Jerrod Niemann Ends Lady Antebellum Streak; Taylor Swift’s New Album; Free Yep Roc Sampler
- With 34,000 copies sold, the new album from Jerrod Niemann, Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, effectively ending Lady Antebellum‘s six-month streak.
- The big news revealed during Taylor Swift‘s live web chat on Tuesday is that her third album, titled Speak Now, will be released on Oct. 25. The songs — all 14 soley written by Taylor — are directed at different people she’s met over the past couple of years. She explained:
In life you have a lot of situations that pop up, and people that come into your life. Sometimes you don’t get to tell them what you wish you would have told them and this album is my opportunity to do that. Track by track, each song is a different confession to a different person.
She even set up a site dedicated to the album at www.speaknow13.com where visitors can find out more information and watch video from her live chat on demand.
- The staff at My Kind of Country wants to know whether you prefer to listen to sad songs or happy ones. After answering, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a George Jones “starter kit” that includes the recently released The Great Lost Hits and The Essential George Jones.
- Preview all eight tracks from the new album Sweet Home Alabama: The Country Music Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
- In an article for Reuters, Tom Roland disclosed details of the upcoming Trace Adkins record, Cowboy’s Back In Town, and the reason for his departure from Capitol Records.
“They’re broke,” Adkins says. “Everybody knows that. I mean, it’s in the Wall Street Journal every other week. They don’t have any money. And that desperation, that feeling permeates the entire company. I don’t care (who you are), you cannot insulate yourself from that, and to me it was just a downer. It was not a good environment to try to operate in for me.”
- Kevin Fowler attributes his confidence in cutting his current single, “Pound Sign,” to the enthusiasm of his three daughters when they first heard the song. He’s also hosting his annual FowlerFest, launched three years ago in San Antiono, this Saturday (July 24) at Nutty Brown in Austin.
- In his latest video update, Corb Lund covered “Strawberry Roan,” a song popularized by the great Marty Robbins.
- There’s not much in Goree, Texas; not even a junior high, which was “pretty much the only reason anyone still came to Goree.” Last September the school district gave the building and campus back to the town, leaving a town already scarce with people a little more empty. All that was changed recently, for five days at least, and the town had to thank Western Swing, a genre seemingly as scarce with newcomers (a topic touched on in the comments of Tuesday’s news roundup) as Goree’s population. The occasion was the Bobby Boatright Memorial Music Camp. NPR’s Wade Goodwynn has the story.
- Farce the Music parodied album covers from Gretchen Wilson, Trace Adkins, Hank III, and Sara Evans.
- Craig Shelburne says the latest album from Paul Thorn “offers some of the most encouraging, uplifting songs I’ve heard all year.” The album pays tribute to his uncle and his father. One was a pimp, the other a preacher, and thus, the only logical title for the album: Pimps and Preachers.
- Paula Nelson‘s new album, Little City, is available on CD Baby.
- Zac Brown on his band’s upcoming record:
“Every step of it’s done the right way and I expect people are really going to love this record and see the depth of our musicianship,” Brown said Saturday in a phone interview from New York City, where the band was opening for the Dave Matthews Band. “We’re always growing. Not that we’ve arrived at any grand finale or anything, but the progress from this last record to this one, it’s tremendous and I’m proud of it.”
- On Sept. 23, the Country Music Hall of Fame’s All for the Hall fundraiser will return to Los Angeles for the second consecutive year and will feature a songswap with Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Taylor Swift, and a special fourth guest “that must remain anonymous.”
- Jame Otto believes that roughly 90 percent of the people who have his latest single pirated it.
- Ninbullets.net explored the roots of the song “Cowboy’s Lament,” more popularly known as “Streets of Laredo,” which is believed to have descended from the 18th century British folk tune “The Unfortunate Rake,” which in turn, has even deeper origins. Like most Ninebullets posts, mp3s are available at the end.
- Robbie Fulks on the Billy Yates song “Flowers”:
It’s probably the saddest song (even country song!) ever written, and hard to sing or listen to without crying. The groundwork for the chorus is laid masterfully, and because it’s a “single effect” song with the chorus packing the punch, you can’t really repeat any of the sections, chorus included (and Billy doesn’t in his recorded arrangement, only tagging with the chorus’s closing lines after a four-bar instrumental), which is such a rare thing that I can’t think of a second example.
- Country Universe’s countdown of the 400 greatest singles of the nineties marches on with #275-#251.
- Yep Roc Records is giving away a 13-song sampler for a limited time. Titled Best of Yep Roc Singles, the compilation includes songs from Reckless Kelly, Todd Snider, The Gourds, Dave Alvin, Reverend Horton Heat, and more. (via @TwangNation)
- The 9513 readers aren’t the only ones who have problems pronouncing our name. The guys from Rascal Flatts have problems, too.
- Country Haiku:
The house that built me
Was bought up, flipped and resold
Now in foreclosure - Sounds Country highlighted the Thad Cockrell song “A Country of My Own.” Good Stuff.
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Billy Yates // Corb Lund // Country Music Hall of Fame // Craig Shelburne // Emmylou Harris // George Jones // Gretchen Wilson // Jerrod Niemann // Kevin Fowler // Kris Kristofferson // Lady Antebellum // Lynyrd Skynyrd // Marty Robbins // Paul Thorn // Paula Nelson // Rascal Flatts // Reckless Kelly // Robbie Fulks // Sara Evans // Taylor Swift // The Gourds // Todd Snider // Trace Adkins // Zac Brown
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July 22, 2010 at 10:50 am
Anybody who knows Corb’s music knows that fits his style perfectly. I hope he records a version of this for his next album.
July 22, 2010 at 10:51 am
Shouldn’t Taylor’s album be called Don’t Speak Now;Write songs about it later?
July 22, 2010 at 11:14 am
I got to see Sunny Sweeney perform live at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace last in Bakersfield and, as Taylor Swift might say, Sunny was awesome! Backed by a top notch five piece band (including the vital steel guitar), Sunny sparkled throughout her 90 plus minute set consisting of songs off her new album, first album, classic country covers, and a bunch of great new unrecorded “real country” songs. Sunny’s voice is strong and pitch perfect live and her on stage banter of sassy humor totally connected with the capacity audience.
Fortunately one of the DJ’s at radio station KUZZ (she might even be the Programming Director) absloutely loves Sunny and her music, which hopefully makes this the first of many such future vists to “The Palace”. Well, I can sure hope so anyway. If you love classic country music and Sunny comes your way, don’t even think about not catching her live show!
July 22, 2010 at 11:14 am
Kevin Fowler keeps making it harder and harder to defend him. This new song is just insane and when I listened to it, I was sad that I would never again have those 3 minutes back after wasting them.
July 22, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Fulks is right about what a great song “Flowers” is, but much as I like Billy’s version, I think the Lonesome River Band’s (http://www.roughstock.com/audio/lonesome-river-band-flowers) is even better.
July 22, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Whoa, I had forgotten this song. Both sound great, but I’m still partial to Billy’s version. I’d love to hear Marty Raybon do a cover of this song. I bet he’d do a wonderful cover!
July 22, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Flowers has also been covered by Chris Young (on his first album), and by the Australian Adam Harvey. I like all the versions I’ve heard.
July 22, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Good thought, Michelle.
July 22, 2010 at 2:31 pm
I think as long as a singer is a very good singer (which Yates, Brandon Rickman and Chris Young are), they can sing Flowers. It requires somebody who can emote the simple ‘bare-your-soul’ lyrics.
Rickman has a voice that recalls Raybon so I can see where it would work if Marty were to do it.
July 22, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Not exactly country music, but might be of interest just the same:
Robert Duvall is on Fresh Air (NPR) today.
July 22, 2010 at 5:53 pm
The reason Lady Antebellum’s latest album has sold so well is due specifically to the song “Need You Now”. Unless they can crank out more catchy pop songs with that sort of universal appeal, their days at the top of the country music sales charts could be relatively short lived. In contrast I think Taylor Swift’s tween and teenybopper armies of young girl fans is still intact even without a regular series on Disney of Nickelodeon.
I think I downloaded that Yep Rock sampler awhile back and tossed most of the songs into the recycle bin. Todd Snider’s voice is a joke these days as he seems to be taking after his former boss John Prine. In stark contrast stands a 2 CD label sampler worth spending real money titled “Hightone Records Anthology – Rockin’ From The Roots”. When compared this new upstart label is more like “Yep (we sell) Schlock”…
July 22, 2010 at 6:05 pm
James Otto might want to check his sources. His label, Warner Nashville, was giving the song away as part of a free iTunes Sampler in March for People Maganzine and then again for the last 4-5 weeks as part of another sampler. Yeah, I imagine a lot of people have gotten the song free (I did), but not illegally.
July 22, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Elizabeth Cook recently gave a great interview to the folks over at Country Standard Time. I don’t care for “Welder” in its style or execution, and Elizabeth basically explained the reason why in the interview:
Question: “So, does you listen to a lot of old country music, as she did back during those long nights on Music Row?
Answer: “I don’t seek it out anymore because I know it,” she admits. “I’m interested in a lot of…, I went and saw Courtney Love last night. I like a lot of hip-hop. I like a lot of garage rock. These are much more exotic to me, and I didn’t have any of my older siblings very much around. I was so much younger than the next one up that turned me onto a lot of music, like so many other people…I think that was their experience. I just heard my mom and dad’s country band. I know a lot of that music. I love it. Obviously, it’s a visceral part of who I am.
But as a music lover, and just to sort of rely on the art form as part of my life, I’m interested…I’m interested in all artists that seem truly connected to their experience and communicating their experience through their music; that have a very direct, visceral connection. Which Courtney Love has. Which Eminem has. That’s what excites me.”
That may be nice for Elizabeth, but it sure doesn’t excite me…
Interview link: http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/article.asp?xid=1112
July 23, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Interesting stuff where Trace states that EMI/Capitol Nashville is broke; I would have thought that CNash would be in decent shape, since they have been free of Garth for several years and they have some of the biggest sellers: LA, Keith, Darius among others.
There may be hope in the next 5-10 years, if the large music conglomerates fail and the music returns to small, independent labels and to its roots. Remember that the huge labels are owned by large corporations and are set up to make $$$ for shareholders, the roots of the music be damned…
July 23, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I believe EMI internationally is in trouble with heavy debts and a lawsuit over whether it was overvalued when it was last sold.
July 23, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Put some Paul Thorn in your I-Pod. You won’t regret it.