Quotable Country – 03/15/09 Edition
Click the bullet after each quote to visit the original source.
I think every time from now on, I’m gonna err on the side of reality. I think that’s what people need. We don’t get to come back here and try this again. We can’t screw up by putting nothing but musical Prozac on the radio. You have to have something that feeds people emotionally and mentally and spiritually. And if you fail to do that in music, why the hell are we doing this? ●
- – Jamey Johnson speaks truth.
Asking Gary LeVox to sing something country is like asking a duck to play the harp. ●
- – Chris D. also speaks truth. Well, almost. Ready? I’m about to blow your mind.
Typical me. I throw myself 1,000% into anything I do – that’s how I went from being homeless to where I am today – but I just had no idea I could over-do dancing! ●
- – Jewel on having to withdraw from Dancing from the Stars. Oh, and did you know she was once homeless? She doesn’t mention it much. Also, someone needs to explain percentages to her again.
In 2006, his [Scott Borchetta's] Big Machine Records label signed Jack Ingram, a longtime Texas honky-tonk singer who had been dropped by Sony Records because his sharp-tongued songs about heartless women and burning cars weren’t catching on nationally.
“Jack really wanted to take his music to the next level,” Mr. Borchetta recalled, “and we talked a lot about how he could do that.”
In the months to come, Mr. Ingram released gentler songs more likely to appeal to women in their 30s who buy much of country music. ●
- – It’s sad that taking one’s music to the next level equals toning it down to appeal to women in their thirties.
Jessica Simpson opened the show and wasn’t nearly the trainwreck she is portrayed as. Sure, she almost “bit it,” as she said, a couple times, thanks to her high heel sandals, and she was a little pitchy at times, but it was almost endearing. ●
- – Wow, pretty bad when “almost endearing” qualifies as a rave review.
But OMG, [Toby] Keith probably couldn’t pass the audition for your average high school senior musical. Tuesday night at the rodeo, his voice – which has almost no range to start with – was consistently flat, with wrong notes littered across songs like “I Wanna Talk About Me” and recent country No. 1 “She Never Cried In Front of Me” like beer cans on the floor of his extended-cab F-150 after a weekend at the lake. ●
- – Houston Press blogger Chris Gray goes to town in a Toby Keith concert review. See? I’m not so harsh after all.
The bloggers for the Houston Press haven’t been all that impressed with the country concerts at this year’s RodeoHouston. You know, I certainly haven’t liked all the concerts I’ve written about either. In my opinion, some of them were truly awful. When that happens, I just mostly describe what happened, rather than taking cheap shots at the artist. ●
- – Craig Shelburne on the CMT Blog. I usually appreciate Shelburne’s professionalism, but if something is truly awful (not just kinda bad), shouldn’t a critic be willing and able to say so?
Chris Knight is the best damn songwriter in country music, and I’ll stand on Steve Earle’s coffee table in my punk-rock creepers and say that. ●
- – Rob Patterson on Americana hero Chris Knight (not the Brady Bunch guy).
From one internationally-acclaimed stage to another, we look forward with great anticipation to ‘Grand Ole Opry Week’ on American Idol. Like Idol, the Opry is a stage where dreams can come true. ●
- – Opry manager Pete Fisher. Kinda disconcerting to see one of the great institutions of American music – the Grand Ole Opry – piggybacking on the pop culture phenomenon that gave us Phil Stacey.
David Allan Coe is a sort of an icon in country music. He certainly seems to name himself among the greats any time he’s interviewed and asked about it. ●
- – Ha. Gotta love David Allan Coe. Uh, or at least find him interesting.
” It’s sad that taking one’s music to the next level equals toning it down to appeal to women in their thirties.”
I’m kind of insulted by the implication in the original quotation that I want my music toned down. (Though actually I don’t much care for Jack ingram in any of his incarnations.)
Good point, though the fact that you’re reading this on your own time reflects a level of interest and initiative foreign to the demographically-constructed Dainty, Vacuous Woman In Her Thirties that Borchetta is apparently making a very concerted effort to please.
I’m not big on Jack Ingram either.
Ingram is hit and miss for me, most of the time miss. I’m under thirty, so it’s okay that I’m reading this on my own time.
What’s most puzzling to me about Jack Ingram is how he’s engendered such lasting respect and admiration from Todd Snider. It’s crazy.
