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Single Review: Laura Bell Bundy, “Two Step”

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Laura-Bell-Bundy-Two-Step-2013-1200x1200Laura Bell Bundy made a distinctly memorable impression when she blew into Nashville fresh off Broadway four years ago.  Of all the major label country albums released in 2009, few were more polarizing than Bundy’s genre-bending Mercury Nashville release Achin’ and Shakin’.  Maybe you thought it was brilliant.  Maybe you thought it was atrocious.  But there was one thing that it definitely wasn’t – boring.

“Two Step” is boring.

It’s dull, repetitive, tasteless, and utterly forgettable.

The problem isn’t that it’s a pop song masquerading as a country song.  The problem is that nothing about the lyrics, construction, melody, or production feels clever or interesting in any way.  The song leans far too heavily on mundane repetitions of its unremarkable title, and with “Two Step” already floundering, a Colt Ford hick-rap bridge is not going to be the thing to save it.

I know she can do better than this because she has before.  Let’s just hope that Bundy’s future releases on her new Big Machine label home will focus a little less on choreography and a little more on content.

Written by Laura Bell Bundy, Andy Davis, Lance Kotara, Adam McInnis, and Bryan Ray

Grade:  D+


Country Universe’s Best Singles of 2013, Part One: #40-#21

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For the second year in a row, our seven writers – Kevin Coyne, Leeann Ward, Dan Milliken, Tara Seetharam, Ben Foster, Jonathan Keefe, and Sam Gazdziak –  individually listed our twenty favorite albums and singles of the year. It’s a diverse crop of singles, some of which dominated country radio, while others were primarily heard in the Americana, bluegrass, and alternative country worlds. Today, we present the first half of our singles list, with the conclusion to follow tomorrow. Share your favorites in the comments!

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#40
“Someone Somewhere Tonight”
Kellie Pickler

Individual rankings:  #16 – Ben; #19 – Tara

A sweeping power ballad anchored by an intimate chorus and Pickler’s pleading sincerity.  – Tara Seetharam

Will Hoge Strong
#39
“Strong”
Will Hoge

Individual rankings: #10 – Sam

Yeah, it’s the Chevy song, but whatever it takes to get Will Hoge introduced to a larger audience can’t be a bad thing. His lyrics about a true salt-of-the-earth individual ring true without ever steering into maudlin territory, and the line, “he ain’t jut tough, he’s strong,” is a great hook. It probably moved a fair number of pickup trucks, too. – Sam Gazdziak

Dierks Bentley Bourbon in Kentucky

#38
Bourbon in Kentucky”
Dierks Bentley

Individual rankings: #9 – Leeann

Although Bentley vies for radio play, “Bourbon in Kentucky” still sounds unique enough to stand out from the generic bombast of the male players on current country radio. In service to the intense angst of the song, the wailing guitars and the mix of Bentley’s and Kacey Musgraves’ emotive vocals make this single a riveting sonic and emotional experience. – Leeann Ward

Laura Bell Bundy You and I

#37
“You and I”
Laura Bell Bundy

Individual rankings: #8 – Jonathan

Laura Bell Bundy goes more-Shania-than-Shania on a cover of Lady Gaga’s “You and I” that aches and shakes in equal measure. Bundy’s music is best when she embraces her campiest impulses, so it makes perfect sense for her to take a signature hit by the most theatrical star in pop and lasso it into the country genre. – Jonathan Keefe

Kenny Rogers Dolly Parton Old Friends

#36
“You Can’t Make Old Friends”
Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

Individual rankings: #7 – Kevin

After several attempts to recreate the youthful playfulness of the classic “Islands in the Stream”, Rogers and Parton embrace their age and confront their own mortality. It’s an obvious truth that no matter how great a new friend is, they can’t replace the shared memories of someone you’ve known for a long time. Even if you’ve since parted ways, you still share a part of the other’s identity. How fitting that these two old friends are ours as well, making the entire proceedings that much more poignant. – Kevin Coyne

Steeldrivers; Rounder Records; Photo: David McClister

#35
“I’ll Be There”
The SteelDrivers

Individual rankings:  #7 – Leeann

It’s almost unheard of for a group to lose a lead singer as dynamic as Chris Stapleton and still be as strong as ever with a replacement. Gary Nichols, however, managed to seamlessly slip into the SteelDriver’s front spot with the newly revamped band’s first single, “I’ll Be There.” The song is deliciously haunting both in content and melody. – Leeann Ward

Charlie Worsham Want Me Too

#34
“Want Me Too”
Charlie Horsham

Individual rankings:  #7 – Dan

Imagine if your favorite Keith Urban song and your favorite Diamond Rio song were to meet in the middle ‘neath that old Georgia pi-i-iiine. You might end up with something like Worsham’s second single, a lovestruck tail-wagger with Urban drive and Rio harmonies. Show me a cuter line from this year than “My heart’s skippin’ like a stone on the water!” – Dan Milliken

Taylor Swift Red

#33
“Red”
Taylor Swift

Individual rankings:  #6 – Dan

“Red” is a curious mix of brilliant similes (“Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there’s no right answer”), plain ol’ descriptions posing as similes (“Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you”), and logical pretzels twisted against their will into similes (“Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met”—what!). But Swift’s passion and command of melody pull the disparate pieces together, resulting in one of the year’s most unique and compulsively listenable singles. – Dan Milliken

Easton Corbin All Over the Roa

#32
“All Over the Road”
Easton Corbin
Individual rankings:  #6 – Ben

A delicious slice of steel-heavy nineties-esque escapist country bliss – complete with a breezy melody and an infectious, laid-back vocal performance. More please. – Ben Foster

Brad Paisley Beat This Summer

#31
“Beat This Summer”
Brad Paisley

Individual rankings: #11 – Ben; #19 – Leeann

With a hooky sing-along melody, addictive guitar riff, and a unique genre-bending arrangement, Paisley proves that summer hits don’t have to suck.  – Ben Foster

Mando Saenz Pocket Change

#30
“Pocket Change”
Mando Seanz

Individual rankings:  #5 – Sam

Texas radio stations jumped on this single when it was released, with good reason. Saenz has been known for his quiet, introspective ballads in the past, but “Pocket Change” starts with a slow burn before exploding into a full-blown rocker. “Where’s my Studebaker, I’m nobody’s pocket change,” he snarls as he walks/runs away from a bad love. – Sam Gazdziak

Ashley Monroe Weed instead of roses

#29
“Weed Instead of Roses”
Ashley Monroe

Individual rankings:  #16 – Tara, Jonathan; #20 – Sam

One woman’s plea to pump some action into her deflated marriage – via weed, leather and whips. It pops because it’s provocative, but it works because Monroe blends delightful charm with tongue-in-cheek boredom like the pro that she is.  – Tara Seetharam

Carrie underwood see you again

#28
“See You Again”

Carrie Underwood

Individual rankings:  #1 – Kevin

“See You Again” combines three of my favorite things: death, positivity, and power vocals. The entire premise that a person can look past their grief because their faith tells them they’ll be reunited with their lost loved one is hardly new to country music, but it’s rarely presented with such confident bravado and so little melancholy. I can’t think of another singer who could pull that off as believably as Underwood, who by the end of these proceedings makes me hope that the choir of angels in heaven sound like her insanely catchy backup singers do here. – Kevin Coyne

Old Crow Medicine Show Carry Me Back to Virginia

#27
“Carry Me Back to Virginia”
Old Crow Medicine Show

Individual rankings: #9 – Sam; #12 – Jonathan

For anyone who wants to discover Old Crow Medicine Show beyond “Wagon Wheel,” this song is an excellent primer. Lightning-fast fiddle and vocals from Ketch Secor with a song about the Civil War, and crack band of musicians that favor enthusiasm over the precision that is often found in bluegrass. They’ve been often imitated but never duplicated. – Sam Gazdziak

Kacey Musgraves Blowin' Smoke

#26
“Blowin’ Smoke”
Kacey Musgraves

Individual rankings: #7 – Ben; #15 – Sam

For three glorious minutes, the voice of the working class is heard once again on country radio. Musgraves suitably renders the song with a rundown sigh of a performance, while a gritty, rumbling arrangement places the listener right in the midst of the smoky haze. – Ben Foster

Ashley Monroe You Got Me

#25
“You Got Me”
Ashley Monroe

Individual rankings: #14 – Kevin; #15 – Ben; #16 – Leeann

On the surface, it’s obvious that this is about an entangled dysfunctional relationship, but listening deeper reveals that the relationship is with an addictive substance. Encased in a deep melancholy, the song cleverly and astutely captures the parallels with the two types of relational embattlements. The observations acknowledge that while the sources may be different, many of the general effects are the same. – Leeann Ward

Amos Lee Chill in the Air

#24
“Chill in the Air”
Amos Lee

Individual rankings:  #14 – Tara; #15 – Dan; #16 – Kevin

A smooth yet moody cocktail of country, folk, and soul that rides its long drawl into a sweet, simple chorus. Shoulda been a hit. – Dan Milliken

The Band Perry DONE

#23
“DONE.”
The Band Perry

Individual rankings: #6 – Jonathan; #15 – Tara

At a time when most contemporary country acts are aspiring to sound like arena rock, metal, and post-grunge bands that were terrible in the first place, The Band Perry at least had the good taste to blatantly rip off one of the best rock singles of the last decade for their hit “DONE.” – Jonathan Keefe

Tillis Morgan I Know What You Did Last Night

#22
“I Know What You Did Last Night”
Pam Tillis & Lorrie Morgan

Individual rankings: #10 – Kevin, Ben

They may be in their fifties, but make no mistake about it: Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan can still party down when they want to. Built around good-humored conversational interplay between two old friends, “I Know What You Did Last Night” is one of the freshest, most entertaining up-tempos sent to radio this year, and a reminder that Tillis and Morgan are still two of country music’s most vibrant talents.  – Ben Foster

Rhonda Vincent I'd Rather Hear I Don't Love You

#21
“I’d Rather Hear I Don’t Love You (Than Nothing at All)”
Rhonda Vincent

Individual rankings:  #9 – Ben; #10 – Leeann

Rhonda Vincent is always supreme whether she’s singing traditional bluegrass or, in this case, a good ol’ country weeper. Supported with the best kind of country acoustic instrumentation, Vincent’s voice satisfyingly leans into the heartbreak and desperation of a woman who is gripping a relationship that is obviously already dead. She knows it’s over, but her heart says that it’s not over until he literally says it’s over.  – Leeann Ward

Country Universe’s Best of 2013:

Daily Top Five: Texas Songs

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Texas is the most sung about state in country music. Musicians and singers can even make a good living by just touring around Texas. So, it’s no wonder that even those of us who have no  physical or emotional connection to Texas might still have numerous Texas related songs that we love. Just like the state of Texas, my list of Texas songs is very large, but I did my best to narrow my list down to five of my favorites.

  1. Bill Chambers, “Dreaming ’bout Texas”
  2. Charlie Robison, “the Girls from Texas”
  3. Don Schlitz, “Death in Texas”
  4. Laura Bell Bundy, “Texas”
  5. Mac Davis, “Texas in My Rearview Mirror”

Year-End Rodeo 2015: Individual Ballots

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Now that our final lists of the 40 Best Singles of 2015 and 20 Best Albums of 2015 are posted and open for discussion, we have decided to post each of our seven writers’ individual ballots for the year-end countdowns, so we can give at least a bit of attention to even more great music from the past year.

