Are You Ready For The (Pop) Country or, my saturday as a mass music listener zombie guy

So today I had Thanksgiving with the in-laws, and between my wifes ipod, the radio, and CMT I was hit with a barrage of music I spend most of my time trying to avoid. Here is a run down of some of the things I heard:

• "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy", that was one of the songs, and what a trite song. It's like the script from a movie a 12 year old would pitch to Adam Sandler. Hey.....so you go to a bar right, drink with this old man all night and talk vaguely of everthing....then okay....get this.....the guy is millionaire and is gonna die and leave everything to you instead of his kids.....which by the way he never talked about cause he was too busy talking about all the women he effed after he divorced their mom(s).

• Taylor Swift.

• Some Toby Keith song with, get this this....smoove sax. Yes, it was about somebody dying and of course waiting in heaven for him, but the kicker was the Kenny G like smoove sax grooves all over this thing. Is Toby trying to get back in that "safe" zone that pop country seems to cater too? Allright, mention God and heaven, we should have this locked. Geez that makes me lose what tiny respect I had for the man's character . And by tiny respect, I mean that literally....a very small amount of respect, and only because he did stand his ground and hold on to his opinions in a genre where "safe" is the word. And my beef with Toby is not because he sang pandering patriotic songs, or his feud with The Dixie Chicks, or his general douchiness. No my beef with Toby stems from an interview I read in which he stated that if it wasn't for him Willie Nelson would have been a has-been. Really Toby....way I see it if it wasn't for Willie you'd still have that shitty looking curly mullet on your head.

• Some guy doing a cover of Hall and Oates. Wow, with this song and the smooove sax of Toby I think pop-country might be going Yacht Rock.

• Tim McGraw must be going for the world record in shitty name dropping songs.

• Taylor Swift.

• Jason Aldean still sucks

• Miranda Lambert video for White Lies. You know I've always kinda just dismissed Miranda, but damned if this song wasn't enjoyable, also it had Jamey Johnson in the video as a preacher, and though the end of the song was a little forced and "safe" (there's that word again), it was better than anything else I was exposed to today (which could be the only reason I deemed it enjoyable). I also heard another Miranda track I dug off a compilation that Rockstar Aimz puts together recently and it was a cover of John Prine's "happy enchilada" song. I dug that too. Makes me wonder if her album is worth checking out. Hmm maybe I'll just talk my wife into getting it.

• Taylor Swift

• Now there was a silver lining in the days overexposure to shitty music. At one point I gained control of the remote and found a Bruce Springsteen concert on TV. A few minutes later everyone else left the room.....winner: Me!

and what the hell, let's celebrate black friday too....

I've posted this vid before, but really is there a more appropriate day to post this song than today? You can download this free (and great) album here: Deano Meats The Purveyors

Happy Thanksgiving, here's a little music

Someone asked me if I would be making a Thanksgiving sampler. Well I've thought about it before, but it's not going to happen this year, maybe next. What I can give you is a killer Thanksgiving song to tide you over.

This is Eric Rhame singing his song titled simply Thanksgiving Day off last year's Timber and Steel. Enjoy and hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving.

Listen to Eric Rhame - Thanksgiving Day here

Free Music Alert: Big Bullet Records - Terminal Ballistics Vol. 1

Big Bullet Records are a fairly new record label out of northern West Virginia. Recently they put out this sampler of some of there artists. Readers should be familiar with Prison Book Club and there are a couple other surprises on here. Now just a heads up this sampler spans many musical styles from the in-your-face rock of The Demon Beat, to gentle folk songs, to hip hop, it's a pretty eclectic mix.

Download Terminal Ballistics Vol. 1 here (click the picture)

Best (and worst) Album Art of 2009

One thing music geeks love to do is make lists. Just look around at all the music blogs on the internet, it's a virtual orgy of lists. So with that said I present to you another fricken' list!

