Rolling Country 2024

Paramore singer Hayley Williams decried a Tennessee House of Representatives dustup this week where a Republican lawmaker blocked a resolution honoring the Grammy win of Black musician Allison Russell while allowing a similar resolution honoring Paramore to go forward.
...Artists like Russell and Americana Music Association award-winner Margo Price were active participants in protests against the House's April 6, 2023 expulsion of Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis. The pair were expelled for breaking House decorum rules to lead a brief gun reform protest from the chamber floor after the mass shooting at The Covenant School. An effort to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, failed by one vote.

I've been a bit perplexed by my kid's love of Zach Bryan. From my perspective I couldn't figure out why she (and I guess many of her peers) was jibing with this guy's relatively raw downbeat tales of hardship, but then she revealed she thinks of him as someone like Noah Kahan, who I hear as more run of the mill slickly produced singer-songwriter. I was a bit surprised she couldn't or didn't hear a difference. She considers both of them just broadly "folk," but I hear someone like Kahan as more akin to (fellow Bryan collaborator) the Lumineers, just kind of milquetoast and at least seemingly outwardly kinda safe and inauthentic. Anyway, found it interesting.

a whole generation of people just think of them both as "Spotify Roots Music Playlist Music" i think

it's a bummer - no slag on yr daughter, of course. it's just the way kids are coming up.

i have noticed a surge in Reddit posts in recent years that ask "what genre is this?"

oops, i hit send too soon

anyway, i just think streaming playlist culture is increasing the desire in people's brains to put the music they listen to into one of the genre categories they see every time they open the app.

i can see how this is somewhat contradictory with my post about Kahan and Bryan (i.e. lumping them together) but at the same time, they kind of feel like two different symptoms of the same disease or something.

I know my kids get defensive when they play something new or unfamiliar to me and I ask them where they learned about it. They don't believe me when I insist I'm just curious. Like, they don't listen to the radio. There's no MTV. There are literally endless Tik Tok posts they scroll through, so it's a miracle anything sticks. Stuff like Noah Kahan, sure, I guess I get it. It's super marketable/accessible. But Zach Bryan's whole deal is kind of an earnest, no frills middle aged (in spirit) red dirt dude with a truck vibe, not some floppy hat Vermont hippie. But maybe I'm hearing them both wrong.

fwiw the other night her playlist included Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers, which to me all sounds like different denomination coins maybe jingling in the same pocket, as opposed to her main currency of Taylor Swift and cohort (Gracie Adams, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana del Rey).

Isn't the common denominator there though that Zach Bryan's earnest and anti-ticketmaster spirit started independent style and he's not a radio friendly country singer singing just about drinking beer and his pickup truck. She can hear Bryan, Kahan, Swift and even del Ray as folk.

I think she does! She was telling me that Lana del Ray has a lot in common with Springsteen. I asked her in what way, and she said they both exude a similar Americana esthetic, or something like that.

Lately she's been complaining that the kick-off to Zach Bryan's (never-ending?) tour here next week is three sold out nights at the United Center where the cheapest secondary market tickets are about $200 each. I told her, please don't feed the beast, that's a rip-off. Suppress that fomo and see how things shake out the morning-of.

I'm going one night. Believe our upper deck tix were ~$120 face value.

Beyonce first Black woman on top of hot country singles chart but....Chris Molanphy, chart historian notes:

As a chart historian, I have misgivings about her topping it out of the gate, when I know country listeners are still listening to more Kane Brown, Nate Smith, Jelly Roll, and Lainey Wilson.

On the other other hand, Beyoncé has already made remarkable inroads with country listeners... As Rolling Stone pointed out last week, for more than a decade, Beyoncé’s songs have been covered by numerous country stars, ranging from country-era Taylor Swift to Sam Hunt, Lady A to Maddie & Tae, Maren Morris to … even Nashville royalty Reba McEntire, who took on Bey’s belter “If I Were a Boy” way back in 2010. Not only did Reba score a top 25 country hit with her take on the slow-burning gender-bender, but she even performed it live on the CMAs, six years before Bey performed “Daddy Lessons” on the same awards show to a more mixed response.

