Everything Truly is Fine in Josh Turner’s World

Josh Turner

Everything is Fine (MCA/UMG Nashville)

I have a feeling that some of the newer fans to country music will take one or two listens to this new album and wonder where the hell they’re over-processed country-rock songs are.  They’ll probably even call “Everything is Fine” a boring record.   And that’s where they’ll be wrong. Sure, it’s light years away from Rascal Flattsbut that’s exactly the point.  Can you imagine what would happen if Josh Turner was actually singing over country-pop arrangements?  Well, a couple tracks on his first and second CDs came close but I don’t know what would actually happen if he did. 

 Turner’s self-written title track opens up the record and immediately Josh displays that crystal clear baritone voice that is instantly identifiable as his and his alone.  It’s a slow-building track with crackling fiddles, steel guitar and Stratocaster guitars backing up a remarkable vocalist who sings so effortlessly.  It’s a likable song that’s likely gonna be a single somewhere down the road.  First single (and newly Top 10 hit) “Firecracker,” written by Turner with Shawn Camp and  Pat McLaughlin, is the kind of song that  John Anderson or Garth Brooks might have recorded at the height of their heydays.  Sure it’s not the greatest of songs but it still better than other ditties to become big hits as of late (remember that “Badonkadonk” song?). 

Gary Allan Touches The Sun While Living Hard.

Gary Allan – “Living Hard”  (MCA/UMG Nashville – 2007)

 

Gary Allan has lived through some major peaks and valleys in his dozen years as a major-label recording artist.  He’s lived through a label trying to make him something he’s not (a couple of times) and lived life so much that his albums reflected his moods, particularly the stunning “Tough All Over.”  That album was the ‘healing’ that Gary needed after his wife passed away unexpectedly.    Perhaps one of the most stunning moments of his career is tied to that record and how he took a pedestrian alternative rock song and (“Best I Ever Had“) made it into a modern country classic.  All of those experiences have informed Gary as he set about to record his post “Greatest Hits” album, “Living Hard.“ 

 The first single, “Watching Airplanes,” presents an interesting, if a bit abnormal for country, lyric about a guy who stares at airplanes to contemplate why he’s not loved anymore.  While melodically all over the map (and perhaps over produced), Gary’s whiskey-soaked vocals save it and make it a nice introduction into the CD.  “We Touch The Sun”  is the first ballad on the record and it too has the sound of a “Nashville hit.” And I mean that in the best possible of ways.  “Sun” is one of those songs (co-written by Allan, Jim Lauderdale and Odie Blackmon) that builds and builds and gets stuck in between your ears for days on end.

Flying Upside Down with a lyrically poetic, sonically pleasing record

Griffin House - “Flying Upside Down” (2007, Griffin House/Nettwerk) 

One of the missions behind this blog is to spotlight unknown artists along with the more mainstream artists.  One of those artists is Griffin House.   2004 saw the national release of Griffin’s major label debut “Lost and Found” on the Nettwerk America/EMI label.  With an appealing blend of folk rock, country and even some hints of U2-ish arena rock, “Lost and Found” presented an artist coming into his own.  Still signed with Nettwerk three years later, (the label is now back into indie mode after splitting from EMI), Griffin has released three other digital albums. all of them in 2006.  Two were EPs worth of recordings that were supposed to make up his sophomore Nettwerk set while the third one was originally a “digital advance” of the forthcoming ‘official’ release.  Well, “Homecoming” only contained two tracks from the actual “official” release. What should be said about all of these releases is the quality in the songs.  The Nashville-based Ohio native simply is a very good singer/songwriter who has an amazing ability to put out consistently strong material at a breakneck pace.  If there are hints of Ryan Adams in releasing three albums in one calendar year then you have hammered home a thought that I had once I saw that Griffin was releasing, “Flying Upside Down” on October 16, 2007.