Now, I am a big fan of album artwork. It is one of the reasons I love vinyl so much....those great big covers full of wonderful artwork, not to mention gatefolds and novelty covers (such as Sticky Fingers). CDs were not too bad either....nowhere near as nice as vinyl, but decent, and I especially enjoy when artists put something on the CD itself. Itunes however, with it's 3 inch display of what would otherwise be quality cover art, just doesn't do much for me. I remember the major reason I purchased a Zune media player a few years ago was for the fact that it had a large display screen that was dominated by the cover art. It drives me crazy when something doesn't have it's cover art on the zune too. Anyway, I guess I'm saying all that to get to my point here....I love album art. So without further delay here are my top 10 album covers of the year, followed by some I think are duds. This has nothing to do with the music, strictly from an album art appreciators standpoint.

1. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - s/t

I don't really know what this is...some kind of tree? Regardless it's my favorite album art of the year. [Edit: My sources on twitter tell me this album art was painted by 400 Unit guitarist Browan Lollar (view more of his artwork here). I think that makes it even cooler]

2. Slaid Cleaves - Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away

Love this painting on the cover. The guy is laying at a couple graves with a handkerchief with the title "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away" underneath. My favorite part is the weeping willows.

3. Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle - Let's Just Stay Here

Another cool painting, Carolyn Mark with a creepy expression because she likely chopped the heads off all the members of NQ Arbuckle

4. Drive By Truckers - The Fine Print

I love pretty much every album cover Wes Freed has done, especially the ones he's done for DBT. This one is no exception.

5. Bettysoo - Heat Sin, Water Skin

A cool stylized image of BettySoo herself. Really like the colors of this and the aura that's around her head (yeah, I'm not an art critic as you can tell)

6. Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell - One To The Heart, One To The Head

I am assuming this is a painting Tom Russell did. Just a cool cover, I almost put Tom's Blood and Candlesmoke but I like this cover a lot more.

7. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

This one was on the worst list originally, but the more I look at it the more I find it endearing. Also, it's certainly memorable. Party Camel for life!

8. Joe Henry - Blood From Stars

I like this one because it reminds me of something O. Winston Link would have done.

9. Tim Easton - Porcupine

Cool painting by Tim Easton. I think I read he hand painted a limited number of vinyl releases of this album. Would love to see some pics of those

10. Kieran Kane - Somewhere Beyond The Roses

I'm not really sure what's going on here, some kind of collage or something but I like it.

Honorable Mentions to:

Cory Branan & Jon Snodgrass - s/t

This one is so bad it's good. I mean, it's a wolf....and a cobra. Also pyramids and snow mountains.

Prison Book Club - Required Reading

I just like this cover and didn't want to leave it out.

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Now for the worst ones:

The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

I just think this one is creepy and weird. Also it reminds me of a Jethro Tull album cover.

Dave Rawlings Machine - Friend of A Friend

Speaking of creepy and weird, what's up with the look on his face? Did the camera man walk up on him doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing?

Jimbo Mathus - Jimmy The Kid

This one is on the worst list because there was a much better cover they could have used.

Scott Miller - For Crying Out Loud

I'm a huge Scott Miller fan, but not a fan of this cover...at all.

Gurf Morlix - Last Exit To Happyland

Again, I'm a huge Gurf Morlix fan but this cover is almost disturbing. Maybe it's an homage to Bela Lugosi or something.

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

This one is just aweful, reminds me of a collage I would have done in high school art class at the last minute cause I was too busy sneaking off and getting high during class.

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

What the hell is this? Why is she on the hood of some car? And what kind of car is that anyway?

BettySoo - Never Knew No Love (Acoustic) (vid)

The folks at Music Fog continue to capture amazing videos of amazing artists. This is one of them.

Album Review Roundup: Band of Heathens, Sons of Bill, Gabriel Sullivan, The Pines, Pieta Brown

First let me say that in all honesty I don't like doing album reviews. I prefer to let the music speak for itself which is why I do the seasonal samplers. But, saying that, the reviews do get a lot of continuing hits from people doing searches and the like, so I like to think they serve their own purpose of turning folks onto music they might like. So with that said I have A LOT of albums I need to review....but like I said, I don't like doing it so I let them stack up. Here is my compromise, a post of shorter album reviews all in one post. Kind of like how magazines used to do their quick reviews. All right, so with the boring information out of the way, let's do this.