This, in the end, may be the best and most important thing about Beyoncé topping the country chart: It reminds the country audience they already love this artist’s music, and it signals to those leery of genre trespassers that she belongs. It vindicates other Black country performers like Giddens, Rissi Palmer, and Tanner Adell and perhaps clears a path for them on the charts. And the chart is ultimately serving as a productive feedback loop, compelling the Nashville establishment to take this song, this artist, and the very idea of a Black female country star seriously. Even if Bey’s imperial position on the Hot Country chart raises some well-founded skepticism, I am grateful the queen is on that throne.

https://slate.com/culture/2024/02/beyonce-texas-hold-em-country-song-billboard-hot-100.html

I don't mean to be controversial or insensitive but does anyone actually believe this "clears a path" for someone like Giddens to score a Hot 100 Country hit? And how exactly does this "vindicate" her work? The mass approval of another black female artist's work makes her own worthwhile?

I'm very happy to see Beyonce break this glass ceiling but I'm skeptical that the country establishment is ever going to embrace progressive artists and people of color; rather, I think Beyonce has validated/vindicated the genre among millions of fans who might otherwise never engage with it. Bringing new fans to country music will help diversify its listenership and in time could prove more consequential in breaking its long history of discrimination.

Good points re Giddens.

Meanwhile, longtime journalist Ron Wynn (who is Black) is hoping in a public Facebook post that :

For me, if all this conversation regarding Black heritage and traditions in country can get fresh exposure for such long overlooked and wrongly obscure/or forgotten people as Stoney Edwards, Big Al Downing, O.B. McClinton, and Ruby Falls (to cite just four), then it's worth it.

He's hoping , but am sure he knows it's not too likely

just found out about this -- Brennen Leigh, Kelly Willis, and Melissa Carper collaborating on a project. six song EP en route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw7fiWqfpnU

yeah i agree that the idea that beyonce opening doors for black women in country music comes off like a pipe dream. to me the song is working specifically because of the tension between beyoncé and the establishment, there is a frisson there that i think is exciting to people mostly in the beyhive of course but prob from the country side in some respect too. i think people are somewhat overstating nashville's aversion to interlopers... i mean look at recent huge novelty hits/country collabs by people like nelly, bebe rexha, blanco brown, dan + shay featuring bieber etc. i think that nashville, certainly when viewed as the capital of country music commerce and not as a euphemism for country music culture, enjoys a track from an outsider that genuinely engages with and celebrates country, and becomes a hit. nashville loves hits! the whole city is built around the notion of the Hit Record. so i think the idea that nashville is going to build barriers between itself and beyonce instead of being excited about the potential brand synergy and $$$ is to misunderstand what drives decisions in the music business. i mean, she already performed at the CMAs 5 years ago doing a song that felt much more like a one off genre trifle than this. nashville may still be tribal, but it's not stupid.

to me what zach bryan has done to the country music establishment, which is prove that you can become bigger than just about anybody in nashville w/ little more than an acoustic guitar and a youtube account, is much more important for the future diversity of country music, precisely because it completely neutered nashville as a center of power. now, we'll find out whether country audiences are willing to embrace non-white musicians in the same way, and obv any pessimism regarding that would be well founded. but i do think that, in the long run, the simple forging of a pathway to country music success (via traditional social media channels) that never has to travel thru nashville is moreso going to be the thing that sparks the real change people are looking for, rather than hoping that i.e. beyoncé is suddenly going to get the establishment to throw the doors open to people it has been resisting for years. but that doesn't make for as easy as a narrative as mapping it along black/white or male/female binaries. this was the major problem i had w/ that emily nussbaum piece recently -- its heart was in the right place but it had no understanding of country music as a business or a culture, and how both of those things have already been irrevocably altered in the last two or so years primarily by bryan

Rolling Stone on the musicians who played with Beyonce

When Randolph arrived in L.A. a few months ago, he found himself in a room with Giddens, producer and instrumentalist Raphael Saadiq (playing drums and bass), and keyboardist Khirye Tyler. Beyoncé was there too.

