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Commentary

Country Exclusive is Back

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Well, after a hiatus that wasn’t really meant to happen at all, much less to become so extended, I am happy to return to writing. Thanks to everyone who reached out to me either here or on Twitter; I was humbled by the love shown for CE and for me personally. It is a long and unnecessary and somewhat ongoing story that has kept me from writing for so long, and I’ll try to prevent it from suspending my writing again, certainly for this length of time.

I hope to catch up with 2019 albums, but I would like to wrap up 2018 a little. The year was never meant to end like that, and everything feels a bit unfinished. There were so many great albums last year, including a few I did not get the chance to write about; Jamie Lin Wilson’s was one of the best of the year, and I regret not getting to review it. I can’t tell you exactly how the rankings would have gone at the end of the year. Even at the midyear mark, I refused to rank albums because so many were so close and so good. I can tell you, however, that Country Exclusive’s 2018 Album of the Year is The Tree by Lori McKenna, and if any of you have failed to give that record a proper listen, you’ll only be helping yourself by rectifying that. I cannot even begin to narrow down the many great songs that would have been in contention, so there is no definite Song of the Year.

At the beginning of 2018, I set a goal to attend twelve live shows and write about them for CE. The end result was that I went to eleven, not counting a second Colter Wall show in November and a Jason Eady show in July because I had already written about Eady in 2017. The last two artists I saw were Tyler Childers and Steve Earle, both in December. I fully intended to write about those two shows, Steve Earle’s being one of the best I have seen in 2018 and really ever. Along with the year-end lists, I had considered writing a recap/conclusion of my experiences with live music in 2018. I may still do that if you guys are interested, but maybe it’s too far after the fact to be relevant.

I am trying to catch up with early 2019 releases, but if there is anything you think I may be overlooking, please let me know. As always, I look forward to sharing and discovering more great music with you all!

Commentary

Thirteen Observations from the 2018 CMA awards

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Last night’s CMA Awards definitely started out flat and uninteresting, but there were several highlights throughout the evening, especially in the second half of the show. Here are some random notes and observations, in no particular order.

1. Despite the historic, record-breaking, ludicrous run of “Meant to Be,” the CMA chose Chris Stapleton’s “Broken Halos” as Single of the Year. Despite the Stapleton wins becoming considerably stale, the refusal to reward “Meant to Be” for “jumping into country” is a mark of leadership by the CMA, a mark that Billboard has failed to set. This is the CMA drawing a boundary, similar to its denial of Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” in 2017. It’s good to see at least some gatekeeping still exists in the industry.

2. And about Chris Stapleton–I am starting to feel like a broken record about this, and I like Stapleton, but he has become a token name just like Miranda Lambert. “Broken Halos” won both Song and Single of the Year, and it’s a fine song, but honestly not worthy of either distinction. Stapleton is becoming an automatic winner for Male Vocalist in the same way that Lambert has been for Female vocalist.

3. Speaking of which, Carrie Underwood won Female Vocalist of the Year, and although her new album is definitely her worst so far, she deserved this over Miranda Lambert.

4. In a victory for women, artists ignored by radio, and songwriters of substance, Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour is your 2018 CMA Album of the Year. This is well-deserved, and although controversial for many, it still symbolizes a victory regardless of your thoughts and feelings on the record itself.

5. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are great, but this year brought us their most boring, flat monologue to date. “A star is Bored” just bored me. One memorable moment during the monologue, however, came when Paisley remarked that 2018 has been a “great year for men in country music,” and Underwood responded with, “yeah, finally!” It’s good to see this issue at least being addressed by the CMA, if only in comedic fashion.

6. Old Dominion, Dan + Shay, and Thomas Rhett are all still useless and added nothing to the evening.

7. Say what you want about Midland, but they turned in one of the best performances of the night, paying tribute to the Bandit with “Eastbound and Down.” Rare, lovely moment of traditional country on the CMA stage.

8. Pistol Annies brought another actual country moment, with a fun rendition of “Got my Name Changed Back.” Hopefully, this will help the radio single.

9. Good to see Brad Paisley return with new music, and again, to see actual country, with “Bucked Off,” which sounds like a George Strait tribute.

10. Maren Morris managed to hold her own well in the Stapleton collaboration, and as someone who criticized her 2017 CMA performance, I will say she pleasantly surprised me.

11. And speaking of collaborations, Ricky Skaggs arrived on the stage to school everyone about true country and bluegrass. Probably the best moment of the evening.

12. Garth brooks’ love song to Trisha, world premiered on the CMA stage, is boring. Good on Garth for getting the CMA to allow him his own choice of song, and points for coming out with just his guitar as well. I just wish I enjoyed the actual song.

