New Music Off New Albums You Should Buy

Canadian Singer-Songwriter Lindi Ortega just released Tin Star, her fifth full length album this month. She has a voice that mirrors the women pioneers of country music and songs so good that it would make those Nashville office songwriters hang their heads in shame. The title track tells the life of a struggling independent musician trying to survive in the treacherous depths of music row.“Like an old tin star, I’m beat up and rusting lost in the shining stars of Nashville, Tennessee.” This song broke my heart, I hate how it has to be this way. When indie artists write songs like this, the point isn't to make you feel bad for them. Their songs about their struggles trying to find a place to fit all come from the fact that they are slowly accepting the unfortunate truth of the life they are trying to lead. Success should be based on talent and passion for your work, it's just not, but no matter what the world tells you, you just got to keep going. “If the music wasn’t running through the blood in my veins, I might just walk away, but the music keeps on running through the blood in my veins, and it just makes me stay" Talk about passion. 



I'm sure you've heard the song in the Chevy Silverado commercial sometime this year. "Strong" was sung and written by Will Hoge. After the nationwide publicity of that song he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. His most recent album Never Give In was released this month. He is nine studio albums in and just got his first number one hit ("Even If It Breaks Your Heart" recorded by The Eli Young Band) after 15 years in the business. It just goes to show that if you're determined and you stick with it, you never know what can happen. What happened here is great music that is starting to turn some heads around.




After writing for credible country artists today like Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark just released her first album 12 Stories last week. If you like Kacey you will love Brandy Clark. Stylistically, their songwriting is quite similar. The topics tend to lean on the darker side, middle class life, small town lies, addiction, and a whole lot of truth. We need powerful women like her to teach a thing or two to these guys who rule the country charts. 







Punk rock country folk americana, whatever, Austin Lucas defies 
genre lines and does so greatly. This album Stay Reckless is not your typical americana album, even though he is often put into there. It's sad when you need it to be, happy when you want it to be, it's heartbreaking and uplifting, it's country and rock and roll. It's a lot of things and that's why I like it.  

Chase Rice? Seriously?

Warning: This is a rant. 

One of the co-writers of "Cruise," country music's "biggest song ever" is now here and ready to prove to the world that not only can he write ridiculous, immature, frat boy country songs, but he can sing them too. His new EP titled Ready Set Roll already reached number 1 on iTunes. It was his second release after his two previous records Country As Me and Dirt Road Communion. Obviously you already know what you're getting into when you're listening to this, but his EP is honestly one of the worst things I've heard ever. Every single song is a stupid party anthem or one about a truck. It's pop, it's rap it's anything but country. You know what? I don't even want to call it pop or rap because it's offensive to the true fans of those genres. What it is, is bad sellout music, that's all. Songs like these are by guys who want nothing more than a year or two of money and fame until they are forgotten and never heard from again. They don't care though, they probably already made enough money to last them for years. Who cares if it's ruining a genre, who cares! I'm sorry you can call me an elitist music snob if you want, but people like this don't deserve the attention they are getting. I am a teenage girl and I can tell you I have written songs that are way more mature and have more depth than anything that comes out of this guy's mouth. In a song called "Party Up" (Featuring Colt Ford, of course) there's a line that says "Sip a little whiskey c'mon baby kiss me. Lemme get a drip of your frisky gypsy." What? There's another song that makes a seemingly obvious sexual advance "Girl when you gonna let me put some country in ya?" I can just hear the teenage girls screaming waiting to get some "country" in their oblivious selves by this ultra douchenugget. Then there's another song called "Look At My Truck." Look at it! LOOK AT IT! Do I fit in with your crowd now? DO I? Can't you see how country I am? I got this huge lifted truck covered in mud, I am the superior! I am the countryest of all countrys! I am so sick of this crap. I don't know why people still buy into it. Then there is a song about beer, the "best beer of his life" apparently. Two other songs about driving around with a hot girl in a truck. He tries to keep it all hip and modern by adding cool little vocal effects, hip hop beats, and by rapping the verses, but he fails tremendously. This album is not even just a shame to country music, it's a shame to all music. It really sucks but country is only getting worse. This is not musical evolution this is bad, soulless, stupid music. The new rapping trend is kicking in full force, and since it continues to do so well the end looks to be further and further down the road. It seems that there are a fewer number of people staying true to themselves each year. My hope is that people get sick of this stuff soon and real music can have a chance once again. 

Album Review: "Brothers Of The 4x4" by Hank 3

Many look at Hank 3 as one of the founders and as the king of underground country music. Even though this album didn't come close to beating some of his previous albums like Straight To Hell or Lovesick, Broke and Driftin' he still should be looked at as one of the front runners of real, modern country music. I was a bit turned off at first to this album because of the name "Brothers Of The 4x4." My first thought was "Oh no truck songs!" Although it does get repetitive he does sing about the rebellious country lifestyle in many of his songs like he did in his previous albums. Things like driving trucks, hunting and drinking all come up, but unlike the mainstream country songs he proves you can sing about those things and make genuine country music.

The biggest problem I had with this album was the fact that it was just too long. There are 16 tracks; most of them are in the 5-6 minute range, but some exceed 7 or even 8 minutes. There were so many verses and instrumental breaks that could have been shortened and would have improved some songs greatly. Other songs shouldn't have been there at all. This easily could have had fewer, shorter songs and could have been one of his best albums. Songs like "Hurtin for Certain," "Held Up," "Lookey Yonder Commin" were just there to fill up space. I could have done without them. The 8:34 opening track "Nearly Gone" was really good. I barely even noticed the fact that it was super long, but the effect on the vocals took away from his voice and signature yodel. Lyrical content was also a big problem, the excess filler tracks made many themes seem overdone. You won't go to 3's music for deep inspirational songwriting. The music is what makes you love it most of the time.

The sound of this album is as country as country gets. It's pleasing to the ears of those who love real country music. He does have a lot of outside sound effects and instruments as well though. There's everything from vocal warps to metal drum fills. His metal influences are okay because unlike the pop ones used in pop country, they're for originality, not mainstream acceptance. There are songs like "Possum in a Tree" that sound like they could be on a Hank Sr. album. I tend to favor the slower, more traditional leaning songs anyway. "Deep Scars," "Loners 4 Life," and "Farthest Away" were instant hits for me. Slow songs with a good beat and a fiddle and banjo make my heart happy. I think lyrically those were probably the best and the ones that hit closest to home. "Ain't Broken Down" was also one of my favorites. A sped up version of that song called "Broken Boogie" was also included and I actually like the more intense faster one better. Would he benefit from another producer and a co-writer? Maybe, but I respect him unbelievably for wanting to make all of his records on his own. He loves and believes in the music he makes and creates something that is truly his, nothing like anyone has ever done before. Some people may love it, some may hate it, but I am glad to have it in country music.

Essential Tracks: "Loners 4 Life" "Broken Boogie" "Possum In A Tree"
Rating: B+

Two For Tuesday: Guns 10/1/13

Take a look at all the mainstream country songs that talk about guns. That's because they know typical conservative country fans will fight for gun rights, especially in the times we live in today. Most of the time the gun songs are all flag waving 100 percent pure American redneck songs. They really don't say much other than give people a reason to stand up and shout "Merica" real loud then shoot off a few rounds and drink a beer. On the flip side of that there are gun songs that justify their use because of the troubled society we live in.

Justin Moore- "Guns"

It's not the fact that I disagree with his views in this song, because I don't. I just think songs like this show the true ignorance of mainstream country singers and fans. He talks about how crazy it is that people want to take away guns when you can buy them at Wal-Mart. Do you really think people want to take away the cheap shotguns from Wal-Mart? Of course not, that's not the problem. There's no purpose, no solution, no answer or justification for the problem he arose. The thing with this song and others like it, is that it's only purpose is to rile up Justin's super redneck fanbase. The concert crowd will belt along to this song because guns and America, hell yeah!

Jackson Taylor & The Sinners- "Old Henry Rifle"

Instead of just blurting out cliche patriotic lines, this song actually has a point. It talks about American pride from a viewpoint of a person who is fed up with the government, society, and everything in general. It's about holding your ground and standing up for your rights and trying to keep America from heading to a complete downfall.

Album Review: "Off The Beaten Path" by Justin Moore

With all the glowing reviews and the fact that many are saying this is "real country" music, I thought I'd give it a listen. It's actually quite ironic this album is named Off The Beaten Path. It makes you think it will be some different sounding album by someone who is doing what they want and going "off the beaten path" so to speak. This album is anything but, in fact it is on the old, straight, narrow, beat to death path so much it makes you sick. The typical pop country album has a few, but this album is completely made up of country cliche songs. Justin Moore was at my county fair this summer and I was bothered by a rant he made. He said something along the lines of I don't sing pop country, I don't sing rap country, I sing country country. It bothered me not only because he raps and has pop influences on this album but because he is basically telling the world that as long as you sing about beer and dirt roads you got a country song. Many people today believe that due to the amount of those songs on the radio. It really sucks because that couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm glad to see he isn't rolling with the controversial fake "Outlaw" bit like he did on his last album, but his songs still imply that he is some sort of rebel just because he is from the backwoods. In "Old Back In The New School" he wants to bring some things from the good old days into modern times. You would think there would be some sort of classic sounding approach, but other than a little steel guitar there really wasn't. There's this one line that made me laugh "Johnny rocked and Willie rolled, they just did it with a whole lot more soul." It's like no shit if you think they were great then why don't you use their musical accomplishments as an example for yourself? How do you think Johnny and Willie got that soul and heart in their music? It's because they wrote their songs and took control of their music by standing their ground. Justin Moore and all the guys in country today are making the same song and just rearranging the words. How many songs out there are about driving around with a girl in a truck? You probably can't count them all, yet songs like "Lettin' the Night Roll" and "Country Radio" keep coming to tarnish country music's reputation. Then comes the yay I'm a big tough country boy who hunts and drives trucks songs. "Point At You" "Dirt Road Kid" "Field Full of Hillbillies" and others just kept throwing out cliche after cliche to hook the casual country fan onto this obsessive countrified culture. There's a song called "One Dirt Road" that talks about how he wants heaven to have a dirt road and a place to fish and pick blackberries while his mama hangs his clothes up on a clothesline, no I'm not kidding! Another one called "This Kind of Town" talks about a town where old people gather at McDonald's and talk about the war and football. In this town "Girls out drank you and boys out Hank you." What is "Hanking" and why is it a verb? Why do unoriginal trend chasing songs like this even exist? "I don't think Hank done it that way" Justin!

There's a few super boring love songs that made you feel nothing. There was a song called "Beer" about the various ways to drink beer. One called "Off The Beaten Path" had a little vocal warp hip hop beat, surprising it came from "Mr. super country country." That wasn't even the worst. The worst song by far is "I'd Want It To Be Yours," it's about butts, big butts. In the world of ass songs this song actually makes "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" sound like "Pancho and Lefty." He sings "You're a little bit of J-Lo A little bit of Kim Kardashian It's big, it ain't tiny, I'm diggin' that hiney." then further tells the listener that even Snoop Dog would be jealous of his girl's big booty when it's all up in the bench seat of his Chevrolet yo. Then he puts the finishing touch onto the shit cake by rapping the third verse. Once again I am not stretching the truth at all! Now I'm fine with the fact that you want to record a funny feel good song. There's a fine line between cute and funny and creepy and gross. This song is so far past the line that the line can no longer be seen. It's not cute or funny it's just all around a bad, bad, song.

Now I'll admit he does have a lot more traditional sounding country elements in his music compared to others of his nature. It seemed a lot less of them though compared to his previous albums. One song called "Big Ass Heachache" was in 3/4 time and it did have a country feel. There was some steel guitar and banjo and his deep southern twang does sound genuine but it doesn't cover up the fact that a lot of the songs were heavily pop/rock influenced. Then there's the whole thing about how you feel nothing inside. Music is supposed to make you feel something, this music just doesn't. Now the best song by far was the duet "Old Habits" with Miranda Lambert. I'm not gonna lie this song is pretty good. There is a lot more thought in the lyrics and both of their voices sound really good together. It had a chance of being a really great country song. They were obviously trying to go for an old school feel and even though it is the "countriest" sounding song on the record it still sounds really modern and poppy. They could have turned it into some good genuine country song easily but they didn't. It seemed like a great song turned into a wasted opportunity.

This album is definitely not the real hard country twang album like people are making it out to be. There is so much good out there, this album is just another check mark on the laundry list. It's really sad that people buy into this. All it does is make them obsessed with a materialistic country culture. I enjoy doing a lot of the things he sings about in his songs, and if you want to sing a song every now and then about a country lifestyle that's fine. I don't want every single song to be about it though. I don't need someone to tell me what goes on in a small town, because I already know. I need someone to tell me about life, heartache, how the world works, what to expect. I need someone to tell me a story. 

Country Cliche Count:

Truck: 5

Tailgate: 1 (impressive)

Beer: 13

Chevy: 3

Dirt/Back road: 15

Somewhat decent/ listenable songs: "Old Habits" "Big Ass Headache"

Rating: F

  

Two For Tuesday: Random 9/24/13

One of the hot new guys in country music is Cole Swindell, and I'm not sure why. He wrote a couple of songs for other country pop stars like Luke Bryan and Craig Campbell. His own song "Chillin It" is still climbing the charts. It is the definition of dumb cliche country pop song. We need less songwriters like Cole Swindell in country music.


This song needs no description or explanation. We need more songwriters like Chris Knight.

Two For Tuesday: Chris Young 9/17/13

It is always sad to see a great singer get trapped in the bottomless pit of death which is music row. In a way you kind of feel bad because it's probably not all the singer's fault. On the other hand if they know it's not right for them they shouldn't go through with it, many artists still do. With so many singers speaking out against what is country music today, you have to wonder how much they really enjoy the so called "new sound" they have on their new albums. Chris Young was one that always used to seem fairly Neo-Traditional. He never really had any songs that would make you feel ashamed to be a country fan, unlike some other people today. For the most part he always kept his music sounding like country music. Now his new album A.M. is a complete opposite of everything he used to be.

Now I usually hate whenever modern singers cover old songs. It's usually so clean, polished, and poppy that it just ruins the feel of what the song used to be. Chris Young did a great rendition of Waylon Jennings' "Rose In Paradise." Trying to cover a song by a legend and do it justice is a very hard thing to do. Attempting to fill Waylon's shoes is something that seems quite ridiculous. But with the help of Willie Nelson, Chris delivered a great version of this song.


That was off of his album in 2009. Fast forward to today, and that kind of country would never fly on an album from an artist of his caliber. It saddens me now to see someone who can sing great country music sing such low level pop. "Aw Naw" was released early this year, and from then on you kind of knew you lost him. Most of the songs on his new album are cliche worded, cookie cutter country pop like everyone else is doing. It really sucks to see someone with great talent be wasted just to be a puppet for Music Row.