Backed by most of Tom Petty’s “Heartbreakers” band, “Flying Upside Down” has the sound of a record that is ready for prime time.  First single “Better Than Love” leads off the album and immediately shows off Griffin House’s emotive songwriting style. Lyrically, the song is about a guy who finds a way to profess how love gets stronger and stronger while the acoustic melody recalls Lyle Lovett. “I Remember (It’s Happening Again)” is a poignant, poetic, angry, perplexed and downright brilliant song about the way war happens to affect all of us, no matter what age we grew up in. 

“I remember when I was a younger man, We were solders fighting in a foreign land, Now I’m older and it’s happening again

A simple yet poetic chorus serves as the bridge to even stronger images that are painted in the verses of a nearly 5 minute long country/folk song that manages to stay out of politics and ask, quite profoundly, ”why do we seem to repeat our history?”  This song has a high likelihood of being on any year-end list of ‘favorite songs’ and it deserves to be heard, especially if you’re looking for something that’s the antithesis of most country ‘protest’ songs.  It actually manages to take a jab at “God Bless The USA” in a meaningful way too.  

“One Thing” is a rollicking rocker that seems tailor-made for adult top 40 rock stations while “The Guy That Says Goodbye To You Is Out Of His Mind” is one of the most brilliantly constructed love songs I’ve heard in a while.  It can work on any radio format but I have a feeling that it may just work best on contemporary country music stations.  If Griffin House can’t release it himself,  a major Nashville artist should, even if it ‘corrupts’ the song a bit.  Channelling Springsteen, House manages to make his own sing-a-long song in “Live To Be Free.“  (For the record both “Free” and “Guy” are the two songs that were on the ‘advance release’ but are ‘punched-up’ more here). 

“Heart Of Stone” has a breezy 70s country rock vibe to it while “Hanging On (Tom’s Song)” finds a young House helping his mother heal from the hurt of the loss of a brother.   If there were any comparison to U2 found on this record it would be here both lyrically and melodically.  And just for that Griffin might have recorded his most ‘accessible’ song.  Still, despite comparisons and accessibility, the song is much, much better than most singer-songwriter pop/rock being recorded nowadays.  The strongest “Ryan Adams moment” is in the song “When The Time Is Right.”    It has a ‘Cold Roses” feel yet much more accessible.  

House chose to end the record with a Cash-like gospel number (“Waiting For The Rain To Come”) that works as the perfect ending piece of a stunning album.  While ‘just’ a digital release to iTunes (plus), Amazon, snocap and eMusic, “Flying Upside Down” is one of 2007’s finest singer-songwriter efforts.  Many of Nashville’s rock-leaning mainstream country acts would do well to study.  They could learn how to touch upon multiple genres, how to flesh out songs that recall their influences without ever directly stealing. ”Flying Upside Down” might just be the best record to have been released in 2007.  There’s enough here for fans of any genre to truly appreciate it, even country music fans.  However, if you have to hear just one song from “Flying Upside Down” it should be “I Remember (It’s Happening Again)”  It’s such an important song that I’ve transcribed the lyrics and posted them on a separate page (here) for your viewing pleasure. 

Countrified Rock/Soul/Pop Bonanza! (Mini-reviews of some recent similar releases)

I don’t know how it happened but it seems as if mainstream country music is starting to see a large influx of artists who owe more of a debt to 70s and 80s pop-rock than Hank Williams or even Waylon Jennings.  Travis Tritt often fell on this side of the coin so it should be no coincidence that his latest record, “The Storm“() is steeped in it.  The Randy Jackson-produced affair is one of Tritt’s strongest albums in years and rocks and rolls on the up-tempo tracks while Travis’ whiskey soaked vocals provide lots of country soul over the ballads. 

 

Many of the newer groups and duos seem to be heavily steeped in such comparisons.  The artist who should have ‘no brainer’ thoughts attached to their music is Van Zant.   The brothers are southern rock royalty and then they hit it big in Nashville with “Get Right With The Man.” from 2005.  their newest record, the just released “My Kind Of Country” () and it covers much of the same territory as their Columbia debut.  It Rocks, it rolls and it will service their fans just fine. Is it a great album? Well, no.  Still songs like “Train,” current single “Goes Down Easy” and “Headed South” ar well-done and worthy of listening to, particularly The Warren Brothers co-write “Headed South.”

