Charles Christian’s Americana WHERE DO WE GO NOW? Last month I was having a little, OK quite a big, rant, about the tedious mimsywhimsy nature of a lot of modern so-called Americana music. But where do we go now (as Guns ‘n’ Roses once sang) about taking the genre forward and avoiding it becoming just another bland form of pop music?
Whole in My Bottle and At the Club on the two albums. Half of My Hometown is another stand out track.
Fortunately there’s no shortage of initiatives – and intriguingly it’s mainly women who are leading the charge at the moment.
Kelsea Ballerini
The Chicks We’re seeing several acts becoming more poppier and rockier, drifting away from the narrower constraints of Nashville-style country. In other words they are doing a Taylor Swift. A good example of this are the Chicks, previously the Dixie Chicks, who on their current album Gaslighter have transformed into an act willing to get both personal and political with their lyrics. Check out the tracks March March, Sleep at Night and of course the title track Gaslighter. Then there’s Kelsea Ballerini (not Chelsea Ballerina as my auto-correct insists on calling her) who has released what might be described as an uncut version of her most recent album kelsea. Called ballerini it presents the same songs in a rawer, less glitzy and more personal style that actually harks back to a simpler, rootsier musical era when it wasn’t necessary for everything to have a dance time signature. Compare and contrast Kelsea’s two different versions of There’s a
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The album liner notes, written by Kelsea herself, describe the big concept “kelsea is glitter. She’s bold, effervescent. Her dreams are boundless. She’s who I want to be. But ballerini – she’s emotional, vulnerable, soft. She’s who I am.” It sounds pretentious and could be a car crash but he emotional effect is similar to Neil Young’s original version of Like A Hurricane (released on his Stars ‘n Bars album in 1977) and the version he did for the MTV Unplugged series in 1993 which was rescored for harmonica and pump organ harmonium. The first is a celebration of freedom and wildness, while the second (performed almost 20 years after the original was written) is more of a lament for the lost liberty of youth. Next up Elizabeth Cook who until this year was just another blonde on the Nashville country music scene, singing wholesome country songs about apple pie while simultaneously having major personal problems and having to go into rehab. This year she is back with a new album Aftermath. The title was deliberately chosen to echo The Rolling Stones 1966 album of the same name, which is widely rated as their breakthrough album in terms of original compositions and musical experimentation*.
Rock and Blues International • October 2020
Elizabeth Cook For me, the stand-out track on Elizabeth’s album is Thick Georgia Woman with its driving guitar riff – and you really should check out the bat-shit crazy video, and not just for Elizabeth dancing in a clinging green sequinned jumpsuit reminiscent of 1970s David Bowie and Roxy Music. (*As for the Stones’ Aftermath, I increasingly find myself singing the chorus from Mother’s Little Helper, you know, the line that goes “What a drag it is getting older”.) My final pick this month for an act pushing the boundaries and fighting against being pigeon-holed as just another country act is Margo Price with her new album That’s How Rumors Get Started. A change of label and a change of location – recording in Los Angeles rather than Nashville – sees Margo taking her music in a new and exciting direction. In fact the title track is a homage to the Rumours era Fleetwood Mac. She describes the recording as a “fork in the road” situation that involved some bridges being burned. Musically she says she wanted a new sound and did not want to be
