Live Blogging Country Radio, Part IX
Like most God-fearing Americans, I try to be a relatively nice person for the month of December, then go back to being the same old jerk for the whole rest of the year. As the holiday season approaches its end, I figured it’d be best to ease back into my usual snarkiness with some live blogging country radio.
- 10:47 AM: The doctor prescribed 30 minutes of country radio to help me get over my bad case of holiday cheer.
- 10:47 AM: Starting off with “Hillbilly Bone” by Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins.
- 10:47 AM: Yep, this’ll do it. Shelton and Adkins at their worst. Impressive.
- 10:48 AM: I liked this much better when it had a story to it and was called “Songs About Me.”
- 10:49 AM: Whew, it’s over.
- 10:50 AM: Now it’s “Sounds Like Life to Me”
- 10:51 AM: Car falling apart, washer quit last week, put mama in nursing home, baby cutting teeth, lack of employment. “To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy/It sounds like life to me”
- 10:51 AM: Well, okay. But that is a pretty bad week. You could just hear the poor fella out.
- 10:52 AM: Never underestimate the ability of a song whose only message is “suck it up” to catch fire with the country audience. It’s all about the bootstraps.
- 10:53 AM: Now it’s Alison Krauss and “When You Say Nothing at All”
- 10:53 AM: They don’t play this often enough.
- 10:55 AM: I guess it will surprise nobody that I’d give Keith Whitley’s recording a slight edge over this tribute version, but regardless of who’s singing it, this is classic Overstreet/Schlitz.
- 10:56 AM: I’ll bet this is the most romantic way ever of telling someone to shut up.
- 10:57 AM: “River of Love” by George Strait
- 10:58 AM: Still just as ill-advised as ever.
- 10:58 AM: But darned if old George doesn’t pull it off, somehow.
- 11:00 AM: Now it’s “I’m Still a Guy”
- 11:00 AM: Paisley on differences between men and women? Surprising!
- 11:02 AM: “But when you say a back rub means only a back rub, then you swat my hand when I try”
- 11:02 AM: I’m surprised that line made it on radio, what with references to “ass” and “rolling big fat ones” proving too uncouth.
- 11:03 AM: Now “That’s How Country Boys Roll” by Billy Currington
- 11:04 AM: In case anyone forgot how cool it is to be from a rural area.
- 11:04 AM: e.g. if you haven’t listened to radio at all in the past ten years
- 11:06 AM: Why are they casting their reels on old country roads?
- 11:06 AM: Probably won’t catch much on a roadway.
- 11:06 AM: I’d recommend heading to a water-like area of some sort.
- 11:06 AM: Ah, mama and Jesus and Jones. The Trinity, country style.
- 11:07 AM: Classic country time!
- 11:07 AM: By which I mean Jo Dee Messina’s “Heads Carolina, Tails California”
- 11:08 AM: It’s amazing how stuff I wasn’t even that fond of at the time of its release sounds so refreshing compared to the stuff playing today.
- 11:09 AM: Even Shania sounds pretty country compared to, say, Swift.
- 11:10 AM: Anyway, I wonder who wrote “Heads Carolina…” It’s a pretty catchy hook.
- 11:11 AM: Continuing with the classic country, it’s “My Next Thirty Years” by McGraw.
- 11:11 AM: I think I like Phil Vassar songs best when they’re sung by someone other than Phil Vassar.
- 11:13 AM: They’re sure playing some oldies.
- 11:13 AM: At this rate, they’ll be spinning Haggard by… never.
- 11:13 AM: There’s time for one more song.
- 11:13 AM: Or a couple minutes of idle chatter.
- 11:13 AM: Which will it be?
- 11:14 AM: It’s “Consider Me Gone” by Reba
- 11:15 AM: I do like this song. Sounds like classic Reba.
- 11:16 AM: Best tracks on Reba’s latest album: “Maggie Creek Road,” “I’ll Have What She’s Having,” and this. So I’m hoping one of the other two will be the next single.
- 11:17 AM: Oh, thirty minutes is up.
- 11:17 AM: And just in time. DJs are talking now.
- 11:17 AM: Over ‘n’ out.
I agree with the sentiment of today’s “young country” not comparing well with just average songs from the latter half of the 1990′s, a period that wasn’t so hot either. When I listen to my CD’s from the 1980s and early 90′s I’d swear most of the filler tracks are superior to the stuff that makes the Top 40 these days! Most people into current “modern country” music just compare what’s out there against all the other current stuff that’s out there and then rank them on a relative “goodness” scale. If the average quality of the music has sunk to a mediocre level, then even the “best” stuff out there is still relatively mediocre compared to great music from the past. These blogs are really fun CM because they remind me why I quit listening to mainstream country radio and the snarkiness factor is high! (lol)
Great as usual, CM. All of your snark is in all the right places.
Gotta love this site
Supposed to be AIkoujOi not Ai
Lol
Great, as always.
I actually like “Hillbilly Bone” way better than “Songs About Me,” though neither is exactly a fave. If you’re going to do a ridiculous theme, you gotta do it ridiculous-style. Methinks.
Good read as always, though!
I actually don’t like either song.
Yeah, I think I prefer Phil as a songwriter too, especially after listening to his Greatest Hits disc. Also, love that your station calls Jo Dee Messina and Tim McGraw classics. One of the three in my listening area has a ‘from the vaults’ feature, but nothing older than the occasional 80s Reba or Strait hit gets out of the vault past 1992 or so.
Keep this feature up … loving it.
I commend your bravery, CM. I don’t think I’d have the courage to do this. Great read once again.
“Songs About Me” is fun enough if I’m in the right mood, but “Hillbilly Bone” is pretty awful.
“Heads Carolina…” was written by Tim Nichols and Mark D. Sander. I do love that song.