“Country Funk: 1969-1975 brings together 16 sides from the catalogs of artists well-known and marginal, whose works all share mercurial qualities: their Southern rural roots actively engage emergent funk. …Country Funk: 1969-1975 illuminates a brief but fruitful period where genre lines blurred, and both genres benefited mightily.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
Category Archive for 'Country'
Billy Ray Cyrus: Change My Mind
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country on Dec 6th, 2012
“Change My Mind strikes precisely the right blend of grit and glitz, a record that’s clean and mean but still kicks. Having Cyrus sound so comfortable in his skin at such a late stage is a bit unexpected, but Change My Mind benefits from his veteran skills; he never pushes too hard, he just settles [...]
Taylor Swift: Red
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country, Rock/Pop on Dec 6th, 2012
“[I]f her 2012 album Red intends to do anything, it’s to prove Taylor is a genuine superstar, the kind who transcends genre, the kind who can be referred to by a single name. …Red barely winks at country, and it’s a better album for it. It is, as all pop albums should be, recognizable primarily [...]
Jamey Johnson: Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country on Dec 4th, 2012
“As a rule, tribute recordings are a mixed bag; they tend to be well-intentioned yet fall short of the mark musically. Jamey Johnson’s Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran is a risky offering because it’s his follow-up to 2010′s Grammy-nominated, gold-selling Guitar Song. …Living for a Song is not so much to [...]
“When Kathy Mattea made a hard roots turn on 2008′s Coal, a heartfelt examination in classic mining songs of the hard, often dangerous life of coal miners, it sounded like she’d been singing them all her life. On Calling Me Home, Mattea delivers a second album of material that has its origins in coal country [...]
Tornado: Little Big Town
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country on Nov 8th, 2012
“Two years after The Reason Why, Little Big Town returned in 2012 with Tornado, their fifth album and, justifiably, perhaps their poppiest yet. …Little Big Town open up their sound, once again emphasizing harmonies and melodies. …Forget the limiting rubric of country-pop: this is one of the best mainstream pop albums of 2012.” –All Music [...]
Dwight Yoakam: 3 Pears
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country, Country Rock, Rock/Pop on Oct 24th, 2012
“[T]his is steeped in the thick twang that’s been at the heart of Yoakam’s music since the start, but he’s attempting more sounds and styles here…This is an album where one song in no way predicts what comes next…Yoakam has surprised by digging deeper into every one of his obsessions, creating a record that captures [...]
Rare 1960′s Country Rock From Nashville
Posted in Country on Oct 17th, 2012
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Buck Owens: All-Time Greatest Hits
Posted in Country on Oct 17th, 2012
“Arriving four years after Rhino’s 21 # Hits: The Ultimate Collection, Time Life’s 20-track All-Time Greatest Hits covers much of the same territory. …[T]his digs deeper into pure country, adding the classic ‘Cryin’ Time’ and ‘Close Up the Honky Tonks.’ Neither one is better than the other — both are terrific samplers of Buck Owens [...]
Alan Jackson: Thirty Miles West
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country, Rock/Pop on Aug 15th, 2012
“Over the years, Jackson has perfected that smooth easy touch and here, on a record devoted to new songs written in the classic tradition…he is a master of understatement in both his delivery and construction, the songs slowly seeping into your marrow. It’s an album only an old pro could make and it’s one of [...]
John Fullbright: From the Ground Up
Posted in Alt-Country, Country, Rock/Pop on Aug 15th, 2012
“Young Oklahoma singer/songwriter John Fullbright’s debut is everything you’d want an Americana troubadour’s first outing to be — striking, fresh, and full of promise… Fullbright consistently displays a level of lyrical finesse that would be impressive in an artist with twice as many years behind him, which only bodes well for his future work.” –All [...]
“Time as We Know It often has the feel and the sound of a late-night guitar pull, and that’s one of the reasons it works so well; Snider seems to know he’ll never top Walker’s original recordings, but he sure likes sharing these tunes that he clearly loves and understands, and enough of that soul [...]
Rhett Miller: The Dreamer
Posted in Alt Rock, Alt-Country, Indie, Rock/Pop on Aug 8th, 2012
“This is the first Rhett Miller solo album where he’s willing to let his country influences hold sway; this is a very different sort of roots-oriented music than the Old 97′s, built on acoustic instruments and subdued tempos that suggest folk-rock more than the get-up-and-go mood of his band.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
Kenny Chesney: Welcome to the Fishbowl
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country on Aug 8th, 2012
“An everyday feel-good record, the kind that generates moments of warmth when heard fleetingly on the radio, at the grocery store, in a doctor’s office, at work, or even at home.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Lionel Richie’s birthplace is Tuskegee, Alabama so for his 2012 country duets album, Tuskegee, he is trumpeted as the country boy returning to his roots.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Dispensing with any pretense that Underwood remains a down-home country girl — the kind who takes carnival rides and sticks a daisy in her hair — Blown Away is an unabashed glossy pop album, positioning Carrie as the heir to Shania Twain and Faith Hill’s country diva act.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
Willie Nelson: Heroes
Posted in Contemporary Country, Rock/Pop on Jul 12th, 2012
“An appealingly misshapen collection of classics, contemporaries, and originals. Heroes kind of winds up summarizing all that’s good and bad about Willie as he approaches his 80th birthday: he’s open to everything but has no innate editor, so he whiffs as often as he connects, but when he does connect, it’s a wonder to behold…and [...]
Tim McGraw: Number One Hits
Posted in Contemporary Country, Country on May 25th, 2012
“Number One Hits does serve up all the high points from McGraw’s career, and hints at his range, making this the best overview of his work yet assembled.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
Ryan Adams: Ashes & Fire
Posted in Alt Rock, Alt-Country, Country Rock, Indie, Rock/Pop on May 25th, 2012
“Ashes & Fire is as close as it gets to the brilliance of his first post-Whiskeytown offering, Heartbreaker. It’s a subdued affair, rarely breaking much more than an acoustic guitar– and light-piano sweat, except on the honky-tonk jangle of the title track.” –The Boston Phoenix Check Our Catalog
Craig Finn: Clear Heart, Full Eyes
Posted in Alt-Country, Indie, Rock/Pop on Mar 29th, 2012
“Whether he’s spinning tales of arson and murder over the angular, synth-kissed indie rock of Lifter Puller, or recounting the excesses and fatal flaws of his fictional Twin Cities denizen with the Hold Steady’s swagger-filled bar rock behind him, Craig Finn has always had a way of blending in with whatever music he’s accompanied by [...]