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Concerts

Seeing Colter Wall Live is a Special Experience

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To the people that didn’t buy a ticket to see Colter Wall last night (3/21) at Oklahoma City’s Tower Theatre, somehow leaving that venue not sold out, you missed a great chance to see Wall in an intimate setting. I just saw a tweet not two days ago from someone upset because the show nearest them had already sold out. And to the people who still have the opportunity to grab a ticket to one of his upcoming shows, do it while you still can–because let me tell you, I believe there will come a time when he’s not playing intimate shows like this any longer. Take your chances while you can so that you can say you saw Colter Wall while he was still a rising talent, and before everyone else had jumped on that particular bandwagon.

You can say what you want about Wall, that he’s a niche performer, appealing to old souls stuck in the past with his songs of hopping trains and working in mines, sleeping in lonely motels and spending his days in prison for murdering his girlfriend. Even his choice of words comes from decades past. He counts his “greenbacks” instead of dollars and uses “drew myself up” instead of a more modern phrase like “picked myself up.” In “Kate McCannon,” it’s not, “I went down to the creek,” but rather, “I made for the creek.” Certainly, Colter Wall’s art calls to old souls and those longing for a different place and time.

But rather than making him a niche performer, there’s something about all of that which seems to be speaking to many people, drawing them in so that whenever he sings, people stop what they’re doing to hear every word. Originally, he was supposed to have a full band, but due to weather delays, only Colter Wall and his guitar graced our presence at Tower Theatre. And just like on the majority of his last album, that’s all he needed. Maybe it’s the remarkable voice which calls to mind Johnny Cash and seems to come directly out of the past, or maybe it’s the stories themselves, but whenever Colter Wall sings, people listen. This is not a listening room, meant for people to remain mostly quiet; spectators drink and talk and laugh, and they did so during opener Josh Morningstar’s set and between Colter’s songs. There was some talking during Wall’s set as well, but at times, we could have heard a pin drop, as if people did not want to miss any of what this Canadian-born storyteller had to say. The most any of us spoke was to sing along to his Oklahoma-appropriate closer, “UP Against the Wall Redneck Mother,” which I have to say is the best any one of these performers I’ve seen in 2018 has closed a show…but I digress.

With a voice like that, capturing people’s attention so unlike anything I can hope to put into words here, Colter Wall almost seems destined to sing tales of the past. I came away even less convinced of him needing to expand any horizons with his next effort–which is done, by the way–particularly in the way of production, since “Sleeping on the Blacktop” was actually much more enjoyable live with just him and his guitar. I can also say the same for “The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie.” Both of these came from his debut EP, Imaginary Appalachia, which, unlike his self-titled album, contained things like fiddles and more variety in production. These two songs seemed to fit Colter much more when they were stripped back, and I am looking forward to where he will go with his next album which he said will have a western feel and mentioned Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs as a record that inspired it. If this means his third studio effort will be some sort of ridiculous cross between his last album and the Marty Stuart record Way out West, I don’t have to tell you how much I am looking forward to this. I am only speculating about that, of course, but the new songs I heard from it are promising.

Go see this guy while you have the chance to see and hear him in an intimate setting because if Colter Wall is going to keep inflicting his voice upon unsuspecting crowds this way, you won’t have that chance much longer.

Best Live Songs: “Sleeping on the Blacktop,” “Thirteen Silver Dollars,” “Snake Mountain Blues,” “Kate McCannon,” “UP Against the Wall Redneck Mother”

Reviews

Single Review: Keith Urban’s “Coming Home” (ft) Julia Michaels)

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Rating: 0/10

Keith Urban seems hell-bent on removing all vestiges of dignity from his legacy by wasting his undeniable talent as a musician and songwriter on producing the laziest examples of shitty non-country music to grace our ears these past several years. And while I was not one who hated “Female” as vehemently as many, feeling that that did at least try to offer something meaningful and substantive, Urban’s complete forsaking of his signature guitar work in favor of electronic beats is without excuse. And now we have this new single, “Coming Home,” lacking in both sound and substance and proving to be one of Urban’s laziest efforts to date.

