All posts by Megan

Random Reflections

Reflecting on: Dixie Chicks–Wide Open Spaces

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Welcome to our first Random Reflections, a new weekly feature in which Brianna or I will discuss an album–or perhaps a song on occasion, but more than likely an album–from country’s past that we would recommend. These are not reviews; anything we would put here at all would probably be an 8 or higher anyway. There are no rules other than that the music being discussed has to have been released prior to June 2015, the birth month of Country Exclusive. We are not going through “classic” albums, and there’s no rule on style or era either, these are just simply a way for us to highlight more music, and for us and our readers to discover older material and become more acquainted with country music’s history. With all that said, I’d like to reflect on one of the first country records I ever owned, the debut album by the Dixie Chicks.

Release Date: January 27, 1998
Style: mostly traditional country
Who Might Like This Album: traditional country fans, fans of Maddie & Tae, maybe fans of Pistol Annies or other all-female groups
Standout Tracks: “I’ll Take Care of You,” “Am I the Only One,” “Tonight, the Heartache’s on Me,” “You Were Mine,” “Loving arms,” “Once You’ve Loved somebody”
Reflections: Well, if you haven’t gotten into the Dixie Chicks before now, you definitely should. Fly is probably more well-known, and Home is certainly more critically acclaimed, but this debut started it all for them, and it’s one of the first country albums I ever fell in love with. The harmonies of the Dixie Chicks are unmatched; the only thing I’ve ever heard come close are those of Maddie & Tae, and that’s a beautiful thing. The lyrics in some of these tracks are outstanding, and it’s traditional pretty much throughout. They weren’t afraid to explore sensitive themes either–“I’ll Take Care of You,” one of the highlights of their short career, deals with a same-sex relationship, and that’s something not seen often in country. This album was made at a time when good songwriting mattered and when it wasn’t so hard for women to be successful in the mainstream. Country might be much different today if the Dixie Chicks hadn’t been blacklisted, but that’s another story. For now, go check out this album and their other work.

Listen to Album

Let us know what you think about this feature, and share your own reflections in the comments below!

Reviews

Single Review: Thomas Rhett’s “Craving You” (supposedly featuring Maren Morris)

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Country rating: 0/10
Pop Rating: 2/10

New music from Thomas Rhett, just what I’ve been waiting for. To be fair, almost anything could be better than the God-awful experience that was Tangled UP, an exercise in being everything but country while simultaneously insulting as many other genres of music as possible with the shit music it produced. Well, “Craving You” is better than that, if only marginally. It’s not completely terrible as a pop song, but I dare you to show me one shred of country influence in this song. Sonically, it’s sort of like Keith Urban’s “The Fighter,” as it has an 80’s pop sound. Lyrically, it’s yet another song about love and sex being compared to alcohol and drugs, so even if it’s not blatantly horrific, it’s bland and forgettable even as a pop song. You would think the inclusion of Maren Morris might make it at least bearable, and in the few lines she gets, her vocal ability does put that of Thomas Rhett to shame, but that’s probably why she doesn’t get more lines–and oh yeah, she’s female–so basically, her part in this amounts to nothing more than that of a glorified backup singer. It’s not featuring her, it’s more like “with a cameo appearance by Maren Morris.” But let’s slap a female name in the credits and that way, when this thing becomes a #1 hit, the programmers and industry executives can point to this as a step forward for women and feel better about themselves.
The best things I can say about it are that it’s better than his previous album and that it doesn’t immediately strike me as being ripped off. Of course, if it were ripped off, it might be better; we all know Thomas Rhett’s original output is far worse than when he destroys the work of other talented artists, “Vacation” being the horrendous exception…but I digress. IN short, it’s a bad pop song being sent to country radio because it couldn’t survive in the genre where it belongs, and with a few insignificant lines for a token female to make the whole thing seem like progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFnUCUI8Vg&t=107s

Reviews

Song Review: Jason Eady’s “Waiting to Shine”

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Rating: 9/10

Texas/traditional country artist Jason Eady has released a third song from his upcoming self-titled album, due out April 21st. “Why I Left Atlanta” was good and “Barabbas” was excellent, so I was really eager to see another one ahead of the record.
“Waiting to shine” is a more upbeat track than the previous two, and the instrumentation is fun and catchy. It’s brighter than most of what we got on the outstanding Daylight and Dark, and that’s refreshing to hear from Eady. However, the lyrics are really thought-provoking and still display the great songwriting present in much of his prior work. This song is about words: “words are like diamonds, the best ones are the hardest to find.” In reference to words in songs, Jason states that “finders are keepers, and I’ll take all the keepers I can find.” It’s a really interesting and true assessment of the power of words and music. But the right words in speech can also be powerful too, as the second verse illustrates. Sometimes words can make all the difference, and Eady notes that the best ones are out there somewhere just “waiting to shine.” This is another great track from Jason Eady, and this album is looking very promising so far.

