“Raising Humans”, Easton Corbin singing a song about a dog’s relationship with their human... Quite a sobbing tune, I must say. Easton was in the middle of creating his fourth studio album when he parted ways with his record label, Mercury Nashville, just a year ago, a move that offered him a chance to refocus his attention on the music he’s passionate about. The missing piece was story songs. There’s always been a saying in real country music, an it’s that there’s a story behind each country song, and that’s what this singer and songwriter from the sunny state of Florida was in need of: singing about real stories. Just like Jon Pardi last week, Easton has been one these new artists who in this new decade has maintained some of the tradition in the mainstream of Nashville. Now under the record label “Honkytonk Land Records”, he’s launched the first track of his new album to be released some time next year. To say goodbye to Easton, we’ll listen to the first song that got him the prize for “New Artist of the Year” in 2010, with his first nomination for the CMA Awards: “A little more country than that”.
Last may 17th Kathryn Legendre, born and raised in the lonestar state, Texas, released her new album named “Making it up”, formed by just 5 tracks, but real hard country tracks that sound like something Loretta Lynn could’ve written while sitting on the porch at her Kentucky homeplace.
We’ve listened to the song “There you Go”, a song about a couple saying goodbye until they see each other again, expressing the pain of the lonesome hours in an empty house.
Kathryn grew up in Helotes, Texas, where she spent much of her childhood watching shows at the same venue where a young Willie Nelson cut his teeth back in his days, at the legendary Floore’s Country Store.
We’ll listen to two more songs from this wonderful Extended Play, the fantastic waltz “Making It Up”, the one giving name to the album, song talking about lies, and the honky tonk song “Letters from Prison”, where she sings the story of a relationship with a prisoner who’s spending time in jail.
A fan of Merle Haggard, she drives around with a bumper sticker stating that, as if her mission in life was saving country music. She has released three albums already, one in 2013, another in 2016, and then this last one this save 2019. One every three years. We’ll say goodbye to Kathryn Legendre listening to her other remaining tracks, the one opening the album, named “Going Crazy”, where she tells the story of a woman falling in love and going crazy about it, and the desperate watz called “Sit Here & Cry”, which talks about totally the opposite, falling out of love and crying about a broken heart, with the first line being clear about it: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. What a piece of real work by this Texas-born singer songwriter.
Felicity Urquhart has released her first album in a decad “Frozen Rabbit” released by her own record label, from which we’ve listened to the second track, “Chain of Joy”. This Australian-born singer-songwriter is one of the best-loved artists of this music style down there, apart from a TV and radio presenter still active. While country music may (or may not) be a purely American invention, it certainly owes its roots to foreign countries. At the same time, other countries have developed their own country culture and music. Country music, bluegrass, and folk are quickly gaining large followings worldwide. Some of the United States’ most popular country musicians have come from other countries, and country music is widely popular in countries such as Belgium, Argentina, United Kingdom, India, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Canada, which is just north of the border with the USA, and the number one on the list is Australia, perhaps the country with the most similarities due to structure and the sense of wild west, the last frontier.
The Irish singer-songwriter Danny Burns released last January his album “North Country”, teaming with bluegrass greats like Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, or Tim O’Brien to name a few. Released with the label Bonfire Recording, this 10-track album is a delicious collection of bluegrass music, and precisely another example of a musician who was born away from American soil. We’ve just listened to “Great Big Sea2, where Danny Burns teams up with Tim O’Brien as special guest, providing harmony and vocals and one heck of a mandolin solo. The song’s story came to Burns while he was writing in his mother’s kitchen in Donegal, Burns’ hometown in the northwest part of Ireland, a comunity mainly industrialized on fishing and farming. It’s a song about friends who were fishermen, coming and going out to sea. Some folks didn’t come back, unfortunately. We’ll say goodbye to this album produced by Gary Paczosa, producer and engineer known for his work with Dolly Parton and Alison Krauss, listening to another song. This time he is teaming with Critter Fuqua, Holly Williams, the daughter of Hank Williams Senior, Jerry Douglas & Sam Bush.
Listening to Ben Jarrell’s debut Long Play album called “Troubled Times” is like taking the DeLorean and time-travelling to this time where country music was pure. 10 songs put together this masterpiece of country music, revealing all the talent of this singer from South Alabama who now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. We’ve just listened to the first two songs that open the album, released in March under the label “Country Roots Records”. The songs “Troubled Times in a Tribal Town”, a catchy song that tells us a story about a guy who finds a lover and murders her, and “Gearjammer Blues”, where I can hear a little bit of Waylon Jennings style quite clearly. I’m also impressed with the excellent work of Mike Daly at the pedal steel guitar. I wish country radios would play this kind of music more often.
If I thought that Jon Pardi was 2019’s best album released so far, I have to take back my words. This is the best album I’ve listened to in this 2019. Its outlaw country style exceeds my expectations basically because I am a Waylon Jennings fan myself. We’ll say goodbye to this edition of Grand Country with two more songs and the promise that I will air a few more in our next show. The first one of the two songs offers a bit more Waylon Jennings kind of music, mixed with some Alabama style. It’s good ole 80s country music. The last one is “Colorado Bound”, a 4-minute ecstasy of guitar riffs and impressive drums trucker style.
Comentarios