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Concerts

Shane Smith & the Saints: Living Proof of the Value in Live Music

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Why Shane Smith & the Saints aren’t on more people’s radar I will never know. I’ve been a fervent fan ever since Medicine Stone 2016 when they blew me away in about 8.6 seconds with their a cappella opening to “The Mountain.” It was the first time I’d attended Medicine Stone, the first band I heard on the main stage, and the first I’d ever heard of Shane Smith & the Saints. It seemed the crowd went silent at the start of “The Mountain” to hear the chilling four-part harmonies. Then all at once, the fiddle broke out, and the song shifted into high gear, and my cousin, sitting next to me, broke the spell that we’d all been under by saying simply, “Wow.” I’ve been waiting for a day when I could attend and discuss a Saints live show ever since then, and it finally came Saturday (4/21) at Tower Theatre in Oklahoma City.

This is now the third time I’ve seen them live, and still I am amazed at how they open a show. Honestly, the only time I’ve seen that much energy from a band live is with Turnpike Troubadours, if this tells you anything. This time, their opener was simply a couple minutes of high-spirited fiddle music which eventually dissolved into “The Mountain.” This was a very cool way to lead into things, as one of their biggest strengths is Bennett Brown on fiddle. Again, the only time I’ve been impressed by fiddle playing quite on this level has to be with Turnpike. It’s because while the fiddle for the Saints is at times melodic, like on “New Orleans” or “Quite Like You,” it’s also used for rhythm, similar to the way Turnpike and Old crow Medicine Show use it. You’ll see that on tracks like “Geronimo” and “Feather in the Wind.” And then “All I See is You” arrives, and the fiddle is used for both, going from sweet and melodic in the beginning to just taking over and coming alive later in the song. You can find all that on a Shane Smith record, but some of that magic simply can’t be explained outside a live setting.

The same can be said for their four-part harmonies–you can hear this on a Saints release, but until you’ve actually witnessed this live, been blown away by their version of Band of Heathens’ “Hurricane” or heard the opening of “Geronimo,” you can’t fully appreciate it. Four-part harmony is perhaps their greatest strength, the thing that sets them apart and makes them unique in Texas country and beyond. It’s really not something seen in all of music that much anymore, and crowds recognize the rarity of it when they hear it. More than that, Shane Smith & the Saints recognize the advantage, and make that harmony an integral part of their songwriting.

Fans of this band will be happy to hear they’re recording new music. We were treated to several new selections, including one that’s yet unnamed, “Heaven Knows,” displaying that harmony in all its glory, and one for our town called “Oklahoma City.” This is one time where I’m really glad I don’t actually review these concerts per se, because I am free to be ridiculously biased about my love for this. This was written in honor of what Shane Smith calls their first fan base outside of Texas, people who would actually come out night after night to their shows. It was Oklahoma City, and they wrote a song about our city and the people that believed in them from the beginning. Obviously, that went over very well with us.

These little pieces are always meant to highlight the importance of live music and what makes it special rather than to be analytical concert reviews. Right now, as I type this, I’m listening to a Shane Smith record because I’ve been down that particular rabbit hole all day. But I can say that the Saints are proof of why we have to go out and take in live music and support these artists–because you just can’t get the same experience on this album. The fiddle can only run so free, and you can’t enjoy it breaking free and taking over everything right along with the crowd. It’s the people dancing to the music because it makes them feel something and stopping their conversations to hear the harmonies that make this a special experience. Even more, a song like “Oklahoma city” moved me because we were all together in that moment, all Oklahomans, all part of the fan base that Shane Smith meant when he said they wrote this song for us. It wouldn’t have been the same on an album. I realize that one is a personal and rare experience, but the point is, there are things you just can’t recreate on a record, and the magic in a Saints live show is one of them. Very glad to have been able to include them in this 2018 concert series.

Shane Smith & the Saints are:
Shane Smith, Bennett Brown, Tim Allen, Chase Satterwhite, Zach Stover

Best Live Songs: “The Mountain,” “Hurricane,” “New Orleans,” “Geronimo,” “Oklahoma City”

Reviews

Album Review: Ashley Monroe–Sparrow

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Rating: 6.5/10

If any of you know me at all, you know I am an unashamed Ashley Monroe apologist and have been looking forward to new music from her almost since The Blade. With the release of the first single, “Hands on You,” came mixed feelings–I enjoyed the single, but I was hesitant about the more polished direction Monroe took sonically. I haven’t been overly impressed with any of the other pre-released tracks either, and what once was promising to be a great release was becoming a worrying one.

