The 9513 - Country Music Blog

One of my earliest memories of CMT is watching Shenandoah’s “Next to You, Next to Me” video at my grandparents’ house after faking (cough, cough) sick to get out of what I’m sure was a particularly grueling day of elementary school.

The band remains one of my favorites, due in no small part to lead singer Marty Raybon’s catchy twang. After he left in 1996, the band faded from radio prominence, and I was left wondering what happened to Raybon after “Butterfly Kisses” came and went in 1997. Lucky for me, Craig Shelburne brought him back to my attention over on the CMT blog this week:

If you like bluegrass music, I have a couple of recommendations for you. The first is Marty Raybon & Full Circle’s This That and the Other. You may recognize Raybon as the engaging lead singer of Shenandoah, who had a batch of popular country singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These days he’s pursuing bluegrass music full time yet the new material doesn’t stray far from Shenandoah hits like “Next to You, Next to Me” or “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too).” If you like those tunes, try “Everybody’s Reaching (Out for Someone)” and “Luzianna Man.” You’ll be pleased to discover that his voice still sparkles.

Raybon isn’t the first or last singer to change his tune, so to speak, after an initial brush with success. John Rick was part of Lonestar from 1992 to 1998 as a bass guitarist and vocalist, but went on to arguably even more success as one half of Big & Rich. And while music is always looking for the new and the next, listeners don’t always buy in: Other reinventions–such as LeAnn Rimes’ sexy pop crossover and Garth Brooks’ alter-ego Chris Gaines–have failed to entice fans to embrace the changes.

Give us your take: Who is your most or least favorite country music “reinvention”?

• Brooks & Dunn are scheduled to release a 30-track hits compilation titled #1s … and then some on Sept. 8. The duo’s current single, “Indian Summer,” and “Honky Tonk Stomp” will be the only new material. Visit GAC for the complete track listing.
• Whitney Duncan goes skinny dippin’ in her new video for “Skinny Dippin’.”
• Craig Shelburne listed ten recent independent albums you might have missed, from Ben Kweller’s Changing Horses and Buddy and Julie Miller’s Written in Chalk to Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver’s Lonely Street and the Red Stick Ramblers‘ My Suitcase Is Always Packed. He also dusted off and recommended several older albums from his collection.
• Although a fair percentage of Hank III’s audience left after the country portion of his show on Tuesday, Juli Thanki says there was still a surprisingly large demographic that appreciated both the country segment and his followup metal set.
• Help keep Toby Keith from slipping to a “B” list country star.
• Old Crow Medicine Show will release Live at the Orange Peel and Tennessee Theatre, their first live concert DVD on August 18. (via press release)
  

  …was recorded over two nights last December and features performances of 20 songs—15 of which are from the band’s three studio albums—including “Tell It To Me,” “Down Home Girl,” “Alabama High-Test,” and “Wagon Wheel.” The DVD also includes five tracks from their live repertoire not found on their three studio albums: “Wheeling Breakdown,” “Raise A Ruckus,” “Reuben’s Train,” “Sally Anne” and “Shack #9.”

• Jamey Johnson and James Otto both scored two awards at the 21st MusicRow Awards,
• Random Tweet of the Day: A little something for the ladies from Jimmy Wayne. (@countryweekly)
• My Kind of Country kicked off its John Anderson coverage with a review of his self-titled debut album, which Occasional Hope cites as one of the best debuts by a country singer ever.
• Holly Williams will make her Grand Ole Opry debut on July 3. No pressure, right?
• Random Tweet of the Day (Part II): South Dakota today….. Wow the traffic up here is awful… And it keeps crapping all over the road!!… (@blakeshelton)
• J. Freedom du Lac: muses:
  

  If pop music critics held any real sway over the listening public, then Celine Dion wouldn’t have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide; Amadou & Mariam, Ashton Shepherd and Animal Collective would be international stars; and fans would be filling stadiums for Sufjan Stevens and Jamey Johnson instead of Bon Jovi and Kenny Chesney.

• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will release their first studio album in five years on Sept. 22. Titled Speed of Life, the album will be released on the band’s own record label and distributed by Sugar Hill. (via Twang Nation)
• Songwriter extraordinaire Walt Wilkins released a new album on Tuesday titled Vigil. (via Galleywinter)

As a music geek parent, one of the greatest moments is when your child discovers music. The first time I’d ever seen one of my daughters sit still for three minutes was when she became enraptured by Paul Simon performing “That Was Your Mother” on the Ellen Degeneres show. You could almost see a whole new world open up to her.

The downside to discovering music, of course, is that your child may discover a lot of crap along the way. It’s probably not crap to them, but if the kids want to hear the same CD on a car trip 15 times in a row the parents are stuck listening to it, too. And it’s a guarantee the parents will get sick of it way before the kids will.

Some kids music is outright malevolent (that damned purple dinosaur), and the wise parent will avoid it at all costs. Other music is seemingly innocent at first, but it’s actually a dangerous and unrelenting ear worm that will burrow into your brain, and you, the formerly cool parent who knew about Uncle Tupelo way before anyone else did, will find yourself humming “Fruit Salad” by the Wiggles while at work.

That’s why children’s music that sounds good to parents is a godsend, and Farmer Jason is among the best at it. He’s released two CDs, “A Day at the Farm” and “Rockin’ in the Forest,” filled with songs about animals, tractors and trees. Simple ideas, yes, but Farmer Jason is Jason Ringenberg, lead singer of Jason and the Scorchers and an alt-country icon for more than 25 years. He doesn’t just sing about a skunk. He sings about a “Punk Rock Skunk” and throws some Ramones-style “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!” chanting into the mix. And his concert at the Red Light Café in Atlanta last Sunday wasn’t just a kid’s show. It was a one-man rock concert with songs that just happened to be about toads and doggies.

The audience was filled with hipster parents (old concert T-shirts fitting snugly around expanding waistlines, graying hair underneath cowboy hats) and their kids, and it was actually hard to say which group was most excited to see Farmer Jason perform. There were also a few childless couples who were probably amused to see their cowpunk hero instructing the kiddies on how to do the Doggie Dance.

Ringenberg, clad in his Farmer Jason uniform of bib overalls, straw hat and checked blue shirt, went through all the hits: “The Tractor Goes Chug Chug Chug,” “Get Up Up Up!,” “Catfish Song” and more. For the benefit of the parents, he also did a sing-along version of “Help There’s A Fire,” originally recorded by his “brother’s band,” Jason & The Scorchers.

The adults had a great time, but this wasn’t about the adults. What did the kids think? At first, they all sat with their folks, clapped, cheered and wondered why their parents were laughing at Farmer Jason’s drummer missing the show because he locked his keys in his convertible. Being a veteran entertainer, Ringenberg encouraged them to come forward, getting them into conversations about their own pets. He took suggestions from them and came up with several off-the-cuff verses for his “Forest Rhymes” song (impressing everyone by quickly coming up with a few lines about a polar bear that included the phrase “solar flare”). By the end of the show, the kids had commandeered the front of the room and eventually turned the stage into a mini-mosh pit. The parents were content to sit, smile and take pictures, enjoying this rare moment to expose their children to good music before Radio Disney swoops down and snatches them away for the next decade or so.

• Josh Turner’s wife Jennifer gave birth to Colby Lynch Turner, the couple’s second son, last Friday.
• The Gobblers Knob’s Kelly Dearmore on the new Owen Temple album, Dollars and Dimes:
  

  …an artful shot of reality, as told through the memory and perspective of a traveler with perhaps more questions than answers. Drawing on the current socio-economical climate, Temple has crafted an album that will remind many that story-telling can be relevant and revealing when looking into times of crisis.