13. Your 2018 CMA Entertainer of the Year is Keith Urban, which is ludicrous on many levels–Keith seemed as shocked by the pronouncement as I was, and I am disgusted that he is being rewarded for something as horrible as Graffiti U.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments on the CMA Awards below!

Reviews

Album Review: Pistol Annies–Interstate Gospel

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Rating: 7/10

It’s been a long five years since the last Pistol Annies album, enough time for each of the Annies to record two solo projects of their own. The Annies are good for the mainstream, and it’s great to see them return, for country music in general as well as for the fans who have been starved for new material for so long. As for Interstate Gospel, it’s not as immediately or as inherently captivating as the group’s first two records, but these songs grow on you and get better with each new listen, revealing subtleties that weren’t as often present on their previous efforts.

The instrumentation is definitely better on this album. “Got my Name Changed Back” offers extended dobro and electric guitar solos, and “Sugar Daddy” takes a long time getting to the point with drums and bluesy guitar licks before Miranda Lambert ever sings the opening note. The title track is also a standout instrumentally, with the piano unleashed to add to the gospel feel of the song. It feels like some of the polish from their previous records was abandoned, and that really suits all of the Annies, especially Ashley Monroe, whose voice soars on these songs and reminds us again that much of the production of Sparrow just wasn’t flattering to her at all.

The songwriting is definitely a strength of this album. Sometimes it’s in a clever one-liner like “even old Moses was a basket case” or “Jesus is the bread of life, without Him you’re toast,” both in the title track. There’s the irony in “Best Years of my Life” which perfectly illustrates the plight of this character–these are supposed to be her best years, filled with love and happiness, but instead she spends her days bored and getting drunk or high to “try to drown this worthlessness.” And the honesty in the writing is unflinching, from the portrait of the character in “Cheyenne,” burned by love and coldhearted as a result, spending her nights in bars and casually breaking men’s hearts, to the grim self-reflection in “Milkman”–“If Mama would have loved the milkman, maybe she wouldn’t judge me.” “Masterpiece” is beautiful melodically and lyrically, and the Annies made a smart decision by having Miranda Lambert sing lead for the entire song, as her emotion is pouring out in every syllable. You can sense that this track, like several others on the record, is indeed very personal to Lambert.

It’s hard to say whether this is a feature or a flaw, but this album does feel more Lambert-influenced than their first two. It suits these songs, for this record feels very much like Miranda’s story, or at least a story that started as hers and became something relatable to the others as well. But there’s also something special about the songs where all three women sing a verse, where there’s no true lead, and the selections feel unlike anything we would get from any of their solo albums. If you were hoping for more from Presley or Monroe, you might be a little disappointed by Interstate Gospel. But it’s hard to second-guess the decisions when Miranda Lambert turns in performances like “Masterpiece” and “Cheyenne,” bearing her heart on her sleeve for us all to hear.

This showcasing of Lambert, however, can contribute to some vocal issues as well, particularly from Angaleena Presley. The harmonies are beautiful as always, but Presley sounds checked out on much of her solo parts, with the exception being her lovely performance of “5 Acres of Turnips.” This song doesn’t really feel like it fits the narrative of the album, but it’s a great track and certainly Presley’s strongest. Maybe it’s her strongest simply because it doesn’t fit the narrative and isn’t part of Lambert’s story first. Angaleena also sounds like she’s having fun on the title track, and this one is helped along by Monroe and mostly by the vibrant, energetic instrumentation behind them.

As for Ashley Monroe, the only song where she takes the lead is “Leavers Lullaby,” and honestly, I’m just not sure what to make of this. It’s overproduced and one instance where there’s definitely too much polish. That said, the songwriting is great, and she sings it beautifully; it’s just a shame that it ends so quickly. This is her only lead song, and it feels far too short. There certainly could have been another verse, and there absolutely could have been more Ashley Monroe on this album. That said, she shines on so many of her verses, perhaps most notably in “Best Years of my Life.”

This record doesn’t immediately grab you in the same way as the Annies’ first two, brimming with humor and fun and badass personas. That’s still a part of the record; in fact, “Sugar Daddy” is basically “Hell on Heels” 2.0. But this is a more mature, thoughtful album from the group, taking more time to reveal its beauty but offering some of the best material from the Annies so far. There are some vocal issues, and often, this album feels more like a Miranda Lambert breakup record helped along by her sisters than anything, but sometimes, that kind of kinship produces the best and most honest reflections. Not necessarily the album we may have been expecting from the Pistol Annies, but a strong one and a solid addition to their discography.