After several listens with this thing? Honestly, this is probably the most conflicted and divided I’ve been with myself about a project in a long while.

Monroe cites “good therapy” as being largely responsible for this record. She says that she finally chose to properly deal with the loss of her father at thirteen and what that was like for her family. That’s certainly evident from the opening lines of this album, as “Orphan” begins with the line from which the title of the album was inspired–“How does the sparrow know more than I? When a mother is gone, it learns how to fly.” “Orphan” is a ridiculous opener and one of the best songs of the year–and as for that polish which traditionally hasn’t been a Monroe characteristic, it actually works to perfection here, with elegant strings and piano accentuating the vocals and the story.

Monroe’s father comes up several more times on this album, often in its strongest moments. “Daddy I Told You” is another standout, again featuring some very tasteful piano and letting him know that she kept his name and still loves him. This one is just the kind of honest, thoughtful expression of emotion which defines country music. If I get asked to define it again anytime soon, I’m just going to cite this song. “Mother’s Daughter” is another track that echoes with the memories of her dad, as she sings about once being her father’s daughter but now having become more like her mother in his absence, or as the song says, “now that he’s no longer.” Sonically, this one is similar to something like “From Time to Time” from Ashley’s last album, and this one feels like a moment where the more polished sound works to her advantage.

Sensuality is also an important part of this record. I’m not sure how that plays into the therapeutic aspect of it for Monroe, but there is something liberating about the presence of both “Hands on You” and “Wild Love” here. This is the country genre, where women aren’t allowed to speak about desire at all, much less in this way, with lines like “pull my hair and call my name” (Wild Love”) and “I wish I’d have pushed you against the wall, locked the door in a bathroom stall” (“Hands on You.”) It’s not really apparent how little women actually sing about desire in country until you are presented with it here, and that shouldn’t be such a rare and shocking thing. I congratulated Shinyribs last year on introducing foot worship to country music; now I’d like to extend the same congratulations to Ashley Monroe for releasing these scandalous lines out into the world and especially on a major label.

I will say that while they both add value as individual songs, these two could have done with different melodies and production. “Wild Love” was released after “Hands on You,” and it’s the same tempo, same key, even the same strings in the background doing some of the same runs. I feel as if I’d have enjoyed “Wild Love” more if it had been released first, just as I enjoy “Hands on You” more currently. It’s intriguing because both of them stand well on their own, but they are so similar musically that they take away from one another on the album.

The major issue with this record can be boiled down to that incessant polish, and I hate to criticize him twice in a week, but Dave Cobb strikes again here. It’s not that Cobb did a bad job here, as the string sections and piano all over this album are generally really beautiful, even adding to some of the songs I’ve mentioned. They also work really well in “Hard on a Heart,” another of the standouts on the record. And Monroe said she wanted to work with him and wanted a countrypolitan feel on this album, so this problem has to do with her vision more than Cobb actually screwing it up.

but Dave Cobb is a terrible producer for Ashley Monroe. Vince Gill was a much better one, even on The Blade, where there was more polish than her previous records. The Blade still kept her personality, her emotion, that traditional voice as the focal points. With Sparrow, you’re often too drawn in or too distracted, depending on the song, by these orchestral arrangements to fully appreciate the words of Ashley Monroe. And it’s a shame because this is supposed to be the most personal record for Monroe to date–but instead of letting us in like Kacey Musgraves managed to do on her album, it feels like Monroe holds us at arm’s length, not quite letting us into the unique headspace she was in when she wrote these songs but rather staying in her own private moment. Her vulnerability is masked by cellos and piano and general overproduction. “Paying attention” is absolutely ruined by production; lyrically, that’s a great heartbreak song and one that Ashley could nail vocally, but she’s fighting to be heard over everything else so that she’s not even on pitch all the time. She also has pitch issues in “She Wakes me Up,” another ridiculously cluttered affair, and it’s not a coincidence. Ashley Monroe is one of the most gifted country vocalists around, but she’s being drowned out by all this until both her emotional delivery and her technical performance are suffering. It renders some songs boring and lifeless, some of which might have been better had Monroe and her lyrics been allowed to shine more. I mean, I don’t think “Rita” could have been helped by anything, as that’s definitely the most boring track Ashley has ever released, but it’s the exception here, and the point still stands.