• Congrats to Cecelia Row, Bev, Meredith, Zach and Amanda for winning their very own grilling pack in our recent giveaway, A Barbecueing Prize Pack, Courtesy of Keith Urban, KC Masterpiece and Kingsford Charcoal. We’ll be in touch shortly to get your shipping info. Thanks to everyone who entered.
• A random tweet from Reba McEntire spurred C.M. Wilcox into checking out the latest Rascal Flatts album, Unstoppable. Read his track-by-track commentary.
• Listen to an interview and performance from Jesse Winchester on NPR.
• The Bluegrass Blog took a look back at the life and career of Bill Harrell and shared the thoughts of several artists who had worked with him.
• The My Kind of Country crew tapped John Anderson as their spotlight artist for the month of July.
• New music on the horizon: Delbert McClinton’s first album in four years, Acquired Taste, will be released Aug. 18, former Nashville Star winner Chris Young drops his second album, The Man I Want to Be, on Sept. 1, and Terri Clark’s self-produced The Long Way Home also comes out in September.
• Edward Morris shared a list of Brad Paisley videos, or “visual-lyrical gems.”
• A couple of lucky fans could win an autographed Cherryholmes CD on Twitter just for following the band, and in other Twitter news, Charlie Robison is offering a free, private concert to one lucky winner.
• The Dixie Bee-Liners explain how they got together and where the band’s name came from in an interview and recording session with FolkAlley.com. Videos are included, too.

If anyone in Country Music can truly be said to be a “renaissance man” that person would be Billy Edd Wheeler. Poet, playwright, author, songwriter, singer, artist, lecturer and ecologist would be but a few of the hats that accurately (and comfortably) fit onto his head.

Billy Edd Wheeler fits into the realm between folk music, pop music and country music as his songs have been covered by artists in all three genres. Folk artists such as the Kingston Trio (“The Reverend Mr. Black,” “Desert Pete”), Judy Collins (“The Coming of the Roads,” “Coal Tattoo”), Judy Henske (“High Flying Bird”) and pop artists such as Glen Campbell (“Ann”), Kenny Rogers (“Coward of the County”), Nancy Sinatra-Lee Hazelwood (“Jackson” ), and Jim Nabors (“Hot Dog Heart”) have all enjoyed success with his songs.

Meanwhile, on the country side of the ledger, artists such as Hank Snow (“Blue Roses”), Johnny Cash (“Blistered,” “Jackson”), Jerry Reed (“Gimme Back My Blues”) and Johnny Darrell (“I Ain’t Buying,” “Aint That Living”) were among the artists who enjoyed success with his songs. Kathy Mattea’s recent album, Coal, featured several including “Coal Tattoo” and “The Coming of the Roads.” Moreover, he had one major country hit of his own (“Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back”) and several lesser hits including “I Ain’t The Worrying Kind” and “Fried Chicken and a Country Tune.” Wheeler was a long-time friend of Chet Atkins and they wrote a number of songs together including the amusing “I Still Write Your Name in the Snow.”

Born on December 12, 1932, in Whitesville, West Virginia, Billy Edd Wheeler was raised in Boone County, West Virginia and artistic bent showed up early. After high school, he headed to North Carolina where he graduated from Warren Wilson Junior College in 1953, and then to Berea College in Kentucky where he graduated in 1955.

After an interlude in the military in the Navy’s Air Force, he did graduate studies at Yale’s School of Drama under John Gassner, majoring in playwriting. During this time, he became acquainted with the famed team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and collaborated with them on some songs, including “Jackson,” “The Reverend Mr. Black,” and “(The Girl Who Loved) The Man Who Robbed The Bank At Santa Fe (And Got Away),” which was a Top 10 hit for Hank Snow.

Billy Edd Wheeler is a warm and engaging performer whose singing is more folk than country. His career as a singer emerged at the end of the “Hootenanny” era so he has had a relatively low profile as a recording artist. Living in Swannanoa, North Carolina since 1971 has kept him out of the Nashville spotlight but he has remained busy. During his career, he has received 13 awards from ASCAP for songs recorded by the likes of Judy Collins, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Elvis, and 90+ other artists. Wheeler estimated a few years ago that his songs sold over 57 million units. By now the total is over 60 million units.

