Last.fm Top Artists

If anything cam be taken from this week’s charts, it’s that The 9513 fans are not beholden to pop culture and the media to dictate their listening habits. Either that, or no one’s gotten the memo that Taylor and Carrie are the biggest things in country music right now. Probably the former, though. For the second straight week, Miranda Lambert is the #1 artist, with 32 listeners, leaving the rest of the group in the dust. Carrie “Hot Pants” Underwood comes in at #3 with 25 listeners, along with Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash and Brad Paisley. Taylor Swift, on the other hand, finished with 22 listeners, leaving her at #11 along with Dwight Yoakam. Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Gloriana, the other big country winners at last night’s American Music Awards, had 17, 13 and 10 listeners, good for #27, #42 and #79, respectively. We’re so counterculture. Speaking of, Ryan Adams led the Americana artists with 14 listeners, with Hayes Carll and Rosanne Cash with 13.

Last.fm Top Albums

The triumvirate of Underwood, Swift and Lambert had six of the 13 albums in the Top 10, with Revolution at #1 (22 listeners), Carnival Ride at #2 (18) and Fearless at #3 (15). Two new releases, Underwood’s Play On and Tim McGraw’s Southern Voice (11) came in at #7. Terri Clark made it to #10 with The Long Way Home (10). Those close-but-not-quite-Top 10 albums included Darius Rucker’s Learn to Live, Gretchen Wilson’s Here For The Party and Eric Chuch’s Carolina. Right at the bottom of the list, mixed in with some very good albums, there is Kristy Lee Cook’s Why Wait, with 5 listeners. I guess it’s a testament to the album that two years removed from being the designated country castoff from American Idol, she’s still getting listeners. I just don’t want to see any of you all putting Danny Gokey’s country album on the charts, okay?

Last.fm Top Tracks

Lambert’s “Time To Get A Gun” and Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” both had 10 listeners to lead the way, with David Nail’s “Red Light” had 9 to be at #3. After that, it’s a barrage of Underwood and Lambert tracks, with only a handful of male singers getting any significant showings at all. Paisley’s new single, “American Saturday Night” had 7 listeners, as did the Garth Brooks classic “Friends In Low Places.” Reba McEntire had 8 listeners for “Consider Me Gone,” and Gloriana had 7 for “Wild At Heart” to lead the way for the other female/female-dominant acts.

Billboard Country Albums

After a week at #1, Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova” falls back a spot, making way for “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum. Those two relatively new acts will have to compete with McEntire, who’s got her hottest single in years with “Consider Me Gone.” It moves up to #4.Craig Morgan’s “Bonfire,” for whatever reason, is one of the hottest songs on the chart, moving from #10 to #6. Maybe you have to be from the backwoods, hicktown, small town USA to appreciate it. The next batch of singles are already making their way up the charts, as Paisley’s “American Saturday Night” jumps from #41 to #30, Urban’s “’Til Summer Comes Around” debuts at #41, and Zac Brown Band debuts at #54 with “Highway 20 Ride.”

Americana Music Association Chart

Cash’s The List pushes its way to #1 this week, with 520 spins putting it almost 100 ahead of its closest competitor, Robert Earl Keen’s The Rose Hotel. The biggest gainers were Chip Taylor’s Yonkers NY, which moved from #19 to #14, and Chuck Prophet’s Let Freedom Ring, moving from #24 to #15. The only debut for the week was singer/stone mason (seriously, check his Web site) Kevin Deal, who starts at #38 with 7 Seven. David Rawlings Machine had 13 adds for A Friend Of A Friend, so it’s likely to have a strong run on the chart when it gets released.

