Comments on: Vince Gill Named New Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Artist-In-Residence

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:00:07 +0000

Pierce, there is a BIG difference in “covering” or “reviewing” an artist and making it a part of your top 10 list. Know your audience and cover certain acts that may not be all that great in order to suit your audience, thats fine and makes sense to a point, sure. But a critic should never use the audience as an excuse for him/her to claim that Keith Anderson’s disc is one of the 10 best Country CD’s of the year.

By: Pierce

Pierce — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:39:48 +0000

I don’t wanna speak for Alison, but perhaps her role at CMT and the Tribune is simply to review these mainstream efforts by artists. It’s impossible to review EVERY CD that came out this year, and CMT likely doesn’t have too many people visiting their blog to read about Kathy Mattea, and nothing’s wrong with that. It’s catering to the audience, and in journalism, you have to understand your audience. Our audience here at The 9513 is much different from CMT’s…

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:00:41 +0000

My problem with ‘Coal’ is that it’s not gritty. You know, like coal is.

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:59:36 +0000

"Sun City" was the brainchild of one Little Steven Van Zandt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_City_(song)

By: Razor X

Razor X — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:32:43 +0000

Alison said, “I like what country fans are buying, and you like, um, Coal?”

Statements like that are precisely why you can’t be regarded as a credible music critic. No serious music critic would ever suggest that commercial success = quality.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:12:07 +0000

Stormy, I think the Rische siblings would make for a great Real World! (lol)

Roni Stoneman will be performing in Los Angeles on Monday night December 15th at the Grand Ole Echo in Echo Park and I’m excited! The event will be the west coast release party for an amazing new book full of great photographs of traditional country artists taken at outdoor concerts during the 1960’s. Some of the pictures are posted on the MySpace page of the venue and I can’t wait to thumb through one of the actual books. This looks like something Paul Dennis might enjoy!

Link: http://www.myspace.com/thegrandoleecho

By: Stormy

Stormy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:50:04 +0000

Rick: Jyspi always struck me as what would happen if the casting crew of The Real World attempted to make a new grass band.

By: J.R. Journey

J.R. Journey — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:17:19 +0000

Oddly, Chet Flippo’s picks for the top albums of 2008 are almost completely on par with my own. I would have swapped the Emmylou album for Rodney Crowell’s ‘Sex & Gasoline’. But other than that, he’s right on the money.

By: Matt C

Matt C — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:28:29 +0000

But I thought Coal was a bit too dry, and a bit too monotonous. Additionally, while concept albums are, by nature, somewhat narrow, Coal felt very one dimensional to me both thematically and musically.

After my first two listens to the album, I probably would’ve written something very similar to what you wrote, Jim. On the third listen I began to appreciate the album’s character. I’m not saying that you didn’t listen to the album carefully, but I’m telling everyone who may not be high on Coal that I consider that album to be an acquired taste.

Last time I checked, Matt, taste was subjective. Or did I miss something? Were you somehow granted the power to legislate taste?

Taste is indeed subjective. That’s why I’m not going to rip critics for including Love on the Inside on their best of lists (and I suspect that it’ll appear on many). I don’t think that it belongs in the year’s top ten, but I don’t find the opposite opinion invalid either. Especially for country critics, I think the reaction to Love on the Inside is strongly influence by personal musical taste.

On the other hand, your list lies at such an extreme of bad taste that it should disqualify you from acting as a music critic. If a movie critic named “Gigli” as the greatest film of all time and wrote that Casablanca was “one of the most unmitigated disasters in cinematic history,” that person is not a credible film critic. True, maybe those choices are the result of his subjective personal tastes, but those tastes are so discordant with prevailing notions of artistic quality that we should not value his critical opinion.

Differences of opinion are what make the year end lists interesting to read, but you embrace so much mediocre to bad music at the expense of so much good music (that lies thoroughly within the bounds of mainstream country music) that your list should not be taken seriously.

If y’all weren’t so determined to love the music that country radio hates…

I’m not sure who “y’all” is. If it wasn’t already apparent, I’m speaking only for myself here. But since you asked…

Your colleague Chet Flippo does a reasonably good job of constructing a good year end list without leaning on music that radio hates. I haven’t made my year end list yet, but in thinking about it now, I don’t imagine that it (top ten) will include more than three albums that didn’t receive any support from country radio, and of those, all except for one (Dailey & Vincent) were recorded by artists who were at one time mainstream radio stars. I have no knowledge of what will be included on The 9513’s year end list, but if past years are any indication, it will be dominated by mainstream radio artists while also highlighting a few artists whose music certainly could be played on mainstream radio if PDs were so disposed. Thus, even if we restrict ourselves to commercially viable mainstream country music, your list still represents poor judgment.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:01:08 +0000

Stormy and Jason, you are both soooo wrong about Jypsi! They don’t sound like any other group and they aren’t trying to either, and its their uniqueness I find refreshing. Lillie Mae’s vocals can be a bit loose at times but at least she’s usually on pitch. The silly clothes they wear definitely leaves a negative first impression with many people, but they can play their instruments and have a lot of talent. They are definitely the artists I feel undeservedly got the most overlooked this past year, and I’d place Carter’s Chord right behind them.

I think Alison Bonaguro’s music tastes mirror those of most of the soccer mom demographic female listeners to Top 40 country radio better than the other CMT.com bloggers. On the other hand I can’t stand most of the pop-rock crap currently featured on that format and find Chet Flippo’s Top 10 list dang near perfect in comparison. Its just a matter of personal taste.

For those of you above who think Ashton Shepherd’s fine album has been overlooked, take a look at the CMT.com Top 10 lists. She hasn’t been overlooked there at least….

PS – Congratulation to Jamey Johnson for entering the Top 10 on mainstream country radio! Now if only Ashton Shepherd could pull that off as well. For Ashton’s next single I’d go with “The Bigger The Heart” and any Top 40 country format PD that considers it “too country” should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail!