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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 8, 2023 10:29:32 GMT -5
Love this album, as well as Southern Rock Opera.
But my all-time favorite is still The Dirty South. Not a mediocre song on the record.
I love The Dirty South also. I'm also super fond of Go-Go Boots. Honestly just a big fan of the band. Their two 2020 albums were outstanding. They just keep on truckin'.
While I like most of Hood's compositions, I've always been more partial the the tunes written and sung by Cooley and Isbell. Sometimes Hood's perceived or portrayed bitterness is difficult to contain, and occasionally difficult to stomach. Sometimes I think to myself, "have you ever written a 'happy song' in your life?" Although, now that I think about it, " Dead Drunk and Naked" is actually pretty lighthearted, despite the implications in the title.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 8, 2023 10:33:28 GMT -5
I love The Dirty South also. I'm also super fond of Go-Go Boots. Honestly just a big fan of the band. Their two 2020 albums were outstanding. They just keep on truckin'.
While I like most of Hood's compositions, I've always been more partial the the tunes written and sung by Cooley and Isbell. Sometimes Hood's perceived or portrayed bitterness is difficult to contain, and occasionally difficult to stomach. Sometimes I think to myself, "have you ever written a 'happy song' in your life?" I'm a huge Isbell fan as is readily apparent. I do tend to prefer Mike Cooley's writing to Hood's and Cooley wrote what may well be my favorited Trucker's song "Carl Perkins' Cadillac." Hood does tend to be pretty dour...but he's also far more prolific as a writer than Cooley.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 8, 2023 10:36:00 GMT -5
While I like most of Hood's compositions, I've always been more partial the the tunes written and sung by Cooley and Isbell. Sometimes Hood's perceived or portrayed bitterness is difficult to contain, and occasionally difficult to stomach. Sometimes I think to myself, "have you ever written a 'happy song' in your life?" I'm a huge Isbell fan as is readily apparent. I do tend to prefer Mike Cooley's writing to Hood's and Cooley wrote what may well be my favorited Trucker's song "Carl Perkins' Cadillac." Hood does tend to be pretty dour...but he's also far more prolific as a writer than Cooley. Misery indeed loves company.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 9, 2023 14:55:16 GMT -5
Moving on to 2013
Favorite albums of 2013
#10 - Kris Kristofferson – Feeling Mortal
This was Kristofferson's last album of new material (2016's ‘Cedar Creek Sessions’ were re-recordings). Given that he announced his retirement in January of 2021, it seems likely to remain just that. While I don't think it's quite as strong as 2009's 'Closer to the Bone' it's still a good end to a legendary career.
By 2013 Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard were pretty much the only peers left to Kristofferson. At that point you have to be feeling pretty mortal. And this album is a look back at times gone, friends gone and the inevitable creep of time. The songs are all Kris, except for one co-written with Shel Silverstein. And if they aren't quite up to Kristofferson's best, well, what is? This is a more than worthy send-off for one of the great songwriters of the 20th Century.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2023 13:53:36 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2013
#9 - Reckless Kelly – Long Night Moon
Reckless Kelly are back with a nice little album. This is good country music rooted in the red dirt sound. All the songs are written by Willie Braun and Willie and Cody co-produced it with Ray Kennedy who had worked with Steve Earle.
The band has put out a string of albums that range from solid to very damn good, so you aren't going to go wrong with any of them.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2023 18:58:28 GMT -5
Saturday Number Three Son and I went to see Mike and the Moonpies and American Aquarium in Boise. I love both bands so it was a great show. I'm not a huge fan of outdoor concerts (I hate sitting in the sun) but it wasn't super bad. Nice view against the Boise foothills.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 12, 2023 19:35:03 GMT -5
Saturday Number Three Son and I went to see Mike and the Moonpies and American Aquarium in Boise. I love both bands so it was a great show. I'm not a huge fan of outdoor concerts (I hate sitting in the sun) but it wasn't super bad. Nice view against the Boise foothills.
If there's a hill like that around where I live... that's usually the case.