Yeah, we all know by now that Keith chose to rip off the classic riff to Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried,” which is its own form of country music blasphemy. It’s an honor I’m sure Merle is rolling over in his grave somewhere about having been bestowed. But at least they gave him credit. AT least they admitted they had no original thought here whatsoever, which is more than Thomas Rhett could say about his rip-off of “Chain Gang” commonly known as “Crash and Burn.”

But you know why they ripped off the Haggard riff? Because that’s literally the only memorable thing about this piece of shit. If not for that, none of us would be talking about it at all. It’s vapid and shallow lyrically, meant to be about coming home, but instead of taking you to a specific place with unique details like Scotty McCreery’s “Home in my Mind,” it opts for generic bullshit that ultimately says nothing. It mentions a place where people know you and repeats lines about a phone call from far away. It’s obviously trying to reach as broad an audience as possible and thus ultimately becomes disposable to everyone. Nothing here is imaginative, original, or creative. Keith Urban sounds bored and checked out vocally, and oh yeah, since the current trend is to feature a female pop star since that makes it look like country radio is achieving progress on the tomato front, we also have Julia Michaels for a brief appearance, sounding just as underwhelming. Add generic, electronic beats, a melody that’s forgettable and stale, and yeah, literally the only thing here that makes this song worthy of even a passing comment is the Merle Haggard riff. I guess this is genius marketing by Urban, elevating his completely forgettable, average song that’s not country and also not worth anything in the pop world, by adding a classic riff and therefore a story line.

This stuff is so disappointing from an artist like Keith Urban because he knows better. Instead of showing leadership in the genre, he’s selling out hard and ignoring his talents. Instead of letting go of his radio relevancy with grace, he’s sunk to the lowest points of his career. This song is an example of one of his laziest attempts to get a hit, and it just proves the lack of effort and talent it takes to get corporate country radio to play your single, and then to get all your gullible fans to buy this. Keith Urban fans should expect and demand more because Urban is capable of delivering it. And as for the Merle rip-off, it seems par for the course for an artist so determined to forsake any shred of original thought or creativity. But can we really blame him? When all your own ideas are shit, and your song is a shallow piece of crap that no one will remember 30 seconds from now, what choice do you have but to rip off the perfectly good, iconic idea of another?

Reviews

Album Review: Scotty McCreery–Seasons Change

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Rating: 5/10

Traditionalists and mainstream fans alike, recognize what Scotty McCreery has done here with this album release and the success of the lead single, “Five More Minutes.” Set aside for a moment any thoughts and feelings you may have about that single, or anything on this album, and think about the fact that McCreery has outsmarted a system that cast him out after he had barely finished high school. Take into account that for all the marketing and misuse of the term “outlaw,” that phrase was coined for people who went against the ways of Nashville and fought for creative control, making the music they wanted to make and being the artists they wanted to be. Often, people today are so enamored with the term “outlaw” that they overlook that definition in favor of propping up artists who sing about hard living as if it were a badge of honor. There are fans of so-called outlaw country that hate the mainstream and everything in it, anything that sounds modern or contemporary, to the point that some of this outlaw music has become a parody of itself, reliant on references of liquor and cocaine to make it seem authentic, until some of it has become as clichéd as the dirt roads and misogyny of the mainstream. These fans would never give a contemporary country artist like Scotty McCreery a second glance, and yet, it’s McCreery who has done one of the most outlaw things in Nashville in recent years by ignoring the system that killed his career and giving it second life, finding renewed success on country radio when most artists can’t find it once, and doing all this through Triple Tigers. Add to all this that he had a hand in writing all of these songs–no Nashville songwriting committee was forced on him, no compromises were made with a label in some ill-conceived effort to get a hit. Like the outlaws before him, Scotty McCreery did this his own way and with creative control, and he’s achieved remarkable success doing so. This is the record he wanted to make, and regardless of how you feel about it, that effect on the bigger picture is no less encouraging than the victories of Aaron Watson and Chris Stapleton.

Unfortunately, the record he wanted to make isn’t really that impressive.

If I had to describe this album in one word, it would be lukewarm. It’s got a few brighter spots, which we’ll get to, and mostly these come at the front and back of the record. The majority of the middle becomes interchangeable, blending into one forgettable, bland love song after another. It’s not to say that any one of these songs wouldn’t be fine on their own, and in fact, nothing here is really a bad track. But the sameness and lack of color really wears the album down. This is why I say it’s lukewarm; it’s not that any of these songs were bad, but it’s like they stopped thinking of ideas halfway through the record and started writing other versions of the same thing.

