Posts tagged with "country"
Poor Minstrel by Gustave Doré

Best new music of 2011

Thought I’d get an early handle on my best-of-the-year list this time around. I’ve blogged surprisingly little about music in 2011. That doesn’t mean that I listened any less, or less attentively. In fact, audio-wise, it was just this past year that I finally managed to get my hands on digital playback equipment that allows [...]

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Cowboy Hat

My theory about Nickelback

Now that the kind folks from the Vancouver Olympic committee have once again forced them down our collective throats during the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics, I was reminded to share my theory about Nickelback. Does Nickelback warrant a theory? You bet. Since they are one of Canada’s biggest entertainment industry exports, I [...]

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Dwight Yoakam This Time

Today’s desert island disc: Dwight Yoakam, This Time

A review of Dwight Yoakam’s This Time (1993) Even though I had Hillbilly Deluxe and Cadillacs, Guitars Etc. Etc. on vinyl in the 80s and liked them (really, they provided my first ‘country music’ experiences that weren’t related to the radio and didn’t result in fierce episodes of doubt and self-loathing), This Time occupies a [...]

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Joey and Rory The Life of a Song

Listening to: Joey + Rory; Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson

Reviews of Joey + Rory’s The Life of a Song and Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson’s Rattlin’ Bones “Turn it up loud so we all can sing along,” sings Joey Martin Feek at the beginning of The Life of a Song, Joey + Rory’s debut album. “Let the people decide if the music is right [...]

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Kasey Chambers

Here are two videos from the great Kasey Chambers, an Australian country singer/songwriter. I think hers is one of the most unique voices in music today – both her actual voice, and her songwriting. [Sadly, this is another case where the label has removed most of her videos from YouTube, or disabled embedding. Will labels [...]

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Michelle Shocked Short Sharp Shocked Reissue

Today’s desert island disc: Michelle Shocked, Short Sharp Shocked

A review of Michelle Shocked’s Short Sharp Shocked (1988) Some of the most memorable music from the 1980s, for me at least, stems from this album (and that’s perhaps because none of it sounds like the 80s at all). Michelle Shocked appeared, pretty much out of nowhere, in the mid-80s after she was “field recorded” [...]

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Lambchop OH

Listening to: Lambchop, OH (Ohio)

A review of Lambchop’s OH (Ohio) (2008) Despite the recording industry’s continuing contraction (not unlike the financial system’s), the world is full of beautiful music that’s worth hearing. One result of the long tail economy has been that there’s so much more music being released independently but not necessarily distributed or marketed. It’s a lot [...]

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