Favorite Singles Released in 2008 (not counting album tracks, as "The Bees," by Lee Ann Womack featuring Keith Urban would be atop my list if I did)
[/i]: a fresh take on a trip down memory lane; I hear a sort of "awe in remembrance" in the lyrics and vocal that I find both credible and really compelling. I may not connect to this song, but I find it incredibly evocative -- I can almost picture sitting at the feet of the character showing these pictures.
*
"Last Call," Lee Ann Womack: a fantastic interpretive performance, completely took me into the emotion of the song; I would have found it with a darker acoustic arrangement, but even so, this is a well-crafted and poignant effort.
*
"Just Got Started Lovin' You," James Otto: a sensual, rolling number that wins me over every time I hear it; I really like Otto's voice, too)
*
"Anything Goes," Randy Houser: the subject may be typical country and yeah, the guy is wallowing, but I found his misery to be quite credible here. Good voice, too.
*
"Waiting on a Woman," Brad Paisley: for me, Brad's strength as an interpretive singer is in the way he can couple his wry and good-natured sense of humor with affection for what he sings about, and this song is a great example of that.
*
"They Call It Fallin' for a Reason," Trisha Yearwood: Trisha does a great job bringing a distinctive vocal to this immensely likeable song about being helplessly in love; just a really engaging song. Fluffy but good. More effective job of using the roller coaster ride metaphor than Martina McBride's "Ride," too.
*
"Love Don't Live Here," Lady Antebellum: a great introduction to an exciting new talent in the genre; I love Charles Kelley's smoky vocal and their live performances of this song have been top-notch. I don't think the rest of the album lives up to this song, but this song is a real testament to this act's upside.
*
"Tequila on Ice," Darryl Worley: frankly, I preferred to write the guy off after the whole
Playgirl thing, but he sounds fantastic on this song; it's smooth and melodic and he delivers a vocal that feels perfectly suited to the vibe of the song.[/ul]"Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley is not on this list because it was released as a single in 2007.
Least Favorite Singles Released in 2008[/i]: I suppose I could have found its shamelessness and double entendres admirable or at least amusing, but I didn't.
*
"All I Want to Do," Sugarland: I found it self-consciously cutesy and generally irritating.
*
"Home," Blake Shelton: I don't think Blake Shelton added anything to the original version, and was surprised to find that I don't think that Blake and Miranda, who individually have very pleasing voices, don't complement each other well vocally.
*
"Life in a Northern Town," Sugarland, Little Big Town & Jake Owen: Sorry, I know this version connected with a lot of people, but I find it too fussy compared to the ethereal original.
*
"Picture to Burn," Taylor Swift: this song brought out the worst in Taylor's voice -- a harsh tone and an over-enunciation of "r"s as a proxy for contempt.
*
"Love You with All of My Heart, Sara Evans": incredibly derivative of Heart's "Alone," with trite lyrics that fit only awkwardly into the melody.
*
"She Never Cried in Front of Me," Toby Keith: I found it strident, whiny and oversung, not to mention it captures a lack of self-awareness that makes it difficult for me to enjoy Toby Keith as an artist.[/ul]
Favorite Albums Released in 2008[/i] Patty Loveless: A great collection of songs from one of the genre's finest interpretive singers. What is beautiful about this record is that, despite the challenge of singing covers originally done by some of the genre's finest, Patty is completely convincing as a singer who lives these songs. Hers isn't merely a respectful treatment of these classics; there's a real cry in her voice and it's refreshing to hear someone give herself over so completely to these songs. "Cold, Cold Heart" is, well, chilling, and the title track is especially beautiful. What I hear on this record is a woman practically on the emotional edge, and yet, because it's Patty, there's a comfort knowing that she is not going to go out of control. That sounds contradictory, but what I'm trying to say is that the performances are emotional but they also seem like they are completely within Patty's emotional range, so there is never a sense that she is pushing herself outside of what she can handle. Points, too, for non-intrusive production with instrumental choices that actually complement the lyrics and vocal.
