Showing posts with label Sean McConnell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean McConnell. Show all posts

Apr 28, 2015

You Suck as a Music Fan 6

If...

You stopped being a fan when they sold their 10,000th album.

... you only go to concerts to talk to your friends and stare at social media. -@MarkDeskin

You think pedal-steel is a pick-up truck accessory... -Hannah Jo Lally

You incorporate Luke Bryan lyrics into your wedding vows. -Neal Grant

If you spell George's name Straight. -Michael Crabtree

You pirate the album then complain about its production values.

You only go to the merch table to ask for a free sticker. - @HonkyTonkQueen

You ask the merch guy if the album is on Spotify.

You judge an entire album based on hearing one or two songs. -Andrew Lacy

You find all your new music by Shazam'ing songs from WWE promotional videos.


You encourage 3 minute drum solos by cheering the whole time. -Christina Maccini
 
You don't know anyone else's name in the band besides the lead singer. -Cheyenne Wolf Abilene

The next morning, you have to ask your friends what the band played.

If you consider countdowns as the bar for good music. -Kenny Daniel

If you think Lie Baby is a Brantley Gilbert song. -Ben Ryan

You think Louis Armstrong was that guy who doped up and won the Tour De France "a lot of times." -Barry Toffoli

You had a terrible night because your phone ran out of space for videos.

You think Shinedown's version of "Simple Man" is better than the original. -Mark Breunig

You treat a live band like your personal jukebox. -@UncleLeonAlibis

You don't clap for the live band but you'll "check in" at the venue on your iPhone. -Lee Kelley

You ask to be on the guest list. -Trey Newman

The only song you recognize is the rap song playing over the monitors while the second band sets up.


You swapped Exile on main Street for 3 Garth Brooks albums. (I was young and stupid) -Matt Kidney
 
Jimmy Kimmel's crew interviews you during SXSW -James TreviƱo

FGL is your jam. -Westin Zamarippa

You've demanded a refund because the band didn't play the one song you know.

You use the phrase "but you've gotta admit that it's catchy." to justify a terrible song. -Taylor Smith

you respond to the question who's your favorite artist that you don't have one and you like whatever's  on the radio. -@AshleyAnnMusic

You go to your most favorite band's concert, but you get so drunk, the band has you thrown out (saw this at an American Aquarium show) -@maparriott

When you say "the record store" and you mean "Walmart." -Mike Holcomb

You couldn't make the live show because you didn't have a bow-tie to match the current vibe of the band.
   
Your idea of discovering artists is from listening to mainstream radio -@Convictcharlie

You wear bedazzled jeans to a concert. And you're a dude. - @fher1286

You can only sing along to the last two hits.


a guy raps with a twangy, nasal drawl in double-time about a ba-donk-a-donk with some such colored Solo cup in a truck with ground effects and a 7 foot suspension lift with double-decker KC lights and a never-used Warn wench, rollin' down a dirt road, going to that lake at Old Man Johnson's farm, on a hot, summer night...over the dying pleas of a steel guitar and you don't literally get sick to your stomach. -Jay White
 
You talk through an entire acoustic set. -@BlondieInTX

You think Sam Hunt is a country singer.


If Willy Braun asks you to put down your phone. -Jodi Tidwell Bourne
 
You still buy Josh Abbott's music - @HonkyTonkQueen

You take MMA training in the winter and spring to prepare for the summer concert season.

You claim an artist is a "sell out" for selling Nashville something they wrote because YOU....
DONT go to shows
DONT buy the merch
and have
DOWNLOADED all their music for free. -Angela Jolene

All your band shirts came from Target.

you know the pants size of the jeans the artist fits in to, but you're unsure of what the last single was. -Danielle E. Bowers
 
You think the Possum is a pesky critter and the Hag is merely your mother-in-law. -Mike Pollard

You smuggle in Bud Light to a show....in a can. -Scott McGuffie

Feb 3, 2015

Album Review: Benton Leachman - Bury the Hatchet

Benton Leachman has a reedy croon that gives off the impression of innocence or sweetness. While that may indeed be the case for Leachman personally, his debut album, Bury the Hatchet, presents several bits of evidence that are at odds with that starry-eyed delivery. He's clearly a complicated and real person, and this record shows you all his sides with a passionate honesty that's rare in first releases.

Opener "Desire" is a bouncy country-rocker about modern dating - straddling that fine line between giving too much away while sharing just enough to keep a love interest …well, interested. "So maybe I’ll just get my feet wet first/Before I hold’em to the fire" sings Leachman late in the song, displaying a wariness that's both an armor and a sword.

The third track, "Pride," is a standout in the bunch, as catchy as it is insightful. It's a hopeful tune about trying to drop the selfish ways that make a relationship more about two hard-headed people than one committed couple. The very next song, and the title track, could well be what happens when that couple foregoes reconciliation and becomes irreparably frayed. "I'll bury this damn hatchet in your heart" is the first sign that Benton's lilting voice belies a sharp tongue, but further proof that he's not biting that tongue.

"Lonely" is my favorite song on Bury the Hatchet, highlighting Leachman's proclivity for a well turned melody and a layered story. The steel guitar gets a workout on this barroom lament that proves its protagonist an unreliable narrator who claims to be resolved in his brokenness but clearly is still fighting.

The biting wit reappears on "Cross to Bear" with the amazing opening lines:
"I think I hate you
And I want him dead
But I think I’ll take all this hurt
And I’ll just rhyme these words instead." Hot damn, that's some lyrical shade.

Closer "The Zombie Song" is either an Americana take on Michael Jackson's "Thriller," an acid trip, or a pondering of mortality. Whichever way you read it, it's a good tune and kind of a strange-ass way to end the album. Sonically, it fits the collection just fine, and based on some of the earlier lyrics, it's not entirely surprising… but still, an interesting way to draw the curtain.

Benton Leachman immediately proves himself a voice to be paid attention to on Bury the Hatchet. His vocal style certainly draws comparisons to Sean McConnell and Mando Saenz, but his unique inflections and hold-nothing-back songwriting brand him a singular and special artist. Bury the Hatchet is a heavy dose of medicine delivered with that spoonful of sweetness.



Bury the Hatchet is available as a digital download or a physical delivery at Leachman's Bandcamp page and also on iTunes.

Jul 16, 2010

YouTube Gems: Sean McConnell

Now that my Texas Twitter compadres have told me that it's better than okay for a guy to dig Sean McConnell, I can let y'all in on this fantastic, soulful artist. Great songwriter, great hooks, even better voice. Fans of Jeff Buckley, Will Hoge and David Nail would do well to check him out. In fact, here's a song David Nail recorded for his current album, "Looking for a Good Time."

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