Tag Archives: Willie Nelson

Reviews

Album Review: George Strait–Honky Tonk Time Machine

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Rating: 7/10

Just as a steaming bowl of soup has an understood and unparalleled power to heal and comfort us when we’re sick, a George strait release is a cure for what ails country music, a moment of relief and comfort in these troubled times. When you hear that a new Strait album is on the way, you don’t get worried, as is the case with so many mainstream artists, that he’ll sell out or start chasing trends or take a last stab at radio relevancy with some embarrassing, ill-advised single in lieu of aging gracefully and making the music he wants to make. You don’t worry that he’ll compromise his sound or his principles for cash because he doesn’t need to. He doesn’t need to court radio and younger audiences either; he’s built up a fan base too strong for him to care about any of that. In fact, the only real concern with an artist like strait is complacency, especially after such a long career. But King George hasn’t been complacent at all; he’s continued to select great songs and has also written more and more of his own material in recent years, churning out album after album of substantive songs and showing no signs of slowing down. Honky Tonk Time Machine isn’t a reinvention of the wheel, but that’s never been George Strait’s goal. Like Strait himself, the album is solid, steady, and undeniably, refreshingly country, adding another quality record to his extensive discography.

Like most George strait albums, this is a collection of solid, straightforward tunes with some exceptional moments. The high point of this particular record comes in Strait’s cover of “Old Violin,” a song originally written and performed by Johnny Paycheck. Personally, I’ve been hoping for a studio version of this since I heard him sing it live back in June. It’s a great fit for George vocally, and he really sells it well in terms of emotion. “Sometimes Love” is another strong ballad, this one exploring what happens when someone takes a casual relationship too seriously and accidentally falls in love. The title track is the highlight of the livelier selections, one of those songs that’s just fun to listen to and which would sound great in the kind of bar the song describes. “Codigo” is in a strange position, given that it’s essentially a commercial for the tequila Strait chose to invest in, but it’s actually one of the better songs here both lyrically and melodically. I’d argue that the more pandering reference to the tequila brand comes in “Every Little Honky Tonk Bar,” as they could have chosen any number of liquor brands to “do a shot” and conveniently chose to throw this one in. That’s no knock on “Every Little Honky Tonk Bar”; it’s also one of the stronger tracks on the record. But it seems more fair to criticize this line than the actual song “Codigo,” a catchy little number that we’d all love unconditionally if Strait hadn’t invested in the brand.

This album is not without its flaws. Several of these tracks feel like they could have used another verse or a bridge to tie everything together. “The Weight of the Badge” is the best example of this, a song that feels just short of being great and indeed could have been great if only it had been developed a little more. Some Nights” has some strange rhymes in the chorus, and it certainly seems like this idea could have been explored more deeply as well. And “Sing One With Willie” is fun and all, but ultimately, it’s a novelty and feels like a bit of a missed opportunity for two legends of the genre to give us something truly extraordinary.

But all in all, it’s another solid record from King George. It’s not earth-shattering, but that isn’t George strait. This album is what Strait does best, a solid collection of songs rife with fiddle and steel and piano and boasting smart, substantive lyrics. Strait is probably never going to release the Country exclusive album of the Year, but he’s also never given us a bad record in nearly forty years, and that’s truly a thing to behold. Another slice of solid, straight-up country music from one of the genre’s most special artists.

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Playlists

My Top Ten Albums of 2018 so Far

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Note: This has been easily the hardest list to assemble for this site, and unlike last year, these will remain unranked just like the songs list because so many of these are so close. I don’t think we’ve heard the 2018 Album of the Year yet, but overall, the first half of 2018 has been incredibly strong, and it’s impossible at this point for me to try and rank albums. They’re all great, so just check them out.

As with the songs, please respect these choices as my opinion, and feel free to share your favorites in the comments below!

