I'll start by saying this was damn good year for country music. There was releases from alt-country staples (Old 97s, Drive-By Truckers, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle) as well as exciting releases from some relatively young guns (Hayes Carll, Josh T. Pearson). I'm lucky to have been covering this type of music in a year so ripe with good releases and it was hard to widdle it down, but these are my top 5:
5. Ryan Adams: Ashes and Fire, Capitol
After parting ways with his backing band, The Cardinals, and releasing some metal albums via his website that I don't think even Mandy Moore took the time to listen to, Mr. Adams found himself going back to the basics with his new album. I don't mean this in a bad way in any means, because his basics (great, insightful lyrics laid over mostly acoustic guitar) suit him just fine. It's a great autumnal record, and I look forward to having it in my rotation this winter.
Key Tracks:
Ashes and Fire
Chains of Love
Lucky Now
4. Robert Earl Keen: Ready For Confetti, Lost Highway
Much like Mr. Adams, Keen harkens back to what makes him great in the first place: insightful lyrics that equally hit dreary wistfulness and wry country wit. He hits both of these amicably many times throughout this album and though it's certainly not his best album, there's few times throughout the album the he misses the bullseye.
Key Tracks:
Black Baldy Stallion
I Gotta Go
The Road Goes On and On
3. The Old 97s: The Grand Theater, Volume Two; New West
Resulting from sessions in Dallas and Austin early last year, TGT V2 was the second set of songs after last year's The Grand Theatre, Volume One. Much like that album, this album finds the Old 97s perfectly executing the thing that made fall in love with them (and eventually alt country) in the first place. When Ken Bethea's guitar storms in with that signature dropped-down-two-steps tuning on "Brown Haired Daughter", you know the 97s are right back at what they do best. This album stands perfectly on it's own and even more interestingly as the companion to TGT V1 and these two albums are my favorite work of theirs since Wilco was still an "alt country" band. Anyways, just go them live already I'll see you there.
Key Tracks:
The Actor
No Simple Machine
How Lovely All It Was
2. Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots; ATO
The Truckers do here what they always do. Deliever an album rich with stark storytelling on Hood's part, great one liners on Cooley's, and sounds simultaneously fresh and indicative of the band. I don't have too much to say about this one DBT speaks for themselves in many ways. It's gritty, grimy, insightful, poignant,.... it kicks ass.
Key Tracks:
Go Go Boots
Cartoon Gold
Used To Be A Cop
Ray's Automatic Weapon
1. Hayes Carll: KMAG YOYO; Lost Highway
Relative newcomer Hayes Carll firmly planted himself as a songwriter to be reckoned with by putting out the perfect country-rock record. It's got boot-stompin' ragers, whiskey-soaked honky tonkers, and genuinely sweet and insightful slow numbers. On this album, he's the perfect purveyor of country wit, drunken rambles, and genuinely sweet balladry. This is hands down the best beginning to end album of the year and I look forward to seeing where this guy goes from here as he's obviously found a formula that works to a tee.
Dirty politicians, dead judges, blue collar tribulations, and multiple other variants of social decay. If you're partaking in such things you're likely doing one of three things: watching The Wire, reading the work of Charles Dickens, or listening to the Drive-By Truckers. That's not to say these guys are a bunch of sad sack rednecks who do nothing other than talk about how much the world sucks, but these guys certainly don't mind hanging out on Gram Parsons' iconic "dark end of the street". I've always envisioned that if Bruce Springsteen was not on the streets of New Jersey but instead in the grimy swamps of Alabama, he would certainly be one of the Truckers.
The Drive-By Truckers are one of the last remaining examples of the "Alt-Country" movement that took off in the 1990s, and the dead genre certainly couldn't have a better living, breathing remnant then the Drive-By Truckers. I've always considered them the yin to the Old 97s yang in quintessential alt country harmony. Where the Old 97s display the sharp pop-conscious songcraft of the Beatles and Buddy Holly, the Truckers wield the raw grit of the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd with the lyrical weight of the aforementioned Boss. I'll be frank, this is one of my favorite bands so bias here will be apparent. I whole-heartedly believe Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (the two principal songwriters and vocalists) will become recognized as one of rock music's all-time best songwriting parternships as time passes and retrospection will help to bring to light -- as it so often does in any artform-- the genius that's been churning out of Northern Alabama throughout their career. Despite the confounding effects that come with being associated with a niche genre, the Truckers' deep and rich catalog -- Allmusic has scored all of their albums, besides their first, with over four stars -- spanning over 15 years transcends any such titles as "Alt-country" and will leave them remembered as one America's great rock and roll bands.
Similar to the 97s, their first album is their weakest album as a whole with them exploring the sounds and songwritng ethos that would come to define the band. Though cheekily titled Gangstabilly, the album still explores emotionally heavy and effective songs, such as The Living Bubba, a song about a friend of theirs who after learned he was dying aimed to play as many shows as he could before kicking it in. Such songs display a beautiful heartfelt ode to their love of music and the people who play it alongside them.
