New Country vs. Old Country

Blake Shelton vs. Old Country

Last week in a TV interview Blake Shelton said this:

 “Nobody wants to listen to their grandpa’s music,” the singer stated, adding, “And I don’t care how many of these old farts around Nashville going, ‘My God, that ain’t country!’ Well that’s because you don’t buy records anymore, jacka–. The kids do, and they don’t want to buy the music you were buying.”

Which of course set off alarms among the Old Tradionalists in Country music.  Shelton was trying to say that Country Music must keep moving forward, failing to see that among the old guard, they don't want it moving forward the way it is now.  Too much Pop, not enough fiddle.

In the link above, Ray Price posted his hilarious smack-down of Shelton on his Facebook page (if Price indeed wrote it, I'm skeptical).

It's amazing that  a Modern day Country act would make a statement like that.  Usually Country singers adhere to the old tradionalist ways.  The Outlaw movement of the 70's, with Waylon & Willie, was supposed to be a rebuke of the safe and staid Nashville.  But deep down even those guys turned out to be fans of Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, etc.

There's no way, though, that a Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire or  a George Strait makes those comments.  
Shelton's always had a smart mouth on him, that's gotten him in trouble on Twitter.
But the funny thing about him is that he really is an Old Country fan.  He said so himself last year at the CMA's.  
So, I don't think he was taking a shot at the old genre.  But he's just tired of hearing people yelling at him as to what is and isn't Country music.

Here's what will happen next:  a duets album with old timer Country acts.  Definitely with Ray Price.  Every popular Country singer has done one of those.  Shelton's a smart guy.  He'll make amends.  

Playlist for 1/28

Linda Ronstadt - Prisoner in Disguise
Linda Ronstadt - s/t
Aretha Franklin - Live at Fillmore West
Django Django
ABC - Beauty Stab
ABC - How To Be A Zillionaire

Poll Afterthoughts

Internet bloggers are playing a bigger part in how these year end Music Polls are played out.  I don't have scientific evidence of this, but I know plenty of bloggers/online only writers that are participating.
The big complaint I've heard is that online writers are too narrow in their listening tastes.

I've been doing this and my other, now defunct blog, since 1997.  I consider myself a music historian, having gobbled up tons of genres during my lifetime.  I've listened to as much, too.  That was even before the Internet let us have everything we want at our fingertips.
So, when it comes to stuff like talking about Rock Hall, Country Hall. Songwriters Hall or just music in general, I've done enough research to give a good opinion.

This isn't arrogance.  You should be able to back up your ballots that you turn in.   But it is a reply to anyone who thinks bloggers just aren't qualified to vote in these polls.
I'll argue credentials any day.  And I think many other Online writers would do the same.

More Artists On Itunes

Only the fools are holding out.  But they won't for too long.  Last week Kid Rock put his catalog on Itunes.  Leaving very few artists that won't go digital, for reasons only they can think of.

My Facebook friend George Crock posted this update a few weeks ago:

Only ones left (that I know of) are: pre-1971 Kinks albums, rest of Bob Seger's catalog, King Crimson, Tool, Def Leppard, Ozzy-era and post-Dio era Black Sabbath Albums, and Garth Brooks

Most are holding out for monetary purposes.  Others because they don't like the way their old records sound  digitalized.  But in reality, who knows what their problem is?

I, and many others predict, that all of the above names that George picks will turn up online somewhere.  Let them hold out all they want.  Some are rich enough they don't need catalog sales.  But once they realize that CD's alone won't do it for their pocket change, they will all come around.

John Wilkinson

John Wilkinson passed away on January 11.  If that name rings a bell you are as avid Elvis fan as I am.  If it doesn't, don't feel bad, Wilkinson was the rhythm guitarist for the King's band until  1977.

His death gives me an opportunity to praise the TCB Band for being as top notch a backing band as befits Royalty.  Drummer Ronnie Tutt. bassist Jerry Scheff, keyboardist Glen D. Hardin and of course Rock Hall of Famer James Burton on lead guitar.  Other names came and went, but these were the core group.

