I listened to that album on Friday, in the hope that I'd misjudged some tracks.  Nope, it's basically still Alabama Pines and Codeine that are genuinely worth the price of admission, good call (although the version of Tour of Duty on the album I mention in the next sentence is great).  His live album from last year was the best thing he'd released prior to Southeastern, you should check that out if you haven't already - it's basically a greatest hits including the numerous quality Driveby Truckers songs he wrote that he now tours with.  A good article on Isbell:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/magazine/jason-isbell-unloaded.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Really pleased that you like it.  I assume some of it autobiographical; the stuff about drying out certainly is, and Elephant strikes me as a touch....heavy to be plucked from nowhere.  Even Super 8, which is a bit rock-by-numbers, manages to be a welcome shift towards the end of the record. 

Wariospeedwagon wrote:

Reckon this would be the sort of album to knock me around a bit if listened to while draining a couple of whiskeys.

Ha, I love this comment as I listen to a lot of my country (etc) under the influence of fine whisky.

Try this on for size after a few drams.  Grave Of The Fireflies et al can't touch lyrics like these:



Bugul/Chattinwithchet sent me a vast number of links just before he disappeared that were so far up my alley I feel like I owe him a bottle of Ardbeg or something.  Of all the tracks he recommended, this was the absolute best of the best, and is now firmly in my top 10 tracks of all time.

THANKS CHET.

A few more:

Steve Earle's son:





Neko Case sneaks in, despite moving further away from her alt-country beginnings:



In my top 5 favourite songwriters:

I've only ever listened to the Yonder Mountain String Band on Youtube.  Almost bought albums on a few occasions though.  Didn't know Yoda did a country cut & paste. 

This seems to be getting a lot of airplay at the moment.  It's OK I guess, but it does have the honour of being the first Country/House song I've heard since 1995 #lols

I've recently discovered John Prine, who writes the kind of witty/clever lyrics that I would consider the essence of 'my kind' of country music.  I'm all for the tales of shattered dreams and wrecked lives, of course, but I find something particularly rewarding about comedy in country. 




I'm sure if anyone watches these I'll be told they're not actually funny, but I love it.

Les Claypool's latest album is great fun, and includes covers of Man in a Box, Pipeline and the following:



Also, the new Rosanne Cash album, The River & The Thread, is truly excellent.

I like stories about guitars.





Ramblin' Jack Elliott does a great over of the second song, but it's not on Youtube.  It's not actually called Eric Clapton's Secret, whoever uploaded it decided that's what it's about (it's not).

Beats me.  How young/how recent?

Can never get enough of Drag The River, in fact all the country music I adore is straight up horrible, in emotional tone anyway

DRAG THE RIVER - I remember now: http://youtu.be/tPKhERljh3g

Couldn't find get over it or get it over with, horrible song by them encouraging an ex to commit suicide and not be a whiny bitch

Link's working for me now, had a read about them on Allmusic, sound like an interesting band.  I misunderstood your post yesterday, and re-reading my post above I'm not even sure what I thought you meant.

Anyway, darkly emotional country does it for me.  I quite like the toe-tappers with a darker core; like A Boy Named Sue or Coward of the County.

I'll have to take the first response to this, otherwise you lot might end up fighting in the aisles like early 90s mums for the last Hero Turtle figure.  Does anyone want a free ticket to see Hayes Carll at The Lexington (North London) on Tuesday 2nd Sept? As mentioned above, I snagged the last ticket a few months ago, but he added a date at the Bush Hall the next day, so I'm off to see that with two mates who are willing to indulge me with my country obsession.  Ordinarily I'd go to both, but leaving my wife at home with a four week old baby for two consecutive evenings is a bit much.  If I was really country, I'd find another gig to go to the day after and smack her about a bit whilst smelling of whisky and calling her Tammy, but I've not got it in me. 

So in a nutshell, does anyone fancy seeing an artist you probably don't know performing music from a genre many people loathe, on their own or with a pal if they fancy a spot of tout gambling?  Can post for free.

ZMM wrote:

Any kind of male/female duet harmonies I'm all over.

I love back-chat duets (Cary Ann Hearst and Elvis Costello are the guests on the vids above). 

Driveby Truckers are fantastic.  I'm pretty sure Mike Cooley's got a solo studio album deep inside him somewhere, I live in hope.  Definitely one of the best blue-collar lyricists in modern country/southern rock.  Hood dabbles with excellence now and then but his songwriting is wildly inconsistent.  His highs (Living Bubba, Ronnie & Neil, Feb 14, Sink Hole, Puttin' People on the Moon, Used to be a Cop...) are frequent enough though, and he's a great frontman.  The fact that the principal songwriters in one band were once Hood, Cooley and Isbell is a pretty big deal, and Decoration Day/The Dirty South are still highlights of a consistently good career.

Civil Wars count for me, Americana/country/whatever, I try not to waste time with specific genre snobbery. I bought the first album, haven't got the second yet.

I was giving that Hayes Carll a listen yesterday and that duet popped up on YouTube, really enjoyed it. I can't make London next week unfortunately, else might well have taken you up on that offer

Not strictly a duet, but the harmonies Audra Mae brings to this track make my ears smile. In fact it drove me mad a couple of years ago trying to find out who she was. I love bubblegum, and was amazed that she kinda brought that flavour to folky/country stuff 

Not heard of them, will listen later. I've got that Kathleen Edwards album though, it's pretty good.

Speaking of pretty good, Hayes Carll tonight!

Brilliant, really good to hear, it seems that the guys/gals within that genre are far more up for audience interaction. Ben Nichols and Austin Lucas both got proper involved with the audience whenever I've watched them

Hello all.  I've got a couple of days off work, so I thought I'd post a little crap about John Prine, as I've devoted so much time to his music for the last year or so.  I wrote this in February:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I've recently discovered John Prine, who writes the kind of witty/clever lyrics that I would consider the essence of 'my kind' of country music.  I'm all for the tales of shattered dreams and wrecked lives, of course, but I find something particularly rewarding about comedy in country. 

I'm sure if anyone watches these I'll be told they're not actually funny, but I love it.

Turns out I was wrong to dismiss Prine as light relief first and foremost.  At his best I think he chooses turns of phrase that most songwriters, at least in the circles of song writing that appeals so much to me, would love to call their own.  Thirteen months on and I now own 19 of his 20 albums (£20 second hand for the missing one...waiting on Zoverstocks to come up trumps), and devoting time to his lesser albums was far more rewarding than when I did the same thing with Dylan.  There's a new biography winging its way to me, and I know this thread isn't the hottest of hot stuff, but in light of the current forum dikbants I thought I'd resurrect it to point out how happy this one guy, who everyone I introduce him to seems to hate, makes me.  He probably doesn't have too long left, he's been battling cancer for a few years, so I'm raising a whisky to him in the middle of an excellent evening in my 'mancave' with the family safe and sound in a Leysdown caravan.  

Hopefully someone enjoys a track or two. 



Spiritualised fans can suck my fat one and keep an eye out for the nicked bit:



Mawkish genius that could only appeal in certain genres.  Another whisky!