He has written a dozen plays, including 4 outdoor dramas that include the long-running Hatfields & McCoys at Beckley, West Virginia, and Young Abe Lincoln at Lincoln City, Indiana. His most recent play, Johnny Appleseed, premiered at Mansfield, Ohio in 2004. He also has authored or co-authored several books of humor, most recently Real Country Humor–Jokes From Country Music Personalities.

Billy Edd Wheeler was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007. He also is a member of the Nashville Association of Songwriters International’s Hall of Fame, and has won awards in various other fields of endeavor.

Discography

Vinyl
Billy Edd Wheeler issued a number of albums for Kapp and other labels. All of them contain interesting songs and any that you happen to come across will be worth the purchase.

While he had recorded previously, Memories of America/ Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back (Kapp, 1965) was the album that brought Billy Edd Wheeler to the attention of most people. This album contains most of the songs for which he is remembered including “Jackson” and “The Reverend Mr. Black.” Joan Sommer is the female lead on several songs and the Coasters (yes, those Coasters) provide the harmony on “After Taxes.” This album had previously been issued under the title A New Bag of Songs, but when the title song became a surprise hit, the album was reissued minus two songs and adding the title song and “Sister Sara” which the Kingston Trio had recently turned into a hit.

I Ain’t the Worryin’ Kind (Kapp, 1968) is the other vinyl album to look for, as it contains most of the other songs for which he is known, and some of the best examples of Billy Edd’s wry wit. “Gladys (The Anatomy of A Shotgun Wedding)” is not to be missed, nor is “I Ain’t The Worryin’ Kind.”

CD
CDs are available can be purchased from Billy Edd’s website.

None of his vinyl albums have made it to CD, but Milestones contains some original versions of his songs. I would also recommend Songs I Wrote With Chet, a collection of songs co-authored by the great Chet Atkins. Actually go ahead and buy every CD and book he has for sale on his website. They are all great fun.

Here at The 9513 we’re always looking for ways to make you smile. And we know of few better ways than giving you kick-ass free stuff. Last week we gave away over $1,000 worth of grilling packages and this week we have some of the latest in music listening technology.

The Sansa slotRadio player uses microSD cards that come preloaded with 1,000 songs (different playlists and genres are available). The slotRadio also has an FM tuner which displays artist and song information (where available), and you can use the device as an MP3 player by saving music to your own microSD cards.

The official blurb:

“Sansa® slotRadio™ player lets you listen to 1000 songs with nothing to download, copy or manage. Just insert the slotRadio™ mix card into the Sansa® slotRadio™ player and enjoy seven handcrafted playlists to fit your style, mood or activities. No Internet or PC connection necessary. See what’s playing and what’s next, skip individual songs or change playlists as often as you want. Sansa® slotRadio™ player also includes an FM radio. Clip on the small, sleek player and rev up your workout, slip into some jazz, or rock out with up to 13 hours of battery time. It’s great music, made effortless.”

The 9513 has a brand new slotRadio player to give away, along with:

• 1,000 song Country Music microSD card
• Sansa® slotRadio™ player mini travel case–Take your slotRadio™ player everywhere. This small case protects your player, slotRadio™ cards and earbuds on the go with a durable mesh material. It comes with a carabiner to clip anywhere.
• microSD™ card holder–Take your files and music everywhere you go. Organize and carry up to 8 (eight) microSD™, slotMusic™ or slotRadio™ cards in this tiny credit card size case.
• Sansa® card wallet–The Sansa® card wallet can carry four additional slotRadio™ cards and cases wherever you go. So whenever your mood changes, just pop in a new card and keep going.
• Sansa® slotRadio™ player armband–Rev up your workout. The comfortable slotRadio™ armband lets you easily jog, walk, and pump up your heartbeat while listening to your favorite slotRadio™ cards.

One lucky winner will take home all of this, valued at around $200.

Yeah, that’s right. We know you love us. Go ahead and show us those pearly whites.

And good luck.