Freebie Of The Week

If you’ve never spent time at the Live Music Archive at www.archive.org, you really need to. It features more than 70,000 full-length concerts, all legally available with the artists’ permission. The sound quality isn’t always perfect, depending on how the concert is recorded (occasionally you can get one recorded directly from the sound board), but you can easily lose a day or three checking around the site. Just through a few minutes of perusal, I found Corb Lund covering “Seven Spanish Angels.” He did a killer version of this when I saw him live, so I’m glad to have a version of my own. The quality is outstanding, too. Check it out here (http://www.archive.org/details/corblund2006-11-30.sbd.flac) and have fun exploring.

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Equal parts everyman and intellectual, Fulks is something like a modern day Roger Miller, able to convey humor and heartbreak in a single turn of phrase. My personal favorite lyric of the evening was “Willie Nelson I’m not/But I ain’t no Willy Loman” from “Check Out the Career,” a new song inspired by a presentation Fulks once gave about the life of a professional musician to a group of unimpressed highschoolers. It’s a song that should really be heard in person, if only to witness Fulks relate a conversation with his snooty British neighbor, which ended when Fulks posited where he, an itinerant troubadour, might be at age 60: “probably burning your house down and [engaging in sexual relations with] your granddaughter.”

Much of the material played Saturday night came from recent 50 song, digital-only release 50-Vc. Doberman a collection which ranges from the mournful country of “Goodbye, Virginia” to “On the Corner of I Love & U,” a bizarre little number introduced as “a Teutonic beer hall, Weimar Republic, Bob Fosse, gay song.” I thought that it also included a dash of Spike Jones’ vocal turn on “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” and although Fulks’ wife may have described it as the worst song by anyone, ever, I’d say it’s only in the Top 5000. However, the Jammin’ Java crowd seemed to dig it—the song is much better live than on the record, for whatever that’s worth—so you might want to check it out and form your own opinion.

Fulks then asked for audience suggestions, gamely listening to shouted song titles for a beat before chirping “Well, on with the show!” He did end up playing several requests, including “I Told Her Lies” and the pro-death song “We Live A Long Time to Get Old,” (from covers album 13 Hillbilly Giants), which was requested by a local couple whose wedding Fulks played (based upon the entertainment value provided by this show, I am considering an arranged marriage for the sole purpose of getting Robbie Fulks to play the reception. Submit applications c/o The 9513.)

The night was still young when the Robbies ended their 90 minute performance with a stripped down version of “Let’s Kill Saturday Night,” briefly returning for an encore that included Fulks’ chestnut “She Took A Lot of Pills (And Died)” and a fiercely flatpicked take on Howdy Forrester’s “Say Old Man, Can You Play the Fiddle” (both Fulks and Gjersoe are accomplished guitarists and traded solos throughout the set, but this was by far the best showcase of their skills). Getting home in time for Forensic Files may not quite fit the definition of killing Saturday night, but it sure didn’t look like there were any dissatisfied customers.

Oh, and that the opening song was about how Hank wouldn’t make it in Nashville today.

While it may not sound like it (no costume changes or giant hamster balls?), this was, in fact, a country music concert–one as performed by Jason Boland & The Stragglers. The favorites of the Texas music scene headed east to play for a fairly eclectic crowd at The Peachtree Tavern in Atlanta on Friday night. The sizable crowd of Texas ex-pats, college seniors (and underclassmen with fake IDs) and slightly older country fans were primed and ready for the show, singing along to Boland’s songs, from older tunes like “When I’m Stoned” and “Pearl Snaps” to newer ones from his Comal County Blue album, released last year.

This was a crowd that, despite its relative youth, not only cheered for the Don Williams shout-out but sang along enthusiastically to “Tulsa Time.”

This was my first experience with Boland’s music, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Based on acts like Reckless Kelly and Ryan Bingham, I was under the impression that most of the Red Dirt scene was made up of rough-voiced singers decidedly on the “alt” side of the alt-country line. Boland, though, has a strong, pure voice that couldn’t sing anything else but country even if he tried. The band is rock solid, featuring Noah Jeffries’ on fiddle and Roger Ray on steel, electric and resophonic guitar, and even when they rocked out, it was still country rock and not ’80s hair metal rock.