When tabulating our lists, we assign points using a weighted ballot that prioritizes the music that each contributor feels most passionately about. The total points across all ballots are added together, and then a consensus multiplier factor recognizes the music that resonated most strongly with the Country Universe crew as a whole. Over the past several years, we’ve tinkered with our formulas a bit, and we’re pleased with how our methodology produces lists that allow for our individual writers’ unique voices and tastes to be reflected while also recognizing quality music with across-the-board appeal.

This year, that meant we saw mainstream superstars like Reba, Alan Jackson, and Eric Church ranked alongside lesser-known acts like Jamie Lin Wilson and Humming House on our albums list, while Tami Neilson, Jason Isbell, and Drake White rubbed elbows with Carrie Underwood and Maddie & Tae on our singles list.

A few quick stats for posterity’s sake: Isbell’s Something More Than Free, Chris Stapleton’s Traveler, and Church’s Mr. Misunderstood were the only albums to appear on all seven ballots; Ashley Monroe’s “The Blade” and Isbell’s “24 Frames” both appeared on all six ballots for the year’s best singles. Randy Rogers’ & Wade Bowen’s Hold My Beer, Volume 1 and Kasey Chambers’ Bittersweet both earned three votes each but still missed the final list, while Alan Jackson’s “Jim and Jack and Hank” was the only single to earn at least two votes and not make the top 40 list. Sometimes math is cruel.

What was great about 2015, particularly in comparison to the leaner offerings of the past few years, was that we could have easily posted longer lists of music worth seeking out. Just because something didn’t make the cut on our final lists, that didn’t mean that it was ignored entirely by the staff. Last year, most of the crew here felt like they were straining to fill out complete ballots with music they liked; this year, the challenge for many of us was in cutting music we really loved from our lists.

Too much good music: That’s a good problem to have.

So, alpha-ma-betically, each of our writers’ personal ballots are listed below.


Kevin John Coyne:

 

Storyteller-300x300
Albums

01. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
02. Reba McEntire, Love Somebody
03. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
04. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
05. Carrie Underwood, Storyteller
06. Alan Jackson, Angels & Alcohol
07. Maddie & Tae, Start Here
08. Laura Bell Bundy, Another Piece of Me
09. Watkins Family, Watkins Family Hour
10. Gretchen Peters, Blackbirds
11. K.T. Oslin, Simply
12. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, Django & Jimmie
13. Don Henley, Cass County
14. Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris, The Traveling Kind
15. Chris Stapleton, Traveller
16. Tim McGraw, Damn Country Music
17. Toby Keith, 35 MPH Town
18. Iris DeMent, The Trackless Woods
19. Punch Brothers, Phosphorescent Blues
20. Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn

Miranda Lambert Little Big Town Smokin and Drinkin

Singles

01. Miranda Lambert, “Little Red Wagon”
02. Carrie Underwood, “Little Toy Guns”
03. Terri Clark, “I Cheated on You”
04. Jason Isbell, “24 Frames”
05. Eric Church, “Like a Wrecking Ball”
06. Ashley Monroe, “The Blade”
07. Eric Church, “Mr. Misunderstood”
08. Carrie Underwood, “Smoke Break”
09. Trisha Yearwood, “I Remember You”
10. Dwight Yoakam, “Second Hand Heart”
11. Toby Keith, “35 MPH Town”
12. Jason Isbell, “Something More Than Free”
13. George Strait, “Let It Go”
14. Miranda Lambert, “Bathroom Sink”
15. Kacey Musgraves, “Biscuits”
16. Toby Keith, “Beautiful Stranger”
17. Miranda Lambert with Little Big Town, “Smokin’ and Drinkin'”
18. Alan Jackson, “Jim and Jack and Hank”
19. Jason Isbell, “The Life You Chose”
20. Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”


Ben Foster:

 

K.T. Oslin Simply


Albums

01. Ashley Monroe, The Blade
02. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
03. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
04. Maddie & Tae, Start Here
05. Chris Stapleton, Traveller
06. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
07. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, Django and Jimmie
08. K.T. Oslin, Simply
09. Reba McEntire, Love Somebody
10. Alan Jackson, Angels & Alcohol

 

FlyMaddieTae

Singles

01. Kacey Musgraves, “Dime Store Cowgirl”
02. Ashley Monroe, “The Blade”
03. Drake White, “It Feels Good”
04. Jason Isbell, “24 Frames”
05. Trisha Yearwood, “I Remember You”
06. Jason Isbell, “The Life You Chose”
07. Maddie & Tae, “Shut Up and Fish”
08. Kacey Musgraves, “Biscuits”
09. Toby Keith, “Beautiful Stranger”
10. Kristian Bush, “Trailer Hitch”
11. Tami Neilson featuring Marlon Williams, “Lonely”
12. Carrie Underwood, “Smoke Break”
13. Toby Keith, “35 MPW Town”
14. Miranda Lambert, “Bathroom Sink”
15. Carrie Underwood, “Little Toy Guns”
16. Ashley Monroe, “On To Something Good”
17. Alan Jackson, “Jim and Jack and Hank”
18. Maddie & Tae, “Fly”
19. Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”
20. Eric Church, “Mr. Misunderstood”

Sam Gazdiak:
Jerry Lawson Just a Mortal Man

Albums
01. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
02. The Mavericks, Mono
03. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
04. Chris Stapleton, Traveller
05. Jerry Lawson, Just a Mortal Man
06. The SteelDrivers, The Muscle Shoals Recordings
07. Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Ruffian’s Misfortune
08. Corb Lund, Things That Can’t Be Undone
09. Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
10. The Bros. Landreth, Let It Lie
11. Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris, The Traveling Kind
12. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
13. Jewel, Picking Up The Pieces
14. Maddie & Tae, Start Here
15. Joe Ely, Panhandle Rambler
16. Kasey Chambers, Bittersweet
17. Gretchen Peters, Blackbirds
18. Robert Earl Keen, Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions
19. Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart
20. Alan Jackson, Angels & Alcohol

Jonathan Keefe:

1545closed_GLUE
Albums
01. Allison Moorer, Down to Believing
02. Ashley Monroe, The Blade
03. Punch Brothers, The Phosphorescent Blues
04. Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
05. John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat
06. Turnpike Troubadours, Turnpike Troubadours
07. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
08. Humming House, Revelries
09. Lindi Ortega, Faded Gloryville
10. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
11.  Maddie & Tae, Start Here
12. Will Hoge, Small Town Dreams
13. Kasey Chambers, Bittersweet
14. Dwight Yoakam, Second-Hand Heart
15. The Mavericks, Mono
16. Iris DeMent, The Trackless Woods
17. Laura Bell Bundy, Another Piece of Me
18. Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen, Hold My Beer, Volume 1
19. Alan Jackson, Angels & Alcohol
20. Chris Stapleton, Traveller

Ritter - Getting Ready 300x300

Singles

01. Kacey Musgraves, “Dime Store Cowgirl”
02. Ashley Monroe, “The Blade”
03. Drake White, “It Feels Good”
04. Tami Neilson featuring Marlon Williams, “Lonely”
05. Lee Ann Womack, “Send It On Down”
06. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, “S.O.B.”
07. Jason Isbell, “24 Frames”
08. Kip Moore, “I’m to Blame”
09. Rhett Miller, “Most in the Summertime”
10. Turnpike Troubadours, “Down Here”
11. Jennifer Nettles, “Sugar”
12. Allison Moorer, “Tear Me Apart”
13. Robert Earl Keen, “Hot Corn, Cold Corn”
14. Miranda Lambert, “Little Red Wagon”
15. Josh Ritter, “Getting Ready to Get Down”
16. Cam, “Burning House”
17. Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”
18. Eric Church, “Like a Wrecking Ball”
19. Lindi Ortega, “Ashes”
20. Maddie & Tae, “Shut Up & Fish”

 

Larry Rogowin:

Darrell Scott Ten Songs of Ben Bullington

Albums

01. Punch Brothers, Phosphorescent Blues
02. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
03. Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
04. Ashley Monroe, The Blade
05. Andrew Combs, All These Dreams
06. Darrell Scott, Ten: Songs of Ben Bullington
07. Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher’s Daughter
08. Chris Stapleton, Traveller
09. Allison Moorer, Down to Believing
10. Humming House, Revelries
11. Jamie Lin Wilson, Holidays & Wedding Rings
12. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
13. Ward Thomas, From Where We Stand
14. Watkins Family, Watkins Family Hour
15. Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen, Hold My Beer, Volume 1
16. The Mavericks, Mono
17. Don Henley, Cass County
18. Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart
19. Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris, The Traveling Kind
20. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material

 

Traveling Kind - 300x300

Singles

01. Jason Isbell, “24 Frames”
02. Lee Ann Womack, “Send It On Down”
03. Ashley Monroe, “The Blade”
04. Turnpike Troubadours, “Down Here”
05. Jason Isbell, “Something More Than Free”
06. Punch Brothers, “I Blew It Off”
07. Rhiannon Giddens, “Black Is The Color”
08. Andrew Combs, “Foolin'”
09. Chris Stapleton, “Traveller”
10. Cam, “Burning House”
11. Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris, ‘The Traveling Kind”
12. Jason Isbell, “The Life You Chose”
13. Humming House, “Great Divide”
14. Eric Church, “Mr. Misunderstood”
15. Allison Moorer, “Like It Used To Be”
16. Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen, “Standards”
17. Kacey Musgraves, “Dime Store Cowgirl”
18. Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”
19. Lee Ann Womack, “Chances Are”
20. Dwight Yoakam, “Second Hand Heart”


Tara Seetharam:

Will Hoge Small Town Dreams - 300x300

Albums

01. Ashley Monroe, The Blade
02. Chris Stapleton, Traveller
03. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
04. Maddie & Tae, Start Here
05. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
06. Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
07. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
08. Allison Moorer, Down to Believing
09. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, Django & Jimmie
10. Will Hoge, Small Town Dreams

 

Chris Stapleton Traveller

Singles

01. Ashley Monroe, “The Blade”
02. Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”
03. Lee Ann Womack, “Send It On Down”
04. Jason Isbell, “24 Frames”
05. Lee Ann Womack, “Chances Are”
06. Ashley Monroe, “On To Something Good”
07. Jason Isbell, “Something More Than Free”
08. Cam, “My Mistake”
09. Drake White, “It Feels Good”
10. Kacey Musgraves, “Dime Store Cowgirl”
11. Maddie & Tae, “Shut Up And Fish”
12. Miranda Lambert, “Little Red Wagon”
13. Turnpike Troubadours, “Down Here”
14. Chris Stapleton, “Traveller”
15. Tami Neilson featuring Marlon Williams, “Lonely”
16. Jason Isbell, “The Life You Chose”
17. Eric Church, “Like a Wrecking Ball”
18. Kip Moore, “I’m to Blame”
19. Chris Stapleton, “Nobody to Blame”
20. Carrie Underwood, “Little Toy Guns”


Leeann Morrow Ward:

 

Kristian Bush 300x300

Albums

01. Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
02. Alan Jackson, Angels and Alcohol
03. Don Henley, Cass County
04. Watkins Family, Watkins Family Hour
05. Jamie Lin Wilson, Holidays and Wedding Rings
06. Maddie and Tae, Start Here
07.  Chris Stapleton, Traveller
08. Ashley Monroe, The Blade
09. Gretchen Peters, Blackbirds
10. Emmylou Harris/Rodney Crowell, The Traveling Kind
11. Randy Rogers/Wade Bowen, Hold My Beer, Volume 1
12. Kristian Bush, Southern Gravity
13. Pat Green, Home
14. Jason Isbell, Something More than Free
15. Toby Keith, 35 MPH Town
16. Shovels and Rope, Busted Jukebox, Volume 1
17. Daryle Singletary, There’s Still A Little Country Left
18. Kasey Chambers, Bittersweet
19. Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
20. Punch Brothers, The Phosphorescent Blues

 

Miranda Lambert Roots and Wings

Singles

01. Chris Stapleton, “Traveller”
02. Ashley Monroe, “The Blade”
03. Lee Ann Womack, “Send It On Down”
04. Cam, “Burning House”
05. Gretchen Peters, “When All You’ve Got is a Hammer”
06. Jason Isbell, ” 24 Frames”
07. Pat Green, “While I Was Away”
08. Trisha Yearwood, “I Remember You”
09. Robert Earl Keen, “Hot Corn, Cold corn”
10. Miranda Lambert, “Roots and Wings”
11. Drake White, “It Feels Good”
12. George Strait, “Let It Go”
13. Dierks Bentley, “Riser”
14. Kristian Bush, “Trailer Hitch”
15. Brandi Carlile, “Wherever Is Your Heart”
16. Maddie & Tae, “Shut Up and Fish”
17. Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen, “Standards”
18. Jon Pardi, “Head Over Boots”
19. Jennifer Nettles, “Sugar”
20. Carrie Underwood, “Smoke Break”

Sunday Selections: February 7, 2016

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We just kind of can’t with this year’s ACM nominees.