It’s also lukewarm in terms of production and instrumentation, as if it can’t really decide what it wants to be sonically. It’s certainly more traditional-leaning than much of today’s country radio, but that’s also not saying too much. I’d like to say that Scotty McCreery does a really nice job of blending the modern and the traditional, and occasionally he does, but really, it’s mostly contemporary. That in and of itself wouldn’t be a bad thing, but his voice, the voice we all came to know and love on American Idol, is well suited for more traditional tunes, and he never seems to explore that. With his creative latitude, and particularly with the way he is rumored to sing many classics at concerts, it’s really disappointing to see him not tap into this at least a little. I wasn’t expecting Keith Whitley reborn, but it would be nice if even one of these songs could actually be called more traditional than modern–not because I am a purist, but because that style suits McCreery.

He’s also selling himself short vocally, as his range is not utilized well at all; we fell in love with the twang and the bass, similar to Josh Turner, and these songs seem to keep him out of that part of his vocals entirely. That said, he lends a warmth and personality to some of these more generic tracks that certainly adds some color. So again, we’re back to the whole thing being lukewarm.

But still, even with all these problems weighing it down, Seasons Change manages to have some really nice moments. The title track and opener displays a double meaning, as it also seems to reflect the changes in his life and career over the past several years. I admittedly am not as blown away by “Five More Minutes” as many have been, and it’s definitely obvious someone is going to die about two lines in, but it’s the details in the verses before that which save it and make it still a really solid song. “Boys From Back Home” manages to avoid every problem with this album–well, except his vocal range–as it sounds like something we’d have heard on country radio in 2004 or so and speaks of nostalgia and teenage years in specific and heartfelt ways. It shows that a song like this doesn’t have to be a pointless cliché. It works because instead of going for generic, listastic details everyone can relate to, this song opts for referencing specific people in Scotty’s life and places in Carolina, so that even though there’s a universality in the theme, you know this song meant something to the singer. “Wherever You Are” also does a better job of blending the traditional and contemporary and is aided by a catchy melody and one of his most sincere vocal performances. And speaking of sincere, the easy album highlight is the closer, “Home in my Mind,” McCreery’s ode to Carolina while he’s on the road. There are references to Carolina sprinkled all throughout this record, a touch of the personal that Scotty McCreery was allowed to inflict upon this project, and they all seem to culminate in this song. Pick this one if you only choose to listen to one track.

It’s these flashes of potential and character that I wish marked the whole album. Scotty McCreery has done a monumental thing by achieving this level of success and creative control, particularly after he was kicked out of the industry. I am glad he was able to deliver the record he wanted to make, but I wish he had done more with this latitude. This record feels very safe and forgettable overall. As I said, there’s not a bad moment, but the majority, other than what I’ve highlighted, is just bland and uninteresting. McCreery is capable of more, and I wish he had exercised his creative freedom to realize that potential. It’s the album he wanted to make, but sadly, the album he wanted to make is pretty disappointing.

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Memorable Songs

Memorable Songs From Overlooked Albums: March 8th

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WE say that this feature appears semi-regularly, whenever enough songs are available to produce one, and this first one has been a bit long in coming this year. That’s really a good thing, as it means that most of what we’ve heard so far in 2018 has been good and deserving of a full review, and even some of this has only made it here out of a lack of inspiration on our part rather than a real lack of quality in the albums. For anyone who is new to the site or the feature, we place good songs here from mediocre albums, songs from albums we did not review out of deference to artists or time constraints, and songs from albums we just didn’t really have much to say about but still considered the album or artist worth spotlighting in some way. Most of these songs fall into the last category.

Josh Grider: “Less and Less”

Josh Grider is the exception to the above, as he falls into the mediocre category. This album was, in many places, simply bland and boring and without flavor or color. However, I have seen a host of varying opinions about it, and a lot of people seem to really enjoy it, so it seems ideal to place here and let you all draw your own conclusions. This one is a pretty decent breakup song with a melody that is catchy and a hook that’s smarter and more interesting than what you’ll find on much of this album.

