Showing posts with label Kelsey Waldon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kelsey Waldon. Show all posts

Dec 29, 2014

Farce the Music's Favorite Songs of 2014


You'll find a Spotify playlist containing all of these songs at the bottom of this post.


1. Old Crow Medicine Show - Sweet Amarillo
While not as timeless as its spiritual forebear "Wagon Wheel," it's nearly as catchy and just as likely to get your foot tapping. Here's hoping Dylan and OCMS do a whole album together someday. Ought to be a hit on mainstream radio, but yeah, well...


2. Pallbearer - Ghost I Used to Be
An outlier to be sure, this doom metal tune is an instant classic of the genre. Sweeping, majestic, epic - the usual descriptors for the more slow-paced brother of heavy metal - but in this case, they more than fit.


3. Don Williams - I'll Be Here in the Morning
"I'll Be Here in the Morning" is something so steady and perfect, you could hear it on a Williams' greatest hits collection and never question its inclusion. Don's voice is still as comforting and just damn manly as ever and he performs this Townes Van Zandt beauty to perfection.


4. Sturgill Simpson - Turtles All the Way Down
"Weird" is the least likely term you'd ever use to describe a song this classic-sounding, but there it is. "Turtles" is the faith-questioning/love-championing anthem nearly everybody could get behind this year. Never mind that it denies the importance of religion (all of them) and the veracity of its teachings; even Conservatives loved this bastard child of Waylon and a particularly vivid acid trip.


5. Adam Faucett - Opossum
"Don't you ask me when you don't wanna know" it warns in the opening line. It's a dark, melodic look back at how better past days contrast with the struggles of the now in the lives of former lovers. Or at least that's what I think it's about; this one's a little hard to decipher, but it sounds damn great.


6. Wade Bowen - West Texas Rain
Co-written with my MVP songwriter of 2014, Travis Meadows, "West Texas Rain" is certainly a highlight of Wade Bowen's career thus far. It brings to mind Restless Heart with its soft tones and strong melodies. Another song that ought to be a big hit - in fact, it probably would have been a no-doubter in the 80s or 90s.


7. Caleb Caudle - Drag
A sad-bastard tune warning a potential love of the likelihood of a disastrous outcome, "Drag" is thoughtful, soulful and gloriously depressing.


8. Old 97's - Nashville
A joyously profane return to what made Old 97s one of my favorite bands during my early forays into alt-country. It's vulgar, self-deprecating and hilariously confident despite the subject matter. The guys haven't sounded happier to be rocking together in years.


9. Nikki Lane - Love's On Fire
This duet with Joshua Headley sways like the trees on a spring Sunday afternoon. It's all harmony and good times and fiddle and organ and a damn fun tune that you'll never get out of your head. Modern country rock at its best.

10. Fire Mountain - Traces
A hard-hitting ballad with a sweeping chorus that wouldn't be out of place soundtracking a somber breakup scene in some teen soap. That's not to say it's generic and schmaltzy… okay, it's a little schmaltzy, but it's so damn well-written and just unfair on an emotional level. I would have straight up wept into my cheap beer if this had come out during my college days.




Next 10 (in no particular order):
Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives – Boogie Woogie Down the Jericho Road
Tami Neilson – Cry Over You
Run The Jewels – Blockbuster Night Part 1
Lydia Loveless – Wine Lips
Matt Woods – Tiny Anchors
Josh Grider – Pontiac
Chad Sullins and the Last Call Coalition – Hurtin' Songs
Drive-By Truckers – Grand Canyon
The War On Drugs – Eyes To The Wind
Kelsey Waldon – High in Heels