2015 was a terrific year for country music, but you’d never know it from the often inexplicable and just as often indefensible slate of nominations that the Academy of Country Music put forth this week. Fortunately, there was plenty of other good news and better taste to go around, with interesting interviews with legends Tom T. Hall, Willie Nelson, and Lucinda Williams and upstarts Lindi Ortega, Cam, and Maren Morris, great live performances from Gretchen Peters, Carrie Underwood, Ashley Monroe, John Moreland, and Josh Ritter, and an unexpected bit of shade-throwing courtesy of Charles Kelley. This week’s news cycle isn’t even dominated by Chris Stapleton for once: Another Chris– Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile– is our MVP for the week.

There’s also an impressive crop of new releases and reissues out this week. Oddly, only one of those albums is by a woman, though, which is still one more album by a woman than the ACMs could bring themselves to nominate for Album of the Year…

Ghosts of Highway 20
New Releases & Reissues, 2/05/2016
Jason Collett, Song And Dance Man (Arts & Crafts)
Luther Dickinson, Blues & Ballads – A Folksinger’s Songbook: Volumes I & II  (New West)
The Infamous Stringdusters, Ladies & Gentlemen (Compass)
Charles Kelley, The Driver (Capitol Nashville)
Doug Kershaw, Anthology: Rare Masters 1958 – 1969 (Goldenlane / Cleopatra)
Jerry Lee Lewis, Country Class (1976), Country Memories (1977) (BGO)
The O’s, Honeycomb (Punch Five)
The Pines, Above the Prairie (Red House)
Charley Pride, Did You Think to Pray (1971), A Sunshiny Day With Charley Pride (1972), Sweet Country Songs of Love by Charley Pride (1973) (BGO)
David G. Smith, First Love (Hey Dave Music)
Elliott Smith, Heaven Adores You – Original Soundtrack (UMe)
Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys featuring Ricky Skaggs & Keith Whitley, The Complete Jessup Recordings Plus! (Real Gone Music)
Lucinda Williams, The Ghosts of Highway 20 (Highway 20)

News and Notes

ACMThe nominees for the 51st Academy of Country Music awards were announced this week. Typically, we would do a stand-alone post for these, but they’re a such a wretched lot (Chase Rice, Old Dominion, and RaeLynn are among the nominees, and the all-male Album of the Year line-up is three-fifths appalling) that we are having a hard time getting excited about them. And, as friend of the blog Deb B (a.k.a., Windmills Country) outlines in comprehensive detail, the influence of bloc voting within a particular management group further puts a damper on the whole affair. Chris Stapleton and Eric Church lead the nominees, so at least that’s something. (JK)

Don Williams was forced to postpone his 2016 tour due to unexpected hip replacement surgery. Ticket buyers are encouraged to contact local venues and authorized ticketing platforms regarding refunds. Best wishes to our Gentle Giant for a quick, safe recovery. (BF)

“Songwriters aren’t good songwriters. People are good songwriters. So all of my career I fought against sitting down as a ‘Songwriter.’ I would sit with that sneaker on my head, until I found humility and became a person.”
— Tom T. Hall, speaking to the always incisive Peter Cooper, in a lengthy interview for American Songwriter. Among the many highlights of the interview is Hall’s response to the derisive remarks Bob Dylan made about him during the “MusiCares Person Of The Year” presentation in February 2015. (JK)

“I was in the middle of a tour, playing a bunch of Bach. And I was in a hotel room practicing the B-minor Partita over and over again, and in between giving my hands a rest, I just started [strumming and singing] ‘I blew it off …’ It kind of came in even as I was blowing off practicing the B-minor Partita.”
— MacArthur Foundation certified genius Chris Thile of The Punch Brothers tells The Current about the origins of “I Blew It Off,” which ranked on our list of 2015’s best singles. Thile’s creative process mirrors that of so many other contemporary country stars! Seriously, though: He’s just the best. (JK)

Speaking of Thile, he and Sarah Jarosz premiered the new song that they penned for his new gig as host of A Prairie Home Companion. (JK)

For even more on Thile, No Depression‘s Ted Lehmann wrote an editorial that’s sure to rankle some Bluegrass purists. In “Bela Fleck and Chris Thile: Following the Artist’s Muse,” Lehmann argues that it’s the fearlessness of acts like Fleck and Thile to incorporate a wide range of influences into traditional Bluegrass music– one of the most formally conservative of musical genres– that keep the genre vital. (JK)

People magazine posted a short preview of American Masters – Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl, PBS’ documentary about the legendary artist. The film, which premieres on March 4th, features a host of stars from Miranda Lambert to Jack White who speak about her influence. (JK)

“I was really thankful just to be out of Nashville for a second. I was driving around, and all of a sudden it just hit me — the title, ‘My Church,’ popped in my mind. I was maybe looking for some sort of salvation in that moment on that writing trip. It was an escape for me — and not really a religious one, just something to get out of my own head.”
— Maren Morris, recounting the origins of her breakthrough hit, “My Church,” in an interview with Billboard. The article provides an insightful peek behind-the-curtain with Morris and co-writer busbee, who discuss the song’s structure and production choices in smart detail. (JK)

Buddy Miller’s latest album, Cayamo Sessions at Sea, was released last week and features a terrific duet with Kacey Musgraves on a cover of Buck Owens’ “Love’s Gonna Live Here.” (JK)

You can listen to Vince Gill’s new album before its February release date, thanks to NPR’s First Listen. Be sure to read Jewly Hight’s great review of the album, as well! (LMW)

And if you need a good way to spend the next 6 hours, you can play around at Six Degrees Of Vince Gill, which is exactly what it sounds like. The highest number of degrees we have yet obtained is 4, thanks to K-Pop girl group SISTAR and Icelandic indie-pop act Sigur Ros. Vince is very well-connected. (JK)

“I think we all have these skeletons in the closet or whatever demons or things that haunt us. It’s part of the human condition. I guess some folks like to pretend that part doesn’t exist and want to sweep it under the rug or whatever. It always makes me feel less alone when I realize that other people go through this same experience and is part of being human. Sometimes I tweet things like that just to show no one’s alone.”
— Lindi Ortega talks about her reputation for getting a “little dark” with Steve Wosahla of For The Country Record. (JK)

Humming House, whose album Revelries ranked on our 2015 countdown of the year’s best albums, were profiled on The Today Show for their participation in a fantastic initiative called “Sing Me A Story” that turns the life stories of children battling diseases into uplifting songs. (JK)

“Those stories [about the TVA] have fueled thousands of works of art — from films like the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? to songs like Mike Cooley’s ‘Uncle Frank.’ But the stories from the other side fed the culture, too, which is how, a few years after Cooley’s song, Jason Isbell penned his own ‘TVA’ during his time in the same band. ‘Thank God for the TVA,” Isbell sang. “Where Roosevelt let us all work for an honest day’s pay.'”
— Chuck Reece, writing for Bitter Southerner, profiled photographer Micah Cash’s upcoming “Dangerous Waters” series and book in a must-read and must-see piece that makes reference to how the TVA figures into contemporary art, including songs by Drive-By Truckers and Jason Isbell. (JK)

Country Universe favorite Gretchen Peters gave a lovely performance of one of her very best songs, which is to say one of the very best songs– “On a Bus to St. Cloud”– for the BBC2’s “Celtic Connections.” Peters also won “International Album of the Year” for Blackbirds and “International Song of the Year” for its title track at The UK Americana Music Association awards this week. (JK)

Singer-songwriter Josh Ritter got dressed up in his finest painter’s overalls for a performance of his awesome single “Getting Ready to Get Down” on Conan. (JK)

“I remember when [Lady Antebellum] started, I would get all these texts and calls, especially when “Need You Now” came out: “This song is blowing my mind.” There was something so gratifying about hearing that from your peers. And then the phone kind of went silent for a few years. I was like, “Man, I wanna make music again that gets the town talkin’, that really moves people.” …For me there’s this beautiful thing of being able to have this huge commercial success with Lady Antebellum, but then being able to have this purely creative, artistic outlet. Whether it becomes this huge success or not, at least I know in my heart that I’ve made a record that I was 100% proud of and that I was uncompromising on it.”
— Charles Kelley, not exactly not throwing Lady Antebellum under the bus in an interview with Jewly Hight for NPR. Whether his solo debut, The Driver, is any less middlebrow and dull than Lady A’s last three albums remains to be seen, but it’s interesting to see that he isn’t exactly defending the trio’s work while on his promotional rounds now that they’re on a hiatus. (JK)

Ashley Monroe visited the historic Sun Studios in Memphis, where she gave a performance of “From Time To Time” from The Blade. (JK)

“For me to be able to have a major label deal and be able to make a record I love, and that they let me make, it’s just amazing. On top of that, I get a Grammy nomination for pretty much just spilling out my heart. I can’t even put (my feelings) into words.”
— Monroe again, reflecting on the success of The Blade and her nomination for Best Country Album during Nashville’s annual Grammy nominee party. The Tennessean covered the event and spoke to Monroe, Little Big Town, and contemporary Christian singer TobyMac. (JK)

Josh Brolin will play George Jones and Jessica Chastain will play Tammy Wynette in the forthcoming biopic No Show Jones. The film’s screenplay comes from the Academy Award nominated team who recently wrote Straight Outta Compton. (LMW)

Rolling Stone premiered “Something Tamed, Something Wild,” the first single from Mary Chapin Carpenter’s upcoming album, The Things That We Are Made Of, which is scheduled for release on May 6th. The album is produced by superproducer du jour Dave Cobb, and the single has more in common with Carpenter’s 90s output than with the more somnolent coffeehouse fare she’s released over the last decade. Dare we say this is the first time we’ve been excited to hear her newest album in a good long while. (JK)

Rather than performing a track from his latest album (2015’s High on Tulsa Heat) for his network television debut, John Moreland gave a riveting, stripped-down performance of “Break My Heart Sweetly” from 2013’s In the Throes on Late Night with Stephen Colbert. (JK)