Entering the Giveaway

Entering is easy. Just take a moment to tell us about your favorite piece of music hardware! From the wax cylinder to the slotRadio, what devices have you used to fall in love with music?

Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered (one entry per household, please). You must use a valid email address when you enter so that we can contact you if you win. The9513.com will never share your private information without your explicit consent. We don’t spam.

Eligible comments must be posted by 11:59 pm EST on Tuesday, July 7th. The winner will be chosen randomly and announced after the contest has ended.

To answer my question from last week: Yes, George Strait did hit the 30-listener mark, and he did it by blowing away the rest of the field, a solid eight listeners ahead of the closest competition. With about 26 studio albums to his name and tons of compilations and holiday albums, Strait is one of the most prolific artists in today’s country music. Say you’re only a casual Strait fan and have, say, a quarter of his albums and a greatest hits package to cover his older stuff. That’s still about seven albums, or as many albums as Sugarland, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift have, combined. If you’re a Strait completest and have to have everything that he’s ever recorded, that’s probably upwards of 400 songs, which would be a sizable chunk of any music collection.

Of course, Strait can still learn a few lessons from his elders. After all, 26 studio albums is a slow year for Willie Nelson.

Two of the people tied for 2nd place with 22 listeners have very respectable discographies of their own: George Jones and Johnny Cash. The third one, Dwight Yoakam, has been maddeningly inconsistent with his output, particularly in the last decade or so. I love Dwight, but he lost me starting around 1996 when he became determined to release every kind of album BESIDES a new studio album. There was a live album, a covers album, a Christmas album, a greatest-hits package or two, an international release with a mix of covers, a couple of movie projects and an acoustic album. In between all that, he released A Long Way Home, but for the life of me, I didn’t even notice it was out until a year or so later. He hasn’t put out any new material since 2005 either, with a live album and a Buck Owens tribute done instead.

Rounding out the Top 10 is a lot of guys, with Trisha Yearwood (#6, 20 listeners) being the only female solo artist to be found. I remember when this chart slanted heavily toward the female country singers, but we’re trending very Y chromosome lately. At least Neko Case is in the Top 20 (#15, 17 listeners), but we’re probably an album or two removed from where she could be considered even alt-country instead of indie rock.

Hayes Carll’s Trouble In Mind is #1 on the Top Albums chart with 15 listeners. Texas is known for some of the best country songwriters around, not to mention some of the nicest, best-looking bloggers, and Carll is following nicely in the tradition that’s brought us Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and the Brothers Robison. I’m still waiting to see which Nashville singer will take one of Carll’s songs and have a Number One hit with it. Nashville takes over from there, with two albums from Carrie Underwood (Carnival Ride with 13 listeners, Some Hearts with 11), Love on the Inside from Sugarland (11) and That Lonesome Song from Jamey Johnson (11) in the Top 5. Also in the Top 10 is Dolly Parton’s Backwoods Barbie (10), but there’s no way to tell if it was the regular release, the Target exclusive, the Wal-Mart exclusive, the Best Buy exclusive or the new Cracker Barrel exclusive.

The #1 track for this week, with 8 listeners, is… “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson. Yep. Well, it’s a little out of place in a country music group, but you don’t get to be King of Pop by having a narrowly defined fanbase. It’s no surprise that even country music fans would pull out their copy of Thriller and honor Jaskson’s passing by playing some of his greatest songs. Better to remember him that way than to remember the reclusive manchild with an unhealthy attachment to children and a desperate need for a SWAT team of psychologists. And considering one of the other songs with 8 listeners was Gloriana’s “Wild at Heart,” you could make the case that it’s not the least country-sounding song at #1 this week. The other two tracks to share the top spot are “Amarillo by Morning” by Strait and “Anything Goes” by Randy Houser. Also in the top 10 are a couple other Jackson songs, “Beat It” and “The Way You Make Me Feel”, as well as Neko Case’s “People Got a Lotta Nerve” and Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried.”

Freebie of the Week: Glossary is a Tennessee-based rock band, but the Americana vibe is definitely strong. My friend who turned me on to them compared them to Son Volt, which is pretty accurate. According to their Web site, they’re working on a new album now, but their last one, The Better Angels Of Our Nature, was released for free in 2007. “Little Caney,” “Only Time Will Tell” and “Gasoline Soaked Heart” are a few of my favorites. They’ve got a few more albums out, and they occasionally offer Angels with hand-made CD packaging, so this is a good introduction to the band.

To see this week’s charts and join our group, head to http://www.last.fm/group/The+9513.

Join us on:
Last.fm | Twitter | Facebook | MySpace |

• BMI will honor Kris Kristofferson as a music icon during its awards show in November.

• New releases for the week of June 30, 2009 include:

  • Brad Paisley – American Saturday Night
    Amazon | iTunes [Bonus: "Then (Single Edit)"] | MySpace

  • Brandon Rickman – Young Man, Old Soul
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Cledus T. Judd – Polyrically Uncorrect
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
    Amazon | iTunes

  • Queens of Country (DVD)
    Amazon

  • The Sweetback Sisters – Chicken Ain’t Chicken
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Tanya Tucker – My Turn
    Amazon | iTunes

• Dierks Bentley scored his second consecutive number one and seventh overall on Billboard’s Country Singles Chart with “Sideways.”
• In a Q&A with Craig Shelburne, Tanya Tucker talked about the appeal of singing men’s songs and how she prepared for her new album.
• Alan Jackson is selling his six bedroom, 19,000 square-feet Sweetbriar property for a cool $38,000,000.
• SHeDaisy lead singer Kassidy Osborn and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley were both recently married, but not to each other.
• The problem with the covers on Levon Helm’s new album Electric Dirt is that they all pale in comparison to the originals, but Austin Music Source’s Michael Corcoran says two original tunes, “Growing Trade” and “When I Go Away,” save the record.
• But wait, Steve Morse says it’s the covers that shine.
• Check out Joe Ely’s collection of signs from homeless people, the first of which he bought in the mid-70s for five dollars.
• New label Stoney Creek Records signed Ash Bowers (MySpace).
• Country Universe: Who are the icons in country music that could command the same attention as Wynette and Cash, or perhaps even Jackson, when their road comes to an end?
• Rhapsody released an exclusive live version of Taylor Swift covering Tom Petty’s “American Girl.”
• The Tennessean’s Cindy Watts has an interview with Brad Paisley and Chris DuBois about the process behind, and inspiration for, Paisley’s new album, American Saturday Night.
  

  “You’re going to get to know more of Brad Paisley,” he says. “He explores lyrically, sonically and musically different areas than we’ve had in the past, and I think it’s a complete album. It’s a musical journey where there’s a beginning a middle and an end. You just feel that.”

• USA Today’s Brian Mansfield echoes the notion that American Saturday Night is a complete album: “…is the first to feel like a full set of songs instead of some radio hits, guitar instrumentals, gospel songs and comedy bits crammed together.”
• Ricky Skaggs credits photography and other creative endeavors with making him a better musician. He’ll headline the second installment of this year’s Bluegrass Nights At The Ryman series with his band Kentucky Thunder on July 2.
• The new blog Allen’s Archive kicked off with seven volumes of vinyl rips from Bradley Kincaid, who you might remember from Paul’s Forgotten Artists feature last August.
• Update: Today is the last day to enter for the Keith Urban/KC Masterpiece/Kingsford giveaway.

New Warner artist Jason Jones debuts with “Unlikely Angel,” a song about the redemptive power of a selfless and strong-loving woman. Jones’ voice is the highlight here, pristine and crisp and underscored by a subtle twang that quivers just slightly in all the right places.

In presentation and character, Jones sounds like a somewhat more refined Gary LeVox, although when his tenor soars it reminds of Bryan White. That may not sound like a potent concoction, but it results in a surprisingly satisfying sound–one that sets Jones as a contrast to the format’s gluttony of soul-heavy, gravely voices.

The song itself is concise, a heartfelt tribute from an “undeserving man.” But the lyric is so straightforward that it wears thin after the first listen, the ultimate payoff settling for nothing more than the description of the subject as defined by the title. And although it is indeed touching to identify a lover as an unlikely angel, the fact that this lacks both a unique observation on the given relationship and a memorable hook keeps us from coming back for more.

It’s especially disappointing that the song fails to deliver any insight into who this unlikely angel is, or into what she does that frees the singer “from the Devil’s hold” (other than “sacrificing all she can”). We know nothing about either of these people beyond the story’s very generic outlining of a bad boy who is “saved” by a physically small good-girl with a big heart.

The less specific a song’s lyric are, and the less engaging its story, the more hooky it must be both lyrically and musically. This is weak on all related fronts.

And at times what is otherwise a paltry but serviceable lyric totally slips and retreats into pure cliché. With lines that refer to “deepest darkest places” and love being a dream, “Unlikely Angel” is seriously toothless. Although the narrator may have been saved, by the time Jones sings, “She freed me from the Devil’s hold/And poured herself into my wounded soul,” the song is beyond repent.

Jones has a unique sound that will play well on radio, and “Unlikely Angel’s” mid-tempo groove is a breezy respite from summer playlists blistering with high-powered tempo.

At the end of the day, though, it’s a below average song that will be forgotten quickly–even if it is, as I suspect it will be, successful in launching Jones’ career.

Listen: Jason Jones – “Unlikely Angel”

• Ray Price is currently recovering from his surgery on June 23rd to remove precancerous polyps from his colon.
• In this week’s Quotable Country, C.M. Wilcox highlighted the following exchange between Bryan Adams and Jason Adlean from their recent CMT Crossroads episode:
  

  Bryan Adams: You guys are a full-on rock band. There’s nothing country about what’s going on onstage. The only thing country is maybe the song titles: “Johnny Cash,” “She’s Country.”
  Jason Aldean: Well, I think the fact that I wear a cowboy hat probably helps us get away with it.

• The New York Times has album reviews of Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night and Levon Helms‘ Electric Dirt, courtesy of Ben Ratliff and Jon Pareles. Both albums are due out tomorrow (June 30).
• Amazon has the exclusive premier of Luke Bryan’s video for “Do I.” After watching it twice, I’m still not sure I understand exactly what’s going on. (via Country Music Tattle Tale)
• Hazel Smith thinks Sunny Sweeney (MySpace) is Americana and namechecked Ashley Ray (MySpace) in an article about blondes.
• An uncredited article on American Country Countdown attempted to draw parallels between Michael Jackson and Hank Williams…
• Ray Stevens told The Tennessean’s Cindy Watts that these days he can be found filming We Ain’t Dead Yet, a sitcom set in a retirement home for entertainers, which he described as “Hee Haw with a plot.
• Bluegrass pioneer Bill Harrell, who contributed greatly to the growth of bluegrass in the Washington, D.C. area, passed away last week. His funeral is being held today.
• Kyle McCraw commented on the new self-titled Larry Jon Wilson album for Country Music Pride.
• Deborah Evans Price notes that Tracy Lawrence’s new album, The Rock, is his first Christian album and reflects the latest chapter in his life.
• Curb Records announced that they’ll ship “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You,” a new Tim McGraw single, to radio on Tuesday. His new album, rumored to be titled Southern Voice, is expected to be released before Christmas, but don’t hold your breath. It’s been delayed several times already, which has caused McGraw to express frustration in the past. The first time I heard the actual song “Southern Voice” was in late ‘07 at the first and only Big State Festival. The album was supposed to be released soon after that, but here we are, almost two years later and the release date still in speculation. (via NashvilleGab)
• Chris Neal reviewed albums from Charlie Robison, Elvis Costello and Ray Charles with ratings ranging from three-and-a-half to five stars.
• McCoury Music Club is now offering live show downloads from The Del McCoury Band to non-subscribers. Prices range from $10-$15. (via The Bluegrass Blog)