I wanted to like this more than I do, and as many issues as I have with this album, I probably do enjoy it more than my words may imply. The standouts I have listed are just that–they’re not the few tolerable or decent tracks on an otherwise terrible record, they’re gems that stand as proud additions to Ashley Monroe’s discography. A brilliant song like “Orphan” proves that this more polished, countrypolitan style can work for Monroe at times, and it’s a song like that which really makes the boring, overproduced filler on this record all the more disheartening. Overall, this style doesn’t suit Monroe, and especially not on what’s meant to be a personal, intimate record. Here’s hoping Vince Gill will come back to produce her next project. Cherry-picking is not something I normally condone, but it’s appropriate here because this album has some treasures; unfortunately, they’re mixed in with filler, and more importantly, I don’t see this record making new Ashley Monroe fans. For those like me, already unapologetic fans, it does have the potential to grow–the problems are less with Ashley herself and more with the style–but I don’t see Sparrow being a defining record for her, even if it symbolizes a defining moment for Monroe personally.

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Non-Country Stuff

Pop Spotlight: Kylie Minogue–Golden

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Let me make it perfectly clear that I know virtually nothing by Kylie Minogue prior to this album. My interest in it was piqued awhile ago when I heard that she was supposedly inspired somewhat by country and that this record would be country-tinged. I respect that, the ability to differ between country–influenced music that you still identify and market as pop or some other genre versus just exploiting the country genre with pop music by slapping it with an arbitrary label. It seemed like a good thing to check out for one of these non-country spotlights, and honestly, after hearing it, I wouldn’t really call any of it country pop, although some songs are more acoustic and perhaps rootsy. But she’s not marketing it as country, so I can certainly live with that, and what I did find was actually some pretty cool, energetic pop music along the way.

Perhaps the most “country” thing about this, or at least the thing that makes it stand out above many pop projects, is that while energetic and lighthearted, a lot of these tracks do carry a message. There’s not some life-affirming moment like Kesha’s “Praying,” but equally, there’s a lot more to most of this than just shallow background music. There’s a theme of getting back up after life and love knock us down in “A Lifetime to Repair” and of living to the fullest in “Dancing.” “Sincerely Yours” carries the importance of taking time for ourselves and not letting the ones we love change us; she says that she’s saying goodbye because she has to work through her own issues, but it doesn’t change her feelings and that she’ll be back eventually. Pop music has a bad reputation of being shallow and superfluous, and let’s be fair, that’s because most of it is these days, so it’s good to hear music like this actually have something to say.

And yet, it keeps the energy that’s vital to a good pop record. While mainstream country continues to recycle the same mid-tempo drumbeat, and Americana struggles with itself to relax, it’s refreshing to hear an album like this, where the majority remains up-tempo and fun. Tracks like “Rollin'” and “Low Blow” are just infectious, and Kylie Minogue delivers it all with a good amount of personality. It sounds like she’s enjoying herself when she’s singing these songs, and that comes out and in turn makes you smile as a listener.

This was a fun little interlude in between all the country projects coming out over the past several weeks. I definitely wouldn’t say there’s much, if any, country to it, so don’t let that mislead you. But if you’re looking for some refreshing pop music with a slightly rootsy feel, or you enjoy pop music that still has something intelligent to say, you might find a lot to enjoy here.

Standout Tracks: “A Lifetime to Repair,” “Radio On,” “Love,” “Rollin’,” “Music’s too Sad Without You” (ft. Jack Savoretti)

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Random Reflections

Reflecting on: Ashley Monroe–Satisfied

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In honor of Ashley Monroe’s fourth album release Friday, it seems fitting to discuss her long-lost debut, Satisfied. I could have chosen Like a Rose, which is one of my three favorite albums of all time, but this one has been overlooked and mishandled since its conception, so it’s this one I’ll highlight.

Style: traditional country

People Who Might Like This Album: fans of Like a Rose, fans of Lee Ann Womack, and just generally people starving for that traditional sound in modern country music

Standout Tracks: “Used,” “Hank’s Cadillac,” “Make Room at the Bottom,” “I Don’t Wanna Be,” “Let me Down Again”

Reflections: If you’ve read more than one of these, you’ll immediately say: “Why no release date?” Well, I’m looking at this album on Apple Music now, and I’m confronted with three different versions of Satisfied with three different release dates and yes, three different track listings. The original, limited release of this came out in 2006, and even that isn’t one of the three listed here, as that contained the single “I Don’t Want To” with Ronnie Dunn; if you got that version, you’re lucky because that song seems to not exist anywhere for purchase now. (And someone please correct me if I’m wrong about that because I’d really like a copy of “I Don’t Want To,” by the way.)

Ashley was dropped from her label in 2007, and the album was largely unreleased. It became available again in 2009 as a digital download. That version has a twelfth track in place of “I Don’t Want To” called “Promised Land,” and that version is probably the most well-known. There’s the original minus “I Don’t Want To,” as well as another version with a twelfth track known as “I Can’t Unlove You.” You see why I say this record has been mishandled–in fact, in 2013, when Monroe’s career had been revitalized after the success of Pistol Annies enough for her to be signed and release Like a Rose, some called that album her debut. It reflects both ignorance about the artist and perhaps embarrassment that such a talent was forsaken in this way. I’ve even seen Sparrow referred to in places as her third album, and I just think it’s a travesty to let this debut go unrecognized.

It was ignored and Ashley was dropped partly because it was so traditional, but more so because of the depth of emotion reflected in her songs. Monroe talks of taking “Used,” a song about literally being used like a worn-out, faded dress where “the fabric has been torn,” to radio stations where she moved DJ’s to tears, some even saying they wished they could play it, but it wouldn’t fit with the format. Thankfully, a different version of “Used” was recorded for Like a Rose, so that song has seen the wider reception it deserves. Monroe was only nineteen, but she’d lost her father six years prior to the recording of this debut, and much of it reflects that sorrow. It’s only someone who has lived through heartbreak who can make a song like “Make Room at the Bottom,” a pretty simple track lyrically, come to life because of the depth of emotion in each syllable. That same sorrow is displayed on “He Ain’t Coming Back” and in a different way on “Hank’s Cadillac,” as she expresses that she would have kept Hank Williams Sr. from dying if she’d been there that night. She’d have helped him to sober up and played his songs on the radio, and the world wouldn’t have lost him so early.

There are lighter moments here as well, like “Pain Pain” and the Dwight Yoakam duet “That’s why we Call Each Other Baby.” I don’t want to paint Monroe or this album into some sort of dark, depressing corner. But it’s her ability to express pain because she lived it that makes her special as an artist, that came out on these songs and ultimately hurt the performance of this album, and which still survives today on this forgotten record and deserves to be heard. I’m sorry Nashville treated this album so badly, but at least it’s in our hands now, and we can hear the debut from an artist many of us have come to love.

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Reviews

Album Review: Jason Aldean–Rearview Town

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Rating: 6/10

I can sense the number of readers/followers I’m about to upset or outright lose with this take on Jason Aldean, and on the surface, I understand. It’s easy to hear the name Jason Aldean and think “Dirt Road Anthem” and resent him for his introduction of rap into the mainstream. It’s easy to think of the even more atrocious “1994,” a stain on the country genre and really all of music that I wish I could forget. But Aldean’s also given us songs like “The Truth,” “Fly Over States,” and “Amarillo Sky.” He’s released “Night Train,” separating himself from his counterparts by singing a song with the same themes but with more detailed and clever imagery. More than that, he’s always included solid, even stellar album cuts. He’s a frustrating artist because it’s hard not to wonder why he keeps those good songs buried, but at the same time, he’s refreshingly consistent. When you press play on a Jason Aldean record, you know what you’re getting–some forgettable or even awful singles and some truly great gems to go along with them. Aldean’s never going to blow you away with his songwriting or give you any profound revelations, but that’s not what you come to a Jason Aldean record for anyway, and if he were the worst thing on country radio, we honestly wouldn’t have much to complain about anymore.

It’s because on a Jason Aldean album, there is consistent balance. I don’t want to speak for stricter traditionalists out there, but most of us are simply advocating for balance. Most of us don’t have a problem with pop country or even modern influences per se, but our issue lies in the fact that this music is the only option and eradicating the traditional and the substantive in the mainstream. Aldean’s not offering traditional, but his records do provide a balance of substance, and that makes it easier to tolerate the crap.