“I’m a huge Frank Sinatra fan. He’s my favorite singer. I’ve been listening to him for many, many years. And I loved the way he phrased — that he kind of sung it the way he wanted to. I liked that, and felt like it was easy for me to do.”
— Willie Nelson, who sat down with veteran journalist Dan Rather for an in-depth interview, cited Frank Sinatra as his favorite singer. Their conversation was recorded for Rather’s program The Big Interview, which airs weekly on AXS-TV. Rather also interviewed Tanya Tucker this week. (JK)

“I remember when I first read Flannery O’Connor, when I was 15 or 16, and it just drew me in because I identified with it. Some of the characters in her stories reminded me of some of my relatives on my mother’s side of the family. So I’ve been trying to write about that since I started writing, but I just kind of learned how recently. It’s not easy to use the imagery in songs without sounding kind of corny, or without stereotyping things. It’s really challenging.”
— Lucinda Williams reflected on the influence of author Flannery O’Connor on her songwriting and the particular challenges involved in writing songs that evoke a specific sense of place in a fascinating interview with Vulture. The interview is a must-read for fans of Williams’ one-of-a-kind songwriting, and it spans multiple eras of her storied career. Her new album, The Ghosts of Highway 20, has been earning rave reviews, including an insightful analysis by Sam C. Mac for Slant Magazine. (JK)

LBBAHSLaura Bell Bundy, another Country Universe favorite, was honored this week for her work with the American Heart and American Stroke Associations. Bundy served as a national Go Red For Women spokesperson during 2015. (JK)

“I think what I’m all about is interesting melodies. I love melody a lot. And I think I come from a lot of different musical influences because I grew up in a choir that sang in lots of different languages. So by the time I finished high school, I could sing 14 languages, like World Music.”
— Cam, in an interview with “Broadway’s Electric Barnyard,” responds directly to a negative review of her album, Untamed. In addition to her notes about melody, she also addresses her approach to lyrical content and to the album’s overall production aesthetic. It’s a brief interview, but Cam impresses for her thoughtful, on-the-spot answers about her creative process. (JK)

Pop-rap artist Nelly, who is recording a country album, released his cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man” this week, and it is neither more nor less country-sounding than Rhett’s single, which topped the country radio charts for 6 weeks. (JK)

chase-rice-letter“I’m not ignorant, there are a lot of people out there waiting for country music to find a little more depth and meaning. Well, I agree with you. Country music deserves that. This first song may not be what you’re looking for yet, but that’s ok, because music was not meant to be heard in singles, but in albums. My album will be out later this summer, and I can promise you one thing….if you absolutely love this progressive version, I appreciate you, and I think you will love this upcoming ALBUM.”
— Chase Rice, who released a bizarre letter to his fans this week. The letter reads as an apology for his sleazy and damn near unlistenable new single, “Whisper,” which he swears, you guys, is not representative of his album that will be released later this year. Rice asserts that the ALBUM will reflect his depth as an artist, but it remains to be seen if that amounts to the same brand of “depth” offered by Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt” and “Confession” or Luke Bryan’s “Drink A Beer” or Cole Swindell’s “You Should Be Here” or any of the other major bro-country acts’ middling attempts at more substantive material. That Rice is already apologizing for his new single on the day of its release, though, is a strange PR maneuver. (JK)

High quality video of Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller “In the Round” tour has started to turn up online. Here, Underwood sings “Dirty Laundry” before she absolutely tears it up on the harmonica in the opening of career higlight “Choctaw County Affair,” which really just has to be a single at some point. (JK)

And for another take…

Underwood’s set list includes covers of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Fishing in the Dark” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” The latter –a lovely, bare-bones showcase of her voice– has me wishing she’d make good on her promise to do an acoustic tour. (TS)

That will do it for this week! Be sure to check out Kevin’s reviews of the latest singles from Tim McGraw and Reba, and, as always, let us know in the comments if we missed anything.

Sunday Selections: March 13, 2016

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tl;dr: This week is heavy on new singles and music videos for those who, y’know, don’t like to read.

But that isn’t to say there isn’t still plenty of good reading material, too. Loretta Lynn took over Reddit, Jean Shepard reflected on the anniversary of the plane crash that killed Patsy Cline, and the Georgia Satellites recognized the anniversary of their biggest hit. Jason Isbell issued notice to Steve Goodman’s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” while Gretchen Peters wrote a passionate editorial to The Tennesean on behalf of her son, and Holly Williams played Nashville tour guide.

On the new music front, there are offerings from Sturgill Simpson, Jason James, Michaela Anne, and many more. This week’s new releases are fairly slim– new albums by Randy Houser and Shooter Jennings along with a slew of reissued radio broadcasts from the late 1970s.

Onward!

Fired UpNew Releases & Reissues, 3/11/2016
Charlie Daniels Band, Saratoga Showdown: The New York Broadcast 1979. (FM Concert Broadcasts)
Jimmy Dean, Big Bad John – The Original LP – Plus All His Hit Singles 1953 – 1962. (Jasmine)
Mickey Gilley, The Definitive Hits Collection. (Real Gone Music)
Randy Houser, Fired Up. (Stoney Creek)
Shooter Jennings, Countach (For Giorgio). (Black Country Rock)
Waylon Jennings, Return Of The Outlaw: The Abbott, Texas Broadcast, 1977. (FM Concert Broadcasts)
Daniel Kushnir, Nothing Left to Give. (Permanent Vacation)
Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Lost 1978 Broadcast. (FM Concert Broadcasts)
Willie Nelson & Leon Russell, Riding The Northeast Trail: The New Jersey Broadcast, 1979. (FM Concert Broadcasts)
Pete Yorn, Arranging Time. (Capitol)

News & Notes

Jason Isbell– you may know him from music!– also released a new 180-minute, four-chord song via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: “The Saddest Song Ever.” It’s so much depressing nonsense. (JK)

“Edith at the gas station by the house was listening to @joeyandrory singing ‘If I Needed You.’ I like Edith at the gas station by the house.”
— Isbell again, being very good at Twitter, per usual. (JK)

“Somebody made the comment that it was the song that saved rock & roll and ruined country music at the same time. It meant, it brought rock & roll back to its roots for a few minutes, but it turned the corner on country being afraid of dumb loud guitars.”
— Dan Baird, frontman of the Georgia Satellites, talks about the reception and reputation of his band’s signature hit, “Keep Your Hands To Yourself,” on its 30th anniversary. (JK)

Jason James debuted the music video for his single, “I’ve Been Drinkin’ More,” a 90s throwback that sounds like it would have been a huge radio hit a generation ago. (JK)

“It was beginning to get dusky dark, and the most horrible feeling come over me that had ever come over me in my life. I just stood there a couple of minutes and kind of froze. I thought I was going into labor. … That’s about the time the plane crash happened.”
— Jean Shepard, reflecting on country music’s “darkest day” and the plane crash that killed Patsy Cline, Lloyd “Cowboy” Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Randy Hughes in a fascinating piece by Peter Cooper of The Tennessean. (JK)

“Today, more than twenty years into my career as a recording artist, I still play along with the TV, with movies, with stories. And one of my biggest dreams has always been that someday I would write my own TV theme song. A few of my songs have appeared in TV shows as background music, but the elusive theme song has always been just out of reach. I finally did it! I can’t believe it, but it is happening. How it happened is a long story, but it is true. It started when I got invited to be a celebrity guest on Say Yes to the Dress, a show about wedding dresses… something I truly know nothing about. It was fascinating.”
— Kristian Bush, in one of the week’s more unexpected stories, talks about how he came to write “Forever Yes,” the new theme song to TLC’s long-running series, Say Yes To The Dress. (JK)

Holly Williams wrote a 24-hour guide to Nashville, highlighting her favorite go-to locales, for Garden & Gun magazine. Also at Garden & Gun, Shakey Graves gave a killer “Back Porch Session” performance. (JK)

Sean Watkins premiered his new instrumental single, “Local Honey,” from his forthcoming album, What To Fear. (JK)

Country Universe favorite Laura Bell Bundy joined some celebrity pals, including Lily Tomlin and Alan Cumming, for comedienne Carol Channing’s 95th birthday celebration. (JK)

“As a First Lady, I can’t take that. I’m not the First Lady. Kitty Wells is the first. Well let’s say Miranda Lambert, she’s meaner than hell. I love her singing. She wouldn’t care if people listened or not. She’s an outlaw!”
— Loretta Lynn, providing a quick history lesson and endorsing Miranda Lambert, as part of an AMA (“ask me anything”) thread on Reddit earlier this week. The entire thread is worth a read— not always the case for Reddit– and Lynn does an impressive job in connecting with a new generation of fans using that platform! (JK)

Last week, we included the music video for Margo Price’s “Hurtin’ (On The Bottle),” and this week, we have Price’s performance of her feisty single in her Grand Ole Opry debut. (JK)

Luke Bryan CabelasLuke Bryan announced that his new single, “Huntin’, Fishin,’ Lovin’ Every Day,” will debut at sporting and outdoor goods superstore Cabelas. (JK)

“Robert Hunter really filled that big space already. We did a lot. We’ve done almost a hundred songs and I hope we keep going. I got to write a couple with Elvis Costello and that was really great too. One guy that I wished I could have written with was Doc Pomus. I lived in New York for a while and he lived in my building. Doc wrote things like ‘Viva Las Vegas’ and ‘Little Sister’ and ‘Save the Last Dance for Me.’ I just love the stuff he wrote and I never got to write with him.”
— Jim Lauderdale talks about the artists he wishes he could write with, in a terrific interview with Sam Buck at Milk Crater. (JK)

Stereogum premiered “Luisa,” the fantastic new single from Michaela Anne. The single features Rodney Crowell on harmony vocals, in addition to an awesome honky-tonk guitar. (JK)

KET, the local PBS affiliate for Central Kentucky, recently aired an episode of its series Kentucky Life that featured country artist Marty Brown. Brown’s wife, Shellie, talks about how she signed him up for America’s Got Talent, which led to the recent resurgence in interest in his music. (JK)

Singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters penned a thoughtful and heartfelt editorial for The Tennesean regarding Tennessee’s current bill that would prohibit transgender youth from using the public bathroom for their expressed gender. (JK)

“I think we are closer then ever. Everyone is feeling good and singing good and that is important… We love this group, we love to sing and none of us want to see the legacy end. We are popular still because we are an act that has been passed down. Kids love the Oaks because Daddy and Granddaddy loved the Oaks!”
— Joe Bonsall spoke with Adrian Peel of Digital Journal regarding the Oak Ridge Boys’ longevity, plans for releasing new music in 2016, and ongoing popularity as a touring act. (JK)

Kristian Bush isn’t the only artist releasing wedding-themed music this week. Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband premiered the music video for their new single, “Just Say Yes.” (JK)

Albumism compiled a career-spanning playlist of some of Neko Case’s very best tracks. For anyone not familiar with Case’s astonishing catalogue, it’s a great starting point. (JK)

Sturgill Simpson’s new single, “Brace For Impact (Live A Little),” may not be straightforwardly country-sounding, but its music video could not be cooler. (JK)

That’s it for this week! As always, let us know in the comments if there are things we missed!