*
Call Me Crazy, Lee Ann Womack: I don't normally find albums riddled with an artistic identity crisis to be compelling, but Lee Ann's attempt to straddle traditional and contemporary country is an exception. I think I still like the album because it handles the identity crisis in a non-generic fashion, that is, while the production is often too busy, it isn't at the expense of showcasing Lee Ann's voice, and in many cases, the presentation of the instrumentation is still fairly crisp. At its best ("The Bees"), the album makes a strong assertion of Lee Ann's continued importance to the country genre as an artist with a pure country voice who doesn't outright reject contemporary sensibilities and who is fighting to meld different influences into something coherent. We need more of that.
*
That Lonesome Song, Jamey Johnson: If you're going to do a confessional album, you had better have the compelling lyrics to convey a compelling backstory to make what could otherwise seem like a self-indulgent exercise in wallowing worth my time. Jamey Johnson does, with a fairly unflinching look at himself. I found his vocal delivery to be engaging, too -- it conveys the plain-spokenness of his lyrics very well. And the tone of his voice is rich and resonant, too.[/ul]The Alan Jackson and Sugarland albums probably deserve honorary mentions, though neither album has aged all that well for me. In both cases, it may be the showcasing of songs that reflect what I think are the weaknesses of the album ("Good Time" and "Country Boy" in Alan's case, "All I Want to Do" and "Love" in Sugarland's case). Still, both artists deserve credit for having put together mature and fully-realized efforts. Alan's signifies a welcome return to mainstream country radio, and Sugarland's signifies a confident assertion of a distinctive artistic identity as an intelligent pop-country act and step forward into stardom. I think they represent the more artistically engaged and interesting side of 2008's mainstream country releases.
Most Disappointing Albums Released in 2008[/i]: I think this album is a waste of what makes Kellie stand out in the market from the standpoints of sound and personality. The singles chosen so far really underscore the dulling of Kellie's personality and edge. I'm not a fan of Kellie's voice, but I think she has a long-term niche in the genre that this album mostly misses. I'm singling out this album because I feel like it's an especially egregious example of formula-chasing by the label.
* Kenny Chesney,
Lucky Old Sun: I gather Kenny intended for this album to showcase his more contemplative side. Strange though it may sound, I feel like his previous album, on which he didn't write a single song, managed to delve deeper into his psyche than this one did. It's just that the lyrics on
Poets & Pirates songs like "Demons" and "Better as a Memory" seemed to speak personally and less glibly to Chesney's experience than much of what is on this latest album. Moreover, the beach vibe sounds a bit staid to me. [/ul]
Favorite Moments of 2008[/i] performance of George Michael's "Praying for Time" and her CMA performance of "Just a Dream" showed me what an empathetic singer she is, someone who is capable of conveying others' pain, grief and anger in a moving and compelling way, while her
AI7 finale performance of "Last Name" represents one of her most free and fun TV performances yet. I like this woman's emotional range and her growth as live performer.
* Patty Loveless, Jamey Johnson and Trisha Yearwood snagging Best Country Album nods at the Grammys -- gives me hope that their excellent albums will get some more attention. Lee Ann Womack getting nominated for "Last Call" is a happy surprise, as well. After the ACMs and CMAs rewarded acts already all over country radio and country album sales charts, it was great to see some deserving acts recognized.
* Darius Rucker performing "Me & God" at his Opry debut. Although I found his album to be a bit disappointing for its contemporary sheen, I think the guy has tremendous respect for country music, that he gets the genre's history, and that he has a very good voice that makes him a welcome addition to the genre.
* Randy Travis' return to the mainstream country scene, starting with his surprise of Carrie Underwood at the Opry (a moment that still makes me smile) and continuing through the release of an album that received a couple of Grammy nominations. [/ul]
Least Favorite Moments of 2008[/i] album, a decision that McGraw disagreed with and eventually, publicly oposed. Also, Curb's disingenuous and assy response to McGraw's public apology to this fans for the release of his third greatest hits album. It is scary to contemplate the level of control a record label can exert over even a superstar of McGraw's stature.
* The presentation of CMA Music Fest by ABC. It loses more and more vitality and spontaneity each year. This year, it aired three months after CMA Music Fest had happened, did nothing to distinguish itself as a showcase for country music and suffered its lowest ratings yet. The sound was too polished, the moments and the banter too engineered, and the flow too choppy. [/ul]
Worst TrendsCountry acts pimping their personal lives out for marketing purposes: The rise of blogs and the culture of 24-hour-availability was already being exploited by professional celebs/pop acts to bring attention to themselves and their latest releases, but it has now infiltrated the Nashville scene. The biggest offenders are Taylor Swift, Jessica Simpson and lately, Julianne Hough, all of whom have worked the blogs and tabloid weeklies in conjunction with new releases to raise awareness of those new releases via splashy stories about their personal lives. I don't like the practice on principle -- I think it encourages a culture of intrusion and takes away from attention to the merits of the music.
Moreover, I don't find any of the offenders interesting enough on a personal level to warrant that attention. The way I see it, the only reason they are garnering the attention is that they are making themselves available and feeding into the tabloid/blog appetite for stories (it's a self-reinforcing cycle -- the tabloids and blogs need the content, so they give space to those who provide them content, and on and on). I realize that there are some acts who get the blog/tabloid attention without courting it; I am specifically talking about acts whose teams work these outlets. It may be a savvy move, but it's not one that I respect. I was surprised and disheartened the other day to read a MTV.com article suggesting that Beyoncé should take a page out from the books of Britney Spears and Taylor Swift and grant the public more access into her personal life drama in order to be less "boring" and sell more records. Me, I think it's the lack of mystery that exposes the overexposed as boring. I like a little mystery in my artists.
Conformity: I am not against country music opening its arms to influences from other genres (like '70s and '80s rock). But this year, it seems to me the embrace meant squeezing out a lot of distinctive sounds from mainstream country music. With too few exceptions, the production on mainstream country albums got less and less interesting, with the same muddy mix of the same generic arena-friendly instrumentation, insufficiently tailored to showcase individual lyrics and melodies. Save us, Keith Urban (and Sugarland)!
Worse, it felt like artists weren't picking songs that would mark them distinctively. Kenny Chesney and George Strait could easily be recording the same music (and in one case, did) -- given their markedly different personalities and images, this makes no sense to me. I have difficulty distinguishing between some of the younger male singers who have tried to make a mark in contemporary country (and here, too, it feels like they could all be singing each other's songs), and the formula-chasing via young blonde female singers hit especially boring artistic lows this year.
The use of pre-recorded instrumental tracks to back live vocal performances at awards shows: First, it was using tracks recorded during rehearsal to back a live vocal performance. That was bad enough, in that it limits spontaneity in the live performance. But at the CMAs, most if not all acts sung live to the studio instrumentals of their songs, which not only limited spontaneity in the live performance, it also meant that they couldn't tweak their songs for better arrangements to suit the TV environment. If these awards shows can't figure out how to effectively hook up different bands for live performances, just make the whole show acoustic. It would make for more interesting performances (and probably better vocals all around, too).
Best TrendsCountry acts finding new music-centric ways to reach and reward fans: I would single out Sugarland and Lady A here. Sugarland has made some pretty funny YouTube videos encouraging fans to vote for them at the CMTs, while Lady A's Webisode Wednesdays have provided a great look into their life on the road as rising stars (it doesn't hurt that we're talking about two acts with really charming personalities). I would remiss if I didn't acknowledge Taylor's MySpace videos, as well.
Sugarland also deserves credit for the idea of a releasing the deluxe version of
Love on the Inside -first- instead of punishing loyal fans by offering deluxe content later (Kenny Chesney would subsequently follow suit). With (
avalyn's) word of a concert DVD having been recorded and the release of a concert version of "Love" to AOL Music, Sugarland is doing a really good job of thinking outside the marketing box and keeping its fans engaged while keeping the focus on their music. Other acts would do well to follow their example.
Great voices: James Otto, Lady Antebellum, Ashton Shepherd, Crystal Shawanda, Jimmy Wayne and Darius Rucker are new(ish) country acts in 2008 with really rich, distinctive voices and pleasing tones. James Otto aside, I'm not sure any of them produced an album full of material that showcased their voices or artistry at their finest, but it's encouraging to see that the potential is there. Here's to those artists, and young artists like Josh Turner and Carrie Underwood finding material that lives up and expands their talent as vocalists and as interpretive singers.