Comments on: TTTMS #3: Inaudible Influences

By: Brody

Brody — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Even though her influences may not be the audible kind, Kellie Pickler pays homage to her oft-cited hero.

By: countryuniverse

countryuniverse — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:45:00 +0000

Dang it! If I had remembered that part of the interview, my hopes would have been dashed at the same time as yours, which would have saved me a lot of hoping!

Well, I suppose this is why it’s the Genius of John Maglite then…

–Leeann

By: John Maglite

John Maglite — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:46:00 +0000

I checked and the article I was thinking of was actually published the day after the album release. It's a quote from the label head:

"Half the songs he came in with were Vern Gosdin, tear-in-the-beer-type ballads, and the other half were Texas two-step shuffles," Dungan said. "I said, 'Darius, we can't get either one of these kinds of songs played on radio.' We wound up actually pushing him a little more to the Hootie side of things than the traditional side."

Must have just been his Rascal Flatts love (in the Malec interview) that tipped me off before the album release.

By: countryuniverse

countryuniverse — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Shawanda didn’t surprise me much because the production on her first single was so generic. The same is the case for Rucker, but the only interview I read on him was Malec’s where he said that the record label didn’t argue with his choice of “the countrier the better.” So, it seems that he contradicted himself in his own interviews?

–Leeann

By: John Maglite

John Maglite — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:47:00 +0000

Gotcha, Leeann. I actually debated over whether to use Shawanda or Rucker for the second part. His run-of-the-mill album surprised me a bit less than hers, though, because I read beforehand that he had come in with a bunch of old Vern Gosdin style songs (promising, if true) and they had talked him into doing more commercial material. So, that took my expectations down a notch. I didn’t see any such warning signs in Shawanda’s case.

By: countryuniverse

countryuniverse — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:25:00 +0000

That’s what I have against Darius Rucker. He said that he told the musicians “the countrier the better” and followed that statement up with “I think the record label was even surprised with how country it was”, but did not deliver on those statements. Does he not know what country is? How much less country could his record have been without pretty much sounding like a Hootie record?

Ditto to Shawanda, but my hopes weren’t as high for her for some reason, though Rucker’s first “country” single should have been all the indication I needed.

–Leeann