Wanda Jackson Finds Producer In Jack White; Dierks Bentley Plans Bluegrass Record

That David Grier album is really outstanding – he’s mostly playing electric guitar on it, and the tunes are very cool. David’s one of the most purely inventive musicians you’ll ever hear.

I’m stoked about the Dierks Bentley news. I think he does bluegrass really well.

Jack White producing Wanda Jackson does sound very interesting. I was just watching her Biography on the Bio Channel a couple weeks ago. Really dug that growling rockabilly vocal of hers.

On another note, Reba endorsed Goody’s headache powder back in the mid to late 1980s. I remember seeing her in a commercial for it, and probably still have it on an old VHS somewhere. I might find it and upload it to YouTube now.

Regardless of that unnecessary comparison, Jack White “does country” really well and better than many rock artists, which would be a more fair comparison, seeing as how Dierks practically grew up playing bluegrass and is a country artist, and Jack White occupied has primarily occupied himself with blues and rock, from his childhood to now.

Here is a catchy country tune that White created before his Lynn project…

http://tinyurl.com/y98qo35

Dierks is one of those acts who is capable of a lot more than his albums show, I think. I really feel like he’s being held back by his label, as shown by the controversy surrounding “Sideways”, which he never wanted on the album, but the label forced upon him because “there’s not enough singles”. I really think Dierks is a guy who could do some great traditional country, bluegrass and even gospel if they’d let him.

“Temporary Home” may not be a great country song, but it has a right to the heart message. I’m glad this is Carrie’s next single.

John Prine should release an album or 30 before he can comment;)

Van Lear Rose is considered a great country album mostly by people who bring traces (at least) of an rock aesthetic to their country music listening. Which is fine for them, but not for me. (FWIW, I touched on these matters at somewhat greater length here:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/2004-04-22/stories/loretta-writes-em-sings-em/ .) I’m not especially looking forward to a White-produced Wanda Jackson album, but I’m confident that it will be a critical success, hailed by rock-leaning folks who will contrast it with the “pop crap” coming out of “Nashvegas”; the takeaway being that, once again, rock is good, pop is bad. Zzzzz.

The interesting question with respect to Bentley is whether a Dierks bluegrass album will be released by his label, or whether they’ll do some kind of one-off deal that permits it to be released with some other imprint.

I have to be honest; while I don’t dislike Van Lear Rose , I don’t love it nearly as much as most people seem to. It’s a bit too rock-leaning in parts and the production is a bit heavy-handed at times. The tracks I tend to like are the more stripped-down, acoustic ones. Wanda Jackson does seem like a logical choice to work with Jack White, though.

“rock-leaning folks who will contrast it with the “pop crap” coming out of “Nashvegas”; the takeaway being that, once again, rock is good, pop is bad. Zzzzz.”

I don’t disagree that that bias probably does figure into many of the shallower criticisms of mainstream country, as it probably has for some time. But I think another part of it is that the pervasive pop influence has just been an especially bland one recently. Taylor Swift’s albums have garnered a lot of critical praise despite their pop orientation because they have personality, but Rascal Flatts’ country-pop hasn’t because it’s perceived as vacuous and one-dimensional; likewise, Miranda Lambert’s recent album has garnered a lot of praise for its smart implementation of rock stylings, but you don’t hear the same praise for Jason Aldean, whose rock implementation is thought to sound out-of-place and drown out any sense of “country.”

Jon, you say you are not looking forward to this Wanda Jackson/Jack White thing because he brings a rock asthetic…..to a ROCKABILLY artist???? I’m confused.

I’m not a big Jack White fan myself. I don’t know why he is seen as some musical genius though. In everything he has done, someone else does it better. The loretta lynn album was only good because it was not done in nashville, I doubt much of it had to do with Jack White. That Raconteurs thing with Ricky Skaggs was pretty good though. I think the only good thing about Jack White is his name always brings attention…so for that I’m glad he worked with Loretta Lynn and will be working with Wanda Jackson

Dierks has always done a good job with bluegrass and was i think on one of the Ralph Stanley Clinch tribute CDs also. Great to see a star like that go do his own thing.

Chris N., just because an album was recorded in the zip code 37021 does not mean it was “done in nashville” :-P

Dierks Bentley + Bluegrass = Win!

And… yes Loretta throws in some of the Van Lear Rose material… most frequently “Portland, Oregon” which her touring band attempts to copy the sound from the original record. It would be difficult for her to capture the sound exactly…and wouldn’t make sense for an entire show of that sound.

It’s all about diversity. Sometimes an artist makes their best music when taken out of their comfort zone.

An opinion is just an opinion. Most people like Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, etc. – I personally can’t stand to listen to any of that. I do, however, spend a lot of time listening to Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce, Merle Haggard, Moon Mullican, Floyd Tillman, Ray Price, etc. which is authentic sounding to me. I also listen to everything from Bob Dylan to the White Stripes and Ryan Adams… Why? Because I think it sounds authentic and genuine compared to Taylor Swift’s music. So, when I heard “Van Lear Rose” I didn’t pay too much attention to how different it was from Loretta’s last record. It just seemed raw, authentic, and coming from a very genuine place on all levels.

This could be debated until the end of time. It’s just my opinion that VLR was a great record. It’s also my opinion that there isn’t anything negative about the partnership of Jack and Loretta…even if the record was awful to my ears… it opened up Loretta’s music to a totally new fanbase who went back and got hip to her earlier recordings. That, is positive. That is Jack White’s genius. Being able to tap into a sound that rock kids who hate country AND old time fans of traditional country both can come together and enjoy a sound.

In Loretta’s own words the “Van Lear Rose” record is as country as anything she’d ever cut. I know what she means. It came from a very, very authentic place. The production, the way it was recorded, the arrangements, the overall quality was very much as raw as her early work.

I think with Wanda, however, it’s going to be a hard rocking album. Jack described it on MTV today as a “wild” record. Which makes perfect sense since Wanda is the Queen of Rock N Roll.

Sometimes an artist makes their best music when taken out of their comfort zone.

And sometimes not. Sometimes the result is just uncomfortable.

it opened up Loretta’s music to a totally new fanbase who went back and got hip to her earlier recordings.

I suspect that we have no more idea whether that’s true than we do about whether, say, buyers of Taylor Swift’s albums are going on to buy records by other country artists. It’s a nice idea, but where’s the evidence?

That is Jack White’s genius. Being able to tap into a sound that rock kids who hate country AND old time fans of traditional country both can come together and enjoy a sound.

Again, I don’t know whether there are many old time fans of traditional country who enjoyed the sound of Van Lear Rose. The fact that her show continues to (mostly) eschew it suggests otherwise. And I am also pretty dubious about whether “raw” is a description that really fits any of Lynn’s recordings, with the possible exception of her very first, which very few people have heard.

Stewman’s point is a valid one; albums such as these do draw new attention to artists who deserve it, and that’s a good thing, even if I think the body of work they’ve done to make them deserving is stronger than the new one that’s responsible for the new notice.

BTW, Tony, I couldn’t help but notice that you make mention of “authenticity” four or five times. That’s a pretty slippery concept.

Go look at how her soundscan numbers for other titles went up around the time of the VLR release.

Sorry, I don’t keep 6 year old SoundScan reports lying around. Why don’t you give us some of those numbers?

And yeah, I think it’s a reasonable comparison; the question is whether folks who buy album x go on to buy more of the same kind of stuff, and especially whether they keep on doing so.

Lynn told Bill Friskics-Warren in the NY Times back when Van Lear Rose came out that she and White were going to do another two albums together. Here it is six years later; what do you think happened?

I didn’t say people heard Loretta’s latest album and it made them go buy Kitty Wells albums…

Fair enough. Speaking of which, what did those SoundScan numbers look like?

Here’s what I mean about the “authenticity” thing: if Van Lear Rose “came from a very, very authentic place,” and yet it basically didn’t cause her to alter her show, or to make more records that reflect its approach – and it’s surely considerably different from anything she’d done previously, going back several decades – then it’s hard not to conclude that what she did before making it, and what she’s done since, is somehow less authentic. And I just don’t see that. Van Lear Rose was a one-off kind of detour; I’m glad it got her a Grammy, and some attention, and maybe even a few fans who are still going out to the casinos and theaters to see her shows, but at the end of the day, it’s still a detour.

And, I’m referring to the records with Rubin producing…

But, it was a different sound for Cash… I thought we were talking about the different sounds. “Rusty Cage” and “Hurt” for example sound nothing like Cash ever recorded in a 40+ year career prior to the Rubin albums.

How do we know that there is no future White and Lynn albums? Apparently, Loretta recently recorded or worked on a gospel album with John Carter Cash… but nothing has been said about that. Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash were two totally different personalities. As is Wanda Jackson and Loretta Lynn. If anything I could see an artist like Jackson recording multiple albums with White as opposed to Loretta. But, again… this is all hypothetical talk.

But, it was a different sound for Cash… I thought we were talking about the different sounds. “Rusty Cage” and “Hurt” for example sound nothing like Cash ever recorded in a 40+ year career prior to the Rubin albums.

Agreed. The difference is that Cash spent 10 years working with Rubin, making multiple albums and literally hundreds of recordings. Lynn did one album with White six years ago, and though she said she was going to do more, she hasn’t. Nor is there any sign that she will. And her shows are mostly what they were before she ever made Van Lear Rose. So that album has a different significance in her career than Cash’s decade-long string of projects with Rubin had in his.

As for the rest, blah, blah, blah, you don’t like contemporary mainstream country. What a surprise. But it’s funny how you don’t want to foreclose on the idea that Lynn might make another album with White because it’s “all hypothetical talk,” and then criticize contemporary country artists with a bunch of, um, hypothetical talk.

Tony,
I thought you were holding your own pretty well here, until that last comment.

Swift=Garth??? 0.o Who thought this one up?? No way can Swift be compared to Garth…no friggin way! Garth reached world-wide mass and diverse ages…Swift reached Tweens…and that’s about it I believe. Why compare a low grade with a highly respected one???

She’s a huge star for sure right now.. and is being copied in a big way. I was just at a music event where songwriters showcase their material for possible placement and there were multiple Swift knock-offs… some a lot better than Swift (LOL).. Not too hard to do.. I personally don’t think she’s that good, she can’t sing, her songs are trite, and trivial nonsense.. and her 15 minutes of fame are up.. she’s actually reached a peak so the only way to go artist wise is down… the main reason is she really hasn’t got the vocal talent.. she’s not a belter, and she’s not sheryl crow… a real deal artist, AND she can be easily duplicated.. I’m sure she’ll be around a while since she is so famous now.. probably t.v. film, maybe songwriting/producing.. but as an artist… hmmm… time’s up..

The unfortunate thing is, I’m sure they’ll be lots of little taylor nipping at her ankles, who will take her place.. lol

It’s really a shame when you have a grasp on the kinds of talent that’s really out there and being passed over for this stuff… : (((((((…………