A Country Music Conversation, Day 8: “For the Good Times” to “He Stopped Loving Her Today”

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A Country Music Conversation: Introduction and Index

A Country Music Conversation: Spotify Playlist (thanks to reader Justin Lai)

Previous Entry: Day 7: “Even the Man in the Moon is Crying” to “Follow Your Arrow”

Day 8 features tracks from Ray Price, Laura Bell Bundy, Jeannie C. Riley, Nickel Creek, and George Jones.

ray-price-for-the-good-times

“For the Good Times”
Ray Price

Written by Kris Kristofferson

Ray Price was one of the few male artists in country music history to suffer a backlash from traditionalists when he went for a smoother pop sound, but with that voice, who could stay mad for long? He gives a mature reading of “For the Good Times” that wouldn’t have had the same gravitas coming from a younger artist.

Other Favorites: “‘Crazy Arms,” “Heartaches by the Number,” “I Won’t Mention it Again”

laura-bell-bundy-achin-and-shakin

“Giddy On Up”
Laura Bell Bundy

Written by Laura Bell Bundy, Jeff Cohen, and Mike Shimshack

How I wish Laura Bell Bundy had broken through. Her Achin’ and Shakin’ album was relentless entertaining, and “Giddy On Up” epitomizes the fearlessness of the production and her remarkably charming delivery.  I love the bridge, where she becomes her own Pip, answering her own questions with some “Mmm Hmms” and “Nuh uhs.”

Other Favorites: “China and Wine,” “Another Piece of Me,” “Cigarette”

jeannie-c-riley-harper-valley-pta-lp

“Harper Valley P.T.A.”
Jeannie C. Riley

Written by Tom T. Hall

Sure, it’s Riley’s biggest hit, and it’s a classic. But the strength of the storyline and her lesser success at radio after it obscure the fact that it’s not just a great record because of Tom T. Hall’s way with words. Her sassy delivery packs a punch that nobody else who’s recorded it has matched – and almost every female artist of her day recorded it, too. Check out her later singles and pretty much all of her Plantation albums. There is a lot of great music to discover.

Other Favorites: “The Rib,” “The Backside of Dallas,” “Run Jeannie Run”

Nickel Creek A Dotted Line

“Hayloft”
Nickel Creek

Written by Ryan Guildemond

This record is hilarious to listen to, and showcases how innovative Nickel Creek are and how well they complement each other. This has the off-beat weirdness associated with Chris Thile’s work outside of the group, but the singing and musicianship of the Watkins siblings add depth and dimension to the proceedings. They remain his finest fellow travelers.

Other Favorites: “Helena,” “You Don’t Know What’s Going On,” “Somebody More Like You”

george-jones-i-am-what-i-am

“He Stopped Loving Her Today”
George Jones

Written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman

It’s often called the greatest country song of all time. He’s often called the greatest country singer of all time. One could quibble with either of those claims, but nobody could seriously argue that the record and the singer are in serious contention for the very best that country music has ever seen. My mind tells me my favorite George Jones song is “A Good Year for the Roses,” but my play count agrees with the historians.

Other Favorites: “A Good Year For the Roses,” “The Grand Tour,” “Golden Ring” (with Tammy Wynette)

Up Next: Day 9: “Hurt” to “I Fall to Pieces”

The Best Albums of the Decade, Part Three: #50-#26

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The Best of the Decade, 2010-2019

Albums

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

Singles

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

Our Best Albums of the Decade list continues with #50-#26.

#50

Reba McEntire

Love Somebody

Reba McEntire has made music with one eye on the radio for her entire career, but the sense that she was getting ready to leave mainstream accommodation behind surfaced with Love Somebody, the most underrated of her studio albums this decade.  To be fair, the best tracks on Love Somebody would’ve been quite radio friendly two decades earlier.  Still, it’s a thrill to have McEntire return to a sound that recalled her best nineties work.  “Just Like Them Horses” deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Greatest Man I Never Knew,” and “More Than Just Her Last Name” and “She Got Drunk Last Night” are a reminder of what McEntire does best: making overlooked and underappreciated women feel seen by singing their stories.  – Kevin John Coyne

 

#49

Hank Williams III

Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town

He started the decade by building on his legacy in country music with equal parts ferocious creativity and contempt for a Music Row system that had wronged him, and he ended the decade as something of a recluse, emerging sporadically on social media to spout paranoid conspiracy-theorist horseshit. Ghost to a Ghost / Gutter Town was about Hank Williams III’s wrestling with his complicated and troubled public persona in ways that suggested he was fully in control of what he was doing. That he clearly lost that control at some point in the years since is nothing short of tragic. – Jonathan Keefe

 

#48

Nickel Creek

A Dotted Line

After a 7 year break from being Nickel Creek, Sara Watkins, Sean Watkins and Chris Thile reunited for a new album and toured to support it. A Dotted Line was a heck of a way to come back and their first single and opening song, “Destination,”, was a breath of fresh air to come back with! A Dotted Line has all of the beloved elements of Nickel Creek, including their excellent musicianship and harmonies, but it also displays a maturity that allowed them to sound innovative and fresh. Additionally, it showed the growth of the trio as individuals who spent years finding themselves, allowing them to work happily again in an uninhibited way. “Hayloft”, anybody? – Leeann Ward

#47

The Whiskey Gentry

Dead Ringer

This Georgia band’s swan song plays like a working band’s autobiography. The glamour is gone, the band got too drunk in Paris to play, and the lead singer is constantly compared to more famous singers – but it beats working for a living. The things that made the band a treasure are in full force: a sense of humor, hard rock and bluegrass sounds blending together seamlessly, and the gorgeous vocals of Lauren Morrow. The rowdy drinking songs and the road songs are tremendously fun, but Morrow’s vocals truly shine on the sparse, gorgeous “If You Were an Astronaut.” – Sam Gazdziak

#46

Turnpike Troubadours

A Long Way From Your Heart

A generation ago, Turnpike Troubadours would have been the biggest band in country music. The songs on A Long Way From Your Heart are, to a one, marvels of construction, balancing impossibly clever wordplays with hardscrabble narratives that are fully believable. The band brings just enough road dust to their recordings to seem edgy, but their mastery of genre conventions also appeals to purists. They’ve never released a bad record, but A Long Way From Your Heart is the band at its most polished and sure-footed. – Jonathan Keefe

 

#45

Brandi Carlile

Bear Creek

Bear Creek was Brandi Carlile’s fourth studio album, proving that she was not going to rest on her laurels after her first three critically acclaimed albums. Bear Creek is an album that is bolstered by Brandi Carlile’s powerhouse voice and songs  that feel meaningful even when they’re presented with accessible and fun melodies. Songs like “Hard Way Home,” “Keep Your Heart Young,” and “Heart’s Content” are singable earworms, but they’re far from being frivolous throwaways. The same  can be said of all of the songs on Bear Creek, as there is not a clunker among them. – Leeann Ward

 

#44

Brandy Clark

Big Day in a Small Town

The sophomore set usually doesn’t get as much love as the debut album, as a new artist tries to replicate what worked best on their first collection while also attempting to forge new ground.  Brandy Clark’s Big Day in a Small Town is an album with a loose concept tying the songs together, and she captures small town life quite well with her tales of the rebellious (“Girl Next Door”), the heartbroken (“Love Can Go to Hell”),  the overlooked (“Three Kids No Husband”), and the grief-stricken (“Since You’ve Gone to Heaven.”)  – Kevin John Coyne

#43

Kacey Musgraves

Pageant Material

Musgraves shelved most of her sarcasm and sass for sincerity in 2018’s Golden Hour, and it worked out great, musically and commercially. A talented songwriter like her shouldn’t have to be tied to a certain style of song. Pageant Material is just as strong an album, though, with Musgraves at her sassiest while tweaking the establishment with the title track or “Good Ol’ Boys Club.” Her Southern-fried life advice in “Biscuits” is good for a smile, but there’s a lot of truth underneath the snark. And if it’s sincerity you want, check out the lovely, waltzing “Fine.” Musgraves’ evolving artistry is exciting, but you could be forgiven for wishing that she return to the banjo and steel guitar now and again. – Sam Gazdziak

#42

Ray Wylie Hubbard

The Grifter’s Hymnal

A trip through Hubbard’s 2012 album includes a stop in hell where crooked record executives and Fox News personalities co-mingle. There’s the autobiographical tale of a stripper girlfriend and a Les Paul guitar. There’s the familiar tale of the Lazarus story, only it’s been turned inside out into something sinister. There’s a possibly unhealthy obsession with musical instruments and audio gear. Inexplicably, there’s a duet with Ringo Starr. It’s gritty and twisted and dark blues-rock, enough to make you worry for Hubbard’s health and/or sanity. But he’s doing just fine, as he notes on “Mother Blues”: “The days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days.” – Sam Gazdziak

#41

Loretta Lynn

Wouldn’t it Be Great

Not enough can be said for how wonderfully Loretta Lynn’s voice has held up at age 85, which is the age that she was when this album was recorded! In fact, six of the songs on Wouldn’t It Be Great are covers
of songs that she had recorded before when she was much younger. These covers, especially the title song, are even stronger this time around, with even more depth than the originals. Furthermore, the new songs, mostly co-written by Lynn and Shawn Camp, are excellent additions to her songwriting legacy. In particular, “Ruby’s Stool” is as sassy and endearing as Lynn has ever been. – Leeann Ward

#40

Alan Jackson

Angels and Alcohol

Not enough people are talking about how it’s been almost five years since Alan Jackson has released a studio album. Without an announcement of a new release on the horizon, it’s a good thing that we
have 2015’s Angels and Alcohol. It’s among his best albums, and listening to it feels like coming home.  Although he’s taken some genre detours throughout his career, Jackson’s music is known for being reliably country, which says a lot considering he has taken some genre detours in his career. Angels and Alcohol is one of those reliably country albums, and it’s also reliably fun, observational, and moving. – Leeann Ward

#39

Carrie Underwood

Blown Away

Carrie Underwood’s strongest album to date was built around its powerful title track, which challenged Underwood to both write and seek out strong material that could measure up to it.  Standouts like the hit singles “Good Girl” and “See You Again” were bombastic in all the best ways, but many of the album’s other high points found Underwood wistful and reflective on nostalgic numbers like “Do You Think About Me” and “Good in Goodbye.” – Kevin John Coyne

#38

Lee Ann Womack

The Way I’m Livin’

After almost 7 years between albums, Lee Ann Womack came back with a welcome new energy with The Way I’m Livin’. With more of an Americana sound than her typical previous pop country leaning, the
album was a refreshing change for her. Her voice sounds more energized than ever,  she put together a collection of songs by first- rate songwriters that are introspective and cathartic, and the production
is uncluttered and engaging. – Leeann Ward

#37

Our Native Daughters

Songs of Our Native Daughters

An album that feels important without also feeling the least bit pretentious, Songs of Our Native Daughters is about the power derived from proclaiming one’s identity. Drawing equally from country, blues, and traditional folk, Our Native Daughters insist upon the importance of African-American voices in each of those genres. Songs like “Black Myself” and the inspiring “Polly Ann’s Hammer” command entry into spaces that gatekeepers still try to cordon off from anyone who doesn’t fit an exceedingly narrow description. – Jonathan Keefe

 

#36

Ashley McBryde

Girl Going Nowhere

It’s about time that the women who grew listening to the nineties ladies of country started making their own records.  Ashley McBryde is a little bit of Pam Tillis mixed in with a little more of Terri Clark, and you can draw a direct line from Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “This Shirt” to McBryde’s own “The Jacket.”  The title track is already an underground classic, and her wry wit adds a rueful layer to heartbreak numbers like “Tired of Being Happy.”  If Country Universe is still around ten years from now, it won’t be surprising to see McBryde all over our next Best of the Decade list. – Kevin John Coyne

 

