Stagecoach Music Festival ‘08: Day Two

The weather was still bearable in Indio, as it would thankfully remain for the duration of the festival, and day two was underway. I made sure to get there in time to check out Mr. Johnny up-and-comer himself, Hayes Carll.

Hayes has lots of buzz around him these days and I was happy to see that he was going to be part of the festival. His new album, Trouble in Mind, had sold me on the fact that he was a good songwriter, but I didn’t know quite what to expect from his live act. Would he be a good singer? What kind of band would he have with him?

It didn’t take long for Hayes to make a believer out of me. I was fully ready to be disappointed in his vocals, but his tone was rich and resonant. His band was great as well, mostly, I’d guess, because Hayes knows how to really play acoustic songwriter rhythm guitar, which allows his lead player the luxury to get creative and fill in with accents where necessary.

His chit chat with the crowd was really good too; engaging and amusing.

The best part about the act though was that his sound, typically mid-tempo riff-based country roots rock, really complements his style of songwriting. Something that I found very distinct about his writing on the record was that he seemed to write in fragments that crescendo with a super satisfying turn of phrase of insight, but that didn’t necessarily loop back to the central idea of the song. Seeing him live seemed to make it clear that his greatest talent, at this stage of his writing career at least, is his super cool ability to lock the words of a punchy turn of phrase into the rhythm of a song, and those moments when he delivered those great rhythmic phrases were delivered at regular enough intervals to make his songs completely effective in a live setting in which the listener is less inclined towards reflection and analysis.

Bottom line — Hayes was rad.

After seeing Hayes it was off to catch another heralded “up-and-comer,” Luke Bryan.

One of these days I’d like to see a mainstream act that is truly satisfying to watch. Luke Bryan wasn’t it. Luke’s sound was as uninspired as Hayes’ was “cool;” the lyrics to his songs were as boring and obvious as Hayes’ were inventive and satisfying; and his “gee golly I’m so happy to be here, is everybody having a good time!” stage presence was as bland as Hayes’ clever stories were engaging.

I don’t know if it’s fair to blame Luke for his shortcomings. There were some pitch problems that he can be held accountable for to be sure, but I’m guessing that he kind of has to do songs like “Good Directions and Turnip Greens”, and he can’t be blamed for the fact that his guitar player is confused about the difference between what is “good guitar playing” and “annoying guitar flailing.”

He did Conway’s “I’d Love to Lay You Down” which isn’t my favorite Conway number, but he did alright by it. Luke’s vocals are super modern Nashville and are therefore predictably boring, but for what it is it’s alright. He did a tune called “First Love Song” that is cuter in principle than in practice, and when he got to “Pray About Everything” I had to leave. That song is like dope for the spirit, I hated it. I know that he’s supposed to be some sort of big concession to traditionalists, but his Stagecoach appearance didn’t win me over.

Next up for me was Ryan Bingham. I know that Bingham really excites some folks, but at the end of the day he just didn’t do much for me.

I had given his album a cursory listen once, but for all intents and purposes this was my first real introduction to his music and after seeing him I’m not sure why he gets the attention that he gets in the indie scene. He basically played rock music, by which I mean the “substance” of the songs seemed to be the grooves, the progression, and the riffs while the lyrics only served to give some imagery to provide context to the music. In other words, the lyrics weren’t the substance; they only served to inform the substance. As far as rock music goes it was cool, but it wasn’t much to my taste. There was too much going on musically, and too much distortion, for there to be any real texture to the playing, and the songs were similar enough to become monotonously “jammy” after a while. The crowd seemed to like it, and the band certainly rode a groove for all it was worth when they caught a good one, but as far as I can tell, Bingham isn’t a country guy and that puts him outside my field of interest.

He does win the award for most valuable mandolin player though. The Mando was kickass in his set.

The day was beginning to get long at this point and I decided to make the long venture over to the “VIP” section (which amounted to nicer bathrooms and additional bars), and in the process I had the luck to listen to Bucky Covington.

I’m not a Bucky fan, point of fact I think that being a Bucky fan and being a serious music fan are mutually exclusive propositions. I’m not going to spend a lot of time lamenting his presence at the festival, but I’ll share a cute story. As Bucky was playing Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” (I know, right) some random drunk shirtless guy was talking to some other random drunk shirtless guy and declared “It’s like..Pink Floyd, but country!” That guy was wrong.

So after hanging out in the “VIP section” and the “press tent,” neither of which was as cool as I hoped they’d be, I was poised and ready to catch the next act. This next act was, in fact, the one that I had anticipated the most. She was the subject of my very first article for The 9513, she has laid waste to everything before her, she is Taylor Swift–Conqueror of Worlds.

Seriously though, I was legitimately interested in checking out Taylor Swift’s act. I like her songs, for all the reasons I mention in the world famous article “The Promise and Impact of Taylor Swift” (it’s not really world famous, but she did send me a hand-written “thank you” note), and I figured that if she just played a bunch of good songs, that she could be one of the highlights of the festival.

The crowd was buzzing as she took the stage and opened her set with “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” The vocal was rough. My notes from the festival describe it as “surprisingly bad.” Her stage presence was zany, it featured lots of jumping up and down and swinging her hair. There was definitely a “high school talent show” vibe to the whole affair, but I figured she might rebound.

Then she got on the mic and started chatting up the crowd and all hope was lost.

“Welcome to Stagecoach!!!!!” she cried, which was weird because it was nowhere near the start of the festival.

Then the real pandering began. She went on and on about how “ohmygod I love the country music fans so much I can’t even believe it! I’m so excited to be playing for thousands of you who are out there sweating in the 110 degree weather!!!! Here’s a single that you guys helped me make #1 I want to hear all of you singing along!!!!” That’s not a direct quote mind you, but that was the gist of it.

It was bad, man. It was really bad. Her fiddle player danced around and they did a banging on trash cans shtick that was horrible. She was super pitchy and always swinging that hair around and in between songs when she addressed the crowd it only got worse. I was embarrassed for her, and what’s dire is that I think I may have been the only one. I couldn’t believe it as I looked around and saw everyone singing along and presumably having a good time. And not just the kids, grown people too!

I like Taylor’s writing, I think she fundamentally understands that songs are supposed to be important and that a clever hook line is best served by an interesting, specific narrative. That being said, her live show is an atrocity. I guess that nobody is in the position to tell her to change anything, what with her being a conqueror of worlds and all, but she needs to re-evaluate the kind of show she puts on. Maybe her fanbase loves it, but I think that her talent as a writer puts her in a position to transcend the silly, poppy act that she’s performing. I hope that she takes the opportunity to realize her potential as a singing-songwriter, and I really, really hope she does it before I have to catch her act again.

After the Taylor Swift debacle, I took one last long walk over to The Palamino stage to catch my final act of the night; Dwight Yoakam. Dwight had the biggest crowd that I saw at the Palomino stage and despite the fact that it seemed like he might be phoning it in a little, and that he had a percussionist in the band, he was still Dwight Yoakam and he was still awesome. He made for an interesting conclusion to the night because, as an artist, he stands right at the dividing line between the two strains of country music that I had encountered that day. On one hand we had Hayes and Bingham with their riffs and grooves and their songs that lack the sense of conceptual structure that makes country so accessible, on the other we have Luke, Bucky, and Taylor, whose music is boring and neutered, ostensibly to feature the lyrics, but whose lyrics are immature and (Taylor excepted here) stupid.

I want a country music where the lyrics are the substance, and the lyrics are substantive.

Dwight’s still playing that kind of country music, and I was glad to see him close out day two of the festival.