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Band of Heathens - One Foot In The Ether

Sounds like the Black Crowes and Little Feat got together and decided to jam. These guys are great musicians in the pentatonic classic rock style. The album kicks off with L.A. County blues which is one of the best odes to Hunter Thompson I believe I've ever heard. Standout tracks include the bluesy Golden Calf, the soulful country of What's This World, the "she talks to angels" type ballad, Let Your Heart Not Be Troubled, the little feat-ish funk of Somebody Tell The Truth, and an amazing cover of Gillian Welch's Look At Miss Ohio.

Buy Band Of Heathens - One Foot In The Ether here

Listen to Band of Heathens - Let Your Heart Not Be Troubled

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Sons of Bill - One Town Away

Well here is a review that is long overdue, and truthfully I'm glad I waited. Why, well because at first I liked the album but thought it to be too slick sounding. I still think it's a little slick sounding, but I quickly got over that after repeated listens. What I call "slick" others would call "well produced". The thing that immediately grabbed me about this album were the well crafted lyrics and melodies. Particularly the line in Broken Bottles "Hank Williams might have been a lovesick drinker, but being a lovesick drunk don't make you Hank". Lyricism such as that is all over this thing, and as I alluded to in the opening sentences, this album is a grower for me. Sons of Bill are recommended if you like Reckless Kelly and Scott Miller.

Buy Sons of Bill - One Town Away here

Listen to Sons of Bill - Joey's Arm

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Gabriel Sullivan - By The Dirt

Here is another one I'm glad I waited to review. I will admit at first I was a little underwhelmed with this one. However last week this album popped up on an MP3 disc in my truck and damn it hit me hard at just the right time. This is a great album though a little off the beaten path. The blurb sheet that came with this album said something like "sounds like Tom Waits fronting The Black Keys" and I would say that is a very apt description. I would also like to compare him to a less rustic, slightly jazzier William Elliot Whitmore. Little bit of a New Orleans thing going on here with the clarinet and song structures...but it works out good with Gabe's weathered voice. The absolute highlight of this album is without a doubt the duet with Brittany Dawn House Built On Love. Check out Gabe Sullivan's blog here.

Buy Gabriel Sullivan - By The Dirt here

Listen to Gabriel Sullivan - House Built On Love here

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The Pines - Tremolo
Man this album is fantastic. Full of bluesy folky goodness and some of the finest yet most subtle slide guitar ever laid to wax. The Pines are one part songwriter David Huckfelt, and one part songwriter Benson Ramsey, who is the son of Greg Brown sideman and producer Bo Ramsey (who also produced this album). I'm guessing that's where he gets his killer guitar chops. This is their second album, and shows a band that has matured quite a bit since their debut album. While that album was a good listen, I would call this album a MUST listen. Great songwriting, great playing, great production, just an all around great album. I tell you what it kind of reminds me of.....if Gurf Morlix had produced a mid 70's Bob Dylan album.

Buy The Pines - Tremolo here

Listen to The Pines - Pray Tell here

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Pieta Brown - Shimmer

Speaking of Greg Brown, longtime readers to ATS should be familiar with his daughter Pieta. This album is a 7-song EP (the second EP in two years) and it's mainly focusing on Pieta's folkier side. I will say this EP is a little more laid back than 2007's Remember The Sun which was one of my favorite albums of that year. But put this album side by side with last year's Flight Time EP and it makes perfect sense, as that album was full of her faster more rocking songs. I would recommend both of these EP's really, though I'm more of a fan of the Flight Time EP, I just think Pieta is best when she adds in a little electric guitar and up's the sultry twang thing. In my opinion the strongest song on here is Lovin' You Still which sounds like a reworking of In My Mind I Was Talking To Loretta off Remember The Sun.

Buy Pieta Brown - Shimmer here (Buy Flight Time here)

Listen to Pieta Brown - Lovin' You Still here

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Ok, guess I will stop there.

Mike Cooley - Live at The 40 Watt (2/25/2005)

So, here we have the third main songwriter of the Drive By Truckers, and the only one who doesn't have any kind of solo album. Listening to this makes you wonder why. Here Cooley is alone with his acoustic guitar playing whatever the crowd wants to hear. He runs through many Truckers' favorites, old and new, and even a few unreleased tracks. A couple of the songs like "Little Pony and The Great Big Horse" and an alternate version of "Uncle Frank" can be heard on the excellent new odds and ends album The Fine Print (have I said that enough across these last three posts?). This is a real treasure, and getting almost all of Cooley's songs together only cements the fact that he is an amazing songwriter and singer. My favorite tracks on here are of course the new ones I had never heard before, the drunk driving ballad "Three On The Tree", "Pulaski Tennessee", and my favorite unreleased one "Weakest Man". Also of interest is an early version of "Bob". The show ends with a killer one-two-three acoustic punch of "Marry Me", "Where The Devil Don't Stay" and "Daddy's Cup". Sound is a solid A-, not to be missed.

And a bonus for you Cooley fans, here is an interesting and insightful interview (because we rarely get to hear from the man) from when his song was featured in Rock Band. Check out this interesting quote: "I make more money off t-shirts. If you rip it, burn it, give it to somebody, and they come to a show and buy a ticket and a t-shirt, I profit more that way anyway, and then I've got a fan. Records are promotional items these days anyway"

MP3

Mike Cooley - Live At The 40 Watt

Patterson Hood - Onward Out The Window (Caledonia Lounge 11/4/2009)

Who likes theme posts? Do you like theme posts? Well lucky for you, you're in the middle of a string of them. This one is simply incredible! Perfect fucking sound, great stories, and very interesting setlist. In fact, this is the first of 3 weekly shows hood is currently performing at The Caledonia Lounge in Athens, GA. This one he billed as "Onward Out The Window (new and used songs stripped down to piano and guitar)", and that's exactly what you get. Stripped down familiar songs, and a few new ones. This is really a can't miss for Patterson fans and Drive-By Truckers fans. Some amazing renditions on here, perfectly augmented by simply an acoustic guitar and piano/organ while Patterson embellishes each song with stories and anecdotes he has become famous for. A really intimate show.

Patterson currently has a new album out called Murding Oscar, and this wednesday at The Caledonia he will be performing his 3rd show, the "rock show" with his backing band The Belvederes. If you are in the area I would make sure not to miss it.

Also don't forget about the new DBT odds & ends album The Fine Print

MP3

Patterson Hood - Onward Out The Window

An Acoustic Evening With Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit (8/4/2009)

By request here, a Jason Isbell show from this past august. This is all acoustic, and it's damn good. Sound is a B+ because there is some low level chatter throughout, but really nothing to make this unlistenable. Performance is a solid A+. A Very good evening of acoustic music from Mr. Isbell and his 400 Unit. Includes extended cuts of Danko/Manuel, Goddamn Lonely Love (an amazingly soulful version I might add...a must hear), Decoration Day and Thank God For The TVA (which was recently released on the killer DBT odd's & ends album The Fine Print). Now that was all said to lure you DBT fans in who might be on the fence about Isbell's solo career. I will say this, his latest self titled album is one of the finest albums I've heard this year. It's definitely a slow grower.....but it sticks with you and reveals an album that will be listened to for many years to come.

MP3

An Acoustic Evening with Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

Merle Haggard - Opryland 1981

well, I feel like 9 kinds of shit right now, but not to let you folks down....I shall persevere. Luckily what I'm posting here is a killer Merle Haggard radio broadcast from 1981 that needs little explanation. All you need to know is it's Merle Haggard, and it's killer!

MP3

Merle Haggard - Opryland 1981

Tom Russell - Veteran's Day (Vid)

Pretty self explanatory, not much of a vid, but great song. Don't miss the post over at Ninebullets about Kasey Anderson's fantastic "I Was A Photograph"

Collaborations you would like to see

Earlier today I was listening to the new Kristofferson album Closer To The Bone and it struck me how stylistically similar it is to Todd Snider's latest album The Excitement Plan. Couple that with some other recent listens that include the excellent collaborative albums of Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle, and the Gretchen Peters & Tom Russell album One To The Heart, One To The Head (which are both fantastic albums BTW). That got me to thinking about how killer it would be if Kris Kristofferson and Todd Snider made a collaborative album together. Man I would love to hear that.

What are some of your favorite collaborative albums, or ones you'd like to see happen?