On the substantive side of this record, we have several standouts. That’s another consistent thing about aldean; when he’s good, he’s pretty great. One highlight is the collaboration with Miranda Lambert called “Drowns the Whiskey,” taking the classic country heartbreak song and making it fresh and modern. I do wish we heard Miranda a bit more–I always prefer these things when the featured artist actually has some solo lines instead of just providing harmonies–but she’s actually distinctive, gets more than one or two obligatory lines, and imagine this, is actually a country star instead of some random pop princess. There’s also some pretty substantial steel in this track, which is always an added bonus.

The title track and “Blacktop Gone” frame this song in the heart of the album, and together, these three create the strongest portion of the record. “Blacktop Gone” and “Rearview Town” are mirror images of each other, each reflecting the same theme of leaving a one-horse town and each delivered in the same key, like two halves of the same thought. “Blacktop Gone” is the lighter version, with the narrator seeming to leave this town in good spirits simply because he’s looking for freedom and a new life. It seems to be something he’s always wanted to do, as if he never had any intention of staying here longer than was necessary. The title track is a more melancholy picture, with our narrator deeply affected by having to leave. He knows he can’t make it in this town, and memories also haunt him, but he still hates to leave it behind–“never thought I’d ever leave it.”

“Better at Being Who I Am” provides another great moment lyrically, as well as what feels like a very real moment for Aldean, depicting a character who is breaking it off with a lover because they’re just too different. He’s better on his side of the tracks and being himself; “The square peg, round hole things’ too hard.” “High Noon Neon” also portrays the classic country breakup song in a more modern way, much like “Drowns the Whiskey.” I can only guess why electronic production is his choice on these songs and really on much of this record, as he usually veers toward arena rock, but both of these tracks suffer from overproduction and from generally not sounding sonically like Jason aldean. That said, they’re still two of the strongest lyrically. The arena rock style is displayed on “I’ll Wait For You” to decent effect to convey the desperation in this particular song, and although I’m not the greatest “You Make it Easy” apologist, finding it more boring than anything, it can be counted on the more substantive half as well.

The thing about the other half of this and about Jason aldean as an artist is even when it’s not great, it’s mostly believable. Aldean sings with conviction and passion, and it’s hard to call him inauthentic. I know that word’s been misused and manipulated to death by mainstream and independent crowds alike, but the point is that Jason Aldean genuinely sounds like a guy who’s set foot in some rearview towns and gotten drunk on some tailgates. He appeals to a blue collar demographic in a way that actually seems real and borne of experience, as opposed to many of his mainstream peers. Instead of developing that into more stuff like the title track or “Amarillo Sky,” he generally chooses to spend about half his album on back roads. The result is that the majority of the rest of this becomes forgettable, interchangeable material, but it’s at least delivered with some personality and heart.

I have to single out the God-awful exceptions to this, though, which come in “Like You Were Mine” and “Gettin’ Warmed Up.” He attempts to rap in both of them, something someone should really tell him to never do again because as a singer, Jason’s got charisma, but as a rapper, he is shockingly bad. The latter, aside from the rap, is literally, right down to the title, a carbon copy of his former hit “Just Gettin’ started.” I actually put on that track and noticed that one of the lyrics there is “we’re just gettin’ warmed up.” We’re always saying mainstream country is out of ideas and rehashing old clichés and drumbeats, but this is literally like Aldean and his team took that song and said, “Hey, this worked once. Can we do this again?”

The other major problem, as I mentioned before, is the electronic production. It’s not even so much that it’s electronic production over more country sounds–although I wouldn’t object to more country sounds if he wanted to use them–it’s that it doesn’t sound like Aldean sonically. “I’ll Wait For You” is one of the few songs which sounds like him with its arena rock style. He traditionally hasn’t gravitated toward all these drum loops. They’re cluttered on “Better at Being Who I Am” and unnecessary on other songs. “Drowns the Whiskey,” which features all that steel and sings of heartbreak, might have bridged the mainstream/independent gap well if it sounded more like normal Aldean, but more traditional-minded fans probably won’t get past that loop. It all feels very trend-chasing, and it’s really kind of odd considering how consistently Jason Aldean this is in basically all other aspects.

So, in standard Jason Aldean style, he’s given us a mixed record. The good songs here are standouts, providing some quality and substance in the midst of the endless party. As for the endless party itself, at least for the most part it has some personality. If he could just refrain from rapping, there wouldn’t be anything God-awful here, just a lot of filler. But this is basically what you expect from a Jason Aldean release, and as I said before, if this were the worst that came out of the mainstream, we wouldn’t have much of a problem.

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The Good

The Horrible