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Reviews

Album Review: Colter Wall–Songs of the Plains

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Rating: 6/10

Colter Wall could be a timeless voice of this generation, and I believe he will be. When I first heard his voice, coming straight out of the past and echoing the ghost of Johnny Cash, I got chills. And his stories match his voice; he weaves tales of hopping trains and plowing fields with a natural ease, and not dated by his language but rather enhanced by it, for his turns of phrase would seem more forced if he modernized them, a direct contrast to so many of his peers who seem to choose their words carefully and intentionally to evoke days gone by. But unlike so many of these–Joshua Hedley and Zephaniah O’Hora come to mind immediately–Colter’s not trying to revive classic country. He’s not trying to bring back the outlaw era, an exercise so worn out by now that the effort to be an outlaw has become a cliché. Rather, Colter Wall goes even beyond that, seeking to keep alive the oldest forms of country and folk music, going back to the days of Wooddy Guthrie and Roger Miller for his inspiration and preserving those primitive styles and traditions in his songwriting.

Songs of the Plains seems like a natural progression for Wall, an album made in tribute to his prairie homeland in Canada and featuring some traditional tunes from his home country as well as Colter’s originals. The idea is fresh as well, keeping Colter firmly within the parameters of what he does best while also dispelling the notion created for some by his last album that he could only sing about these things for so long and in so many ways before it became stale and uninteresting. Perhaps it is the power and magic of his voice, or perhaps it’s because people have been so starved for this sound and in some cases have never been exposed to it at all, but there’s no doubt that Colter Wall’s music is resonating with many and opening windows to the past. There was the concern that he’d be a niche performer, but that niche has made him unique and seems to be what many have been longing to hear, even if they didn’t quite know it themselves. Songs of the Plains doubles down on all of it, more sparse and primitive in numerous places than Wall’s previous efforts, and it should have been a fantastic listen.

Indeed, it could have been a fantastic listen. Certainly the opener, “Plain to See Plainsman,” stands out as a brilliant ode to the prairie and starts off the record in fine fashion. Colter Wall’s love for his homeland is on full display here, and it’s one of the highlights of the whole album. “Thinkin’ on a Woman” is an excellent moment as well, a classic country heartbreak song that should have been written fifty years ago when it would have been a mainstream hit. As for the covers, “Calgary Round-Up” was a great choice, and “Night Herding Song” fits in well after it, almost like an outro. It’s hard even to distinguish these as covers given how naturally they work on this album. And then there’s “Manitoba Man,” an original which comes out of nowhere near the end of the record to remind us all that Colter Wall’s voice is not just special for its timbre but also for its ability to capture raw emotion. I think this one may be overlooked among the other songs, and that would be a shame, for it’s definitely a standout here and in Wall’s young discography.

But too often, this album is just a scattershot, frustrating listen. “Wild Dogs” is the worst misstep, and although not Colter’s original work, it was a terrible choice for a cover and just makes for a very weird, unnecessary moment. The song itself is just awful and strange, but it’s not fair to dwell on the writing as much as the choice by Wall to cover it here. AS for Colter’s own writing, the lyrics are mostly strong, although some songs feel underdeveloped. “The Trains are Gone” is just boring and forgettable, and “John Beyers (Camaro Song”) just feels too short, as if Colter stopped writing in the middle of the story. Also, you can find the same melodic line in “saskatchewan in 1881” that was present in “Bald Butte” on his debut record. I enjoy both these songs, and this might be more easily excused if the same melodic line didn’t come up again in “The Trains are Gone.” It just seems like such a lazy songwriting decision and one which Colter Wall is better than making.

There are some lazy production decisions as well. On the surface, the production seems perhaps more interesting than that of his first full album, with harmonica and steel adding color to some of these tracks. Many criticized the production of Wall’s self-titled record as being too plain, too sparse, and even boring. Personally, I felt Dave Cobb did well by getting out of the way and letting the songs speak for themselves, and I enjoy the fact that Colter often needs nothing more than his voice and a guitar to bring those songs to life. But when you’re relying so heavily on a voice and guitar, the guitar work needs to be better. There is noticeable, constant buzzing of the strings in several of these songs, most obviously in “John Beyers (Camaro Song.”) This song, as mentioned, also seems too short, and the whole thing just comes across as unfinished and rushed. The buzzing guitar strings return in “Wild dogs” and in “Thinkin’ on a Woman” and really, in places all over this record. This is something you hear inevitably with acoustic guitars, and hearing it on occasion can even add to the live feel of a song, as the imperfection brings the human touch to the recording. But it is so constant in some of these songs that it becomes distracting, and the obvious question is why did Colter wall accept these recordings as the final versions he wanted to send out to the public? Once again, he is just better than this.

This record is ultimately just not up to the standards Colter Wall has set for himself. The idea behind it was fantastic, and there are some excellent songs on this album. “Plain to See Plainsman,” “Manitoba Man,” and “Thinkin’ on a Woman” particularly stand out as being timeless additions to Wall’s discography. But the album as a whole just feels rushed and underdeveloped. It’s a collection of little things, but all those small decisions add up to a finished product that seems unfinished. Clean this record up a bit, and it improves significantly. Just a little more care was needed to make this album what it could have been. The potential and talent in Colter Wall remain endless, but unfortunately this album as a whole falls short of that potential.

