Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
During the interval during which the Dixie Chicks were not recording together, sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire issued an album of largely acoustic tunes titled Court Yard Hounds. Recorded in 2009, the album was released in May 2010.
Although the album was awaited with great interest, the album received little attention from country radio and in fact the album did not chart country at all, reaching #7 on Billboard’s all genres chart. Although several singles were released to radio, only “The Coast” charted at all, reaching #26 on the AAA charts. The other two singles, “It Didn’t Make a Sound” and “See You In The Spring” did not chart anywhere.
The album seems much more folk than country, although there are tracks that have a strong country feel, particularly on those tracks where Lloyd Maines’ steel guitar is prominently featured. Emily Robison takes the lead vocals, except as noted below. Emily is also the primary songwriter on the album, with Martin Strayer as co-writer on most of the songs and sister Martie Maguire as the songwriter and lead vocalist on “Gracefully”. Both Emily (banjo) and Martie (fiddle, viola) are fine instrumentalists and are featured prominently.
The album opens up with “Skyline”, a folk number that sounds like something Simon & Garfunkel might have recorded as an album track. The song is a laid back with lyrics that tell of the area between hope and desolation.
I just look at the skyline
A million lights are lookin’ back at me
And when they shine
I see a place I know I’ll find some peace
I just look at the skylineI look at the skyline
A million lights are lookin’ back at me
And when they shine
I see a place I know I’ll find some peace
I just look at the skylineWhat am I doin’ here
In such a lonely place?
Next up is “The Coast” is an upbeat tale of the calming effects of the coast in relieving the stresses of daily life. This is followed by “Delight (Something New Under The Sun)” about a pending relationship. There is use of rock-style guitars in this song, although it also has a bit of island vibe to the melody.
I’m gonna head down to the coast
Where nothin’ ever seems to matter
You know I love it there the most
When every piece of my world gets scatteredBlue skies, green water
White birds in the air
Brown skin, blue collar
And the wind blowin’ in my hair
Jakob Dylan joins Emily on “See You In The Spring”, another folk-style ballad. This song bespeaks of an up and down relationship.
‘Cause baby, your Summer is nothing but prison
It drives me away
And maybe, come Winter, we can’t be together
But love will come again
‘Til then I’ll see you in the Spring
Ah, so don’t throw it all away
Throw it all away
“Ain’t No Son” is a rock number and a fairly mediocre one at that. On the other hand “Fairy Tales” is an interesting song about the contradictions between what one wants and what ultimately needs to do.
Every girl wants the fairytale
I guess I do too
We’re restless, we’re young
With so much to proveYou ask me to wait
But wait I won’t do
‘Cause the time I’ve been wasting
I could be spending with youTake me… we’ll run away
Out of this town ’til it fades
And they’ll say we’re wrong
But with you I’m alright either way
“I Miss You” sounds country (or perhaps country rock) with prominent steel by Lloyd Maines. This is a fairly typical song about longing, nicely sung with effective fiddle and steel accompaniment.
“Gracefully” is a slow downer of a song about a relationship that she wishes would end, but her lover would like to continue onward.
“April’s Love” also sounds like a Simon & Garfunkel album track, again about a relationship that is fading away. Since Emily had divorced husband Charlie Robison during the year before this album was recorded, I wonder about how much the end of that relationship colored this album
“Then Again” has a fuller sound than most of the songs on the album with a blues/rock feel to it, this time about introspection and coming to grips with one’s self-awareness (or lack thereof).
“It Didn’t Make A Sound” features the banjo prominently in a rock arrangement, but the lyric doesn’t really go anywhere although the piano of Mike Finnegan has a bit of a Professor Longhair feel to it, making the song greater than the sum of its parts.
The album closes up with “Fear of Wasted Time”, a quiet ballad of desperation.