I'd say they were underrated, but when you back Elvis (or even James Brown) you have to expect recognition will be hard to come by.

Wilkinson is the first member of the TCB Band to pass away.  But he's forever remembered anytime you want to go on You Tube and search an Elvis clip from the 70's.


TCB Band Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCB_Band

Playlist for 1/19

This One's For Him:  Tribute to Guy Clark
Paul Simon - Live In New York City
Wes Montgomery - Echoes of Indiana Avenue
Vijay Iyer - Accelerando
Charlie Parker - Now's The Time
Ty Segall - Slaughterhouse

Expert Witness Poll

Yes, another Poll I voted in for 2012 releases.
This one taken from music critic Robert Christgau's  Expert Witness bi-weekly review blog.
Christgau wasn't in charge of this poll.  One of his readers did the honors.  Still with 57 ballots cast, it was worth sending in a ballot.

Link below also has 2012 Singles & all 57 ballots.

http://noisecritic.wordpress.com/2013/01/

2012 Nashville Scene Critics Poll

2012 Nashville Scene Critics Poll is up.  No direct link to my ballot, so I listed it below.  My names does appear below the main page.

2012 Nashville Scene Poll

Stunned that neither of Todd Snider's 2 CD's got into the Top 30.  At least the Village Voice had it at #40 and Rolling Stone at #47.

This was my ballot for Albums/Singles:
1.  Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables

2.  Chris Knight - Little Victories 

3.  Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears

4.  Iris Dement  - Sing the Delta  

5.  Jamey Johnson - Living for A Song: Tribute to Hank Cochran 

6.  Time Jumpers - s/t

7.  Kin - Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell

8.  Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson - Wreck & Ruin 

9.  Todd Snider - Time as We Know It: Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker

10. Patterson Hood - Heat Lightning Rumbles In the Distant

(Given a couple more weeks to ponder, I would have replaced #10's Patterson Hood with This One's For Him: Tribute to Guy Clark.  And #9's Todd Snider with Chelle Rose's Ghost of Browder Holler.  Such is the World of trying to keep up with everything released in one year)

Top 10 Singles

1.   Eric Church - Springsteen 

2.  Kathleen Edwards - Change The Sheets

3.  Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever 

4.  Little Big Town - Tornado

5.  Iris Dement - Night I Learned Not To Pray 

6.  Todd Snider - In The Beginning

7.  Little Big Town - Pontoon

8. Willie Nelson, etc.  - Roll Me Up 

9. Hunter Hayes - Wanted 

10. Jamey Johnson w/ Alison Krauss - Make the World Go Away

2012 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll

Most popular of all the Polls I vote in:

2 links below this page:

1) My own ballot
and
2) The Main page

If you don't have Spotify or Rhapsody or whatever streaming service is out there, this is the era to do it.
There's too much music out there to digest.  I've been using these streamers to weed out the good and the bad.

Tom Lane Pazz and Jop Ballot 2012

Village Voice Pazz and Jop 2012

Ipad

An amazing spectacle.  But then all Apple products are, really.  The Ipad (3) was a Xmas Gift, but it would have been something I would have bought in 2013 anyway.  I still do a lot of things on my Dell laptop, but just got tired of lugging it around.
Things I still do on my laptop that I can't do on an Ipad:  only 1 I can think of and that's burn CD's onto Itunes.  For those that have a laptop, keep it, if you have a large CD collection.  You'll need it to sync your songs onto your Ipad.

But otherwise there's not much more to say about the Ipad, except that with the intro of the Mini, I can see them getting smaller.  Thus, making the one I have obsolete down the road.  Which means Apple will continue to find ways to make zillions of dollars.

Playlist for 1/12

Band of Horses - Mirage Rock
Kendrick Lamar -
Robbie Williams - Take the Crown
Pretty Things - Parachute
Kaleidoscope -  Tangerine Dream

Nashville Scene Ballot

Another Music Poll I voted in was for the Nashville Scene:
Top 10 Albums/Singles.
This one was tough, as even today I would switch a few of the albums around.  Drop and add a couple, but here's the ballot I turned in.