Commentary

Thank You Country Perspective

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If you haven’t heard yet, Josh of Country Perspective announced yesterday via Twitter that the blog’s hiatus would probably be permanent. I acknowledged it on Twitter, but it wasn’t nearly all I wanted to say.

Country Perspective, and Josh and Derek, helped make this possible for me. When I was all but converted to a pop fan in late 2014 and early 2015, I found that blog and started hearing names like Jason Eady, Courtney Patton, Lindi Ortega…I could go on, but they are part of the reason I came back to country in the first place. When I grew passionate about doing this myself and started this blog in June 2015, they encouraged me. Josh and I didn’t always agree, but that was fine; when I posted a piece about genre lines in response and somewhat rebuttal to one of his, he posted it on Twitter, of all things. He was good like that, encouraging discussion and differences of opinion. Even if we differed somewhat in opinion, he was good at fostering that, and that’s something that not all blogs and writers strive for. He inspired me in a lot of ways, but that one has affected me the most.

Josh and Derek still continued to introduce me to music even after I started writing, indeed right up to the hiatus of Country Perspective. In addition to the artists I mentioned, I have them to thank for Kasey chambers, Sam Outlaw, and probably others I’m forgetting. They were both passionate about music and writing, and Josh, I can understand how that passion didn’t translate into running a blog. But thank you for sharing that passion with all of us.

Lastly, I want to thank Josh in particular, and this is a bit of a personal thing. He cared so much about his readers, and for me, that meant even more than it probably did to most. I remember asking on occasion what pictures or iTunes reviews said on his posts because my screen reader couldn’t read them. I remember him describing them; it got to where commenters would do that too, but it started with Josh. at one time, he had a podcast and said he would consider putting it on iTunes if that were more accessible than SoundCloud. I was one of his readers; yes, he may have, and probably did have, other blind readers, but because of one he listened. That’s not something you find everywhere, particularly with someone who has so many readers and commenters, and I am grateful for that.

So it makes me sad to say this, but for now, this is farewell to Country Perspective. Thanks for what you did for all of us. You will be missed.

Reviews

Review: Lindi Ortega–Til the Goin’ gets Gone EP

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Rating: 8/10

Lindi Ortega left Nashville, and nearly country music, behind after realizing that despite her awards and critical acclaim, she still couldn’t pay her rent. Eventually, she ended up at the piano writing what she believed would be her final song, “Final Bow.” But as it so often does, music came out of these struggles, and “Final Bow” ended up as the first song on Ortega’s new EP. And even though it’s only 4 songs, there’s that common thread of pain and hope running through this EP that gives this project a cohesive feel generally not possible, and definitely not easy, with EPs.

The title track opens the EP, speaking of going on despite all of life’s hardships “til the goin’ gets gone.” Perhaps the line that sums up this whole EP and Ortega’s frame of mind is “and I hope someday they find me, see that I was on my way, when I lay down by the side of the road where I made my grave.” The sparse arrangements here and throughout the EP really add to it, and let the world-weariness in Lindi’s voice shine through. This is an excellent song, and it’s the one you should pick if you only choose one. Next is “What a Girls Gotta Do,” another heartbreaking song in which Lindi sings about a stripper who can’t pay her bills and had no choice but to take this job: “it might make your daddy cry, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to survive.” This is another one you should absolutely hear. Ortega’s cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting ‘Round to die” fits the EP perfectly; this is the first time I’ve heard a woman sing this song, and she really pulls it off well. “Final Bow” closes the EP, and because there are only four songs, this brings it down as a whole from a ten. My problems with this one are, although the lyrics are great and it speaks to Lindi personally, it’s almost so personal that it doesn’t really connect. She wrote it as her farewell to music and didn’t think it would see the light of day, and even though it fits with the tone of the album, it doesn’t have the universality that makes “Til the Goin’ gets Gone” stand out. Also, the other songs featured acoustic guitar, and this one switches to piano which I didn’t really feel worked for it and interrupted the feel of the EP.

It’s a shame that Lindi Ortega went through so much in her life to inspire this music, to make every word on this short project sound real and borne of pain and struggle. But music is meant to be real and relatable, and through her hardships, she produced something beautiful. I absolutely recommend checking out this EP, and I hope we’ll be seeing more from her in the future.

Listen to EP