Album Review: Jimbo Mathus - Jimmy The Kid

I've talked about Jimbo Mathus on here before, but never at any length. He's one of my favorite artists simply for the fact that he is so multi-talented and unpredictable. He is a virtual chameleon of american music releasing albums that shift from jazz, ragtime, blues, country, southern rock, swamp rock, blues rock, pre-war blues, gospel....basically if it was ever sang near the Mississippi river he is a master of it. Most folks may not recognize his name, but they have surely heard his voice back in the 90's when his band the Squirrell Nut Zippers had a runaway hit with the song Hell. I will touch more on that in a later post, and for now just focus on his latest album.

Now, if you have preconceived notions that this is going to be some kind of swing band album....throw those thoughts right out the damn window. As I alluded to earlier, Jimbo's solo career has been hard to pigeonhole into any one specific genre, and most of it has much more to do with the R.L Burnside and Charlie Patton than any kind of Count Basie or Bryan Setzer. This album here, happens to be his most country sounding album to date. With liberal flourishes of pedal steel, twangy licks, and heartbreak throughout.

The Album starts out with Good Old Time, which let's you know right off the bat what kind of album this is going to be....a COUNTRY album. Not to worry though, there are a couple splashes of blues and rock on here too. Such as the title track, the southern boogie of Tell It To The Judge, and the almost rockabilly Little Hand Big Gun. This album makes a very satisfying listen in the way it blends together perfectly like a whiskey on the rocks. The album as a whole is framed by some pretty solid country ballads such as Fallen Angel, Check Out Time, and Hiway At Night. My favorite song on here though has to be Tennessee Walker Mare. Which is a welcome addition to other horse songs in the genre such as Tennessee Stud, Chestnut Mare, and Caballo Diablo for those keeping track.

Buy Jimmy The Kid here

Myspace

Listen to Fallen Angel here

Listen to Tennessee Walker Mare here

Listen to Tell It To The Judge here

The Texas Sweet-Hot Trio - Q-Bus City, Leiden, Holland 11/3/2009

Got a heads up about this from an email from a reader the other day and I just had to post it up here. The Texas Sweet-Hot Trio is made up of 3 lovely Texan ladies who live up to their sweet-hot moniker. Sweet with there oh so sweet voices, and hot with their......hot.....lyrics. Seriously now, these girls can sing the hell out of a song, they can play the hell out of a song, and most important of all they can write the hell out of a song. So who are the ladies of The Texas Sweet-Hot Trio? Well one familiar name my readers might recognize is my latest musical obsession Bettysoo. Also here are Charlie Faye, and Abi Tapia. Now I will admit, I had never heard of Charlie Faye and Abi Tapia before this, but they are most certainly on my radar now of artists to check out. The Texas Sweet-Hot trio are just today wrapping up their European tour, no word yet whether they will be doing any more touring. Here's hoping there is more to this project.

Sound on this is a B+ only because there is some annoying mic noise during a couple of the tracks. If it wasn't for that, would be a solid A sound quality.

This show is also available in video form if you are interested (I haven't actually watched the vids yet)

Bettysoo - Charlie Faye - Abi Tapia

@Bettysoo - @CharlieFaye - @AbiTapia

MP3

Texas Sweet-Hot Trio - Q-Bus City

Random Records: The Marshall Tucker Band - Searchin' For A Rainbow

Oh man....I LOVE this album. I remember stealing the cassette (one of the many) from my parents and listening to it endlessly on my dual deck tape player in the headboard of my bed, and later in my '86 Ford LTD tearing up the back roads and hollers of Floyd County and Allegheny Springs.

Now I realize a lot of folks probably don't like Marshall Tucker Band at all, and that can be understood if all they have ever heard is "Heard It In A Love Song". While not the worst song out there, it was certainly horribly overplayed. Fear not brave reader, cause Heard It In A Love song is NOT on this album. No that song came a few years later.