1.  Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables

2.  Chris Knight - Little Victories 

3.  Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears

4.  Iris Dement  - Sing the Delta  

5.  Jamey Johnson - Living for A Song: Tribute to Hank Cochran 

6.  Time Jumpers - s/t

7.  Kin - Songs by Mark Karr & Rodney Crowell

8.  Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson - Wreck & Ruin 

9.  Todd Snider - Time as We Know It: Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker

10. Patterson Hood - Heat Lightning Rumbles In the Distant

(Given a couple more weeks to ponder, I would have replaced #10's Patterson Hood with This One's For Him: Tribute to Guy Clark.  And #9's Tod Snider with Chelle Rose's Ghost of Browder Holler.  Such is the World of trying to keep up with everything released in one year)

Top 10 Singles

1.   Eric Church - Springsteen 

2.  Kathleen Edwards - Change The Sheets

3.  Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever 

4.  Little Big Town - Tornado

5.  Iris Dement - Night I Learned Not To Pray 

6.  Todd Snider - In The Beginning

7.  Little Big Town - Pontoon

8. Willie Nelson, etc.  - Roll Me Up 

9. Hunter Hayes - Wanted 

10. Jamey Johnson w/ Alison Krauss - Make the World Go Away

Elvis at 78

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 78th Birthday.  I thought I'd give Sony credit for continuing to pump out reissues of Elvis' back catalog, even if mega-fans like me have almost everything they've dug up.
Last year came a reissue of the 1972 Madison Square Concerts.  Both evening and afternoon shows are already in my collection as separate CD's.  This time Sony baited collector's with a fan's handheld camera footage of one of the shows.

The most important thing they can do now is keep Elvis' catalog up to date with the digital age.  So, why do they keep putting out these expansive reissues?  Because older folks still buy physical copies of music.  The balancing act will be for Sony to couple that fact with today's on demand crowd.

But anything to keep interest in his music will be alright with me.

Playlist for 1/5

Amy Gore - In Love
JB & The Moonshine Band -
Kleeer -License To Dream
Slave -Showtime
Shovels & Rope - O Be Joyful
Blues Mix Vol. 6: Super Southern Soul
Quintet - Jazz at Massey Hall

Patti Page

They were the enemy.  Or so we were told.  The pre-1955 Rock era Popular Singers.  Their sentimental songs were the reason Rock & Roll were invented. 

I can remember watching Elvis '56, a great doc, with a sequence that jumped from Perry Como singing one of his smooth songs to a shot of Elvis.  The contrast was huge.  But it also pointed to a false premise.

Once Elvis & Co. hit, Pop singers did indeed fade from the charts.  But not completely.  And while the Your Hit Parade days of chart domination no longer existed, these singers never went away.  

And yet, the false premise was that these singers were our enemy.  In 2012 that can be tossed away.  For one thing, Elvis was a fan of the Pop singers of his era.  One listen to Dean Martin confirms that.

And how many Rock singers loved Frank Sinatra.

Patti Page, who died yesterday at age 85, was hugely popular.  In fact, she was the #1 Female Artist of the 50's (thanks Joel Whitburn).  Even during the new Rock & Roll era of 55-59.

So, let the Rock & Roll purists snicker at "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window".  I bet somewhere in 1953, your favorite early Rocker was singing along to it on some AM radio station.  

Pazz & Jop 2012

Made it!  To a new year at least.
Anyway, was surprised a couple of weeks ago to get a ballot for Village Voice's Annual Pazz & Jop Top Albums/Singles.

Lots of turnover in the Summer at their Music dept.  But as long as they continue to do it, I'll continue to send in a ballot.

My choices were the same as my year end favorites.
I'll be curious as to where my #1 album, Todd Snider's Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables ends up.  I'd be shocked if it went Top 50.  Expect it somewhere between 80-100.  The reason I say this is I didn't see it listed on my year end lists, even though it was the best Americana album of 2013.

Will give a link when the 2012 Pazz & Jop is published at end of this month.