I chalk it up to Snider wanting to support someone he sort of came up through the ranks with and has been friends with for many years. I suspect it might be more of a temperamental or personal match than a musical one at this point.
Is OMG accepted in the AP style book now? LOLLOL
that DAC article was weak sauce. It’s like “man, DAC sure thinks a lot of himself, also he has an x-rated album which is out of print featuring songs that have nothing to do with his current show, and he’s probably a racist, which he denies, he’s probably scared for his life I’d say, whatever though, go see him if you want.”
Also, I know I’m the only one, but I’m so annoyed by Jamey Johnson. The guy put out a song about how drugs are bad – not exactly a groundbreaking topic or one that takes great courage to tackle. Even for a “drugs are bad” song it’s weak. He groups pot in with cocaine and presumably speed, and he fails to address the existential angst that allegedly drove him to drug use in the first place. “man, my drug use was so significant because it was dissatisfaction that drove me to drugs, but then I found out that being a druggie can result in even more dissatisfaction, drugs are bad”. Thanks Jamey Johnson, you’re a prophet.
That’s kind of how I feel about a lot of Chris Knight songs too, they aren’t really smart at all. Like Johnson’s stuff, it’s all sort of dressed up as hard-edged “truth-telling”, but when compared to the music of guys who came before – Kristofferson, Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver, Townes, Guy Clark, etc – it all strikes me as really not very thoughtful.
man, DAC sure thinks a lot of himself, also he has an x-rated album which is out of print featuring songs that have nothing to do with his current show, and he’s probably a racist, which he denies, he’s probably scared for his life I’d say, whatever though, go see him if you want
man, my drug use was so significant because it was dissatisfaction that drove me to drugs, but then I found out that being a druggie can result in even more dissatisfaction, drugs are bad
You have a real gift for summaries.
I disagree with you on Chris Knight, though. I think the songwriting is usually there in his case, but will concede that his most recent album is among his weakest (possibly at the very bottom). Songs like “If I Were You,” “North Dakota,” and “Enough Rope” are killer, though, and could hold their own next to material by some of those legends you name.
“but will concede that his most recent album is among his weakest (possibly at the very bottom)”
ahh, that might explain it, that’s the record that I’m by far the most familiar with. I’ll have to go through more of his back catalogue I guess.
I was wondering when someone would see my comment on the CMT blog. I guess I picked the wrong analogy?
It just proves your point. Gary LeVox singing country is even less probable than a duck playing the harp, as the latter has actually happened. Even if Daffy’s harp does only have one string.
Great (as always!), keep it coming on with my favourite feature! (Along with Sanity Series and Editorials – you should do more of them, love reading ‘em!)
Thanks, David. Wasn’t sure if you were still around. I’m pretty bad about getting editorials done, but there should be one or two of those and some Sanity Series coming up pretty soon.
Ha. I missed Chris’s comment – I’m way behind on my blog reading. Good stuff.
But I kind of agree with Shelburne’s idea – I prefer to just state the facts too as to take cheap shots at artists. And it’s actually harder to write a neutral review of something terrible than to just be venomous. There’s got to be a middle ground somewhere between taking shots and writing like Alison Bonaguro though.
Well, I think you’re right that it’s about a balance, but I don’t see why anyone would want to write (or read) a neutral review of something terrible. Fair or level-headed, sure, but not neutral. The trick is to be honest and critical (when necessary) without also seeming like a huge jerk.
Obviously, I’m still working on it.
I don’t think that neutrality is a very important part of criticism. My audience is the listener, and if I feel an artist has released something that is insulting towards the listener, it makes me angry, and its precisely my role in the process to breathe fire at the guy (for all the good it does).
But I’m not a “reporter”, I’m a critic. When I “review” a concert my job isn’t to simply decribe costume changes or detail set lists – heck the artists’ management could submit that info themselves – my job is to judge what I saw. Was it good? Was it bad? In what way? That’s the whole reason I’m there.
I say shame on Shelburne for holding back when he sees bad things, his loyalty should be to his readers, not to the industry, and if he sees an awful concert, he should let his readers know.
also, though the artists may be pissed off or whatever, whenever I give a bad review I think of it as doing the artist a favor, there aren’t that many people who are going to work hard to give an honest uncompromising critical assessment of your work, they should appreciate it when they get it.