Country Close-Up

HOME SWEET HOME

Somehow I missed this one. Then again, I'd equate listening to the Crue with the title of the album the original emanates from, "Theatre Of Pain."

Yup, Motley Crue was a product of the Sunset Strip metal/glam renaissance, loved by pubescent girls, but hated by the cognoscenti, until nascent A&R man Tom Zutaut signed them to Elektra and built both their career and his.

And in the San Fernando Valley there was a fan of this music known as Scott Borchetta who has released an album of country Crue covers on his Big Machine freight train.

Of course I knew the Crue's note for note cover of Brownsville Station's "Smokin' In The Boys Room" from "Theatre Of Pain," and Justin Moore's cover of "Home Sweet Home" is also not for note, but it feels so good, because of the anthemic chorus, which sounds straight out of a Skynyrd album.

"You know I'm a dreamer
But my heart's of gold
I had to run away high
So I wouldn't come home low"

Yup, "Home Sweet Home" was one of the original power ballads, a paradigm the "metal" acts ultimately overmilked to the point where pop took over MTV and the country as well, but that does not mean it was not a good idea at first.

"I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home"

Switch your allegiance from Active Rock, which has moved so far from center that it's lost the plot, forget Classic Rock, how many times can you hear "Free Bird," come over to Sirius XM's Highway and join the country rock party.

Hell, even if you never even liked the Crue, you'll get this. Justin Moore is a better singer than Vince Neil, and there are a lot of great pickers in Nashville, the guitarist is a nobody but he's a killer, and the truth is the digital era makes it much easier to produce songs, but no easier to write them. So, what was good before re-emerges.

AIN'T WORTH THE WHISKEY

Cole Swindell has a slew of writing credits, but the Highway takes credit for breaking him as a performing artist. That track was "Chillin' It," and the big hit from his March release is "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight,' but it's this that I love.

"I don't care that you done me wrong
'Cause I've already moved on
I don't care what his name is
Girl, it is what it is"

The truth is nobody moves on that fast, and when someone else is screwing your one and only it drives you crazy. But you try to buck up.

"It doesn't matter what your friends say
They never liked me anyway"

I LOVE THIS! That's what girls do when they're done, they call all their friends and rally around and trash you. The same exact women who were so nice to you just moments before. But love is tribal, and you're no longer a member of that team.

"But I'll drink to a country song
To another long work week gone
And I'll raise my glass to a long lost buddy I ain't seen"

Ain't that Friday night. And it's hard to drink to rap, but these anthemic country rock songs, they're great for drowning your sorrows.

CLOSE YOUR EYES

"It's all getting to what we've been waiting on
I'm gonna go and turn you and the night on
Coming on strong I'm gonna lay it on your lips
Might wanna close your eyes for this"

An interesting turn of phrase. Something that resonates.

This is just another journeyman track by the journeyman band Parmalee, but not everything can be memorable for decades, and while we wait for those superior cuts certain elements jump out of tracks and grab us. Write a chorus like this and you'll have a career.

IF I DIE YOUNG

I heard this LAST Friday night on the Highway, literally, driving back from Ian Rogers's birthday at the Malibu Inn, and I didn't write down the title figuring it'd be easy to find but little did I know it would take almost a week to hear it again, just after I'd given up, last night in an extended Highway listening session.

Turns out it's an old hit, from 2010, when I guess I wasn't listening to country radio, but if this doesn't make you feel good, you don't like women and you've got no heart.

I checked out the latest Band Perry album when it came out, but the act seems to have been caught up in the sophomore slump, the tracks are just not as good. But this is a killer. This is what Taylor Swift used to sell, before she decided to appeal to everybody. But that may grant you a momentary hit, but what lasts, what bonds people to you, is stuff much more personal, like this.

If you're a boomer, if you're a soft rock aficionado, if you think there's no good music, you'll positively marvel when this comes out of the speakers.

SURE BE COOL IF YOU DID

He's married to Miranda Lambert, he's all over TV, how'd Blake Shelton get there?