Courtney Patton: What it’s Like to Fly Alone

Standout Tracks: “Round Mountain,” “What it’s Like to Fly Alone (Hawk Song),” “Devil’s Hand,” “Red Bandanna Blue”
Probably the most country of the bunch, Courtney Patton’s fourth album is one that just gets better with time. Her songwriting is superb is always, and this record is also beautifully, cleanly produced. Who said an album had to sound like shit to be classic and authentic? As far as production, which Courtney handled herself, it may be the best-sounding, cleanest record of the year so far.
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Lindi Ortega: Liberty

Standout Tracks: “Lovers in Love,” “You Ain’t Foolin’ Me,” “Afraid of the Dark,” but it’s meant to be consumed as a whole album
This hasn’t been one of my most played albums of the year, but when I do play it, it always blows me away. More and more, I feel like it should have been a 10/10 here. Some vagueness in the concept held me back, as the character’s journey out of darkness into light and life can sometimes be hard to follow. But it’s just so captivating all the way through, and once again, a finely produced album, with the western backdrop lending itself nicely to the story.
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Red Shahan: Culberson County

Standout Tracks: “Waterbill,” “Enemy,” “Roses,” “How They Lie,” “Culberson County”
Speaking of western, here’s a record that perfectly embodies the sound and spirit of west Texas. This has got to be my most underrated album of 2018 so far; honestly, that 8/10 looks totally ridiculous now, and it did so a week after I wrote it. I can’t say enough about this album, as it’s got to be heard to be fully understood and appreciated, capturing the wildness and emptiness of West Texas and romanticizing it in a way that not many could.
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Brothers Osborne: Port Saint Joe

Standout Tracks: “Shoot me Straight,” “While You Still Can,” “Pushing up Daisies (Love Alive),” “A Little Bit Trouble,” “Weed, Whiskey, and Willie”
Although not a concept album like Liberty, this record is certainly meant to be consumed and enjoyed from start to finish. Just as Shahan put West Texas on a record, Brothers Osborne immortalize the old, weathered coastal towns so common in the South. It’s a beach record, but the beach is forgotten and secluded, not sexy and touristy. Proof that a fun party album can indeed be substantive and have all kinds of staying power.
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Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour

Standout Tracks: “Oh, What a World,” “Love is a Wild Thing,” “Slow Burn,” “Lonely Weekend”
Another fantastically produced album; I’m starting to see a trend in these records. I know Kacey Musgraves sparked about a million different controversies with this change in her sound, but after several months with this, I have to say that Golden Hour is Kacey’s best album so far. The dreamy, spacey production all over this album really suits her voice and these songs, and there’s not much else to say, it’s just a great-sounding slice of pop country music.
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Brent Cobb: Providence Canyon

Standout Tracks: “Sucker for a Good Time,” “Providence Canyon,” “Come Home Soon,” “Mornin’s Gonna Come”
This is the only album I’ve given a 10/10 rating to in 2018, but again, these records are so close that it’s not necessarily my favorite record at this point. It’s definitely becoming one of my most played, bringing country, funk, and soul together in the way that can only be done in Brent’s home state of Georgia. This is the first of several albums on this list that carries a unique and distinctly Southern flavor, and though each is different, each one celebrates a vital component of Southern music and culture.
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Blackberry Smoke: Find a Light

Standout Tracks: “I’ll Keep Ramblin'” (ft. Robert Randolph), “I’ve Got This Song,” “Run Away From it All,” “Till the Wheels Fall Off,” “Nobody Gives a Damn,” “Let me Down Easy” (ft. Amanda Shires)
Okay, yeah, it would have been easier to list the tracks that don’t stand out here. There are just so many great songs here, and this is another distinctly Southern album, keeping alive the sound of Southern rock in fine fashion. Southern rock is just as endangered, if not more so, than traditional country, and it’s just great to hear such an excellent slice of this music in 2018. Blackberry Smoke already have a 10/10 record here, and this one came very close to being their second.
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Willie Nelson: Last Man Standing

Standout Tracks: “Last Man Standing,” “Heaven is Closed,” “Me and You,” “Don’t Tell Noah”
What can I possibly say about Willie Nelson? At eighty-five, he is making better music than a giant chunk of Americana artists in their twenties and thirties. It’s a fun, upbeat record that displays Willie’s boundless charisma and clever songwriting at their best. And also, his vocal talent here puts many of the aforementioned independent artists to absolute shame.
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Old Crow Medicine Show: Volunteer

Standout Tracks: “Child of the Mississippi,” “Dixie Avenue,” “Whirlwind,” “A World Away,” “Look Away”
Again, it may have been easier to list the tracks that aren’t standouts. What a fun, energetic album! And I’ve mentioned Southern records, but none of them embrace the rich and vibrant Southern culture quite like this one. This is a love letter to the South, to its people and to its music, and it will make you proud of that heritage even despite the South’s scars.
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American Aquarium: Things Change

Standout Tracks: “One Day at a Time,” “Work Conquers All,” “Crooked+Straight,” “Shadows of You”
Out of the ruins of American Aquarium came something great, the best version of this band that has existed to date. It took everything crashing down to make it all happen, and now, in addition to BJ Barham’s always great songwriting, we have a band that sounds like a band and brings life to these songs in the best way possible. I don’t have much to say other than what everyone else is saying–this is an incredible album.
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Honorable Mentions

It should be noted that these six albums are the reason I chose ten instead of thirteen–because to choose three of these six was entirely impossible.