What Is Country Music To You?

While growing up in upstate New York, in the middle of nowhere, country music sank its hooks into me and it still hasn’t let go.  While I’ve always liked most any kind of music, country music has been my main constant.  When going to high school I didn’t readily admit my fascination with country so that I wouldn’t be seen as ‘uncool’ but the reality was that I couldn’t hide my love of the genre.  For about 2 years (1994-1996) I didn’t listen to anything but the country music found on radio and in my ever growing CD collection.  The artists I did manage to like ‘outside’ of country were Dave Matthews Band and that Hootie & The Blowfish record everyonehad.  I stopped worrying about being uncool when I tool my Discman with me on baseball trips.  I always had about 10-20 CDs to listen to on those trips and, perhaps because I grew up in a no-stoplight village, I found out that many of my teammates also liked country music. 

As I went along I got family members and other friends to listen to country (even when some buddies didn’t want to) and what they heard, they actually liked.  Nowadays most of my family likes the music.  But do they like it because of my influence or do they like it because the genre happens to speak for them and their lives?  That’s the beauty of country music.  No matter what ‘type’ you happen to like, be it the mainstream contemporary country, the alt-country, Texas Country, classic country, or traditional country, there is something for anyone to enjoy. 

 Mainstream contemporary country may have little to do with the classic country of the 5o’s to the 70’s but that doesn’t mean the genre deserves to be called pop music.  The hallmarks of what country music is are rooted in the fact that the songs are grounded in reality and they speak to the human condition in a direct, matter-of-fact way that pop and rock music often fails to do. The melodies may often be secondary to the words but that doesn’t mean a fan can’t appreciate the musicianship of an artist like Keith Urban. 

Sure, the old ‘three chords and the truth’ line may have been passed by a more polished, rock-inspired sound but where else would we hear a song like “Moments” from Emerson Drive or “Stay” from Sugarland?  That’s right, you wouldn’t.  Both acts have been considered ‘pop’ by traditional country music fans over the years but if you listen to the songs, there’s no way they’d have worked as pop songs.  Each artist is country.  It may not be your Dad’s or Grandmother’s country but it’s still country.

Traditional country is also country music to me.  I like a lot of the traditional songs and don’t mind that many of them talk about the boozin’ and losin’ parts of life.  Some of these great recent artists (for example, Moot Davis,) deserve just as much of a chance at country radio as Emerson Drive and Sugarland have.  But, perhaps it’s best that these artists aren’t on radio anyway.  Being on radio would make them mainstream and while some would argue that an artist like Davis wouldn’t sell out, he’d be pressured by his label to do just that.  They’d want him to record some ‘outside’ material or songs ‘chosen’ for him and then, invariably, that’d be the song released to radio. 

People can argue about what is right or wrong with country music these days but it’s just fine to me.  I like that ‘indie’ artists are allowed the freedom to record what they want to record.  I like that there are many branches on the country music tree.  I even like that country incorporates the best of what every other genre has into its own collective.  That’s country music to me.  It’s a wide-open genre that includes pop, rock, and even rap (Cowboy Troy among others) artists.   It’s a genre that has more radio stations than any other genre.  Country music to me is pure, honest, from the heart stuff.  Is there ‘fluff’ and ‘crap’ in country music? Yes.  But every genre has their own share of such things. 

Country music to me is a genre of music that I fell in love with.  It’s my first, true love.  It’ll never cheat on me and I’ll never see it as something that won’t be a constant in my life.  Even as I get older and there comes the time when I don’t understand much about the world, these songs will continue to comfort me in the same way that the ’standards’ continue to comfort my grandparents.  Hell, my grandpa and I often jokingly use “16 Tons” to describe our mood to life.  Country music transcends time, classes, countries and races.  It may just be the purest American form of music (even if it’s rooted in Irish music). 

So what is country music to me?

Everything. 

 What about you?

Are these really Country’s “Greatest Love Songs”?