Heavy songs such as this are however balanced by wittier and more upbeat numbers such as 18 Wheels of Love, a song that may be the most authentically country love song ever written in the most literal sense of the word. The true story of front man Patterson Hood's mother and step father -- this version live from Austin City Limits comes with Hood at his most Springsteen telling the story of the song's origins -- it displays the effectiveness of Hood's songwriting even when it's not gut wrenching, and points to the promising future the band has ahead.
The band's sophomore effort, Pizza Deliverance, begins them truly finding their ethos and perfectly walks the line between folksy country ballads and rowdy whiskey-charged stompers that sound like Hank Williams spent some time hanging out with the Sex Pistols. This duality is displayed right off the bat with the first two tracks:
Bulldozers and Dirt
Nine Bullets
Undoubtedly the most important thing Pizza Deliverance did was give Mike Cooley his proper introduction as Hood's perfect songwriting and vocal foil. Where Hood's voice is rough, raspy, and jagged, Cooley's is smooth, deep, and cool; where Hood's songs can be idiosyncratic and at times abrasive, Cooley's songs can be genuinely sweet or laced with charming rural wit. Uncle Frank, one of his songwriting masterworks, captures all the things that define a great Trucker's song in a tragic character sketch about a man whose left with no option but suicide after his limited skills and resources leave him confined to a world which long since changed and left him behind.
Arriving at the near end of the Alt-Country proper era, the Truckers 3rd studio album became the masterwork that elevated them above the confines of the niche genre they emerged from. 2001's Southern Rock Opera was a sprawling double album that was explored classic 1970s rock, racial politics, and modern Southern identity tied together with a loose story about Lynyrd Skynyrd. With a powerful "3 Axe Attack" from guitarists Hood, Cooley, and Rob Malone and intellectually evocative and thought provoking lyrics, the album became a powerful opus for the band that stands in the upper realm of Southern Rock. In what may be the only song that's ever told a narrative about a widely popular song while simultaneously defining an authentic regional identity, the album's proper opener "Ronnie and Neil" becomes essentially a mission statement for the band's attitude about the place from which they come as it explores the duality metaphorically displayed by Neil Young's "Southern Man" and Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama".
"And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men still need both of them around."
They continue to explore this ideal of the duality of the southern identity throughout the album and the track, "The Southern Thing", is written with the depth and complexity of a grad student's dissertation but with the efficiency of a 5 minute song.
Divided into two acts, the album tells the partially auto-biographical story of a boy (Hood's fictionalized self) growing up in the south where sports heroes are idolized instead of musicians and eventually setting out on tour with a Skynyrd-esque rock band. The second act's lead off, "Let There Be Rock", taps the breaks on the socio-political philosophy and is a pure cathartic celebration of music that can easily set alongside the best work of the legends that inspired the band.
Naturally however, Hood's fictional character comes to his end in a plane crash as the album comes towards it's end with Cooley and Patterson putting the gas to the floor with three tracks that discuss the dreams and hope life as a musician can offer and the tragedy of the those dreams barreling down into a fiery crash before they're fully realized.
So with Southern Rock Opera, the Truckers elevated themselves above "another alt-country band" with critics and music fans alike applauding the intelligence and ambition the band displayed on SRO. The success and buzz of that record led a recording contract with New West Records, a mainstay of Americana, Alt-Country, and other forms of rootsy music. Now the band was faced with always difficult, often impossible task of creating a follow up to what many considered to be a masterpiece. With 2003's Decoration Day however, the Truckers did just that.
After guitarist Rob Malone's departure from the band, they found a replacement in the young Jason Isbell. Isbell not only proved to be an excellent compliment to the guitar work of Hood and Cooley, but also took the songwriting and vocal duties on two of the albums. His songs, more traditionally pop based than Hood or Cooley's, contrasted beautifully alongside the grittier tracks of the two primary songwriters.
As a whole, the album is their loosest and grittiest to date with most of the tracks being recorded live on the first or second take. This lack of polishing proved to be the perfect companion to the hard bent family-based subject matter of the album, leading to some of the band's most aggressive and powerful songs on record.
One of my favorite songs by the band, "Sink Hole" takes a traditional Johnny Cash-esque song structure and super charges it with power and intensity. The track to follow, "Hell No I Ain't Happy", demonstrates these will likely always be to heavy to appeal to mainstream country radio but also exemplifies their unrivaled and unique passion in which they hammer heavy emotion into their songs.
As usual though, the band has a knack more balancing out the heavier tracks and dip into pure cathartic irreverent joy, exemplified by Cooley's "Marry Me":
"Rock and Roll means well but it can't help tellin' young boys lies"
The album continues on to tell stories painting life in the South, both past and present, with the heart-wrenching pathos seen in the works of William Faulkner. Along these lines, Hood tackles the disintegration of a family on the slowed down mid-album highlights "Heathens" and "(Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon".