That’s Robert Randolph, sacred steel & jam band player

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beyonce-country-songs-players-robert-randolph-rhiannon-giddens-1234967138/

Anyone listening to the new Leslie Stevens album? Just a few tracks in but it’s nice. More polished than last releases (said without a value judgement either way atm)

First Stevens song on new one "Big Time , Sucka" has a nice countrypolitan lush pop feel

xpost Musgraves kind of became a country(ish) superstar without Nashville, too, right?

Yea kinda , but maybe Jordan S could add more

My pal/hometown hero Adeem is back with what they call "the Gay 90’s Country Bop you didn’t know you needed." Catchy. "He wants a one-night stand/I want a life full of nights with him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDZFW-uQnBU

https://popcon2024.sched.com/event/1aBzI/will-the-canon-be-unbroken-a-roundtable-on-country-music-criticism

This discussion with Charles Hughes, David Cantwell, Jewly Hight, Justin Hiltner and Moderator RJ Smith took place today at Pop Conference in Los Angeles. I am not there

It's not quite country per se, but anyone who likes what Waxahatchee has been doing the last few years should check out the new Hurray for the Riff Raff record.

definitely seconded. I had never really vibed with the little bit of HFTRR I'd heard before but I'm loving this new one, maybe my favorite of the year so far. and St. Cloud is a top 5 record of the 2020s for me, so yeah, checks out.

saw Zach Bryan last night, never seen a crowd this intense in my decades of going to shows

normally a crowd singing along to every song at top volume would annoy the shit out of me but it was so earnest I kinda loved it

It's not quite country per se, but anyone who likes what Waxahatchee has been doing the last few years should check out the new Hurray for the Riff Raff record.

I will co-sign all of the HftRR endorsements: Haven't been on board with them prior to this record, but it's one of my favorites of the year thus far and is, to my ears, operating well within the country space.

Country Music Hall Of Fame inductions were announced this morning: James Burton as the Musician, John Anderson (!!!) as the Veteran Era pick, and Toby Keith as the Modern Era pick. They made sure to clarify Keith's eligibility, as the voting results had already been tallied prior to his death.

Not sure if this is the right thread for it, but new Rosali is out today and its sounding great. No Medium was one of my favorite albums of 2021.

Mixed feelings about the new Sierra Ferrell. I had mixed feelings about her debut too and I like this one more, but she still lapses into a pastiche sound that doesn’t totally resonate with me.

saw Zach Bryan last night, never seen a crowd this intense in my decades of going to shows

normally a crowd singing along to every song at top volume would annoy the shit out of me but it was so earnest I kinda loved it

― Murgatroid, Monday, March 18, 2024 9:56 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was meant to go a couple weeks ago and came down with a terrible stomach bug just hours before the show and had to bail. The videos my friends sent made me think I may have dodged a bullet. Bryan was barely audible over the fans around my friends, who, while earnest, could not carry a tune. I don't know how this trend started at his shows, but I'm torn between happy for his fans that they've found a communal space to share their love of music and shake-my-fist-at-the-sky-old-man annoyed that you pay $130 to sit in the upper deck of an arena and listen to a bunch of drunk 20-somethings scream over the artist you're ostensibly there to hear. The cynic in me thinks there are people attending these shows who've learned every lyric to every one of his songs so that they can demonstrate to everyone else they're a true fan. The music fan in me absolutely loves that he's inspired that kind of devotion; the kind of deep, repetitive listening required to learn lyrics to that degree has escaped me since high school. I just listen to too much music now to absorb lyrics like that, and I recognize that my cynicism somewhat spawns from this.