I hold my babies tight
Sneak into their beds at night
I’ll just stay and watch them breathing
Next thing I know the alarm clock’s ringingI watch every frame
Of this life I’ve made
Take a picture but I miss the moment now
Looking in their eyesAnd you ask why I do it that way
It’s just the fear of wasted time
The fear of wasted time
That’s whyThe feeling’s very strange
I’m waiting for the pain
And happiness can terrify me now
It could be goodbye
The album is a pleasant enough to listen to, but the songs are not especially strong and, unlike the Dixie Chicks albums, with minimal storytelling involved. Listening to this album reminded me of why the sisters needed Robin Lynn Macy, Laura Lynch and later Natalie Maines. Emily Robison is an acceptable vocalist, but nothing more and this album lacks the spark of any of the Dixie Chicks albums, whether the early independent label albums or the later major label successes.
I would give this album a “B”.
1981 saw a change of producer for Janie, with Jim Ed Norman taking up the reins from Billy Sherrill for Sleeping With Your Memory. The result was incrased success for her on radio and with the industry – Janie would be named the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 1982.
The lead single was ‘Do Me With Love’, written by John Schweers. A bright perky slice of pop-country, this rather charming song (featuring Ricky Skaggs on backing vocals although he is not very audible) was a well-deserved hit, peaking at #4. Its successor, ‘Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me Baby’, was Janie’s first chart topper. It was written by fellow country starlet Deborah Allen with rocker Bruce Channel and Kieran Kane (later half of the O’Kanes). It’s quite a well written song, but the pop-leaning production has dated quite badly, and Janie’s vocals sound like something from musical theater.
Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Homeward Bound’ is given a folk-pop-country arrangement which is quite engaging (Ricky Skaggs multi-tasks on this song, contributing fiddle, mandolin and banjo as well as backing vocals), but I’m not quite sure I entirely buy Janie as the folk troubadour of the narrative. The Gibb brothers (the Bee Gees) had some impact on country music by dint of writing songs like ‘Islands In The Stream’ for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, and their ‘Love Me’ is a very nice mid-paced ballad.
Janie sings Larry Gatlin’s sensitive ballad ‘The Heart’ beautifully; Larry and one of his brothers add backing vocals. The arrangement is swathed with strings, and the overall effect is fairly Adult Contemporary in style, but the track is a fine showcase for Janie’s lovely voice. The wistful ballads ‘Always’ and ‘If You Could See Me Now’ are also impeccably sung. The title track is a downbeat ballad about coping with a breakup, and is quite good, though not very country.
‘There’s No Future In The Past’, written by Chick Rains, is a very strong ballad about starting to move on, which I liked a lot despite the early 80s string arrangement. The closing ‘Midnight Words’ is fairly forgettable.
While this is not the more traditional side of country with heavy use of strings and electronic keyboards, it is a good example of its kind with some decent song choices, and Janie was starting to find her own voice.
Grade: B
Glen Campbell’s fourth album release of 1970 was titled to capitalize on the popularity of his CBS variety show, and as such it makes sense that he and his label were aiming for a broader share of the market than country music typically reached in those days. The title is somewhat of a misnomer, however, since “goodtime” implies that there will be a substantial number of uptempo and party songs. That is decidedly not the case, however; Goodtime Album is heavy on ballads and mid-tempos and was clearly designed for the middle of the road/adult contemporary listener.
By this stage of his career, Campbell had enjoyed substantial success singing tastefully orchestrated ballads — many of them written by Jimmy Webb — but this time around the material was not quite as strong as it had been on previous efforts. The album gets off to a good start with its first and only single — and excellent cover of Conway Twitty’s 1958 pop smash “It’s Only Make Believe”. Campbell’s version is faithful to the original and was a huge international success; it reached #3 country, #10 pop and #2 easy listening in the US, as well as reaching the Top 5 in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Despite its success, Glen’s version is not widely remembered today, due to the song’s strong association with Twitty. It is one of four country-ish songs on the album — another being “Pave Your Way Until Tomorrow”, which features some banjo playing and is more upbeat than the most of the collection. “Turn It Around In Your Mind” was written by Jerry Reed and has some country elements, but it is a bit overwhelmed by horns and strings, as is “Funny Kind of Monday”.