By 2003, the Old 97s had been dropped from their label, Wilco was delving into all types of experimental realms, and Ryan Adams had all but abandoned his rootsy ways. It seemed as if alt-country was dead once and for all. Scene or not however, the Drive-By Truckers churned on and Decoration Day was again heralded by critics and fans alike.
Always the working band, the Truckers shortly returned to the studio with Jason Isbell's new wife, Shonna Tucker, on bass and recorded what is, in my opinion, their definitive masterwork. 2004's The Dirty South has everything the band does best with stories about the oft-bleak nature of the land they hail from delivered with intense and genuine passion. Cooley opens it up with the breath taking moonshiners tale "Where The Devil Don't Stay":
Isbell ups the ante with his songwriting as well, with the metaphorical "The Day John Henry Died" exploring the death of the blue collar:
In his "Southern Springsteen" fashion, Hood delivers a stark story of good people being pushed into doing bad things on the intense "Puttin' People On The Moon":
The noir tone abounds as Hood and Cooley lay down a three-song set told from the opposite perspective of Alabama's most famous sheriff and the gang battle that provided the story for the film Walking Tall.
The album ends on perfect juxtaposition, with the heavy hitting live-staple "Lookout Mountain" and what maybe the Trucker's most tender song ever recorded, Isbell's "Goddamn Lonely Love": The Dirty South became the band's best selling album to date, and again garnered high praise from critics (it was even named in Pitchfork's list of best albums of the decade!)
Since 2004, the band has continued to consistently release quality material at an alarming rate. Despite a near break up, occurring after the departure of Jason Isbell following 2006's A Blessing and A Curse, the band continues to evolve and approach each new album with a fresh stylistic approach. As I believe all great bands do, every album the Truckers put is unique in it's sound and style while all easily falling under the umbrella of the essential ethos and approach. Anyone who's curious to discover and fall in love this music I've been covering so fondly should most certainly start with these guys. I think time will go on to further expose this band as one of this era's truly consistently great rock bands, sub genre distinctions aside. For anyone interested, I'll leave with some of my favorite cuts from their albums from the past five years. However, I'm more comfortable highly recommending Truckers' entire full discography than any band I can think of, as the joy in discovering their deep and diverse well of music is a thrill that would be selfish to keep to myself.
Last The Rolling Stones released an excellent remastered version of their 1978 classic Some Girls and it got me back into listening to alot of the Stones over the past week. The Rolling Stones certainly have a special place in my musical heart as they, in their most quintessential form, represent one of the purest forms of Rock and Roll, that being a steady mixture of blues and country. I've always found it funny that though they hail from the other side of the pond, throughout their career they've put out some the most "American" sounding music to date. Mic Jagger and Keith Richards have often stated their inspiration not only coming from Chess Records American blues, but also from what they've referred to as "hillbilly music". Needless to say, they in turn have inspired a multitude of bands too numerous to count, and their raucous attitude and approach is certainly seen throughout a lot of the alternative music I'm so fond of. Having said that, I thought I'd through out some of my favorite Stones tunes when they're fully channeling their inner hillbilly.
Beggar's Banquet's "No Expectations" (1968):
Country-Fried version of "Honky Tonk Women" off of Let It Bleed, "Country Honk" (1969):
Let It Bleed's beautifully rollicking title track (keep in mind this came out a good 5 years before Bill Withers' "Lean on Me") Sticky Fingers' classic "Wild Horses" (Keith even tunes his guitar to the 'Nashville Tuning' for this one):
I posted country legend Townes Van Zandt's cover of this earlier who put his own spin on it; however the Stones version is just as effectively executed. Sticky Fingers' "Dead Flowers" (1971):
And perhaps my favorite country cut of theirs, "Sweet Virginia" off of Exile on Main Street (1972); see you next time:
Ahh Thanksgiving, that wonderful time of year. Whether going to your home or off to a relative's, the holiday for most almost always involves coming together with family both close and distant. Depending on the dynamics of one's family, this holiday can bring many ups and downs. Often spending time with the extended fam carries with it the baggage that almost any family has within it, and the joy found in seeing relatives not seen in a while more times than not is coupled with the difficulties in coping with these complicated familial and generation dynamics. This is the theme that the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood explores in "The Thanksgiving Filter" off of this year's excellent Go-Go Boots. In line with many great country songs and particularly the characters in the Truckers' universe, nothing helps this problem better than a nice stiff drink; the titular "filter" that helps Hood's character get through the holiday. The aforementioned juxtaposition is portrayed perfectly in the tonally dark verses and the cathartic and conflicted joy of the chorus (with lines like "I sure wish I had smoked me a joint" serving as a great irreverent lead in). Despite the seemingly jaded content, the Truckers deliver this in a fun and relatable way and it serves as the perfect companion piece to the unique experience that is the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving.
So today we talked about our love mixtape song in class. If I was staying true to my blog's genre I would have picked this one:
Or perhaps this one: A reworked version of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" by Steve Earle's son, Justin Townes Earle:
