Monday Morning Memes: Sam Hunt, Shooter Jennings, Jason Aldean

Luke Bryan Shifts Towards Americana to Energize Flagging Career

In his first major evolution in sound since moving from “aw shucks” pop-country to party-centric bro-country early in his career, country superstar Luke Bryan is following the money his heart. Sporting a swiftly growing beard and a messy mop of hair, Bryan spoke with us a few moments about his exploration of what he calls “a more organic, earthly sound.” [sic]

Citing an internal desire to show a more “rustical” [sic] side of himself, Luke has recruited an old adversary in Shooter Jennings to produce his new album. “Except for my Farm EPs, which weren’t really about farming, nobody’s seen that real part of me that, you know, just loves getting my hands in the dirt and also being sad about the plight of coal miners.” [sic]

“Shooter’s gonna be at the board, but he’s also gonna write with me a little,” continued Bryan. “We’re bringing in some of these new fellas like Dylan Proust, Wyatt Meloy, and Tanner Logan or whoever, and do some duets about the opioid pandemic [sic] and job loss in the Midwest; it’s gonna be so much fun!”

“I even went to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine up in West Virginia and got a tour,” laughed Bryan. I’m pretty much an expert on coal mining now, or at least as much an expert as all those new 20 years olds singing about it.”

Bryan, who has recently gotten in minor online spats over whispers that his career is in decline, is still a major draw live, and continues to have radio hits, though at a much slower pace than his glory days of women shaking it for catfish, and boom boom under his seat or whatever the hell he sang about. He hopes this new era will keep him relevant for years to come. 

The first single from the new project, “Holler in the Holler,” is due to be dropped at mainstream radio in February, though he isn’t sure what the reception will be. “We love radio, but they aren’t always ready for someone forging a brave new path,” said Luke, sweat beads forming at the edges of his newly unkempt hair-do. “This first song’s still got some party time in it, so hopefully that will help us transition to my new totally not contrived sound, while still being a unit-moving beacon for the genre.” 

At press time, Luke was eating a gas station sausage biscuit and watching Moonshiners. 

Spongebob Country Reaction Gifs 3

What do you call it when somebody says Sam Hunt is a great country singer?

Kane Brown fans after nearly every awards show

🎶

 As you leave you'll see the nursery

Oh, she left me without mercy 

🎶

When you show some old timers what a Dan + Shay looks like

When somebody wearing a Luke Bryan shirt tries to start a conversation on the conveyer at the airport

Zach Bryan fans when he doesn't make any of my year-end lists*

*not exactly true; there are a couple of songs in consideration*

The old timey version of Farce the Music when country music added drums in the 30s

Yeah, I've been listening to Ruston Kelly nonstop, so what...

Spotify announcing new ways to keep small artists from making any money

Seeing Shooter Jennings' thoughts on that Aldean song

Waiting to hear a fiddle on country radio

When you're in Heaven for 5 minutes and it isn't much like Dixie

Shooter Jennings Covers Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy"

From Shooter's new live Zevon tribute.

Jessi Colter, Margo Price, and Shooter Jennings Cover "Why You Been Gone So Long"

Jessi has a new album out today entitled Edge of Forever.

Hellbound Glory’s Undertow

 

By Kevin Broughton

Well, this is certainly a new sound – and look – from FTM’s favorite scum-country progenitor, Leroy Virgil of Hellbound Glory. Frankly, folks, it’s not of this world. Not of this continent, anyway.

Virgil and ever-faithful steel player Chuck “Utah” Bradley crossed the Atlantic for an audio and video collaboration with the upstart Noise Music Group. The results are something to behold.

Seriously, my first thought on seeing the video was the opening phrase from my favorite HbG song, “Vandalism Spree:” You’re looking pretty as a picture…

We caught up with Neon Leon for our shortest – and sanest – conversation ever, about crossing the pond, making new friends, and what’s up next.

You described this song as “a new style for Hellbound Glory,” and that’s certainly the case, especially when one sees the video. You traveled to England for some sessions. First question, with whom, and how did this come about?

The song was produced and engineered by George Shilling and Paul Gorry. On one of their trips to America, they caught a show with Shooter and me at the Whiskey-a-Go Go in Hollywood back in about 2017. We corresponded via email from time to time, and I had told them I might like to come over there and record if they knew anybody in the business. It just so happened that they were getting ready to start their own label. So they invited me out, and we said “Fuck it,” and got on the plane and went over.

We’re headed back over there in July to record some more.

The production is really impressive. These Brits must be quite taken with you, the way you cleaned up for the video, huh? You look like you’d showered and everything.

(Laughs) Yeah, they do a lot of work with the fashion industry, too, so they know how to make people look good.

Oh, nice!

I didn’t clean up that much; just combed my fucking hair. They know how to get the right angles, I guess.

It seems frivolous on its face to ask about the inspiration for a song about drinking, but why don’t you take a stab at it? Where did “The Undertow” come from?