#35

John Prine

The Tree of Forgiveness

Prine’s been doing this singer/songwriter thing for about 50 years. While his voice is a little worse for wear (a bout or two of throat cancer will do that), his songs are as quick-witted, as sweet and occasionally as goofy as they’ve ever been. “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door” and “Lonesome Friends of Science” are just a couple of the songs that stand up well against the best tracks of the Prine song catalog. Then there’s the closer, “When I Get to Heaven.” How many septuagenarians can sing about their demise and do it in such a cheerful way – with kazoos, no less? Probably just the inimitable John Prine. – Sam Gazdziak

 

#34

Wynonna & the Big Noise

Wynonna & the Big Noise

Wynonna is one of the all-time great singers, able to be soulful and unrestrained without ever hitting a bum note.  Her collaboration with the Big Noise knows that her voice is the lead instrument and everyone and everything else is there to support her without getting in the way.  “Things That I Lean On” and “Jesus and a Jukebox” are among the finest things she’s ever recorded.  If you loved the Judds but found Wynonna’s solo work far more compelling, this will quickly become your favorite album from a career that spans four decades. – Kevin John Coyne

 

#33

The Avett Brothers

Closer Than Together

The Avetts have never really strayed into current events or politics in their songs before this 2019 release. While they may have annoyed the “stick to music” crowd, the fact is their earnestness and conversational songwriting approach translate very well into topical songs. “We Americans” is an honest look at what it is to be American in the 21st Century – wanting to look forward but aware of the atrocities that have been committed on our soil in the past. “New Woman’s World” cedes the world over to womankind, since mankind screwed it up. It’s not a heavy album, as evidenced by the lighter “High Steppin’” and folksy wisdom of “Tell the Truth.” But wokeness suits the Avetts very well. – Sam Gazdziak

#32

Eric Church

Mr. Misunderstood

Eric Church has a tendency to overplay his “outlaw” hand: He’s been far too successful across every meaningful metric—radio success, industry awards, critical acclaim, and massive fan support— to play the underdog to the extent that he does. But the sheer quality of Church’s output makes it fairly easy to forgive the strident posturing. Songs as unconventional as “Chattanooga Lucy” and “Knives of New Orleans” require knowledge of the conventions you’re defying, and it takes real skill not to lose control of a concept-driven song like “Kill a Word” or “Record Year.” – Jonathan Keefe

 

#31

Laura Bell Bundy

Achin’ and Shakin’

A Broadway star making a concept country album that is one part Achin’, one part Shakin’ sounds like a disaster on paper.  Instead, it was the most interesting and casually fearless project that any major label took a chance on this decade.  Listening to it ten years later, I’m stunned by just how country it is.  For all the chances it takes thematically and sonically, Achin’ and Shakin’ takes country with it as it explores uncharted territory.  The relentlessly funny “Giddy On Up” is as effective as the torch ballad “Drop On By,” demonstrating the breadth of Bundy’s talent.  A lot of women released albums that took influence from Shania Twain’s landmark The Woman in Me and Come On Over albums, but Bundy is one of the few who learned all of the right lessons. – Kevin John Coyne

#30

Hayes Carll

KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories) 

Like fellow troubadour Todd Snider (who shows up on “Bottle in My Hand” with Corb Lund), Carll’s character studies focus more on the burnouts and misfits, where truly interesting stories lie. The surreal journey of the soldier in the title track (which stands for “Kiss My Ass Guys You’re on Your Own”) or the weird George & Kellyanne Conway-esque hookup in “Another Like You” are larger than life. Carll also finds the beauty of simple, everyday sentiments in “Grateful for Christmas” and “Grand Parade.” – Sam Gazdziak

#29

Sara Watkins

Young in All the Wrong Ways

Sun Midnight Sun announced a shift in Sara Watkins’ musical direction, which gave us an opportunity to delight in and take notice of her newfound creativity and strength as an artist. Young in All the Wrong Ways solidified Watkins’ gravitas and signified that she is a fully realized artist with things to say and emotions to lay bare. For the first time, she wrote or co-wrote the entire album, which gives it an impressive emotional and artistic heft. As heard in the outstanding  and no-holes-barred “Move Me,” and frankly all of the other songs on the album, Watkins makes it absolutely clear that she is no longer willing to be complacent in her own life and artistry. – Leeann Ward

#28

Lori McKenna

Lorraine

Lori McKenna is among this century’s songwriting greats, and Lorraine is the finest showcase of her talent to date.   Not since Madonna has a singer-songwriter so deftly woven the premature death of her mother into her work, with the title track celebrating her mother’s brief life and the heart-wrenching “Still Down Here” expressing lasting grief in the way that only someone who had lost someone too important when they were way too young can do.  The dark contours of a long marriage are challenged (“The Luxury of Knowing,” “If He Tried”) and celebrated (“You Get a Love Song,” “All I Ever Do.”)  Her keen eye for detail is showcased on “The Most,” where she notes that “my life is pieces of paper that I’ll get back to later.  I’ll write you a story of how I ended up here.”  What a compelling story it is, from a master storyteller.  – Kevin John Coyne

#27

Aubrie Sellers

New City Blues

Sellers has defined her sound as “garage country,” and it fits. Loud, distorted guitars and powerful drums are the background for the country-pure vocals of Sellers, who sounds a bit like her mother, Lee Ann Womack. Sellers, while not a powerhouse vocalist, nevertheless rises to the top of the cacophony, making New City Blues one of the most intriguing country/Americana debuts of the last decade. “Light of Day” and “Liar Liar” are excellent, radio-friendly country songs, but the raucous arrangements puts Sellers more into the sonic territory of Lucinda Williams at her rawest. It’s a thrilling combination. – Sam Gazdziak

 

#26

Alison Krauss

Windy City

It takes a lot to get me on board for a covers album.  It’s got to have a concept that gives it purpose, putting familiar songs in a new context, and the singer delivering them has to be good enough to tackle established material in the first place.  Windy City is a blueprint on how to do it.  Alison Krauss is a brilliant interpretive singer, and the aching melancholy that she brings to standards like “I’m Losing You” and “You Don’t Know Me” bring layers of sadness to the surface, giving familiar songs a powerful new potency.  Her take on “River in the Rain” is enough to make you envy the feeling of watching your worldly possessions be carried away in a flood, just for a fleeting moment. – Kevin John Coyne

The Best of the Decade, 2010-2019

Albums

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

Singles

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1


The Best Singles of the Decade, Part Four: #25-#1

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The Best of the Decade, 2010-2019

Albums

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

Singles

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

Our Best of the Decade feature comes to a close with a look at the very best singles from the past ten years.

 

#25

“Blown Away”

Carrie Underwood

One of those glorious moments when the unbridled power of a Carrie Underwood vocal is matched up with a lyrical story that warrants a full blown hurricane of a performance. Nobody else could’ve sung this one so convincingly. A definitive moment for country music’s biggest female star of the century. – Kevin John Coyne

 

#24

“Cost of Livin'”

Ronnie Dunn

Only the line about gas prices hasn’t aged well— when writing a song, it’s always poor form to forget about market fluctuations— on Ronnie Dunn’s modern working-class lament. What’s exceptional about the song is its attention to detail as a character sketch. “What I don’t know, I catch on real quick,” is such a revealing line about the narrator of this song, in terms of who he is as a fully-realized and believable person and of the desperate circumstances that would lead him to make such a statement to a stranger in a job interview. Dunn’s most often known a fiery vocalist, but his performance on “Cost of Livin’” is a marvel of introspection and empathy. It’s perhaps the quietest vocal turn of his career, and certainly one of his finest. – Jonathan Keefe

 

 

#23

“The Sound of a Million Dreams”

David Nail

In this beautiful piano ballad, Nail sings earnestly of music’s ability to conjure memories, whether it’s of an old flame or a selfless mother. But he quickly pivots in the chorus to his firm faith in his own craft – his dreams of being a vessel for a song that will one day etch someone else’s life. It’s a lofty sentiment, to be sure, but does it ever work when paired with the study, powerful melody. – Tara Seetharam

 

#22

“People Get Old”

Lori McKenna

Lori McKenna has penned a few gorgeous tributes to her late mother, who passed when she was a young child. “People Get Old” celebrates the father who is still with her, and it is every bit the equal of her best maternal celebrations. As always, McKenna weaves wisdom out of the most ordinary of details, crafting a narrative that is universal in its truth despite being so specific in its content that it can only be her own story. She’s just so damn good at this. – KJC

 

#21

“If I Loved You”

Delta Rae

If there was ever a sound that matched the feeling of desperation, it’s in the infectious chorus of “If I Loved You.” There’s no grey area here: the narrator intends to break the heart of a man she doesn’t love . But her plea for understanding bleeds with anguish and regret and wistfulness such that, as Jonathan wrote many years ago, it makes the old adage “It’s not you, it’s me” a surprisingly believable one. – TS

 

#20

“Just Like Them Horses”

Reba McEntire

Reba McEntire is one of the greatest vocal stylists in country music history, and when she’s paired with material worthy of her skills, you’ll get a classic country record every damn time. She sings the fire out of this heartbreaking deathbed conversation, but the most powerful moment is right before the final chorus, when she lets out a choked breath that has more emotion in it than most singers can wring out of an actual note. Her best recording of the 21st century…so far. – KJC

 

#19

“Birmingham”

Shovel and Rope

“Birmingham” is the energetic, scrappy story of a talented husband and wife joining together in music as they did in matrimony.  A crisp and vibrant sonic delight.– Leeann Ward

 

 

#18

“Rainbow”

Kacey Musgraves

In “Rainbow,” Musgraves gently nudges a friend to the other side of a seemingly endless storm. There’s a timeless, Beatles-esque quality to the arrangement and a sense of serenity to Musgraves’ plainspoken wisdom. It’s no wonder that “Rainbow” found a new audience over the past devastating months: Every detail of Musgraves’ performance –down to the soothing “It’ll all be alright”– feels rooted in an understanding that darkness is always followed by light. – TS

 

#17

“Bottle By My Bed”

Sunny Sweeney

“Bottle By My Bed” plays against the expectations of its title, as Sweeney isn’t singing about booze, but rather her longing for a baby bottle beside her bed.  Her friends think she’s got it made with her glamorous career, but she feels a deep sadness about the “empty room at the top of the stairs.”  Sweeney’s vulnerability about her infertility struggles make for a heartbreaking country song. – LW

 

#16

“Love Done Gone”

Billy Currington

Anyone reading our slough through Sirius XM’s ranking of the 1000 Greatest Songs in Country Music knows that I’ve run out of ways to express my disdain for Currington’s lazily tossed-off half-singing of middling material. But for four glorious minutes, Billy Currington got it all perfect. Rather than lazy and disinterested, his phrasing on “Love Done Gone” scans as affable and fully in-service to a song that views an amicable break-up as a rarity worth celebrating. And it’s just pure joy: The singalong “ba-da-ba” exclamations, the jaunty brass section, a melody that outright soars in the chorus, the winking use of the holler helping verb. Every bit of it works, and it works at least in part because of, not in spite of, Currington himself. “Love Done Gone” is far from his biggest hit, but it’s handily the finest single of Billy Currington’s career. – JK

 

#15

“Mama’s Broken Heart”

Miranda Lambert

From her exasperated sigh in the opening seconds, Lambert is a defiant force throughout “Mama’s Broken Heart,” barreling unapologetically through society’s suffocating expectations of her. The arrangement adds an uneasy dimension to Lambert’s rage, like a carnival ride that’s gone off-kilter and won’t let you off. It all amounts to a delicious backdrop for the song’s central message, a warning about the unrealistic limits we put on female expression. – TS