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Album Review: Eric Church–Desperate Man

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Rating: 9/10

At this point in his career, we all know that Eric Church isn’t really a country artist. His music is and always has been more correctly labeled as roots rock. But that’s not really the point anymore with Church, unless perhaps you’re a firm traditionalist who is only interested in music soaked with fiddle and steel. The bigger point with Eric Church is that in a mainstream full of compromise, he remains his own man, and in a world of drum machines and watered down lines, his records are organic sonically and intelligent lyrically. It may not be very country–although the songwriting on this record and even the instrumentation in a few places certainly can be argued as such–but Desperate Man is firmly and unashamedly roots music, with bluesy interludes and extended guitar solos, and radically different from the majority of major label albums, certainly different from those albums that are still somewhat radio-supported. Eric Church has not abandoned radio, or maybe it would be more accurate to say radio has not abandoned Eric Church, but you get the feeling listening to this album that airplay is a secondary concern, the primary ones being appealing to his fans, and most importantly, doing whatever he damned well pleases.

The rootsy, organic nature of this record is so refreshing. It’s not experimental to the point it loses sight of itself like much of The Outsiders, but the instruments are allowed to breathe more so than on Church’s last record, Mr. Misunderstood. Desperate Man balances the feel of those two albums well, finding and keeping the best elements from each of them. This record finds Church more sure of himself and his sound than ever before, and although there are varying influences, it feels less like the aimless wanderings of The Outsiders than just simply trying to correctly interpret each song and capture the right mood and style to fit the lyrics. He’s never in a hurry to get to the point, often meandering through various chords and guitar licks before settling into the groove of a song. The album opener, “The snake,” introduces the record with over a minute of bluesy guitar picking before any other instruments join the party. “Heart Like a Wheel” wanders through dissonant chords and arpeggios before sliding into its groove and selecting a key, and “Solid” features almost an instrumental prelude of drums and electric guitar flourishes ahead of the actual song. These are little things, but they really enhance the record, giving it a cohesive, continuing feel all the way through and further stressing the point that this isn’t your typical mainstream record full of artificial drumbeats and electronic sounds. These are actual musicians playing actual instruments and giving the album a bit of a live feel.

And you can say Eric Church isn’t country, but it’s hard to classify a song like “Jukebox and a Bar” as anything else. Sure, crying steel is replaced with electric guitar licks, but this is your classic country heartbreak song about drowning sorrows in a bottle. “Some of It” and “Hippie Radio” feature prominent acoustic guitar and country songwriting, the former detailing all the lessons life teaches you on the journey, and the latter being a story song revolving around the radio and how the different songs became the soundtrack of the narrator’s life, from driving around with his dad to starting a family of his own years later. Both of these could be accidental radio hits as well, fitting the format without compromising anything lyrically. “Solid” is another one that’s very country thematically; basically, think of a remake of Dierks Bentley’s “I Hold On.”

Vocally, Church just reaches a different level on this album. It’s like all the passion that we knew existed and which came out from time to time on his previous records finally reaches its full potential here. He slays the title track vocally, doing great justice to the songwriting of Ray Wylie Hubbard and singing with the same kind of fierceness and intensity that you can imagine Hubbard employing. This one is both better and worse in the context of the entire album–better because it fits the mood of the whole thing so well and worse because it’s not really a standout of the record. Church’s vocals are also on fine display in “Hangin’ Around,” the least country but also the most infectious tune on the album. He does a nice job building throughout “Heart Like a Wheel,” a song about opposites attracting that’s infused with some blues and soul. “Higher Wire” nearly stretches his range too far; it still works, but it admittedly may have worked better one key lower. Still, the strain goes well with the lyrics about this love that’s addicting and out of control.

Listening to this album, you keep waiting for that one obvious commercial single, but it doesn’t come. There’s no drop in quality lyrically and no compromise in the sound. Not every song is fantastic, but every song is good, and each belongs on the album. Desperate Man is eleven tracks and thirty-seven minutes long, with no filler and avoiding the mainstream trend to cram in as many songs as possible. Not only did Eric Church make the record he wanted to make, but the record he wanted to make was a damn good one. We should be both shocked and thrilled that this came out of the mainstream in 2018 and recognize it as a victory for artistic freedom and growth as well as one for organic roots music and quality songwriting. As for Church himself, this album signifies him finding his place vocally and sonically, releasing a record that not only stretches boundaries but also knows what it wants to be and carries out that vision well. This may not be for everyone, but again, that’s not really the point. It’s the album you want from Eric Church, the best of his career and certainly the strongest to come out of the mainstream this year.

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