This concert was a perfect antidote for anyone who’s become frustrated by the lack of balance in mainstream country music, and a reminder that country doesn’t need pop or rock elements to still kick ass.

The Tennessean reports:

One of country music’s biggest touring bills just got even better. George Strait has invited Lee Ann Womack to join him and Reba McEntire on their 2010 tour, which will make its way through the U.S. from January to April.

“I can’t imagine a better tour to be on than George Strait and Reba McEntire — and now I’m not imagining,” Womack said in a release.

“I’m trying to figure out what to wear, ’cause you can’t out-starch George and you sure can’t out-spangle Reba!”

The tour kicks off on January 22 in Baltimore and ends its sporadic run on April 10 in Des Moines.

If you could play matchmaker, who would be on the bill of your dream tour? Dead or alive, young or old, regardless of genre – which groups or artists would you choose and why? Are there particular songs by one of the artists you’d be interested in hearing them sing together?

• 5. “Brand New Heartache” – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

  Jeff Hanna sings “I swore that the last time/I’d learned from my mistakes/But I think I’m headed for a brand new heartache.” Perhaps he should form a support group with the other artists on this list, as they all appear to have the same learning disability.

• 4. “This New Heartache” – Vince Gill

  There’s no better soundtrack to a new heartache than an old country song, says Gill on this classic sounding track from These Days. Listening while curled in the fetal position, a bottle of Evan Williams cradled against your chest is purely optional.

• 3. “Brand New Heartache” – Cherryholmes

  According to Cherryholmes patriarch Jere, banjo-pickin’ daughter Cia “never had a boyfriend or been on a date or anything,” yet was still able to write this excellent bluegrass song about being done wrong by a fella. (Link)

• 2. “I’ve Got A New Heartache” – Ray Price

  The smooth-voiced Price has a new heartache over an old sweetheart who’s back in town. The version below is a duet between Gene Pitney and George Jones, no slouches in the vocal department either.

• 1. “Brand New Heartache” – Gram Parsons

  This “Brand New Heartache,” written by husband and wife team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (”Rocky Top,” “Sleepless Nights,”), takes the Number One spot on today’s list thanks to the magical combination of Gram and Emmylou. A new guy moves into town and your gal is three hours late for your date? And the same thing happened last time a dude moved in next door? Sounds like a brand new heartache to me.

Thankfully, though, some artists are still recording good country songs, and good country drinking songs. The superb “An Old Friend of Mine” was a highlight of Joe Nichols’ recent album. The 9513 columnist Miss Leslie independently released “Drunk Dialer” just a few months back. Even Brady Seals’ “Been There, Drunk That” and Rodney Atkins’ “Fifteen Minutes” (both from 2009 releases) were a fair bit of fun.

Yes, good country drinking songs are still being recorded. This just doesn’t happen to be one of them, probably because it never aspires to anything more than competence. It’s template traditional country designed to go down easy, but in striving to make no negative impression, it doesn’t make much of an impression at all. The singalong tempo and Niemann’s affable baritone will have you humming while you listen, but you’ll be hard-pressed to remember any of the details minutes later. Because they don’t matter, possibly not even to Niemann himself. This isn’t a song for a lasting career; it’s just something else to sing, another track to fill an album.

Points have also been deducted for the cutesy sound effect over a not-so-racy line about getting laid and the barroom singalong at the end, both standard ingredients of this song type that appear all-too-predictably and bespeak a general lack of innovation.

In response to the song’s own question – “Hey hey hey, what’s so wrong/With one more drinking song?” – nothing, nothing at all. But if it doesn’t distinguish itself through an especially clever turn of phrase, a fresh musical take, an outstanding vocal performance, something on which to pin an identity – if it even seems to delight in its own nondescriptness – I’m left wondering why anyone would choose to listen to this particular drinking song in the first place. Especially given all the fine alternatives.

Listen: Jerrod Niemann – “One More Drinking Song”