 

#14

“It Feels Good”

Drake White

An antidote to the bro-country that was still dominating radio playlists at the time of its release, Drake White’s “It Feels Good” gets by on very little. The songwriting is economical, with just a handful of repeated phrases in its chorus and just enough to the verses to capture a distinct sense of place, while the production doesn’t involve much more than some handclaps and a wailing harmonica. That minimalism keeps the focus on White himself, and he puts on a commanding show, working himself up into a tent revival frenzy. When he shouts, “Does it make you shake it, honey? Does it make you move your feet?” the questions are anything but rhetorical. – JK

 

#13

“As She’s Walking Away”

Zac Brown Band featuring Alan Jackson

The purest country duet in ages, “As She’s Walking Away” hinges on how both Zac Brown Band and Alan Jackson embrace their artistic personas in service of the song’s characters. Brown plays the part of the upstart still trying to find his voice, while Jackson serves as the encouraging and empathetic voice of reason. While Jackson could still play that role convincingly a decade on, what a shame it is that Brown has squandered every bit of the goodwill he accrued on standout singles like this with a series of misguided side projects and unconvincing cross-genre dalliances and pissy, petulant defenses of an artistic vision he’s very sure his “haters” just aren’t cultured enough to get. Because when Brown puts his trust in his ace band and drops the bullshit attitude, he’s capable of writing and performing songs that will deservedly become standards. “As She’s Walking Away” boasts a lovely melody, crisp and resoundingly country production, and a timeless narrative. It’s one of the singles country radio really got right in the last decade. – JK

 

#12

“Giddy On Up”

Laura Bell Bundy

There’s an alternate timeline in which Laura Bell Bundy turned into the biggest star in country music. That we aren’t living in that timeline is country music’s single biggest mistake of the past decade. Bundy can sing, dance, perform, and, above all else, write. Not since Dolly Parton at her peak has a songwriter demonstrated such consistent wit or such a singular point-of-view; there’s literally no other artist who could have come up with “Giddy On Up.” The wordplay in the hook (“Giddy on up / Giddy on out”) is immediate and memorable, but even more impressive is Bundy’s command of the natural meter of language. Every syllable of the first verse hits in perfect rhythm, even when she doubles the pace (“A tall drink of water and a pretty little thing / Were kissing on the corner in the pouring rain”), and that simply does not happen by accident. As a seasoned Broadway performer, Bundy completely sells it, vamping and growling her way through the decade’s best kiss-off record. The production highlights country instruments—listen closely, and there’s even a jaw harp— while incorporating elements of hip-hop and top 40 pop in ways that create a vision of “pop-country” that, nearly a decade on, still sounds evolved far ahead-of-its time. Ultimately, “Giddy On Up” may have been too much of what it is to make for a successful lead single for Bundy. While so many spent the decade on a misguided search for authenticity in country music, Laura Bell Bundy approached the very concept of genre itself as a drag revue and created something infinitely more compelling.- JK

 

#11

“Little White Church”

Little Big Town

Little Big Town puts a rousing, modern spin on the call-and-response pattern in “Little White Church,” a barn-stomper about pushing a sluggish man to the altar.  With its hand claps, fresh harmonies and guitar work that essentially acts as a fifth member of the band, “Little White Church” is one of the most memorable singles of Little Big Town’s career. – TS

 

#10

“Nice Things”

Mickey Guyton

At its best, country songwriting boasts an interpretive depth that is truly literary. From the Biblical allusions of “Coat of Many Colors” and the striking, poetic imagery of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” to the William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams references in “Maybe It Was Memphis” and cultural specificity of “Kill a Word,” country music can and should reward careful analysis. “Nice Things” absolutely belongs in the company of those songs; but for country radio’s ongoing biases against women and non-white performers, it’s the single that should have cemented Mickey Guyton’s status as a genre A-lister. The song builds its central metaphors around a line from poet Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Sympathy,” later used as inspiration by Maya Angelou for the title of her autobiography as a commentary on matters of abuse and racism, and it’s to Guyton’s credit that it’s in no way forced or pedantic. Instead, “Nice Things” finds its narrator gradually growing in confidence as she reflects upon a relationship that had broken her, and Guyton’s understated and beautiful performance is a reminder of how lucky the country genre is to count her among its fold.- JK

 

#9

“Dime Store Cowgirl”

Kacey Musgraves

Specific, yet inclusive; personal, yet universal, Musgraves’ “Dime Store Cowgirl” is a musical self-portrait in which just about any listener can see a little bit of himself or herself – beautifully finished off with a banjo and steel-driven arrangement and a melody that begs you to sing along. Still one of Musgraves’ finest moments. – Ben Foster

 

#8

“So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore”

Alan Jackson

This is the most selfless of goodbyes, with Alan Jackson shouldering all of the anger and blame as he’s walking away for good.  That alone would make it a distinctive record.  But it’s that late pivot, where he envisions the inevitable drunk dial and vows to “let it ring and ring,” that gives “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore” its greatest potency, as he makes clear that she can have everything but his dignity.  – KJC

 

#7

“Sober”

Little Big Town

Like many of their contemporaries, Little Big Town have overplayed their hand when it comes to singles about drinking, but “Sober,” written by the collective of women songwriters known as The Love Junkies, takes a completely different approach than “Pontoon” or “Day Drinking.” Instead, “Sober” is the finest example— out of far, far too many— of a song that uses intoxication as a metaphor for a fulfilling relationship, and what elevates the song is that its tone is celebratory. When Kimberley Schlapman exclaims, “I love being in love,” at the start of each chorus, backed by the lush harmony vocals of her bandmates, it’s pitched as if she’s testifying in church. “Sober,” in addition to boasting a gorgeous melody and light-handed production that keeps the focus on the song itself and Schlapman’s outsized performance, is a record about joy that actually sounds joyful. – JK

 

#6

“Follow Your Arrow”

Kacey Musgraves

In a genre that often leans socially conservative, Kacey Musgraves made a positive splash with this groundbreaking record embracing the simple idea of loving who you love.  Its cheeky nature kept it from feeling preachy and overbearing, and her encouragement of trusting your own moral compass was validating to both sides without perching itself on the fence. – LW

 

#5

“24 Frames”

Jason Isbell

It’s not unfair to reduce the meticulously crafted “24 Frames” to the gut punch of its best lyric: “You thought God was an architect / Now you know / He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow.” Isbell explores life’s fragility with equal acidity throughout the song, conceding that with every moment –with every 24th frame– comes the possibility of a higher power flipping you around, disorienting you, distorting your vision and all that you’ve constructed. It’s a cinematic, astute reflection of the complicated battles each of us faces just by living, and it surely established Isbell as one of this generation’s finest songwriters. – TS

 

#4

“Vice”

Miranda Lambert

She’s never hewed anywhere close to the genre’s historic expectations that its women should either be victims or, barring that, at least be polite, but Miranda Lambert has never been as unapologetic in her rejection of those social mores as she is on “Vice.” What makes Lambert such an important artist is that, from Kerosene onward, she’s demonstrated that she’s fully aware of the consequences of the actions that inform many of her most famous songs and that she makes every one of those decisions as a woman with her own agency. The narrator she gives voice in “Vice” owns every one of her choices, and she relays those choices with some of the most sharply-drawn lines in Lambert’s extraordinary catalogue. “Steady as a needle dropping on a vinyl / Neon singer with a jukebox title full of heartbreak / 33, 45, 78 / When it hurts this good, you gotta play it twice,” is simply the best opening line of the past decade, and the remainder of “Vice” builds on it with precision and purpose. It’s telling that Lambert’s biggest hits over the last decade were her most conventional, and it’s really no surprise at all that a single as confrontational as “Vice” stalled outside the top 10. And, while it may not be the hit— keep reading!— that becomes her legacy single, “Vice” managed to take the woman who was already the most vital country act of her generation to an entirely new plane in her artistry. – JK

 

#3

“If We Were Vampires”

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

“If We Were Vampires” explores the idea that two people in love can’t be together forever, and it is the knowledge of our inevitable mortality that must make us love deeper and with greater intention.  “Maybe we’ll get forty years together. But one day I’ll be gone, or one day you’ll be gone.”   It’s not the flowery words you’d find in a greeting card, yet its sentiment is sweet and true, even though they pack a gut punch. – LW

 

#2

“The House That Built Me”

Miranda Lambert

A simple, relatable story told through a heartfelt vocal performance with an arrangement that stays out of the way. Just being what a country single should be was enough to make Lambert’s “House” a standout in 2010, but it shines even without comparing it to the drivel that surrounded it on country radio. The vivid first-person details in the lyrics quickly pull the listener into the story, while Lambert’s performance is a mixture of longing, regret and hope. There could hardly have been a more worthy record to finally launch Lambert into superstardom. – BF

 

#1

“The Blade”

Ashley Monroe

A breakup ballad this crisp and dignified and yet wholly cathartic is hard to come by in country music or otherwise. Monroe’s performance in “The Blade” is exquisitely measured; she reels from every gash in her heart, but she also sees her situation clearly for what it is: a casualty of the greatest risk one can take in life, which is to love unconditionally. “You caught it by the handle,” she gently explains to her ex, “And I caught it by the blade.” As excruciating as her pain is, her maturity has led her to acceptance.

That juxtaposition –Monroe’s composure and grace against the weight of the crushing central metaphor– is simply remarkable. One can only hope that material like “The Blade” will continue to put Monroe and her timeless voice in the company of country music’s best and most evocative storytellers well into the new decade.  – TS

The Best of the Decade, 2010-2019

Albums

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

Singles

#100-#76 | #75-#51 | #50-#26 | #25-#1

 

Single Review Roundup: Vol. 2, No. 1 – January 2023

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Our first roundup of the year features releases from genre icons Shania Twain and Dolly Parton, as well as the long-awaited return of Iris Dement.

For the first time, we’ve included a Spotify playlist so you can listen to all six songs featured in the roundup.  It’s embedded at the end of the post, and can also be directly accessed here.

“Giddy Up!”

Shania Twain

Written by Jessica Agombar, Sam Romans, David Stewart, and Shania Twain

KJC: I love that Shania Twain has fully rediscovered her joy.  Her infectious personality was always a key element in making her records work.  “Giddy Up!” shows she still knows how to write hook-laden country pop.

But much like all of her recent work, the production is a disaster on “Giddy Up!”  I don’t know why she keeps using so much processing on her vocals.  She doesn’t even sound like a human being, let alone anything like Shania Twain.  I’ll always root for her, but this aint’ it. What a mess.  D  

JK: Twelve years ago this week, Laura Bell Bundy released her debut single, “Giddy On Up.” Demonstrating that Bundy had learned all of the right lessons from Shania Twain and a slew of other women, that single was light years ahead of its time. More than a decade on, Twain does herself not one single favor by inviting the comparison; it turns out Bundy’s single is still ahead of the present day. Hell, this doesn’t even hold up in a perhaps more on-point comparison to a lesser Bundy single, “Two Step” with Colt Ford. Twain’s never shied away from a juvenile rhyme, but hearing her sing the phrase, “Litty in the cup,” sets my teeth on edge. Giddy on up and GTFO with this. F

ZK: I love Shania Twain’s music. My very earliest memories of my love for the genre stem from it. I prefer to just pretend she stopped making music after her (most well-known) greatest hits collection. 