 

Various Artists – Greatest Country Love Songs (Shanachie)

You know the old joke about when you play a country song backwards you’ll get all of your stuff back?  Well, for all of those kinds of jokes about the genre, there are some truly great songs about relationships good or bad.  For the most part, love songs in country music are the most honest and from every day life.  They’re not based in fantasy land and it’s with that premise that Shanachie Records decided to gather a group of singers to cover some of the best love songs ever made.  The label had a couple of their new country division’s artists sing here (Tammy Cochran and two of the genre’s best traditional singers in Daryle Singletary and Gene Watson).  The label also commissioned some of the best pure country vocalists from the new-traditionalist 1980’s and boom-time 1990’s inPam Tillis, Ken Mellons, Lorrie Morgan, Aaron Tippin, Tracy Byrd and Joe Diffie.  Throw in a couple tracks from legends George Jones and Mel Tillis and you have the makings of what could and should be a very decent album.  But is it? Read on, friends, read on.

 Darryl Worley  is first out of the gate with his rendition of Jones’ “Tennessee Whiskey.”  It’s a song that, in fine country form, compares the love of a woman to various types of alcohol.  Worley has always had a voice that sounded best on the more traditional stuff and he’s perhaps the most ‘current’ and ‘radio friendly’ of the artists on this compilation so it makes sense to make his song first off the bat.  Mellons never got a fair shake with country radio.  He was simply ‘too country’ for most of the programmers.  “Daydreams About Night Things,” originally recorded by Ronnie Milsap, isn’t the song I’d have picked for Ken’s traditional baritone but he does a nice enough job with the song.  “Today I Started Loving You Again“  is such a great Merle Haggard song that it’s hard to see it being recorded by anyone else but Tracy Byrd does well with it.  His deep, honeybrowne baritone suits the song and Greg Cole’s production fits the whole mood of a classic.  “That’s Where I Want To Take Our Love” is a brilliant song that certainly fits the tome of the collection but from the limited research I’ve done, it’s an all-new song that Daryle Singletary sings as if it were a treasured but long lost classic. 

“Wound You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)” is one of the more ’straight’ David Allen Coe songs ever written.  Tanya Tucker took the song to the top of the charts and it’s interesting to hear a oft-recorded classic sung by Aaron Tippin.  The production is straight down the middle (as most of these songs are) and is often reverential to the source material.  Gene Watson is one of my favorite singers.  I only started to listen to his stuff six years ago but I’ve become a fan of the man with the golden country pipes and his duet, “Together Again,” with Rhonda Vincent just might be the highlight of this album.  Not much is changed from the original Buck Owens track but then again when two vocalists of Watson and Vincent’s stature are singing, it’s best not to mess with perfection.  As much as I wanted to hate Pam Tillis’ modernized version of Johnny Cash’s version of “Ring of Fire” I can’t.  It’s a song that one could see country radio playing.  Pam does a fine job seducing the ear with her charismatic vocal performance.

 Tammy Cochran takes Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night” and makes it her own.  While not changed much from the original recordings of the classic, Tammy has strong vocals make the song one of the better versions I’ve heard of the song.  George Jones may be an old man now but he’s still the best country singer alive.  his voice isn’t as good as it once was but he still knocks “Talk Back Tremblin’ Lips” out of the park.  For as much as Sammy Kershaw was compared to ole George, I think Joe Diffie is a much better vocalist who deserved to be in the same conversation (even if he sang ditties more often than not).  Joe’s version of Ray Price’s “For The Good Times”is stellar if not complimentary.  I actually here some tremolo in the vocal that reminds me of Ray and even Raul Malo. 

While “The Greatest Country Love Songs” is missing quite a few of the ’greatest country love songs,’ they have left open the door for more of country’s ‘free agents’ (or “independent”) veterans to record future installments of the ‘greatest country love songs.’ What’s included here is an entertaining collection of love songs that don’t re-invent the wheel, these artists just give up some clear reverence for the source material.  All of these songs were recorded just for this record which actually is a good thing for it means they’re not ‘licensed’ tracks from other labels.  It also means that you can only get these songs here (save for Watson’s track as it’s on his Shanachie album as well).