Josh Grider: “Pictures Do”

As mentioned, one of the biggest drawbacks to Good People was the blandness and lack of color of it all, so it’s nice to see Grider really sounding heartfelt and emotional on this track about the value of pictures and memories.

Bonnie Montgomery: “No More”

Bonnie Montgomery and her album, Forever, inspired an idea for another post about which I have been in the process of piecing together my thoughts. This is an album that’s pleasant enough, floating by without making much of a mark, but not really offending you either. The sound on this is stellar, and for people that just want something to carry the “outlaw” flavor and enjoy lots of fiddle and steel, there really is a lot to enjoy here. It’s underwhelming in the writing, but it’s the vocals that bring this album resoundingly down. It’s for that reason that I choose a track like “No More” to highlight, because although there are better selections lyrically, this is the only one that works in spite of her lack of energy, or maybe the only one where she pays attention enough to her vocal power to make this one stand out and remain memorable.

Dusty Rust: “Arizona”

This is a case of featuring Dusty Rust and his album, Stolen Horse, in a better light here than in a full review. It’s a western album done similarly in style to Marty Stuart’s latest, and another song, “No One to Blame,” was also featured on January’s playlist. I could have picked several of these songs, and this would get the best review if I featured one of these, but the drawback is that it’s short. People hung up on ratings wouldn’t check out an album that deserves it because on a nine-track project, you can’t afford to only really enjoy six. This album gets a 6 if I review it, but it’s a 6 filled with promise and potential rather than disappointment. If you’re into stuff with a western theme and forward-thinking approach, check this guy out.

Ronnie Eaton: “Another War”

Ronnie Eaton’s concept album about a soldier returning home from war, known as The Hand That Mocked Them and the Heart That Fed, is something I can honestly say I have listened to many times and have absolutely nothing worthwhile to say about it. I respect the hell out of it more than I enjoy it, and I guess that’s why the proper words have never come for me. That said, it’s probably the one I’d most recommend to you all because I think it’s being underappreciated, and I can see the appeal for many. It also had a song featured on our January playlist, so I’ll put another one here.

John Oates: “Arkansas”

I debated whether to list this one at all, seeing as it’s a song featured on February’s playlist. But for people who don’t do the playlist thing or may otherwise be new to this, this is a surprisingly great song from yes, that guy from Hall & Oates. I’ll be the first to say I found the rest of his album completely unlistenable vocally, although the style was quite cool and bluesy, but this title track is a great song.

J.D. Wilkes: “Walk Between the Raindrops

What can I say to introduce this? J.D. Wilkes is a strange guy, and Fire Dream is a strange album. I don’t even know who I’m recommending it to because I don’t know if any of you would enjoy something this bizarre. It’s almost theatrical in nature, as if Wilkes took elements of really old forms of country and then infused them with something modern and theatrical and weird. I can’t say I necessarily enjoyed this, but there is no doubt that it was forward-thinking in its approach and very interesting instrumentally. And the qualifier for this little feature is memorable, which it certainly was. Who knows who it may resonate with, but here you go.

Brandon Jenkins: “Other Side of the Wall”

And now we come to some of the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to write.
Many of you have followed the updates on Brandon Jenkins and his heart surgery and subsequent complications. I won’t lie and say that I was a huge Jenkins fan; rather, I was largely unfamiliar with much of his music and only lukewarm on the new album, save for a couple excellent songs which I’m about to feature here. But he was too young to leave us and has made a lasting mark on the world of Texas and Red Dirt music.
The new album, Tail Lights in a Boomtown, was released in the midst of his health issues and just days before his surgery, and I held off commenting during this time, simply following the updates and grieving with the rest of the Red Dirt community when he passed away last Friday (Mar. 2nd.) The record has a completely different meaning when you listen now, as if Brandon were experiencing premonitions of what was to come. It is sometimes painful to listen to. So, rather than give a review to his final album, I want to highlight the two gems I found and maybe give other people who also weren’t as familiar with him a gateway into the music of the one known as the Red Dirt Legend.
This first is about the woman on the other side of the wall from his apartment, as he understands the private hell she’s going through even though they’ve never met.

Brandon Jenkins: “Fade to Black”

And in the tradition of saving the best song for last here, this is both the best song here of Brandon Jenkins’ album and the best one on this feature. And this one goes even deeper now because it’s certainly one that carries the undertones and foreshadowing of what would happen to Jenkins. RIP, Red Dirt legend.

Commentary

Dear Award Shows: Stop Making Chris Stapleton Your Token Traditionalist

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Chris Stapleton has done to country award shows what Clemson college football did to Alabama–seemed new and fresh for a second, until you began to hate Clemson with the same equal passion you hated Alabama with before Clemson came along.

On November 4th, 2015, Chris Stapleton shocked the world at the CMA’s when, out of nowhere and with virtually no industry support, he won three awards, including Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. His debut album, Traveller, rocketed to the top of the iTunes charts as people sought to find out who this unknown bearded country traditionalist with a voice infused with soul could possibly be. Add to all that, his performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” with Justin Timberlake was one of the most memorable award show events in recent history and helped to make him an overnight superstar. Two days later, I wrote a piece entitled Who the Hell is Chris Stapleton: Answering the Question in the Minds of Millions of Sam Hunt Fans, an explanation that basically, the CMA voters knew what many fans and traditionalists had known all along, that Chris Stapleton had talent and potential, and he only needed a chance to be heard in order to fully realize that potential.

Fast forward to 2018, and Stapleton’s selling out arenas with almost no radio support. All three of his albums have sold remarkably well and regularly sit atop the Billboard album charts. In an era where streaming is king, Chris Stapleton’s selling records. In a time when country stars in the mainstream rely nearly exclusively on radio, Stapleton’s proven it’s not the only viable format. And best of all, he’s proving this all with quality music, and music that is somewhat traditional-leaning, if infused with blues and Southern rock at times.

But at this point, his nominations and wins at these award shows have become predictable, and we’re all going to become sick of Stapleton sooner rather than later. I was afraid of this in November at the CMA’s when I cautioned them to add more traditionalists, and it’s come to fruition with the ACM’s. “Whiskey and You,” while a great song, came from his 2015 debut album and had absolutely no right to be nominated for this year’s ACM Song of the Year. Instead of opening the door for other traditional and independent artists to walk through, Stapleton’s become the token traditionalist, nominated and winning to keep our crowd happy. Sure, he’s obviously better than the rest of the garbage the ACM throws out here, and the ACM is a joke at best these days anyway, but where the historic wins of Stapleton were once seen as a great stepping stone for other deserving artists not molded by country radio and the mainstream format, now they just seem as tired and predictable as the wins of FGL once were for Vocal Duo. And when you take into account the other crap, you still root for Chris Stapleton–because next to them, he deserves to win, and not only that, he deserves to win by miles. But he’s not the only artist out there who deserves recognition.

Furthermore, if he’s going to continue to win awards automatically now, this diminishes the value of the awards he actually deserves to win. It’s like what we’ve seen happen with Miranda Lambert; we are sick of her winning Female Vocalist of the Year because she’s the only token female these establishments will recognize, so that when she did deserve a win for an album cycle like that of The Weight of These Wings, we actually wondered if she wouldn’t get it this year because Carrie Underwood would beat her out simply from years of spite from Carrie Underwood fans. Miranda was deserving of the award at the CMA’s, but it hardly seemed significant when she had won the same award for doing virtually nothing in years past.

I don’t want to see it become this way with Chris Stapleton. When he won all those awards at the 2015 CMA’s, we all hailed it as a turning point for the state of country music–and for Stapleton himself, it has been, as he’s managed to become a star with virtually zero help from radio. But for the rest of the industry, it has done little, and he’s becoming nothing more than the token traditionalist.

I like Chris Stapleton. I think he deserves his success. I think the CMA took a huge step when it chose to give a deserving artist a chance in 2015, and because of the willingness of that organization to vote for someone who didn’t fit the normal mainstream mold, an artist’s life and career was changed forever. But it can’t stop there. This has to be a foundation, and Chris Stapleton has to be the first of many artists to receive this opportunity for it to signal any kind of true change. And right now, he’s starting to seem like an anomaly. Let’s change that before he becomes a cliché.