Other Favorites (in no particular order):
Shooter Jennings – The Door
Cory Branan – All I Got and Gone
Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires – The Kudzu and the Concrete
Karen Jonas – Suicide Sal
Beck – Country Down
Parker Millsap – When I Leave
Jack White – That Black Bat Licorice
Stoney LaRue – Still Runnin’
Willie Nelson – The Wall
Bob Wayne – 20 Miles to Juarez (feat. Elizabeth Cook)
Red Eye Gravy – Take Me Back
Rival Sons – Open My Eyes
Cloud Nothings – I'm Not Part of Me
Mastodon – The Motherload
YG – Who Do You Love?
Robert Ellis - Chemical Plant
Schoolboy Q – Collard Greens
Hard Working Americans – Down to the Well
Rodney Crowell – God I'm Missing You
Cody Johnson – Holes
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings – Retreat!
Jimbo Mathus – Medicine
Eric Church - Talladega
First Aid Kit – Stay Gold
David Nail – Brand New Day
Sundy Best – Smoking Gun
Lee Ann Womack – Tomorrow Night In Baltimore
The Hold Steady – The Ambassador
Mat D. and The Profane Saints – Holyoke
Jason Eady – One Two...Many
John Fullbright – Never Cry Again
Centro-matic – Salty Disciple
Matthew Ryan – Then She Threw Me Like a Hand Grenade
Curtis Harding – Keep On Shining
Lake Street Dive – Seventeen
St. Paul & The Broken Bones – Broken Bones & Pocket Change
Miranda Lambert – All That's Left - [feat. The Time Jumpers]
Spoon – Knock Knock Knock
Dierks Bentley - Riser
Rosanne Cash – A Feather's Not A Bird
Jeff Whitehead – Pardon Me
Hiss Golden Messenger – Drum
Cahalen Morrison – I've Won Every Battle, But I've Lost Every War
Sunny Sweeney – Find Me
Whiskey Myers – Colloquy 





Sep 5, 2014

Top Albums of 2014 So Far: 2/3 Report

Subject to and likely to change, as usual.  The new additions and
selected others include album covers and links.

1. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music


3. Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else

4. The War on Drugs - Lost In the Dream

5.  Old 97s - Most Messed Up


6. Cory Branan - The No-Hit Wonder

7. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - Dereconstructed

8. Spoon - They Want My Soul

9. Kelsey Waldon - The Goldmine

 10. Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden

11. Fire Mountain - All Dies Down

12. Jimbo Mathus - Dark Night of the Soul

13. St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Half the City

14. Cahalen Morrison & Country Hammer - The Flower of Muscle Shoals

 15. Jim Lauderdale - I'm a Song

16. Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

17. Drive-by Truckers - English Oceans


19. Jason Eady - Daylight and Dark

20. John Fullbright - Songs

Jun 24, 2014

Album Review: Kelsey Waldon - The Goldmine




Kelsey Waldon is so country, she never has to mention it on the entirety of her new album, yet you know it from the first word she sings (the first note, in fact). Her voice is effortlessly twangy and personable and The Goldmine proudly hails from a lineage of Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Lee Ann Womack and the like.

There's a warm, hazy glow over the whole affair, like an old rural bar where half the lights are blown and they still let you smoke inside. It's strangely comfortable, but behind every set of glazed eyes, there's a sad tale and the potential for things to get dangerous. 

"Town Clown" leads off the bunch with a tune about how gossip often becomes generally accepted as truth in a small town. Do you like self-pity? Do you like steel guitar? I do, and if you don't, here's where you should jump off. 


The title track continues the drenched in steel approach. In it, Kelsey proclaims her preference for satisfaction over money in a relationship with a man whose financial gains may or may not be entirely on the up and up.

"High in Heels" is my favorite off The Goldmine. It's sassy and tragic at once. I'm fairly certain it's about a daughter having to resort to desperate measures to keep her broken family fed, but you may read it differently.

Kelsey Waldon sounds more vulnerable and confessional than say, Loretta Lynn, on these 11 tracks but she's every bit as confident. Hers is a sweet voice that belies a depth of realism and a spirit that forgives but never forgets. It's a world-weary but optimistic outlook that keeps The Goldmine from ever sinking into despair. It's a moving and memorable album that should easily satisfy fans of classic country and modern Americana, and make Waldon an artist to watch for years to come.


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The Goldmine is available for purchase on Bandcamp.

May 6, 2014

New Video: Kelsey Waldon - High in Heels

From her forthcoming album, The Goldmine, here's Kelsey Waldon with "High in Heels."


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