  • Darci Carlson (self-titled)
  • First Aid Kit: Ruins
  • Meghan Patrick: Country Music Made me do It
  • Dierks Bentley: The Mountain
  • Wade Bowen: Solid Ground
  • Sarah Shook & the Disarmers: Years

Other Albums Strongly Recommended by Country Exclusive

  • Caitlyn Smith: Starfire
  • Brandi Carlile: By the Way, I Forgive You
  • The Lost Brothers: Halfway Towards a Healing
  • Mike & the Moonpies: Steak Night at the Prairie Rose
  • Montgomery Gentry: Here’s to You
  • Ashley McBryde: Girl Going Nowhere
  • Laura Benitez and the Heartache: With All its Thorns
  • Teea Goans: Swing, Shuffle, and Sway (released 2017, reviewed 2018)
  • Caleb Caudle: Crushed Coins
  • Courtney Marie Andrews: May Your Kindness Remain
  • Vivian Leva: Time is Everything
  • Trixie Mattel: One Stone
  • Shotgun Rider: Palo Duro
  • Kasey Chambers & the Fireside Disciples: Campfire
  • Randall King (self-titled
  • John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness
  • Josh Ward: More Than I Deserve
  • Kayla Ray: Yesterday & Me
  • Jason Boland & the Stragglers: Hard Times are Relative

Albums on our Radar, with Potential to be Reviewed

  • Wes Youssi & the County Champs: Down Low
  • El Coyote (self-titled
  • Jesse Daniel (self-titled
  • Anderson East: Encore
  • Eleven Hundred Springs: The Finer Things in Life
  • Tami Neilson: Sassafrass!
  • Jeff Hyde: Norman Rockwell World
  • The Church Sisters: A Night at the Opry
  • Jay Bragg: Honky Tonk Dream
  • Steve Moakler: Born Ready
  • Tim Culpepper: DUI (Drinkin’ Under the Influence)
  • Chris Hennessee: Ramble
  • Steep Canyon Rangers: Out in the Open
  • Hellbound Glory: Streets of Aberdeen
  • Neko Case: Hell-on
  • Paul Cauthen: Have Mercy (EP)
  • Justin Adams: Horizon
Playlists

April Playlist on Spotify and Apple Music

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April has by far been the busiest month in terms of releases that this site has seen since it began–well, March 30th really began it all with one of the best release days in this site’s history, and then nothing has slowed down since. It’s no surprise that April was also by far our most viewed month ever, and if you’ve first found us in April, I thank you. If you couldn’t keep up with releases, I don’t blame you, and this list is for you. Whereas past months have seen me wondering if we’d have enough good music to fill the playlist, this was the first time I’ve actually cut songs from one because so much good music came out. We’ve got Southern rock from Blackberry Smoke, classic country from Joshua Hedley, Willie Nelson and John Prine proving age is irrelevant when making good music, and some solid mainstream cuts from Jason Aldean and Brothers Osborne. Three of my favorite songs of the year so far are on this list in “Look Away” from Old Crow Medicine Show, “Orphan” from Ashley Monroe, and “New Ways to Fail” from Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. What a great time to be alive and be a music fan! As always, and probably more so currently, thank you to Zack for supplying this to the Spotify people.

Apple Music users, you can follow me there via the user name @countryexclusive for this and all our playlists, as well as updates to Saving Country Music’s top 25. For April’s,
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Reviews

Album Review: Willie Nelson–Last Man Standing

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Rating: 9/10

Eat your heart out, every Americana artist ever who has either bored me to death or failed to consistently sing on pitch for an entire performance because Willie Nelson, at the age of eighty-four, has just owned all of you. I’d like to hand deliver this record to all of you who, in your twenties and thirties, have half the vocal prowess and not an ounce of the charisma, with that simple message: “Owned.” As he says in a song from his last album, he “woke up still not dead again today,” so he apparently decided to bless us with another great record and embarrass a sizable chunk of the makers of independent music in the process.

