New Wrangler Ad featuring Jason Aldean

YouTube Gems: Gremlins II Redux

Here's the Gremlins II trailer re-edited with new music from Where The Wild Things Are. What a difference the soundtrack makes in giving something emotional weight! Hilarious.

Fun With Charts & Graphs: Garth and Billy

Alt-Country Day 3

Tomorrow is:

Tomorrow is Alt-country Day 3 featuring parody album covers from Ryan Adams, Kasey Anderson, Lucero, Those Darlins and many more! In the meanwhile, go buy Lucero's new album!

Lucero: Goodbye Again

FTM's favorite band, Lucero, unleashed their major label debut 1372 Overton Park Tuesday. For the uninitiated, Lucero is an emotionally charged Memphis rock band with a country twang and a punk aesthetic (whatever that means) and you should definitely check them out. ninebullets.net has a great review of the new album here and here's the video for the ballad "Goodbye Again." Tomorrow night/Thursday's blog post is a 13+ entry themed album cover day so make sure to make a return visit.

Lucero "Goodbye Again" from Lucero on Vimeo.

Songs Illustrated 2

Relative Size Charts #14 & B&D Special Edition

Honest Jimmy Wayne Promo

Click for a closer view.

Best of 2009 So Far: October

Lots of upheaval in the chart for this edition. For instance, I finally gave a good month of listening to the Buddy and Julie Miller album and it rocketed into my top 5. I've added a few links to the chart so you can check out the artists/albums. Feel free to comment with your own favorites.

Top Albums of 2009

As of: Oct. 4

1. Charlie Robison - Beautiful Day

2. Magnolia Electric Company - Josephine

3 Ben Nichols - The Last Pale Light in the West

4. Lucero - 1372 Overton Park

5. Buddy and Julie Miller - Written in Chalk

6. Son Volt - American Central Dust

7. Slaid Cleaves - Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away

8. Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies

9. BettySoo - Heat Sin Water Skin

10. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

11. The Black Crowes - Before the Frost...

12. The Devil Makes Three - Do Wrong Right

13. Joshua James - Build Me This

14. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Tell 'em What Your Name Is

15. Chris Knight - Trailer Tapes II

16. Miranda Lambert - Revolution

17. Guy Clark - Somedays the Song Writes You

18. Deer Tick - Born on Flag Day

19. Brad Paisley - American Saturday Night

20. Krizz Kaliko - Genius

21. George Strait - Twang

22. Tom Russell - Blood and Candle Smoke

23. Drive-by Truckers - The Fine Print

24. Pete Bernhard - Straight Line

25. Steve Earle - Townes

26. The Avett Bros. - I And Love And You

27. Mastodon - Crack the Skye

28. Scott Warren - Quick Fix Bandage

29. Holly Williams - Here With Me

30. The Fox Hunt - America's Working So We Don't Have To

31. Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - s/t

32. Eric Church - Carolina

33. Robert Earl Keen - The Rose Hotel

34. Old Californio - Westering Again

35. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

36. The Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours

37. Phosphorescent - To Willie

38. Roman Candle - Oh Tall Tree in the Ear

39. John Moreland & The Black Gold Band - Endless Oklahoma Sky

40. Red Fang - s/t

YouTube Gems Bonus: Miranda Lambert "White Liar"

Some of you have already seen this posted in other places. Just in case, here you go. Had to post this especially because of the Jamey Johnson appearance.

Miranda Lambert More CMT Music More CMT Music Videos

YouTube Gems: BettySoo

Recommended if you like Emmylou Harris, Kathleen Edwards, Lucinda Williams, Allison Krauss.

Read up on her here: Knuckledragger's Blog

Buy her tunes here.

Follow her on Twitter here.

Songs Illustrated

.99 Review: Tim McGraw "Southern Voice"

.99 Review

Tim McGraw

"Southern Voice"

The People's Take

ok song (3 Stars) – I watch tim on thursday night football

-by Kylie Jo 1

Tim remains true to his roots with "Southern Voice" (5 stars) – Swiftly after the marginally charted "It's a Business Doing Pleasure With You", McGraw has released another single that will be a radio smash. "Southern Voice", a song that credits several historical and modern legends for their contributions to the "southern voice", is a twangy number that will force the listener to sing or hum along everytime it plays. McGraw's vocal performance in this song are, as he puts in the song, "smooth", and along with that, the honky-tonk instrumental aid simply adds to the overall "fun" that this sing-along single will promote.

-by Agent Ashcroft

My Take

I was hoping to give this a positive review. I actually enjoy a lot of Tim's music (a lot more than I should admit as a commercial country music farcer and a big alt-country fan) so I'm rooting for a comeback despite his recent song choice foibles and record company troubles. Also, I have a southern superiority complex - at least culturally and athletically - so I never tire of new pandering country hits to fuel my yeehaw. I even liked Buddy Jewell's hymn to the south - not the one about the southern border, mind you.

Some of the parts of "Southern Voice" are nice but the sum of the parts is meh. Trouble with this one is the overall presentation. Par for the country course, it's a listing song - listing people who happen to be southern and happen to have done positive things and been generally successful in life. Other than the fact that they sprang from the same geographic region and were not known for being crystal meth dealers, racists, arsonists, ignoramuses or barefoot yokels, there is little else to hold together this string of names. And another thing, any listing song about the southern voice that doesn't mention this guy is missing a major piece of cultural significance.

The music doesn't help with the presentation. I'd expect a song called "Southern Voice" to either sound really country or pull in some anthem-like Southern rock guitar. Wrong on both counts. The tune just kinda lays there like water in a jar ... or grits... and grits without bacon bits or pepper or sugar or butter, just plain-ass grits. Oh yeah, there's harmonica - so I guess the grits have (is grits a plural?) a dash of salt.

I won't say this is a terrible song (save what might be the clumsiest, most cliche ridden bridge ever). On third and fourth listens, it's actually starting to burrow into my ears a little and hey, I respect all the folks presented. "Southern Voice" just doesn't fuel my yeehaw.

An aside: here are a few of metrolyrics.com's interpretation the song's lyrics (lol!):

"Will Farmer wrote it"

"blows from Memphis down to Appalachia Coal"

"Don't let this old goat cross in this Almond Brothers t-shirt and throw ya"

"Dr. King paved it"

"Billy Graves saved it"

Total value: .55/.99

The Checklist

Church/God

Mama

Boots

Name Dropping

Dying Person

County Fair

Lost Love

Love

Hometown Pride

Kindly Advice

Truck

Whiskey

Beer

Life Affirmation

USA

Soldiers

Pop Sheen

Star Power

Just because he's trending on Twitter: Yung Berg

I have no idea why stuff like #yungbergshead becomes a trending topic on Twitter. I just roll with it for the cheap hits...

.99 Review: Kingbilly "Waiting on You"

.99 Review

Kingbilly

"Waiting on You"

The People's Take (iTunes customer reviews)

Should Be #1 in Country Music (5 Stars) – Every time I have seen KingBilly the show has exceded my expectations. Now to here the magic that is their music captured in studio in one of the most beautiful songs ever written, it really blows my mind. If you haven't bought it, bought it. If you have bought it get everyone you have ever known to buy it. Too good for words!

-by techn8143

(All reviews are 5 stars)

My Take

*Note: This is actually Country California's CM Wilcox's take this time. I excluded myself from a review of this song because one of the band's vocalists/songwriters is from my hometown and went to school with my brother. I didn't want to step on any toes or show any undue bias in either direction but it's fine if CM does :)*

- - - - - - - - -

If you've ever dreamed of reading a love letter from one of the world's biggest pansies, KingBilly will hook you up. Every venture into intimacy leaves him and the woman crying, and he exercises no manly discretion in guarding that fact from public knowledge. In fact, he's just dying to tell you all about it: this song drones on well past the usual 3 minutes, ending closer to the 5 minute mark. KingBilly's apparent belief that a song this boring requires those two extra minutes could easily serve as fodder for a cautionary tale about excessive self-love.

The guys (there are six of them, overwhelmingly metrosexual in appearance) deliver a competent enough performance, which is even an improvement over some artists currently on the radio (read: Rascal Flatts). The production is pretty good, with some actual instruments audible. The harmonies are fine. So really the burden of suck falls squarely on the song itself, which isn't just outwardly boring but even nonsensical by its own internal logic: why would a guy's current girlfriend want a detailed description of his first encounter with another girl (crying and all), such as he offers in the first verse? “We both were breathing like we were in a race/Her hair was hanging down in my face”? Really?

What's she supposed to say to that? Why is he getting such a kick out of telling her? If she's turned on by hearing of his romantic escapades with other women, are there enough Kleenex at home to last through the steamy night ahead?

In summary, blech.

Total value: .20/.99

The Checklist

Church/God

Mama

Boots

Name Dropping

Dying Person

County Fair

Lost Love

Love

Hometown Pride

Kindly Advice

Truck

Whiskey

Beer

Life Affirmation

USA

Soldiers

Pop Sheen

Star Power

John Rich's Songwriting Tips #18

Another e-mail question. Robert in Arizona wants to know "Why do you pander to the lowest common denominator in regards to the listening audience? Is simple songwriting just the most feasible way to make money in the current country music climate or are you actually that unintelligent?"

Okay Robert, I uh, I'll try to figure out what you're talking about, but I'm not that good at math. Pretty sure I got an F on the test about denominators. Those are like fractions, right? Wait, did you just call me stupid? You worthless steaming pile of longhorn sh*t. I'll put my boot so far up your *ss you won't be able to say all those five dollar words without a working knowledge of sign language. F*** you!

*Not actually written by John Rich.

New Ed Hardy shirt design

iTunes honesty: Trailer Choir

Click for a closer view.

FWC&G: Cash

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