Lists | Country California

Ain’t Dead Yet: 21 Albums That Kept Traditional Country Music Alive in 2012

January 3, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 4 Comments

Lindi Ortega - Cigarettes and Truckstops

With AM Country Heaven and The Time Jumpers topping my Best Country Albums of 2012 list, it's fair to say that I found 2012 a pretty great year for real country music. Still, you can't cram everything into a finite number of slots. So here's an addendum of other recordings that didn't land within my Top 20 but should be to the liking of folks whose tastes, like mine, tend to run toward the more traditional side of things. Investigate them further on Amazon: Alan Jackson - Thirty Miles … [Read more...]

Country California’s Best Country Albums of 2012

January 1, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 14 Comments

After much deliberation, here's the closest I'll get to a Best of 2012 list satisfying all my personal biases. No commentary provided, but all discussion and alternate rankings quite welcome. 20. Corb Lund - Cabin Fever 19. Various Artists - KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell 18. Rodney Hayden - Atascosa Sand 17. Old Crow Medicine Show - Carry Me Back 16. Shooter Jennings - Family Man 15. Gretchen Peters - Hello Cruel World 14. Turnpike … [Read more...]

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11 Modern-Era Country Albums Everyone Should Hear

September 13, 2012 by C.M. Wilcox 9 Comments

Repurposed from the author's contributions to The 9513's Albums of the Decade countdown, which ran in December 2009 and is still quite recommended in its original, extended form. For a full accounting of the similarities and differences between The 9513 list and another that ran concurrently at Country Universe, see "Albums of the Decade: Running the Numbers." Lots of good music to be discovered (and rediscovered) between both of those lists. Here are some of my favorites. Too Far … [Read more...]

20 Ways to Ensure I Won’t Hear Your New Music

July 3, 2012 by C.M. Wilcox 5 Comments

Don't bother telling me about it. Do tell me about it. Promise to send a CD, then don't. Mail your CD in an unpadded envelope so that it will arrive broken. Count on me to report the problem to you rather than just moving on to the next thing. Make sure the CD mailer arrives postage due. Instead of using email like a civilized person, tweet me your press release... Or post to Country California's Facebook wall... Or spam the comments section of an unrelated post on our website. Or do … [Read more...]

Best Country Albums Recap, 2007-2010

January 5, 2012 by C.M. Wilcox 5 Comments

As impossible as it seems, 2011 was my fifth time through the year-end list shenanigans. Ranking albums is a ritual with which I've never been very comfortable. Reviews allow for questions and shades of gray, but straight numerical orderings imply a finality at odds with the way I actually experience music, i.e. by living with it and, sometimes, being made to change my mind. Now that I have a few of these lists behind me, though, I can see their retrospective value. If I hadn't recorded my … [Read more...]

Country California’s Best of 2011 Lists

January 5, 2012 by C.M. Wilcox 2 Comments

Sick of lists yet? We'll make this quick and dirty. Best Country Albums of 2011 1. Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels 2. Hellbound Glory - Damaged Goods 3. Various Artists - This One's for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark 4. Matraca Berg - The Dreaming Fields 5. Reckless Kelly - Good Luck and True Love 6. LeAnn Rimes - Lady and Gentlemen 7. Justin Haigh - People Like Me 8. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO 9. Miranda Lambert - Four the Record 10. Dirt Drifters - This Is My Blood (Complete list with … [Read more...]

Collected Wisdom: The 100 Greatest Tweets of Drunken Martina

May 10, 2011 by C.M. Wilcox 9 Comments

Today, Country California salutes Drunken Martina, the First Lady of Boozy Misconduct and long-running Twitter/Facebook spin-off of a satirical series begun here in 2009. Sensing that social networks are a far too impermanent place to store some of the greatest bits of bite-sized wisdom of our time, we've taken the liberty of collecting our 100 favorite Drunken Martina tweets here for your enjoyment. If you get a kick out of them, be sure to follow Drunken Martina on Twitter or Facebook. Just … [Read more...]

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