Monthly Archives: September 2018

Concerts

Some Thoughts from the 6th Annual Medicine Stone

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This is the third year in which I’ve had the privilege of attending Medicine Stone, a three-day live music festival on the Illinois River in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In 2016, I gave a full concert review, and last year, I tried to highlight some of the unsung heroes of the event. This year, Medicine Stone took on a slightly different purpose for me in light of my ongoing goal of seeing live shows in 2018. The festival provided a nice contrast to all the indoor shows I’ve been covering, as well as just being the only festival I’ve covered so far on this journey.

Turnpike Troubadours made a triumphant return to the stage after having to cancel several shows recently due to various medical and personal issues. I’ve discussed Turnpike’s phenomenal live shows before, but it was especially good to see them return to form after their cancelled appearances. In addition, they weren’t as wonderful as they normally are last year; the sound quality made it difficult to hear Evan Felker over the the rest of the band. After having to move their set from Friday to Saturday due to rainy weather, they put on a great show and returned to themselves in fine fashion.

As mentioned, the rain was a major issue on Friday. NO sets were cancelled, but everything was moved inside a tent, the main stage being uncovered. It didn’t provide enough cover for everyone present, so many of us sat under canopies or just out in the rain for some of Friday night’s performances. Reckless Kelly’s lead singer called it the “cheeseburger tent” as they played their set. I’d been especially excited to see them, for they had been outstanding in 2016 and had not come to Medicine Stone in 2017.

As for performers I’d never seen live before, there were several standouts. Koe Wetzel may have his detractors, but the man puts on a ridiculously energetic live show. This was one of the highlights of the whole weekend. Wade Bowen immediately followed, and to the surprise of no one, he’s also fantastic live. He was the artist on the lineup that excited me most when I first learned which artists would be playing this year. John Fullbright played on a smaller stage–actually, he played in the cheeseburger tent–on Friday afternoon, and his set was also a highlight. This aspect of Medicine Stone, having performers play more intimate shows on smaller stages, is one of my favorite things about the experience and a great way to discover newer artists and enjoy those artists whose songs shine in quieter settings.

As for the returning artists, I was most impressed with Red Shahan. He blew me away last year and again this time. AS far as I’m concerned, he can come back every year. Flatland Cavalry also impressed me this year after not really standing out for me in 2017, again due to their sound quality. And everyone knows Turnpike and Boland and Randy rogers all put on a good show, making them staples at Medicine Stone.

One thing I found a bit discouraging was the lack of women on the bill. Only Jamie Lin Wilson and Kaitlin Butts were on the lineup; they’ve both been there each year, but in 2017, there were several more women booked. I specifically mentioned sunny Sweeney last year as being a standout and expressed hope that she would return. Suzanne Santo also put on a great performance. Both Jamie Lin and Kaitlin are great artists, and I recognize that there is a lot more involved in booking more women at festivals than just simply doing it, but I definitely would have appreciated more effort in this area.

That said, overall, I felt that this was the strongest lineup I’ve yet seen at Medicine Stone. In terms of sonic styles within Texas/Red Dirt music, it also felt like the most diverse. There was a good balance of established artists and new talent as well.

IN light of the ongoing commentary on live music, I also have to say there is nothing quite like the camaraderie of a festival experience. I’ve been championing Medicine Stone for three years now, but it can’t be stressed enough that the atmosphere is just special at a festival. I haven’t been to a bad show yet in 2018; I’ve enjoyed some more than others, but each has provided its own unique insight. With Medicine Stone, even though I’ve been there before, it still stands out among the other shows, and not just for the number of artists, or even just for the quality of the music. It’s the social aspect, the way you see faces from years past and recognize them, the way strangers offer you a canopy to sit under to take shelter from the rain. For those three days, you’re all united by this incredible thing we call music, and it proves more than ever that music can unite us even in this divisive world in which we find ourselves. When you spend three days together, you understand why Jamie Lin Wilson was inspired to pick up her pen and write “Oklahoma Stars” about the experience. It is irreplaceable, and I highly recommend this festival to any fan of Red dirt or of live music in general.

Best Live Performers: Koe Wetzel, Wade Bowen, Red Shahan, John Fullbright, Turnpike Troubadours

Reviews

Album Review: Carrie Underwood–Cry Pretty

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Rating: 4/10

Carrie Underwood’s sixth album could have been her best one so far. It certainly had possibility. It marked the transition from Sony to UMG, her first label change since she won American Idol all those years ago. There were hints of this album being particularly personal to her, and the first single, the title track from the album, certainly seemed to be. It was strong, explaining that no matter how hard you try to keep your emotions in check for the public, sometimes everything comes pouring out. I commented in my review of the single how different it was from almost everything on country radio at the moment, being written solely by women, containing actual country instrumentation and being able to be correctly labeled pop country, and most importantly, just being substantive. “Love Wins,” though not quite the stirring anthem of unity it thinks it is, still showed promise for the album. I’ve been intrigued by this record both as a reviewer and as a fan. This was Carrie Underwood’s opportunity to show leadership in the country genre, and she seemed to be doing that pretty well ahead of the release.