Hope you had fun... and more importantly, hope you had sunscreen.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 13, 2023 8:26:04 GMT -5
Saturday Number Three Son and I went to see Mike and the Moonpies and American Aquarium in Boise. I love both bands so it was a great show. I'm not a huge fan of outdoor concerts (I hate sitting in the sun) but it wasn't super bad. Nice view against the Boise foothills.
If there's a hill like that around where I live... that's usually the case.
Hope you had fun... and more importantly, hope you had sunscreen.
I live in the desert. There were never trees on those hills. Not enough water. It’s sagebrush country. The only place there were ever trees in the valley is along the Boise river. 11-12 inches of precipitation a year.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 13, 2023 9:44:43 GMT -5
I live in the desert. There were never trees on those hills. Not enough water. It’s sagebrush country. The only place there were ever trees in the valley is along the Boise river. 11-12 inches of precipitation a year.
I totally get it. I'm not one of those people who thinks all most of Idaho is like Napoleon Dynamite.
Just like most of Tennessee isn't like The Beverly Hillbillies... (well, some of it still is).
Hey, once upon a time there was even very nice beachfront property in Idaho... not that there were any Mesozoic realtors or Californians around to take advantage of it...
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 13, 2023 14:29:19 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2013
#8 - Steve Earle – The Low Highway
Steve Earle has wandered through almost every nook and cranny of the Americana spectrum over the years. On this album he seems to do the same thing. This is an eclectic album and it's a very good album. Which is to be expected. Earle has had some absolute classics and a lot of really solid albums over the years. There were a couple of questionable ones when he was deep in his drug addiction but overall, Earle has been a steady purveyor of great Americana music.
Give this one a listen, it's well worth your while.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 13, 2023 14:55:43 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2013 #8 - Steve Earle – The Low HighwaySteve Earle has wandered through almost every nook and cranny of the Americana spectrum over the years. On this album he seems to do the same thing. This is an eclectic album and it's a very good album. Which is to be expected. Earle has had some absolute classics and a lot of really solid albums over the years. There were a couple of questionable ones when he was deep in his drug addiction but overall, Earle has been a steady purveyor of great Americana music. Give this one a listen, it's well worth your while.
There's definitely a lot more to Earle than Guitar Town and Copperhead Road.
Much like John Hiatt, in the sense that his back catalog is quite prolific, and can be mined deep for hidden treasure.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 13, 2023 15:00:06 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2013 #8 - Steve Earle – The Low HighwaySteve Earle has wandered through almost every nook and cranny of the Americana spectrum over the years. On this album he seems to do the same thing. This is an eclectic album and it's a very good album. Which is to be expected. Earle has had some absolute classics and a lot of really solid albums over the years. There were a couple of questionable ones when he was deep in his drug addiction but overall, Earle has been a steady purveyor of great Americana music. Give this one a listen, it's well worth your while.
There's definitely a lot more to Earle than Guitar Town and Copperhead Road.
Much like John Hiatt, in that his back catalog is quite prolific, and can be mined deep for hidden treasure.
Those two albums, great as they are...and they're great...are just the tip of the iceberg. I will say that I think he's maybe spent a little too much time in the last 15 or so years doing tribute albums (though the one to Justin Townes Earle is a gut-punch). But he's do so much good work and probably the only two really weak albums came when he was seriously strung out in the early 90s.
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Post by commond on Jun 13, 2023 19:05:00 GMT -5
1983!
The Flesh Eaters' A Hard Act to Follow... The Flesh Eaters were an LA punk band that added an element of Hollywood to their music. The Hollywood fringes, that is. Totally up my alley.
Nick Lowe's The Abominable Showman... not a highly regarded Nick Lowe album, and a questionable album title, but the songs were pleasant. This is the type of album I would have ignored in the past because it's not rated highly enough, but this little project of mine has forced me rethink things a bit and try to appreciate where various artists were at at the time.
Pistones' Persecución... Spanish mix of new wave and power pop. Very pleasant and enjoyable.
Pagans' Pagans... The Pagans were an on again, off again punk rock band from Cleveland that released this raw, lo-fi garage punk gem in '83 and not much else. They're the kind of bands that bands you like cover. If you're into punk, especially from this era, I would add this to your collection.