The rest of the album is comprised of covers of songs that had been pop hits for other artists. Campbell was blessed with the type of voice that can sing almost anything. I’ve never been much of a Sinatra fan but I liked many of his songs. Call me a heretic but I find Glen’s version of “My Way” to be greatly superior to the original. The Simon & Garfunkel tune “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park” were both widely recorded by artists of the day. I thoroughly enjoyed Glen’s take on the former, but the latter is a rare case where Al DeLory’s production is a bit heavy-handed, reaching almost bombastic levels, with the strings nearly drowning out Glen’s voice at time. The strings are also a bit overwhelming on “Dream Sweet Dreams About Me”.
The only track I actively disliked was “Just Another Piece of Paper”, another Jimmy Webb number and a rare example of a song that doesn’t really suit Glen’s voice. The dated 70s arrangement, spoken word intro and cluttered production just don’t do it for me. The other songs all range from OK to good but the album overall isn’t as interesting as Gentle On My Mind or By The Time I Get To Phoenix.
Grade: B-
‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ was the song which made Glen Campbell a star in 1967, thanks to a perfect combination of song, singer and arrangement. It is still an all-time, cross-genre classic, instantly recognisable and exceptionally good. A beautiful melody and wistful vocal are matched by a heavily orchestrated arrangement, which sweetens the record for pop consumption despite the bittersweet lyric, which tells of a man leaving his lover while she sleeps. Glen had already had a few minor country, and even more minor pop, hits, but this was the single which hurtled him into the bigtime, and deservedly so. It was a #2 country hit, and reached the top 20 AC and top 30 pop, although it doesn’t actually sound particularly country even by the standards of the Nashville Sound. It was in the contemporary pop and open categories that he won Grammies for the record (his earlier country single ‘Gentle On My Mind’ won the same year in the country category). Glen was mainly associated with country music professionally, but his work was often hard to categorise, and with a song this remarkable, one ceases to care. The song has enjoyed great staying power; by 1990 it had become the third most played song over the previous half-century, and is known internationally.
A second single, ‘Hey Little One’, was not so successful, but still made the top 20 on both country and AC charts. It was a cover of a Dorsey Burette pop hit from 1960, and it is capably sung by Glen but a little dull.
A cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s folk-rock/pop hit ‘Homeward Bound’ is nicely sung, but here the heavy orchestration (not dissimilar to that on ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’) inappropriately swamps a song about a ‘one man band’ folkie on his travels. A stripped down acoustic version would have been lovely.
Ernest Tubb’s ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ works better with the Glen Campbell-and-orchestra reworking. Glen’s passionate vocal is impressive (although it verges on going over the top towards the end), and completely reimagines the song from Tubb’s original hard country shuffle. Another effective altered interpretation arises with a relaxed loungy version of a lesser known Bob Wills tune, ‘I’ll Be Lucky Someday’.
Glen is more faithful to the original when he takes on ‘My Baby’s Gone’, a Hazel Houser song best known for the Louvin Brothers’ version. Glen’s version is very nice indeed, beautifully sung and interpreted, and while the arrangement has dated a bit, especially the backing vocals, it still sounds good. This is my favourite track here after ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’.
Bill Anderson’s ‘Bad Seed’ has more of a rock feel. Neither Glen nor Bill comes across as much of a rebel, but the song works pretty well, about a bad boy drifter who shows little regret about leaving his latest girl. ‘You’re Young And You’ll Forget’, written by Jerry Reed, is another leaving song portraying a rambling soul. ‘Cold December (In Your Heart)’ is a 60s pop ballad, written by Alex Hassilev of the contemporary folk group The Limeliters, and is pleasantly performed.
Glen co-wrote a couple of the tunes. The perkily upbeat ‘Back In The Race’ is enjoyable. The closing ‘Love Is A Lonesome River’ is a melodic lost love number.
This is a very good album, but certainly not a traditional country one. It mixes country, folk, rock and sophisticated pop/AC sounds even handedly, and helped to set the template for Glen Campbell as an artist.
Grade: A-
My Kind of Country 