As for the album? If I could sum it up in one word, it would be disappointing. It just destroys all your hopes and dreams and expectations and leaves you thoroughly dismayed that Carrie Underwood has squandered another chance to live up to her incredible potential.

This disappointment is amplified even more by the impressive strength of the opening three tracks. First, we have the single and title track, followed by “Ghosts on the Stereo” and “Low,” two songs about getting over a relationship. Aside from both displaying country themes, there’s some country flavor to each of them as well, and though both are primarily pop with country hints sonically, they fit Carrie Underwood well. The lyrics are strong, and Underwood’s vocals on “Low” are just astonishing. This song does a great job building throughout, making the most of her raw vocal talent. Three songs into this album, I was starting to think this might end up being one of Carrie’s best. Mainstream records tend to get better as they go along as well, so this made Cry Pretty even more promising.

Then we get to “Backsliding,” and everything just starts to fall apart. Look, I get that Carrie Underwood is just as much, if not more so, a pop artist than a country one, but she’s always blended the two genres fairly well. These songs are increasingly cluttered by overproduction; instead of blending country and pop naturally, many of these songs feel like they’ve been forced into pop crossover status. If “Southbound,” your standard mainstream party anthem, disposable and lacking any real substance, were the worst thing here, we could excuse it as a misstep, an ill-advised attempt at radio relevancy. As it is, it’s comparatively harmless when the sixth track, “That song That We Used to Make Love To,” comes on, with its weird, unnecessary electronic sounds and generic R&B production. There are some especially distracting sounds at the beginning of this song that make me seriously question these producer’s ear for music–how does it enhance a song to add random squawking sounds in the mix? Who thought this made the track better? Similar to Keith Urban’s latest album, there are places here where it just feels like they went into the studio, pressed a bunch of random buttons, and sent it out. Someone needs to tell these people that more doesn’t always mean better because subtlety and nuance have clearly become lost concepts on Music Row. In Carrie Underwood’s case, I can’t even say her songs were screwed up by ambitious producers, for she herself did much of the producing on this record. This was something that initially excited me, especially given the lack of female producers in country and music in general, but this was clearly not a great production decision.

We do get one more outstanding cut on the latter half of the album with the piano ballad “Spinning Bottles.” This song looks at drinking and addiction and how it affects two people in a relationship. Carrie’s vocal performance is excellent, the piano is beautiful, and the production doesn’t get in the way of everything. this is one place where they managed to hold back, and it really paid off.

This song is flanked by “The Bullet” and “Love Wins,” this record’s attempt to get political, or more accurately, to promote unity despite this contentious political climate. “The Bullet” is a look at the lives of a victim’s family after he was shot, stating that the effects last far beyond the funeral. It’s careful not to take a side, with the line “you can blame it on hate, or blame it on guns” sticking out to let the song speak to all sides. “Love wins” is more generic, just your typical song about coming together and loving one another. Both songs are strong in light of the rest of the album, but equally, both are just a bit too sappy and obvious. On a stronger project, I don’t really mind these two songs, but they don’t add anything; here, they’re better than some of the rest but ultimately still feel a bit underwhelming. “The Bullet” is the better of the two since it has a bit more to say and more specific details.

The rest of the latter half is just unremarkable. Both “Drinking Alone” and “Kingdom” are fine lyrically, but again, the production is just messy. “Kingdom” actually starts out understated, but by the second verse, this simple ode to her family and home life gets drowned out by the arrangement. this song would have worked if they’d been able to resist turning it into a power ballad. WE get that Carrie Underwood can belt, but being able to pull out the simplicity and emotion of a song is just as important as sustaining all these high notes. “Drinking Alone” is one of those times where Carrie’s pop side would have come out naturally and made the song great, but instead of a good pop song, it’s infused with that same production style that hinders some of the other tracks, an almost R&B flavor. Underwood’s vocals are strong here, though, making this one mediocre rather than terrible. “End up with You” is just awful, annoying and overproduced as much as “That Song That We Used to Make Love To” on the front of the album. And of course we have “The Champion” as a bonus track, which serves its purpose well enough as a Super bowl hype song, but it’s just so unflattering to the vocal range and talents of Carrie Underwood. On an already disappointing, subpar effort, this track just seems like a fittingly bad closer.

I really wish I enjoyed this album more. Aside from “Spinning Bottles,” I remain distinctly underwhelmed from the fourth track onward. It’s not that there’s more pop material on this project either, it’s that everything is so forced and over the top. The production through so much of this is just a cacophonous mess. It only adds insult to injury that the first three songs and “Spinning Bottles” are so strong because these are some of the best of Carrie Underwood’s career. But this is easily her least consistent, least country, most disappointing, and ultimately worst album she has released to date. It had so much potential, and that potential comes out in several places on this record. Don’t overlook those places. It’s just such a shame, though, that this album so spectacularly fails to live up to expectations or to the talent and ability of Carrie Underwood.

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Reviews

Review: Runaway June’s Self-Titled EP

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Rating: 7/10

It seems like forever since Runaway June burst onto the scene in 2016 with “Lipstick,” bringing excellent harmonies and a decidedly pop country blend to a mainstream that was most definitely pop. Certainly most male and/or less country-minded artists would have an album out by now and might even be working on a second. Runaway June, a group of three women who have the audacity to include actual country instrumentation like fiddle, steel, and twangy piano in their music, not to mention actual intelligent songwriting, have of course had to wait two years after their first single to release a project; and even now, we’ve only been granted an EP, a format that’s systematically ignored and undermined by the whole industry. It’s as if Music Row has collectively decided that projects containing any roots or substance must be limited to a certain number of songs so that the casual listener thinks this invasion of quality must be a fluke and continues to buy the endless amounts of uninteresting, recycled bullshit these labels mercilessly churn out, and God forbid this quality music come from women, that’s only another strike against it.

So a five-song EP is all we’ve been allowed from Runaway June even after this long wait, but it’s still new music from a promising trio in the mainstream and should not be overlooked. This is firmly in the pop country realm, so the stricter traditionalists probably won’t have much to enjoy here. But this is pop country, not straight pop, and this is for the mainstream listener who is tired of the lack of substance on radio and streaming playlists, the modern country fan who is still disenchanted with just how far the genre has slipped in recent years.

Opening this EP we have the fun, instantly re-playable “Buy my Own Drinks,” an anthem of singleness announcing that this narrator can move on by herself after her breakup. She doesn’t need the guy in the bar to buy her a round. She can pay her own tab and have a good time by herself. It’s a great message to women that we don’t need men to define us, but that’s an undertone–the song itself is lighthearted and delivered in a fun way, just saying that she can get over him and be fine on her own. “I Am Too” is sort of this song’s antithesis, as once again, our heroine is in a bar getting over an ex, but this time, she’s vulnerable, blaming herself for the things that went wrong in the relationship and admitting her mistakes, wondering if he’s somewhere drinking and thinking about her. It’s a bit hard to make an overarching statement on a short little EP, but these two songs together really do a good job of showcasing two equally valid reactions in the aftermath of a relationship.

Another angle of complicated relationships comes out in “Got Me Where I Want You,” as the narrator sings of wanting a man that she knows she shouldn’t. It’s not really clear why she shouldn’t, and this song could have done a little better at painting this picture, but it’s written well, framed around the hook, “you only want me when you got me where you want me, and you got me where I want you tonight.” This track is accentuated by some lovely piano and enhanced by the harmonies of Naomi Cooke, Hannah Mulholland, and Jennifer Wayne. Their harmonies also serve to make the next song, a cover of Dwight Yoakam’s “Fast as You,” work; It’s risky and arguably inadvisable to make one song a cover on such a short project, and I had my doubts about this, but it’s the strongest selection here. They manage to find that perfect balance between staying true to the original while making this song their own, and also, to the ones that came to country from the bros and Sam Hunt, this introduces an actual country artist, and with a song that’s fun and catchy and makes “true” country seem, for lack of a better word, cool.

The EP closes with “Wild West,” a version of which I reviewed when it first came out in 2017, and although this version is more contemporary, and I prefer the other, this is still the best original track here. Steel guitar can still be heard in this version, even if it is buried deeper in the mix, and that fiddle solo is defiant and prominent. After all the relationship troubles, this song manages to give the EP a final thought, a happy ending where so many sad ones had preceded it. Again, it’s hard to make a cohesive statement in five songs and sixteen minutes, but having “Wild west” as the closer helps to do so and makes the EP a little more complete.

This is a solid debut from a promising group. Not for the traditionalists, but a good blend of country and pop for the more pragmatic, contemporary listeners. There’s substance in the songwriting, and the harmonies are strong and well-defined. These harmonies add a uniqueness to Runaway June’s sound as well. I only wish we had more music to listen to from these ladies, but this is certainly a fine start.

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