Quotable Country – 10/05/08 Edition

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]

I think the [new] record has more texture. ‘Waking Up Laughing’ was pretty simple musically. It was kind of stripped down. This one has a lot of texture. ●
– - Martina McBride has discovered some heretofore unknown definition of the term ‘stripped down.’ Recall that her most recent album included such rootsy numbers as “How I Feel” and the Hallmark anthem “Anyway.”

I said that [Obama] had a chance to win it as the [party's] best candidate since Bill Clinton. I said McCain is very able to run this country, too. Very qualified. … They didn’t put anything about McCain and Palin. They just put that Toby Keith supports Obama. ●
– - Yeah, what’s with everyone thinking that Toby Keith is a hardline Democrat? Oh wait, nobody thinks that. Ever.

And when she’s putting looks together for Nettles, Steinhardt says she just wants everything to fit the mood. “Jennifer has a very good sense of her own presence. She wants looks that make her feel comfortable,” Steinhardt said. “But she’s willing to challenge herself with style.” ●
– - An article on Sugarland’s fashion sense by a real music critic.

“The great thing with [TV exposure] is instant recognizability,” says Marci Braun, music director at Chicago country station WUSN-FM. “Right away, you know who Kristy Lee Cook is.” ●
– - Yes, but only right away. Tick, tock, tick, tock,…

Gracin’s pop-rock country follow-up, “We Weren’t Crazy,” which he cut last year and was released in April, has already spilled out a few singles. ●
– - Pop-rock country? Let’s just string together as many genre descriptors as necessary to keep from calling it bland. The writer knows. Why else would the album be “spilling out” singles? Have you ever spilled something and been happy about it?

Well, since you wear black all the time, does this mean you also wear black underwear?
I don’t wear underwear, ma’am. ●
– - Johnny Cash answers a fan question (as retold by Crook and Chase).

I have always considered myself country, always, no matter what anyone else tries to call it. To me, my music is country. … when you turn country radio on today, it’s the same as southern rock. Let’s be real. ●
– - I think Pat Green is saying he’s always been country because he’s always been southern rock. But I’m not sure.

Songwriting is magic to a lot of civilian people. They don’t know how it happens. ●
– - Songwriter and producer (and son of Ed) Trey Bruce. The link between country music and patriotism is now such that people within the Nashville music industry are referring to themselves in military terms.

‘House’ actor Hugh Laurie was the recent victim of a burglary at his sprawling million dollar Hollywood Hills home. [...] Other celebrity residents in the area including Sherry Lansing and Faith Hill and husband Tim McGraw were also victims so the police think there may be a connection. ●
– - I have a connection. Maybe they’re all rich people with houses in the Hollywood Hills.

But I have a big problem with a country band without the steel guitar. Think about it: you can probably think of a lot of country music that does not have fiddle. But steel guitar? Since the recording of Slowly I’m Falling by Webb Pierce, it has been the signature instrument in country music. Which is why I’m not into the modern “country” sound and do not consider it to be “country” music. Even when the steel guitar is utilized on tracks, it is recorded and mixed in a way that makes it sound like an electric guitar. Huh? What is the point of that? ●
– - Miss Leslie (Myspace) is a woman after my heart.

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