Loudon Wainwright III's Fame and Wealth... this was the album where Wainwright transitioned from more of a rock sound to a stripped back, wiry singer-songwriter folksinger (with a little help from Richard Thompson along the way.) Not all of the songs worked for me, but the ones that did were excellent, and there is no way that this is the 830-something best album of 1983 like rym is trying to tell me.
Freeez' Gonna Get You... I.O.U. is such a banger of a track. I could easily convince myself that it's the best song of 1983. The rest of the album's not bad, either, if you can tolerate a bunch of whiny Englishmen trying to record a funk album. There was a genre coined called BritFunk, which just sounds wrong.
Gwen Guthrie's Portrait... the post-disco landscape of 1983 wasn't a great time for black female recording artists, which is one of the many travesties of the disco backlash, but they were still working and occasionally getting a Larry Levan remix that was popular in the clubs. This is a perfectly solid example of a working artist's record from '83. Gets the thumbs up from me.
Toxoplasma's Toxoplasma... German street punk. Worth a listen to hear what an angry group of German kids sounds like in 1983.
The Milkshakes' After School Session and In Germany... The Milkshakes is such an innocent sounding name for a band until you hear them make a racket. At first, I was surprised that there was a garage rock band trying to play a Merseybeat style, but considering there were a ton of rockabilly acts at the time I guess it's no surprise that there would be a Merseybeat group too. Fun stuff, more so if you like early Beatles.
Hunters & Collectors' The Fireman's Curse... Hunters & Collectors were a great Australian band. One of the first bands that come to mind when I think of Australian music, actually. This was their second album, and like a lot of the film and music from Australian in the late 70s and early 80s, it is surprising dark. Must be all that isolation from the rest of the world.
Rick James' Cold Blooded... If you're expecting this to be Street Songs, you'll be disappointed, but if you're expecting anything to be Street Songs, you'll be disappointed. This is a perfectly OK Rick James album with some okay songs and a couple of really good ones. U Bring the Freak Out is a good 'un.
Mary Jane Girls' Mary Jane Girls... speaking of Rick James, it's his protegees. James wrote and produced the entire thing, and it's probably the closest he came to being a Prince level producer. The singles are excellent, especially All Night Long, and the rest of the album is fun as well.
Yumi Matsutoya's Voyager and Reincarnation... Yumi Matsutoya is an incredibly talented and prolific Japanese singer-songwriter with a highly idiosyntric voice. Many of you will be familiar with her songs from Kiki's Delivery Service, which used her 70s work for the opening and closing themes. She is mistakenly referred to as a city pop artist by some enthusiastic Western fans, but she was much more than that and an incredibly successful artist in Japan. Voyager is close to pure city pop, which is perhaps where the misunderstanding comes from, but it's a phase she was going through, perhaps tapping into the zeitgeist a bit. Reincarnation is closer to her older style will still trying to push the boundaries.
Yutaka Ozaki's Seventeen's Map... A friend introduced me to Yutaka Ozaki many years ago and his dramatic, soul-wrenching live performances turned my world upside down for a bit. He never came close to capturing that on record, which is hardly surprising since the record company was looking to cash in on his good looks, but the songwriting is there and all of the material he used for those extraordinary live performances.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 14, 2023 9:44:05 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2013
#7 - Pokey LaFarge – Pokey LaFarge
LaFarge is another of those retro fellers that I really seem to dig. His work hearkens back to Jimmie Rodgers, tin pan alley and ragtime. This one was done for Jack White's Third Man label after LaFarge had toured opening for White. Just a solid fun roots album.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 14, 2023 9:48:34 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2013 #7 - Pokey LaFarge – Pokey LaFargeLaFarge is another of those retro fellers that I really seem to dig. His work hearkens back to Jimmie Rodgers, tin pan alley and ragtime. This one was done for Jack White's Third Man label after LaFarge had toured opening for White. Just a solid fun roots album.
What this world needs is more cool sideburns. Wish I could grow them, but I've got a small gap between where my beard ends and my temple hair begins.
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