And, aside from what I perceive as an homage to the the far superior “Up!” through the phrasing of the hook, this is emblematic of everything that’s disappointed me about her recent work. Kevin already noted the vocal processing, which, yes, is atrocious. But aside from just stripping her of her usually fantastic technical abilities, it robs her of her charisma. This is stiff and awkward in a way that contradicts the sentiment, not that it’s a winner anyway; the country-dance hit of the summer, this is not. F

 

“What are We Doing in Love?”

Dean Miller

JK: Perhaps it’s good timing that Dean Miller dropped his latest single in the midst of the ongoing “Nepo Baby” discourse. Like a very long list of brilliant country artists, he’s a second generation performer whose gifts stand on their own merit. Unlike Rosanne Cash or Pam Tillis, though, Miller hasn’t enjoyed the commercial success those talents deserve. “What Are We Doing In Love” is unlikely to change that– it sounds like a smash hit of a bygone era and not like every other Morgan Wallen knockoff at country radio– but it’s a charming record that puts some clever twists on the “opposites attract” trope and that Miller sells with an ingratiating vocal. Nepo Baby or not, this is a terrific single that is kicking 2023 off on a high note. A-

ZK: This reminds me of a pleasant radio hit I would have heard growing up, able to cling to either the ’90s or 2000s in both sound and overall charm. No, Dean Miller isn’t looking to directly channel his father, and one has to respect that. But he still imbues this with the same natural warmth and overall likability that’s hard to deny. 

All that said, this scans as more pleasantly solid than groundbreaking or an early year-end contender, but a song about how opposites attract still just has that magnetic charm. B

KJC:  To build on Jonathan’s nepo baby commentary, I want to observe another thing that Rosanne Cash, Pam Tillis, and Dean Miller have in common: a willingness to make their own kinds of country music that are clearly distinct from that of their famous fathers.

“What are We Doing in Love” is a fresh, clean, and engaging record that sounds heavily influenced by the more playful efforts by the Mavericks and Dwight Yoakam. Dean Miller is long overdue for some mainstream success, though most of the guys on the radio today would simply sound too bland in comparison.  B+

 

“Jersey Giant”

Elle King

Written by Tyler Childers

ZK: Speaking as someone who’s never fully understood the Tyler Childers hype, this may be my favorite thing I’ve heard associated with him. Not quite with King, who, despite being a killer vocalist otherwise, sounds lifeless here as she drags along a monotone flow. That aside, though, I can’t get enough of the low-key folk rollick carrying this wistful remembrance to an old flame. 

What I really love here is the urgency in the writing, taking a very simple, familiar theme of young love and nostalgia and imbuing it with a lot of inherent sadness and recklessness as the character here tries to rekindle a fire they themselves put out in the first place, knowing it’s likely all for naught. They’ve changed and that old partner likely has as well, so it’s a classic case of not knowing what one has until it’s gone. I can see why Childers has distanced himself from it, but I’m glad King revived it. B+

KJC:  I can certainly appreciate the songwriting talent of Tyler Childers and the vocal talent of Elle King, but I don’t think her cover of “Jersey Giant” builds a sturdy enough bridge between the two.

King sounds disconnected and disinterested from the material, stripping out the charm of Childers’ original recording.  “Jersey Giant” isn’t necessarily outside King’s wheelhouse, but she doesn’t do nearly enough to bring it inside. This cover doesn’t provide a justification for its own existence.  C

JK: On the ground here in Kentucky, it is impossible to overstate how Childers’ unique mastery of regional vernacular resonates with listeners, even those who are not otherwise the demo that gravitates toward country music that they don’t hear on the radio. So I’ll say in his defense that, at least locally, his appeal transcends “hype” in a way that can be downright powerful. “Jersey Giant” is just one song of his that highlights how his from-the-holler POV has the capacity to resonate more broadly when given the platform to do so.

To that end, I love the idea of an artist like Elle King covering him. I’ve been sold entirely on King’s talents since I saw her open for The Chicks several years ago, and she’s continued to show fairly discerning taste when it comes to her preferred styles of country music. But I’m fully with Zack on her performance here: She’s capable of rangy, impactful performances, but I just don’t think she does much of anything to interpret this. This is a serviceable cover of a terrific song, and it would’ve made for a fine enough album track on her eventual genre debut. As a stand-alone single, though, it’s lacking her usual fire. B-

 

“Brenda Put Your Bra On”

Ashley McBryde, Caylee Hammack, and Pillbox Patti

Written by Brandy Clark, Benjy Davis, Connie Harrington, Nicolette Hayford, 

Ashley McBryde, and Aaron Raitiere

KJC:  The hilarious opening track to Lindeville is our first introduction to Tina, who will later host a bonfire to destroy the remaining belongings of Marvin, who got caught mid-act with another woman.

The ear for language is what makes this work and keeps the salty words from being gratuitous. It really does feel like we’re eavesdropping on a conversation between the neighbors, and every detail that we learn is from their point of view.  It makes you want to spend a lot more time in this fictional town.  A 

JK: My favorite moment on the entire Lindeville project is a line on this opening track, when Pillbox Patti sneers, “I used to work with her at the Krystal,” in a way that you can’t tell if she has more contempt for the woman she, McBryde, and Hammack are dressing down or for her own time spent working at what every southerner will tell you is the better version of White Castle. She sings it like a woman who has seen some shit and who knows how to find entertainment in other people’s truly messy drama, and these three women sound like they’re having the time of their lives. 

As character development, that line is of a very specific piece with how we learned that Mary Ann and Wanda were “both members of the 4H club / Both active in the FFA,” a generation ago. Of all of the songs that pay tribute to him on Lindeville, “Brenda Put Your Bra On” is the one that most sounds like it actually could’ve been penned by Dennis Linde himself. I can’t think of much higher praise than that. A

ZK: Lindeville made my top 10 of 2022 list. It would have made my top 5, if not for two or three tracks – the ones Aaron Raitere sang, and this one. My favorite tracks tended to veer toward the more introspective and empathetic side that really came to fruition in the back half. This is fine enough – if only because everyone here sports tremendous chemistry on the album throughout – but it feels better suited as an opener ready to unravel what’s ahead than a single proper; it’s a bit too gimmicky and twee to stand on its own, annoying hook and all. Still fun as hell, though. B

 

“Workin’ On a World”

Iris DeMent

Written by Iris DeMent

ZK: No matter how long she takes in between releases, Iris DeMent always manages to imbue her works with a rich, plainspoken, timeless clarity – and their power and magnitude still somehow rise above to be so much more. “Workin’ On a World,” which leads her first album in eight years, is no different. At first it plays against expectations, built around that bleak hook (“I’m workin’ on a world I may never see”), but also built around an oddly jubilant piano lick and gospel swell in general. 

But it slowly plays out exactly as it should, turning the original bleakness of its hook into a rallying cry for change – slow-rolling as it’s always been throughout history – acknowledging the world built for her that the builders themselves never got to see. And, because she’s always been an empathetic writer able to speak from personal perspective but also in a way that can offer a voice for others, she knows that’s the exact role she needs to play for others. It’s perhaps a bit too reliant on vague optimism – I’d argue second single “Goin’ Down to Sing in Texas” strikes a more direct target and is slightly better for it – but you need a shot of adrenaline to get the wheels in motion, and this is a great first step. A-

JK: We champion a lot of artists who have singular personae and distinct identities as songwriters, vocalists, or producers, but there’s always a degree of aesthetic overlap. Consider the throughlines that connect some of the acts on our recent year-end feature: There’s a clear if twisting path from Ian Noe to Tami Neilson to Ashley McBryde to Kane Brown.

I honestly don’t know of any artists who’ve come along in the last 30 years who do precisely what Iris Dement does. Hers is such a peculiar– in the absolute best ways– talent that she truly stands apart, even under the big tent of our country universe. Really, the closest anyone else comes is the late John Prine, and even then, they are paired more by a thematic thread than any sonic similarities. What Iris does is write traditional Southern gospel hymns in structure and form. But the content of those hymns is rooted in a humanism of profound empathy, whether she’s singing about her own direct experiences or those of society at large. It’s the compassion in her perspective that allows her songs to function both as traditional and secular gospel.

On “Workin’ on a World,” she’s contemplating the moral imperative to pay it forward for future generations: Of putting in the work to leave the world at least a little bit better than she found it, because there’s satisfaction to be found in knowing she did everything she could to help others more than she helped herself. It’s a beautiful sentiment, bolstered by her inimitable vocal style, her church-piano licks, and the incorporation of a brass section for the first time in her career. She’s making a joyful noise on this one. Hallelujah! Jubilee! A

KJC: First, let me acknowledge how glorious it is to hear Iris DeMent’s glorious voice again, which is somehow polished by, instead of weathered by time.  Her sharp point of view as a songwriter has only gotten stronger, and the powerful optimism of “Workin’ On a World” feels like the perfect inverse of her nineties track “Wasteland of the Free.”

On the earlier record, she was piercing through the boom years of the nineties with a critical, even cynical eye, pointing out everything that was falling apart in society while most of us were celebrating a brief window of peace and prosperity.

On “Workin’ On a World,” she engages with a society that is falling apart at the seams, and cuts through our collective anger, desperation, and exhaustion with a message of hope and resilience. She’s tapping into a message best articulated by Dr. King:  “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”

I’m with Iris in that I don’t think I’ll be around to see the arc of time fully bend toward justice, and I fear that my remaining years will be spent watching it bend in the opposite direction.  But “Workin’ On a World” reminded me that the work we do toward justice is not futile, and we cannot rest until our working days are done.  A

 

“Bets On Us”

Cheat Codes featuring Dolly Parton

JK: The seventh single that’s been released so far from dance trio Cheat Codes’ upcoming One Night in Nashville album, “Bets On Us” is handily the best of their EDM x country cross-genre collaborations to date. Part of that is due to a song that hinges on a well-crafted lyric (“I’ve got all my bets on us / This kind of love don’t lose”) that fully passes as a country song. And part of the success here is how good Parton sounds on her high harmony vocal, singing a lyric that shares some of her natural wit and charm. 

Aesthetically, this has a whole lot more to do with those collaborations between Aviici and Dan Tyminski from a few years back than it does with, say, “Cotton Eyed Joe” or Tammy Wynette’s legendary foray into house music. And even then, I’m not sure this moves the needle much in terms of creativity or execution from “Hey Brother.” But it’s a better-written song with a catchier melody and more natural sounding incorporation of country instrumentation into a dance framework. I don’t hate it. B

ZK: I don’t know, I hear less of an EDM/country crossover as I do something that could slide onto modern country radio playlists. And, off of the edgeless production anchored in typical standards like overmixed snap percussion and bland guitar tones, I don’t mean that as a compliment. That’s before mentioning, too, how the lead singer sounds like your typical male lead devoid of any distinguishing personality, made all the more apparent when matched against Parton (and it hurts to hear the vocal processing on her, especially coming off of hearing the same technique on the Twain track above). 

So yeah, there’s a space for it, I guess – but it’s an empty one. C-

KJC: EDM is still perceived as being all about the beat, despite some of music’s best lyricists occupying that space.  We’ve somehow been spared a full Dolly Parton dance album during her youth-fueled popularity revival, and her presence on this track is wholly unnecessary. 

I don’t see any reason why there shouldn’t be more country-infused electronic music or more electronic-infused country music. I just think that Cheat Codes could’ve done this one on their own with the same or better results.  B-   

 

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