Kristofferson Honored As BMI Icon; Live Video Stream of Underwood at Opry; Hough & Wicks Call It Quits

Brody Vercher | November 11th, 2009 Email Share

  1. Rick
    November 11, 2009 at 11:34 am Permalink

    Tralier’s new batch of re-titled country albums is top shelf per usual. I’d have to say the Little Big Town album is my favorite this go round.

    I guess Chuck Wicks wasn’t too keen on becoming a Mormon after all. Maybe he should have spent more time watching “Big Love” DVDs while on the tour bus. Hmm…

    It’s nice to read that Katrina Elam is starring in the sort-of sequel to “Pure Country” after being off the radar for the last couple of years. Since her second album “Turn Me Up” never saw the light of day, the new film’s soundtrack will have to take its place.

    That EW album list covers a good bit of musical territory but bluegrass and western swing get the bum’s rush. They have a hard core Gram Parsons fan contributing to the creation of that list and some of the Americana picks seem a bit out there, but overall it highlights some worthy albums. Having Shania Twain’s “Come On Over” followed by Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town” was quite a contrast. I do thank them for not including any Garth Brooks!

  2. Thomas
    November 11, 2009 at 11:37 am Permalink

    …stealing cinderella – returning cinderella. make up your mind, chuck!

  3. Cardsgal
    November 11, 2009 at 11:49 am Permalink

    And now Wicks can return to obscurity, where he belongs…I respect Chris Willman, but some of his “25 albums you need to hear” are headscratchers. He says that there’s never been a more well-rounded country artist than Brad Paisley. As Seth and Amy would say, “Really?” Forget the likes of Parton or Kristofferson, I wouldn’t even say that Paisley is the most-rounded artist of THIS MINUTE — Keith Urban equals or surpasses him on all criteria.

  4. Mayor Jobob
    November 11, 2009 at 11:58 am Permalink

    you got my hopes up! I thought Hough and Wicks quit country music. Darn!

  5. Kelly
    November 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm Permalink

    yeah, this list would be fine (save for the couple of headscratchers), but he seems to always insist on throwing in the “for even non-country fans” angle. This list is startlingly similar to the list he published (and was linked to here) that was under the title of “Top Country Albums for People that Hate Country”, or something like that…geez dude, if someone “hates country”, I dont think Hank Sr, Buck, Dolly, Hag and Emmylou are gonna do it for them, as they are very country, and not really a “gateway” into country…

  6. Stormy
    November 11, 2009 at 1:40 pm Permalink

    While I am not a fan of all of Dirkes’ music he ranks up there with Ricky Skaggs as far as accessability to the fans. Even going so far as recording a “thank you” greating on my phone for my B-I-L when he was stationed in Iraq.

  7. Suzanne
    November 11, 2009 at 10:10 pm Permalink

    I’m sorry, am I the only one in the world that just threw up in her mouth after Taylor Swift won Enterainer of the Year? OMG…..the child can’t sing, can’t dance and has a hard time walking and talking at the same time! I am dissapointed in the country music industry and feel that they have certaily sunk to a new low.

    George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams that is country!!!!

  8. Chris Willman
    November 12, 2009 at 1:31 pm Permalink

    Wow, EW.com is re-running that “25 albums…” list of mine again? I wouldn’t even have known, if I hadn’t seen it here. For the record, I got laid off by EW a year ago today (who could forget getting whacked by phone in Nashville after staying up all night to write about the CMAs?). But that doesn’t mean they won’t put up a few of my old lists on an annual basis. (Coming this Christmas, I’m sure: my list of the 100 greatest depressing Christmas songs. Watch for it!) I always feel a little apologetic when this one comes up, as it has since I wrote it two or three years ago. It was by request of some also-long-since-departed webmaster, who wanted something about recommendations for “people who think they hate country.” And as one commenter commented, yeah, some of them are so country they might not make a good gateway drug, and others so crossover they would seem to dillute some kind of purity. (But I’ll still stand by loving the first Big & Rich album, even if they’ve spent most of their intervening recordings making me and their other defenders second-guess that.) In any case, one of those things where you try to meet the assignment and please yourself and fail at both, though I kind of stand behind it. Thank God it wasn’t done recently enough for me to include Taylor’s first album and really sacrifice all cred, right? Try as I constantly might.

  9. Leeann Ward
    November 12, 2009 at 1:47 pm Permalink

    I really like Chris Willman.

    Interestingly, the traditional stuff was the gateway for Bill (my husband) to give country music a chance. The pop stuff made him think country music was lame, but the traditional music caught his attention.

    I’m only a little ashamed to say that I still think the first Big And Rich album was really good.

  10. Jim Malec
    November 12, 2009 at 1:59 pm Permalink

    The first Big & Rich album was really good, and I don’t think anyone should be ashamed of admitting that. It’s not surprising that the music that came after deteriorated when the relationship between the two became less about art and more about commodity.

  11. Razor X
    November 12, 2009 at 2:12 pm Permalink

    I’m very proud to say that I’ve never liked Big & Rich.

  12. Hanford
    November 12, 2009 at 2:17 pm Permalink

    You are right Jim, that first record was good. Then John Rich wanted to be the voice of country and forgot about the work that it takes in writing and producing a record.

  13. Kelly
    November 12, 2009 at 2:27 pm Permalink

    Chris, that clears things up for me (not that it matters :-) Sorry to hear about being laid-off. As I said earlier, it really is a solid-list, sorry for presuming that it was you that insisted upon putting that list up again…

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