A poop emoji is negative, a strike thru is positive, an asterisk denotes a song where the good attributes and the bad are dead even.
The current Poop Rating of the Mediabase Top 20 is (-10) overall which is a 4 point drop from May (the previous time we did this chart). The best song (by a hair over Hailey Whiters) is Luke Combs’ monster hit cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” The worst is Parmalee's "Girl in Mine" for the second time in a row, narrowly beating out Luke Bryan’s insipid “But I Got a Beer in My Hand.” I don’t really see any particular trends besides it being summer, always a celebration of cliches on country radio.
Whitters' love letter to her hometown of Shueyville, Iowa, and to the Midwesterners who often find themselves left out by even the genre of American music meant to tell the stories of rural people, takes the form of the loosely conceptual album Raised. Raised remains "loosely" conceptual because all of these songs can stand on their own, but taken as an album, they paint a beautiful picture of small-town Midwestern living. Whitters takes the tropes of checklist country and bro country and turns them into thoughtful, nostalgic pieces of commentary on growing up, leaving home, and eventually longing to come back and to embrace a simpler way of life. In the hands of other artists, cornfields and moonlight are the settings for hookups and parties, but in Hailey Whitters' hands, "In a Field Somewhere" illustrates the backdrop for life lessons and marriage proposals. "Boys Back Home" could easily veer into listastic territory celebrating tough guys who drink beer and hang out on tailgates, but instead, Whitters delivers a song about the men who will pull you "out of a ditch or a bar," the ones that helped her to become the person she is today. And a title like "Beer Tastes Better" might give you pause until you hear Whitters' account of catching up with an old friend and recognize the comfort she feels in her hometown, the same comfort so many of us experience when surrounded by the people and places that made us who we are.
Over the past few years, particularly the last 2, we've built up quite a stash of CDs and other merchandise sent to us by bands and singers. I need to clear some of this stuff out, so I'm giving away a big ol' stash box.
So how can you win it? Just be funny. Since memes are the quickest way to get a joke across, that's one possibility. Make a meme and send it to us; easy as that. *United States only*
You can email it to farcethemusic@gmail.com
or you can DM it to me on Twitter @Farcethemusic (let us know if we need to follow you)
We'll also accept Top 10 Lists, parody lyrics, parody songs, funny Photoshop edits, song reviews (funny or serious), and literally anything else you want to write or create, even just a funny tweet if you make sure I see it, that's related to music (particularly country and Americana).Please don't post anything directly on our Facebook page or Tweet it publicly. We'd rather the material stay private until (and if) we post it on FTM.
There's no limit on entries. The best wins, so quality is certainly more welcome than quantity, but I don't care how many things you send. Be the funniest, the most insightful, the most clever, the best review writer… whatever. Anything you send may be posted on Farce the Music.
I (Trailer) and another member of the staff or two will judge entries. Winner gets the whole box of stuff (detailed below). There may be other prizes awarded as well, if we get a lot of good stuff. Contest starts now. Send your entry by midnight, Friday, August 26th. Now get to work!
Special thanks to these bands and artists for last-minute help filling up the box!
Unopened CDs
Jonathan Tyler - Holy Smokes
Bart Crow - Dandelion
Wrinkle Neck Mules - I Never Thought it Would Go This Far
Taylor Alexander - Real Good at Saying Goodbye
The Britt Lloyd Band - Unlabeled
The Britt Lloyd Band - The Ink
Dub Miller - The Midnight Ambassador
Dub Miller - Lost/Live
Cyrus James - Dreamers of the Day
Cyrus James - Molly and the Devil
Grady Spencer and The Work - The Line Between
Mayeux and Broussard - High Times & Good Rhymes
Lightly used CDs (ripped once and returned to package)
Will Hoge -Small Town Dreams
Wade Bowen - s/t
Chris Roberts - The Way West
The Excavators - s/t
The Mastersons - Good Luck Charm
Hailey Cole - Illusions
Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen - Hold My Beer, Vol. 1
The Surreal McCoys - The Howl and the Growl
Hailey Whitters - Black Sheep
Texas Renegade - Surviving the Flood
Here's Hailey Whitters with "Late Bloomer" from her exceptional new album Black Sheep. Highly RIYL: Lee Ann Womack, The Dixie Chicks, Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe.