You know, it’s one of those songs you hear about that takes 20 minutes to write, dude. I had the melody in my head for a couple of months, just messing around with it. I just woke one morning with a hangover out in Reno, and just wrote. And there it was.

What key is it in by the way? I was trying to look at your hands in the video…you weren’t using a capo, were you?

No capo; it’s in the key of A, but it’s built around the F sharp minor chord, going back and forth with A and D.

How long since you’ve stepped out of your Shooter Jennings comfort zone?

Oh, wow. You know, I haven’t worked with anybody but Shooter…well, he’s produced all our albums since 2017. I do stuff on my own here and there that I produce on my own, but Shooter was the first real producer I worked with. For this session, Paul had the whole song mapped out in his head before I got there. All the arrangements he had written out on the computer.

He told everybody what to play, and all I did was sing…and I had the guitar solo. That was my part.

You said you’re heading back to England next month. Will you tour any while you’re there?

Yeah, I have a couple of festival dates and some club dates lined up; they really want to make something happen over there, along with their other band The Black Skies (seen in the video.) They hope to bring The Black Skies over to America at some point as well. But we’ve got a couple weeks’ worth of gigs.

Did you say something about a blues album in your future, or did I dream that?

Yeah, Shooter and I are looking to get back into the studio in L.A. toward the end of the summer, either August or September, and try our hand at a blues record; we want to see what we might accomplish in that genre. Which is cool, because blues and country are cousins. I’d like to try something more in that direction.

Cool. You got any songs?

Yeah, I’ve got a handful of songs written for that one, along with some classic covers from the 1920s and 30s.

Well, this new cut is a keeper, dude.

Thanks, buddy. Talk soon.

***

Bonus media:

Those high-brow, artsy Brits made a mini-documentary of HbG’s time in England. Watch it at your leisure here:

Wrasslin' Country Reaction Gifs #71

When you're out of money and somebody launches a Wallen marathon on the jukebox

When someone is wearing a Waylon t-shirt and can't name three of his songs

Please review the new Paul Cauthen song

Waiting on the country concert to start and they play Spice Girls pre-show music

When your drunk buddy gets into a Son Volt vs Wilco argument at the festival

When Shooter Jennings talked to you on Twitter one time and you see him win a Grammy

Ready for that new Turnpike album?

One second into Parmalee's new song 

When your brother says "don't hit me but I kinda like Florida-Georgia Line"

Untrue Facts: Shooter Jennings, John Rich, Garth, Ray Wylie

Top 10 Ways to Become an Americana Singer

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10. Have a moderately popular rock, hardcore, or punk band in your 20s then turn 30

09. Move to East Nashville; stop bathing

08. Stand in front of mirror and say “I ain’t no part of nothin’”

07. Quit heroin

06. Be the offspring of a country music or folk legend

05. Be born named Colt, Colter, Cody, or Zach

04. Drink the water in Kentucky, apparently

03. Be either a hater of all political views or an outspoken lefty, there is no in-between

02. Be a Townes Van Zandt fan who majored in poetry and knows how to play a few chords; get fired from your job at one of the following: train depot / co-op / ranch / hardware store / horse farm.

01. Get face and/or neck and/or knuckle tattoos

Untrue Facts: Country Christmas Edition

 

The Crud Report: December '22

King of the Hill Characters as Country Fans

Country Singers by Their Pants

What Your Favorite Summer Country Song Says About You

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Dan + Shay “19 + You and Me”

You don’t like country music except Dan + Shay, who are not country. You own 15 personalized tumblers that all smell vaguely of vodka or White Zinfandel. You only have Facebook to post pictures of your 8 yearly vacations.

Alan Jackson “Chattahoochee”

You actually did lose your virginity on a river bank. You like that the mullet came back in fashion. You probably need to start learning about LDL and HDL.

Garth Brooks “That Summer”

You are a horny old widow.

Kid Rock “All Summer Long”

You don’t wash your legs or feet in the shower because “the soap just runs down anyway.” You have some poorly spelled political thoughts you’d like everyone on Facebook to know about. You have a dog named FJB.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Fishin’ in the Dark”

You either think the song is about fishing, or think this is NGDB’s worst song but it’s still the best summer song… there is no in between.

Thomas Rhett “Vacation”

You are theoretical. There is no such person. This song is bad even to people with shitty tastes.

Shooter Jennings “4th of July”

You don’t use the internet. Your work truck smells like Marlboro Reds and pretzels. You hate Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians equally. 

Deana Carter “Strawberry Wine”

You also lost your virginity on a river bank. You hate that the mullet came back in fashion because it reminds you of your junior year boyfriend who left you for Amanda Sykes. You have kids with a 10 year age gap. You can drink your husband’s friends under the fire pit. 

Clint Black “Summer’s Comin’”

You are a Clint Black stan. You almost drove off the road when they played a Rascal Flatts song on the classic country station. You know what LDL and HDL are. 

FGL “Cruise”

You still have the same truck and the same truck nutz from when this song came out, but there’s a baby seat in the back seat now. You drink exclusively Michelob Ultra. You recently traded in your straight legs for loose fit jeans.