response 3 of 65:

Jan 26 01:34 UTC 1997

Who are these new alternative country people?  I'd probably be interested...
the country that they play on the radio stations these days is too close to
the "Adult Contemporary top 40" easy listening type stuff.

response 5 of 65:

Jan 27 04:31 UTC 1997

One might add two of the orininators, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and KD Lang.

response 7 of 65:

Jan 27 16:03 UTC 1997

hmmmmm...i suppose its a better concept than country rap    :)

response 9 of 65:

Jan 27 21:09 UTC 1997

 Which are actually good. I own the CD, and it cracks me up every time.

response 11 of 65:

Mar 8 19:57 UTC 1997

There's a nice new anthology on Bloodshot Records called STRAIGHT OUTTA
BOONE COUNTY.  It's a collection of covers from a certain local 
scene in the 40's & early 50's -- one of those tribute album sort of 
deals, except that there's a wide spectrum of songwriters.
The big discovery for me here are the female harmonies of Hazeldines
(i want a CD by them, now!!!) and a song by The Waco Brothers.  
 
I'd been sort of skittish about The Waco Brothers because it's 
a spinoff from The Mekons, and I've been warm and cold about the Mekons
for a decade now.  But the Waco track on this anthology sounds just fine.

response 13 of 65:

Mar 23 17:30 UTC 1997

        Run C&W doing Motown classics in a country style pre-dated 
a recent years CD collection of now-mainstream Country singers
doing the Motown classics.
        I have this on Run C&Ws "Row vs. Wade" CD.  I need to find 
their first CD (at hopefully a better price than Harmoney House
or Dearborn Music).

response 15 of 65:

Mar 25 00:02 UTC 1997

        Thank you for the offer, I might take you up on it later.

response 17 of 65:

Jul 23 19:41 UTC 1997

I should write something about the three or four country albums which 
have been engaging my attentions lately.  First on the list are the two 
Tarnation albums.   
Tarnation is actually singer/writer Paula Frazer, and her voice is the 
signature sound.  As Leslie explained it to me, Paula sings most of the 
lyrics in her chest voice, mostly an alto, but then she makes these 
leaping breaks up into her head voice for wordless vocalizing, almost 
a slow yodel.
 
On each of the two albums, GENTLE CREATURES and MIRADOR, Paula has a 
different band behind her.  Both albums have some songs which wander 
into dead ends, but half- to 2/3rds of each album really grabs my 
obsessions: I've made a great driving tape.  There's a bit of a 
Mexican influence in their sound; when I finally excavated the 
NO DEPRESSION magazine feature on them, they mentioned Ennio Morricone's
movie soundtracks as an influence, which makes sense.
 
MIRADOR has been in the Borders listening stations; don't know if it 
is still there.

response 19 of 65:

Dec 14 06:19 UTC 1997

one of the finest insugent country outfits is local: THe Volebeats.

response 21 of 65:

Jan 7 07:06 UTC 1998

  "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is one of my favorite albums (and IMHO the
  Byrds have been seriously cheated of their rightful place in musical
  history by "classic rock" stations which don't play anything beyond
  their very cheesiest hits (i.e. "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn,
  Turn.")  Most of the very cool stuff they did is stuff you never hear
  on the radio.  Check out "Sweetheart of the Rodeo", "Younger Than
  Yesterday", "Fifth Dimension", or "The Notorious Byrds Brothers" for
  four very different-sounding, very interesting, very important and
  influential rock albums..

response 23 of 65:

Jan 8 06:21 UTC 1998

  OK, I'll take back "cheesey" as applied to "Turn, Turn, Turn" but you'll
  never get me to retract that accusation against "Mr. Tambourine Man."
  "Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship" is *NOT* a lyric that
  has aged gracefully if, in fact, it was ever NOT cheesey..  

  I really think it's unfortunate that with the possible exception of 
  "Eight Miles High" the best-known Byrds recordings are all covers of
  other people's songs ("Mr. Tambourine Man" / Dylan, "Turn, Turn, Turn" /
  Pete Seeger, etc..)  They *did* do quite a number of covers, particularly
  Dylan covers, but they wrote some great original tunes, too..   As far as
  the covers are concerned, my favorites are William Bell's "You Don't Miss
  Your Water" on Sweetheart of the Rodeo and the traditional "Wild Mountain
  Thyme" on (I think) Younger Than Yesterday.

  A lot of their music has aged poorly -- a fairly common affliction for 
  the bands of the time.  However, I think that much of the Byrds' original
  material still sounds remarkably fresh when compared to other popular
  music from that period.

  I'll take this opportunity to put in a plug for a fairly recent, very
  Byrds-like homage album by the British "shoegazer" band Ride -- their
  album "Carnival of Light" is an excellent combination of a lot of what
  was good about the Byrds sound *and* the early 90's Brit bands.

response 25 of 65:

Jan 8 18:30 UTC 1998

  They recorded a *lot* of Dylan songs to varying degrees of success
  (commercial and artistic..)  Off the top of my head, you could
  also include "You Ain't Going Nowhere", "The Times, They Are A-Changin'",
  "Lay Down Your Weary Tune", "This Wheel's On Fire" (Dylan & the Band),
  and probably several others that I'm forgetting.

  I suppose this'd probably deserve its own item if people were interested
  in discussing it (rather than just me ranting about it..  :-)