Posting has slowed to a crawl here for now, but will be revving up again in the new year. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Top 10 Country Albums of 2008 feature at The 9513. It was a collaborative effort on the part of nine of the site's regular contributors, with the esteemed Jim Malec coordinating everything. The individual list I submitted is slightly revised from the one posted here last month because Jamey Johnson's album was taken out of the running and I belatedly discovered that … [Read more...]
On the Spot #2
December 26, 2008 by 26 Comments
Since I've made some significant changes to the site today, including the commenting system, here's your chance to give it a test run. Same question as last time: What's the last song you heard? Remember: if you're going to answer, you have to do it now. No reading this now and coming back to answer after you listen to something cool. According to last.fm, the last track I played was "This Is Goodbye" by the Randy Rogers Band. … [Read more...]
Christmas Brings Out the Best
December 24, 2008 by 1 Comment
Hearing "Winter Wonderland" for the 500th time can get a bit tiresome, but on the whole, the Christmas season brings about what I see as some pretty desirable changes in musical sensibilities. When comparing the Christmas output of country stars to their non-seasonal material, a few reasonably fair generalizations can be made:Arrangements tend to be more sparse and acoustically based.In the freshly decluttered musical settings, many singers have room to deliver some of their best, most nuanced … [Read more...]
Quotable Country – 12/21/08 Edition
December 21, 2008 by 12 Comments
Quotable Country will go on hiatus next week, but will be back and snarky as ever in the new year. Enjoy this final installment of 2008 and stay tuned for a few reflective wrap-up type things in the next week or so. As always, thanks for reading.Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.Mindy's doing great. She's fine. She was hospitalized, but she's fine. She's good now. ● - - Mindy McCready's brother. Ever notice how saying the same thing four times in a row somehow makes … [Read more...]
Gift Ideas: Suggested Books for Country Stars
December 19, 2008 by 8 Comments
Family and friends are easy enough, but what to get for those famous country singers on your list? (What do you mean there aren't any famous country singers on your list? Bear with me, I'm setting up a farfetched premise for a humor piece here.) You can never go wrong with a well-chosen book, so I scoured the literature section at Amazon and came up with the following handy list of gift ideas. You're welcome. Taylor Swift - How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk Kenny Chesney - The Great … [Read more...]
Christmas Come-ons (Playlist)
December 18, 2008 by 5 Comments
As we all know, Christmas is about world peace and the baby Jesus and drunken office parties and warm apple cider and desperate attempts to save the failing economy and beating up your neighbors to get the last Elmo off the shelf at Walmart. But it's also about meeting your darling under the mistletoe for a little coochy coo. Coochy coo? Listen, if it's good enough for Faron Young and King George, it's good enough for me.Here's a playlist of Christmas come-ons for your enjoyment and possible … [Read more...]
DVD Review: Christmas on the Pecos
December 17, 2008 by Leave a Comment
Christmas on the Pecos, the new holiday DVD from Randy Travis, has all the craggy charm of its star. Filmed at two consecutive shows in the small, seemingly starstruck city of Carlsbad, New Mexico, the program overcomes many obstacles on its way to being a consistently affecting and often quite beautiful holiday experience. Its imperfections are many, but the fact that Christmas on the Pecos seems a bit more like a well-done church program than a professional DVD release is part of its … [Read more...]
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