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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 10, 2020 16:46:46 GMT -5
It kind of blows my mind how all these '70s soft-rock ish hits have vanished from cultural memory. Soul and Funk and Rock and Disco and so-bad-it's-good novelty songs have stuck with us, but a lot of the MOR stuff is just gone. Kiss You All Over is pretty good! I assume by pretty good you mean godawful. Lies! Spacey, atmospheric opening that morphs into a disco beat, subtlely undersold vocals, a kind of symphonic progression where the song changes key and pace and sound every 30 seconds or so... good stuff! Also this was written by the same songwriter as "Little Willy Won't Go Home!" (Obviously the peak of Western Culture) so I hope you are suitably chastened.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 10, 2020 17:52:35 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#95 - Old Crow Medicine Show - I Hear Them All
First off, Big Iron World was such a great album.
I think this is almost assuredly my favorite song by Old Crow Medicine Show. It really exemplifies their blend of folk, bluegrass and country. Now I'll admit that I've kind of reached a point of diminishing returns with OCMS. I gave their last couple of albums a listen or two and I was done. But this song I can listen too over and over and have for fourteen years. So there's that. Yeah, they're roots music for the masses. But if it gets the masses to listen to some other roots music I'm okay with that.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 22:14:55 GMT -5
I assume by pretty good you mean godawful. Lies! Spacey, atmospheric opening that morphs into a disco beat, subtlely undersold vocals, a kind of symphonic progression where the song changes key and pace and sound every 30 seconds or so... good stuff! Also this was written by the same songwriter as "Little Willy Won't Go Home!" (Obviously the peak of Western Culture) so I hope you are suitably chastened. I remember that song form the 70s. I turned the radio station every time it came on and skipped it on every K-Tel album it appeared on that I owned. -M
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 13, 2020 11:08:30 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#94 - Ryan Bingham - Southside of Heaven
This one came as a bit of a surprise. Ten years ago it wouldn't have been, but it's been that long since I've listened to Ryan Bingham much. In the wake of Crazy Heart he got a little big for his britches and that, coupled with a couple of weak albums, dropped him off my radar.
That said, this is a good cut and his first couple of albums were really strong. Not sure why this one popped up here. Vagaries of shuffle on Spotify I suppose. But I wasn't sad to be reminded of it.
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Post by The Captain on Jan 15, 2020 14:03:05 GMT -5
2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees announced today, and it's a decidedly non-rock-and-roll class.
Whitney Houston? Notorious B.I.G.? Depeche Mode? Not rock-and-roll in any sense of the term. Was Biggie even around long enough to warrant consideration, let alone inclusion?
Nine Inch Nails made it, and while I used to be a big fan (I've seen them live 3 times), I don't know if Trent Reznor has a big enough body of work (he used to go half-decades between new albums). He was to music what Warren Ellis was to Planetary.
The Doobie Brothers and T-Rex are the final two inductees. I'm ambivalent toward either of these bands, but at least if I turn on the "rock" station in Pittsburgh, they are still playing both of them.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 16, 2020 10:56:28 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#93 - Adam Carroll - Rice Birds
I don't know why it took me so long to find Adam Carroll. Well...I know why. He's one of those super talented songwriters who only other songwriters have ever heard of and I only discovered because of Spotify. A lot of his writing is centered around rural Louisiana but it translates pretty well to small-town Idaho.
This is just a nice quiet song about lost love. And really sometimes that's all you need.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 29, 2020 14:52:19 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#92 - Daisy Mae - Jason Isbell
Yeah, I'm not moving along with this very fast. But I'll persevere.
Just get used to a lot of Jason Isbell because he's going to show up a LOT. Even more than last year, I believe.
This is off his 2011 album "Here We Rest." Isbell is not afraid to write about any subject that touches his or anyone else's life and this is, I believe, the first but not the last song of his about abuse. Sad and sobering and lovely.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 30, 2020 13:03:46 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#91 - Shooter Jennings - Fourth of July
I have complex feelings about Shooter Jennings as a performer. On any given album there will usually be one or two songs I really like. And the rest will be matters of utter indifference.
It likely doesn't help that he comes across as a douche about 90% of the time I hear him talking. And I get that he has his views on music and I have mine and mostly the twain don't meet.
It might be easier if I didn't love his Dad so damn much.
This song, however, really works for and speaks to me. It transports me back in time to driving a beater car on long trips without a working radio and having to sing whatever came to mind to pass the time.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 30, 2020 14:47:51 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#90 - Tom Russell - T.Bone Steak & Spanish Wine
Oh man I love Tom Russell. Guy occupies this weird area where country, folk and cowboy songs connect. Which isn't that surprising for a guy whose biggest influence is probably Ian Tyson.