Oh no, more musical interest would spoil the primal purity ov his stained class testimony. But whoever else gets something out of it besides him, like mass group therapy/catharsis, good for them.

They're gonna need it, whether Trump's Second Coming goes off as planned or not.

i saw him last summer at a sold out show from the upper deck and... i think judging the quality of a performance vis a vis the surrounding crowd via cell phone video audio might not be the most prudent strategy...

No doubt, but I've never made it all the way through the massive live album either. So far.

tbf my friends also told me directly that they had a hard time enjoying the show. One of them said "I could barely hear Zach."

I had no trouble hearing him, I guess it depends on the volume of the crowd around you and the venue itself etc.

also, he's rotating between playing "I Remember Everything" OR "Something in the Orange" in his setlists on this tour

I deeply respect this kind of self-indulgent "not playing your biggest hit" audience-pleasure withholding but ymmv

it's a puzzling decision bc otherwise, he's such a crowdpleaser (kept on inserting "Toronto" into songs, like it wasn't cute the first time please stop)

I just read a Washington Post review about Bryan's dc show. His stage was shaped like a cross and he wore a t-shirt that said "RIP mainstream media." And lots of communal singing. The article was by a Post staff writer who does not usually write about music.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2024/03/28/who-is-zach-bryan-concert/

Beyonce is gonna have a song about Linda Martell. I missed this 2020 article about her

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/linda-martell-black-country-grand-ole-opry-pioneer-1050432/

But whoever else gets something out of it besides him, like mass group therapy/catharsis, good for them.

what does this mean

wow that post article is bad

dude...we do not need someone with the influence Zach Bryan has over a generation of 15-25 year olds tearing down the media and/or pointing people toward non-mainstream/fringe outlets. ugh.

i've seen his crowds, i know which direction they'll go. he is a full bottle of fuel on the fire.

I guess I can appreciate pushback on modern male country, but can we get a funky and fun version of the alternative

lol this guy

https://consequence.net/2024/04/morgan-wallen-felony-arrest-throwing-chair/

NY Times and Rolling Stone are excited about 22 years old Oklahoma resident singer songwriter Wyatt Flores

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/arts/music/wyatt-flores-half-life.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLQnU63I3IQ

Sierra Ferrell is playing two sold out shows here next week. Never heard of her, afaict, what's her deal?

She’s a fairly polished vintage/throwback vibe. I don’t love either of her albums all the way through but the new one especially has some strong numbers.

She's right behind, like, Charley Crockett on the Non-Mainstream Country Elevator taking all these artists up to amphitheaters, etc.

She's already big and getting bigger fast. And she's good. Very vintage vibe - jazz, swing, ragtime, fiddle music, maybe some yodeling, or maybe that's just Nick Shoulders. Opening for Zach Bryan this summer, too.

xp agreed -- she's a better performer than songwriter, and I'd love to see her put out an album of like 1/4 originals and 3/4 covers like they used to do it. Long Time Coming is solid though and a good place to start.

Dawn Landes has a new album out called "The Liberated Woman's Songbook":

The album reimagines music from the women’s liberation movement, with songs featured in The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, originally published in 1971. Landes, along with producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, Bob Weir, Cassandra Jenkins) highlights 11 musical stories from the canon of women’s activism, from 1830 to 1970. These messages are just as timely today as they were then.

https://dawnlandesofficial.bandcamp.com/album/the-liberated-womans-songbook

I've not kept up with Landes but love her voice and have seen her perform with Hem. Found out about this from Natalie Weiner & Marissa Moss's newsletter:

I have been meaning to spotlight this for weeks — what a wonderful conceit for an album, and so well-executed! I have been thinking a lot about how country/folk artists can tap into the genre's long, well-established radical, progressive songwriting tradition — how thinking about how evergreen those sentiments and ideas are can make them feel even more potent. Landes really delivers here, from both a conceptual and research angle (there are a few familiar chestnuts here, like "Which Side Are You On?", but many are new to me) and a musical one. — NW [Agreed, I love this record - MM]