No Joke | Country California

Five Questions with Brandy Clark

February 25, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 7 Comments

As sometimes happens with good songwriters breaking through, I was a Brandy Clark fan before I even realized it. "The Day She Got Divorced" by Reba McEntire. "Crazy Women" by LeAnn Rimes. More recently, I've singled out Joanna Smith's "We Can't Be Friends," Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart," and The Band Perry's "Better Dig Two" as worthwhile songs on mainstream country radio. When the name Brandy Clark finally crossed my desk and I glanced through her credits to find that she had … [Read more...]

Prime Cuts: January 2013

February 18, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 9 Comments

As my dear old Grandpa used to say, it's not how many times you fall down that matters, but how many times you get back up.* In that spirit, I'll ignore the fact that Prime Cuts came completely off the rails toward the end of last year and kick off 2013 with the greatest optimism, as if there hadn't been a months-long lapse in coverage. Here are the best country album tracks of January 2013, listenable as a quick-and-dirty Amazon sampler (below) or a robust Spotify playlist (bottom of … [Read more...]

10 Current Country Singles That Aren’t Completely Terrible

February 13, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 19 Comments

It's been about half a year since our last roundup of likable country radio singles, which seems to be just enough time for playlists to turn over and a new batch of songs worth mentioning to come along. If you're listening more than once every six months, you're hearing a lot of the same stuff over and over... and it's not necessarily the best stuff, either. If you're still somewhat interested in what's happening on FM radio, this'll catch you up quickly without the corny DJs and hip-hop … [Read more...]

Five Questions with Brent Cobb

January 30, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 3 Comments

With a down-home EP ranked among the best of 2012 and a burgeoning reputation as one of Nashville's sharpest up-and-coming songwriters, Brent Cobb might be just the guy to bring some rural reality back to country radio. As a writer of standout album tracks like "Rockaway (The Rockin' Chair Song)" for Kellie Pickler and "Tailgate Blues" for Luke Bryan, the 26-year-old from Georgia seems poised for a big breakout radio hit or two sometime in the near future. Regardless of what fortunes might … [Read more...]

Album Review: Gary Allan – Set You Free

January 24, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox 22 Comments

It used to be that Gary Allan's voice wasn't, far and away, the most distinctive thing about him. No, back when he would regularly slip a healthy number of stunner cuts by left-of-center writers like Shawn Camp, Harley Allen, Jamie O'Hara, Kevin Welch, Jim Lauderdale, Todd Snider, Bruce Robison, Trent Summar, and Jesse Winchester onto perfectly commercial country albums, that visionary song sense was something that set him apart as well. He didn't just sing different: he was different, right … [Read more...]

Album Review: Elizabeth Cook – Welder

January 14, 2013 by C.M. Wilcox Leave a Comment

This review was originally published at The 9513 in June 2010. For longtime fans of Elizabeth Cook, her new album - the quirky grab bag Welder, released last month on Thirty One Tigers - may require a slight period of adjustment. Certainly, it's a far cry from the polished Dolly-meets-Loretta throwback sound she debuted with a decade ago. In more recent Cook history, it's a considerable leap beyond - but also, once you become acclimated, a natural outgrowth of - her work with producer Rodney … [Read more...]

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...]