This one is off his most recent album, one that I glommed onto and listened to a lot in the last year. Which was a little different because I had not loved his last two albums, 2017s "Folk Hotel" and his tribute to Ian and Sylvia from earlier that year. They were both okay but neither grabbed me.
For me "October in the Railroad Earth" was a return to form and had a number of songs that made my playlists. This one is a great meditation on aging and returning to the haunts of bygone days. It feels like a time almost 20 years ago when I would work the door for my buddy's band at local venues.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 30, 2020 16:37:20 GMT -5
Well we are just about a month into 2020. And that got me thinking about those milestone anniversaries, the biggest of which seems to be 50 years. Fifty years ago was 1970. So I'm going to try to take a look at some of the better albums that debuted in 1970. Because...why not?
First up...Kristofferson by Kris Kristofferson.
Has anyone had a had a stronger slate of songs on a debut album than this one? Kristofferson would be on my short list of greatest songwriter of the second half of the 20th Century. A huge amount of that is based on the songs on this album. To be fair, some of the songs were hits prior to Kristofferson releasing this album. Roger Miller had hit the country top 20 with Me and Bobby McGee in 1969 and Ray Stevens had a minor hit with Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down that same year. Kristofferson was reluctant to record the album because he was, in his mind, a songwriter, and he reportedly said, “Man, I can’t sing, I sing like a frog.” The album wasn't a hit when it came out, but the songs went on to become smashes. Ray Price had a #1 country hit and a top 20 crossover with For the Good Times, Sammi Smith had a #1 country hit and a top ten crossover with Help Me Make It Through the Night, Johnny Cash hit #1 with Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, and of course Janis Joplin had a #1 pop smash with Me and Bobby McGee. Along with that Beat the Devil, Best of All Possible Worlds and Darby's Castle are all three songs that are a few steps beyond most of what was coming out of Nashville then...or since.
This really is one of the corner-stone albums of the Outlaw Movement in country music. It wouldn't take long for Kristofferson to clash with the country music establishment about what should be on his albums. And as his star rose he was able to stop making the kind of changes to his songs he had to make early on. From the opener, Blame it on the Stones, through The Law is for Protection of the People, Kristofferson made it clear that this was not the staid conservative country sound that had begun to emanate from country radio. Kris was an unrepentant hippie who just happened to be a damned fine writer of country music.
Fifty years on the album is a great listen and it's just as topical now as it was then. It's maybe a bit slicker than it might have been a few years later. But the craft, particularly in the song-writing is beyond any reproach.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 30, 2020 18:36:11 GMT -5
Wasn't sure where to post this, but here seems like the most appropriate place. Just watched this and found myself laughing through most of it. It's so wonderfully amusing watching these two guys groove to a Rush song for the first time and then gush about it afterward - and the guy wearing the Pink Floyd t-shirt is priceless, could have been me in high school.
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haiduk
Junior Member
Exomancer
Posts: 17
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Post by haiduk on Feb 4, 2020 17:51:22 GMT -5
one man death metal
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 4, 2020 18:46:15 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#89 - Son Volt - Windfall
I started listening to Son Volt in the late 2000s, so American Central Dust is always going to have a big place in my listening. But their debut album, Trace, is a thing of beauty. And I really love this opener. Just a great way for a great band to start that phase of their careers.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 4, 2020 19:17:46 GMT -5
Looking back fifty years at some of the great albums of 1970. By my reckoning...because that's what counts.
Next up...Leon Russell - Leon Russell.
Another absolutely incredible first album, following on the heels of my first choice. I came fairly late to Leon Russell. He was well past his heyday by the time I was really listening to music and I didn't get to a point I'd have been listening to Russell's brand of music until much later than that.
I've seen this referred too as "bayou funk" which is a pretty great description. Russell gives us a unique mash-up of singer/songwriter, funk, rock, soul and blues in what could easily be considered a proto Americana album.
The entire album is gold, but "A Song For You" and "Hummingbird" really stand out as tracks that cut to the core of the singer/songwriter era.
I'm not sure that Russell ever lived up to this album. He had good tracks on later albums. And he had a couple of good country albums (including a duet with Willie Nelson). But his debut album was lightning in a bottle. He probably only came close with the very late in life 2014 album "Life Journey."
This is truly a great album.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2020 1:52:50 GMT -5
2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees announced today, and it's a decidedly non-rock-and-roll class. Whitney Houston? Notorious B.I.G.? Depeche Mode? Not rock-and-roll in any sense of the term. Was Biggie even around long enough to warrant consideration, let alone inclusion? Weeell, in some circumstances, B.I.G could be rock, like here....
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