead. “Hearts of Hearts,” enhanced by Vince Gill’s backing vocal, is a quiet reminder to live from truth and “She’s With Me” is the song every woman wants to hear from their man, a sentiment about true love.

And So It Goes abounds with relationship-centric tunes, from the lasting-love anthem “Infinity” to the out-of-love title track, a Williams co-write. “She’s A Natural” finds Williams pleased by everything his woman does and “Imagine That” finds him pining for a life he can visualize but one that hasn’t yet come true.

All are expertly crafted and treated with the respect they deserve, but framing them in the same mellow, dobro and fiddle heavy production can make the listening experience a bit dense and they tend to run together, hard to distinguish. That more than illuminates “Better Than Today” and “What If It Worked Like That,” noticeable for their driving guitar and use of drums.

“What If It Worked Like That,” is also the biggest breath of fresh air lyrically, somewhat of a sequel to his classic hit “I Believe In You.” He wonders aloud about his ideal version of the world, a place where beer would make a person thin and the world gave a little back after we’ve taken so much.

Both melodically and lyrically, it ranks with “I Just Come Here For The Music” as my favorite tracks on the project, both unique in nature from the rest of the album, and the two that have stuck with me the most.

All and all And So It Goes is another fine collection of songs and a stellar return from Williams, who in just under 36 minutes schools all of us in the creation of authentic and genuine country music. He could’ve, however, stood to vary the tempo a tad more, tapping into his “Tulsa Time” groove on more tracks. A more frequent change of pace would’ve helped the songs sink in deeper and keep from running together.

But nonetheless, this is still one of the top releases from 2012 and a suburb collection of songs.

Grade: A-

Classic Rewind: Statler Brothers – ‘How to Be A Country Star’