Via songs like this.

One of the rewards of being at the top of the country heap is you get the best material, if you don't hear the quality here you've got no ears, if you work in the music business make sure it's in marketing, not A&R.

This was a hit a long time ago, back in 2010. How are we supposed to find all this stuff?

I've got an unimpeachable source in Nashville who gives me recommendations. We live in an incomprehensible world, we're all ears, but where do we start?

When we elevate tastemakers to the perch they deserve, when we pay them like techies, music will rise like a phoenix.

FIRST ONE TO KNOW

Stoney LaRue. Know him? Not me, only the name, not the material. But my country connection sent me this and I was stunned, it's the closest thing I've heard to Ryan Adams's "Winding Wheel" since Ryan cut that.

The acoustic instruments, the sound... Be sure to listen to the end for the picking. This is close. Check it out.

GIMME SOMETHING GOOD

Listen to that guitar sound!

Speaking of Ryan Adams, here's the man himself.

It's country without the fiddle, then again, this is the sound Tom Petty perfected, if only he did it as well as Ryan here.

I first heard this on Sirius XM's Spectrum. That's the problem with good music today, there's not one place to hear it all. There are strict divisions between genres.

The guitar sound and the changes of "Gimme Something Good" will wow you. Unfortunately, the song doesn't go anywhere. And the other released song from Ryan Adams's new album, "My Wrecking Ball," is not as good as this.

But...

This demonstrates the difference between the greats and the also-rans, it illustrates the difference when you write the material as opposed to using hired guns, when you pursue your individual goal as opposed to giving the machine what it wants.

Adams can write and now produce. He gets it.

How come we don't elevate those who deserve it?

In other words, Ryan Adams blew all his cred and became a joke. But he's proof if you ever had it you still do, you've just got to dig down deep. If "Gimme Something Good" doesn't make you want to hear more of what Ryan Adams has to say, you're not listening.

ROLLER COASTER

This is a giant hit from Luke Bryan's giant album "Crash My Party" and it's all over the radio but the reason I include it is Cole Swindell is a cowriter.

I was pissed "Beer In The Headlights" was not the next single, but as much as the concept of the roller coaster seems hackneyed, the more you hear this the more you get it, it sneaks up on you.

And what I love about the material Luke Bryan sings is he's not the triumphant all-knowing nothing who populates the pop charts. He's insecure, he's not sure, like the guys who've been tarred and feathered along with the bad boys, despite not deserving it.

BEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS

The URGENCY!

Cole Swindell is one of three writers on this, whereas he was one of only two on "Roller Coaster," but still...

This is so TIGHT!

The intro gives you no idea where it's going, it seems like pure country, and then the guitars SLASH and then Luke Bryan RAPS?

And then he wastes no time getting to the chorus!

"Sittin' right here out here in the middle of nowhere
I swear I've never seen, ever seen nothing like you anywhere
I got the key turned back, windows down, I'm turning it up and you're spinnin' around
Takin' a sip, swinging' your hips, girl you're looking so fine
With your beer in the headlights"

You can stand there in your skinny jeans and nerdy glasses and decry this but the truth is this is exactly what you're looking for, to be pulled up at the lake with your heart's desire as she's demonstrating her wares.

CONCLUSION

None of the above tracks is as great as Keith Urban's "Stupid Boy." Too many are unfinished. They've got the hook, but they don't add more, believing one cute line is enough, and it is to make a hit, but not to be remembered.

And mainstream Nashville country has no room for the young outlaws, the thread Steve Earle began and others have picked up and carried.

Then again, Steve Earle has never quite equaled "Guitar Town" himself.

Yup, every week there's a new alternative country rock/Americana hope. And they might have one great song, but the rest of their albums are not up to snuff. And if your voice is not radio-ready, your material must be, it must be an A.

Then again, things could be worse. All of these cuts have elements, they're listenable, and that's a START!

Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1rQCu9l


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