This album was released in 1975 and starts out with my two favorite Marshall Tucker Band songs....wait, first let's get something out of the way first. Marshall Tucker was not the name of any of it's band members rather a name the band members found on the key of their practice space and liked the sound of so much they named their band that. What was with 70's bands naming themselves after people? Ok, so back to what I was saying, this album starts with my favorite two Marshall Tucker Band songs. They are "Fire On The Mountain", and "Searchin' For A Rainbow". Fire kicks off the album with a mournful and huge pedal steel lick before kicking into the song which features some of my favorite pedal steel work throughout. The song reads like an episode synopsis of HBO's Deadwood series. With a man who takes his family away from his Carolina home in search of gold out west. What he finds is a place where "sin is the big thing", and "folks are shot down for sake of fun" or "just to hear the sound of their .44 guns". This is the song I'm featuring as a download cause I love it. Also features a flute solo, which is a trend that Marshall Tucker really tried to get going in country rock but thankfully never did. It's not really bad just different....I mean, makes you wonder why more country songs don't feature flute solos. Ahh but I guess Tull and Tucker are alone in their flute endeavors.

"Searchin' For Rainbow" is the follow up, and a slightly more upbeat song than "Fire" was. Searchin' feels like a look at the thought patterns from the character we got to know in Fire On The Mountain, here we get the tale of a man who is searching for his metaphorical pot of gold, an endless search that possibly drove him to the events that took place in Fire. At least that's my take on it. I'm probably way wrong on that :-P

Some other great songs on this album are the laid back "Virginia", the even more laid back western swing ode to the poor man's meditation that is fishing, "Bob Away My Blues", and the love ballad "Keep Me From All Wrong". Some of the other songs on this album tend to lean a little more to the jazz country side, but they are certainly in the minority, and even then they keep it reigned in. Also included is the live version of classic rock staple "Can't You See" tagged on at the end that is probably the best recorded version of that song. Overall I love this album (did I already say that?), and think it should be included with other great country rock albums of the 70's though I doubt it ever will.

Listen to Marshall Tucker Band - Fire On The Mountain here

Album Review: Prison Book Club - Required Reading

Here is a killer little album I have been diggin' the hell out of lately. Prison Book Club are a West Virginia super group of sorts, comprised of John Miller from The Fox Hunt, Tucker Riggleman & Adam Meisterhans of The Demon Beat, and drummer Jeff Birdsall. Now you folks should be familiar with the unique brand of mountain music the Fox Hunt dishes out, but you may not be familar with The Demon Beat. The Demon Beat are a full steam ahead, damn the torpedos rock band who would not be out of place on a bill with Jon Spencer, The Black Keys, or The White Stripes to name a few. That is to say, while they are not really as blues centric as those bands, they have a fresh take on traditional rock with a healthy twist or two of punk thrown in. So what does it sound like when the two bands mix...well exactly what you think it might sound like, a rowdy rock band with lots of twang sounding like neither of the bands which make up it's sum. Remember back in the early 90's when punk and twang were being mixed together to create an exciting new sound we didn't know what to call....that's what Prison Book Club sounds like.

The easiest comparison I can make to Prison Book club however, is early Lucero. More specifically the first self titled Lucero album. Lots of twang, lots of guitar, lots of self reflecting whiskey soaked lyrics that just beg you to sing along. My favorite songs on this album are the ones sung by Fox Hunt's John Miller which I think are the strongest. That's not to say that Riggleman's songs are bad, no they are good too, but this type of music better suites Miller's vocal style is all. Prison Book Club is best when it combines the best of both bands, the singing and songwriting of Miller, and the thumping bass & passionate lead guitar of Riggleman & Meisterhan respectively. No song is this more evident than my favorite song on this album, the epic "When I Go", which reminds me why I fell in love with this type of music in the first place.

This album is recommended for anyone who likes their twang served with a healthy portion of rock....or vice versa. Either way, this is the album you want to turn up to 11, rip the knob off (as Patterson Hood says), and pour a shot or 5 of the cheap stuff.

Prison Book Club are currently playing shows around their hometown of Shepherdstown, West Virginia and if your in the area you don't want to miss what the band describes as PBR-mageddon.

Required Reading can be ordered straight from the band for a measly 8 bucks here. Also visit the Big Bullet Record's site for more info of both Prison Book Club and The Demon Beat

Listen to Prison Book Club - Everything's Fine

Listen to Prison Book Club - When I Go