As for that album, God’s Problem Child was a good record, and I stand behind my thoughts about it, but one listen to the opener and title track of this new one inherently and immediately makes me enjoy that album less. That album reflected heavily on the end of life, and the songs were well-written, but it didn’t really have too much staying power or relatibility for me. This one deals with many of the same subjects, but more often than not, they’re approached in a lighthearted, charismatic way. The aforementioned “Still Not dead” was a rare moment of levity on God’s Problem Child, but this record is mostly lively. The title track muses, “I don’t want to be the last man standing, oh wait a minute, maybe I do” and advises people to go ahead and leave “if you’re in such a hurry” because heaven and hell are both waiting. Heaven and hell appear again on “Heaven is Closed” as he remarks that “heaven is closed and hell’s overcrowded,” so he’ll just stay here on earth. He says he can hear someone calling him to come in from this world, which he calls “the craziness,” but still he remains here.

That craziness is the center of one of the albums’ best songs, “Me and You.” This deals with the current divisiveness of our world, and the genius in the writing here is that he says “it’s just me and you” against everyone, and then we find that he’s talking to himself. Another cool part is that he doesn’t take a specific political or social stance, so people on both sides of the divide can surely relate to this, to feeling like everyone else besides them has gone crazy, or that, as Nelson sings about a friend with whom he can no longer have discussions, “he ain’t got a lick of sense.” This is how to write a political song–this doesn’t divide or cause half an audience to hate it, it becomes something people from all backgrounds and political affiliations can get behind. Another moment of slightly less obvious political and social commentary comes in “Don’t tell Noah,” and again, this message could strike a chord with both sides, as he’s basically telling us all not to take positions on things about which we know nothing–“don’t tell Noah about the flood, don’t tell Jesus about the blood.” This one features some upbeat piano and harmonica which really add to its infectiousness.

This is just so much more fun and charismatic than Willie’s last album, and like I say, inasmuch as I don’t want to take away from that record, this inadvertently does just that by showing Willie Nelson in a more relatable light. Willie’s at his best when he’s doing these upbeat tunes like “Don’t Tell Noah” or the Western swing-influenced “Ready to roar.” I’ve already mentioned the piano and the harmonica, both integral parts of this record, but the great guitar licks sprinkled throughout this also add a lot of flavor to it. This swing/jazz-influenced country style suits Nelson more than the restrained, adult contemporary ballads which characterized his last album. Not only that, it makes the ballads, like “Something You Get Through,” stand out more, whereas they ran together some on God’s Problem Child.

And it’s worth noting that wile we have all these artists–like Joshua Hedley most recently, but he’s not the only one–trying so hard to be vintage and throwback that they’ve even adapted their songwriting to make it feel retro, here we have Willie Nelson using modern phrases like “it’s getting hard to watch my pals check out” in the title track, and owning an iPhone in “I Ain’t Got Nothin’.” The sentiments in Nelson’s songs remain timeless, and this slight modernization only adds an accessibility to his lyrics. I’m not saying doing this is vital, and indeed, some songs sound dated when they’re modernized too much, but the point is, not everything has to be retro to make it “authentic,” and often, the concentrated effort to make something so actually renders it the opposite, leaving the writing sometimes feeling unnatural. You’d be an absolute idiot to call Willie nelson anything other than authentic. I wonder what the throwback types think about the fact that Nelson and his songwriting partner and producer, Buddy Cannon, wrote most of this album by text…but I digress.

This is a great record on so many fronts. Willie Nelson still sounds good vocally, and his charisma is just ridiculous. I wrote that God’s Problem Child was a good record, but not probably an album that would make new Willie Nelson fans; this one undoubtedly has that potential, with its relatable songwriting and vibrant personality. Much like John Prine’s latest album, it paints the end of life in a humorous light and somewhat alleviates the fear of death. And like Prine, Nelson proves that artist can still have something meaningful, worthwhile, and yes, even relatable and entertaining to say no matter their age. This record will have staying power, and it will be in the conversation when December comes around.

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Playlists

February Playlist on Spotify and Apple Music

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Well, this month’s playlist is definitely a good one. If you haven’t checked out Brandi Carlile, Wade Bowen, Caleb Caudle, Mike & the Moonpies…well, here’s your chance. It was a strong month for singles, and we’ve got some promising new songs from Willie Nelson, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, and Red Shahan. There seemed to be something for everyone in February, from Americana to Texas country to the mainstream. And if you’re shocked that a Cole Swindell song made our list, well, deal with it. Thanks as always to Zack for supplying the Spotify version, and my apologies in advance for the lack of Courtney Patton on that platform.

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