Nashville Scene Country Critics' Poll 2012

JANUARY 26–FEBRUARY 1, 2012 I VOLUME 30 I NUMBER 52

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T N U O C ITICS ’ POLL CR

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Pistol Annies

COUNTRY MUSIC IN A YEAR RULED BY MIRANDA LAMBERT AND HER PISTOL ANNIES, ERIC CHURCH AND HAYES CARLL, COUNTRY MUSIC RETURNS TO TAKING ITSELF A LITTLE LESS SERIOUSLY

Photo: Randee St. Nicholas

CRITICS’ POLL

By Geoffrey Himes

H

ere at the Nashville Scene Election Center, as we were tabulating the votes for the 12th annual Country Music Critics’ Poll, it quickly became clear that this year’s contest was shaping up as a two-person race: Miranda Lambert the solo artist vs. Miranda Lambert the trio artist.

The two contenders offered strikingly different visions of country music to the poll’s 77 voting journalists.

The solo Lambert was campaigning on a broad-based platform designed to win over independents and moderates with a mix of Hot Country arena rock, alt-country poignancy and countrypolitan balladry. The trio Lambert, by contrast, appealed to her party’s base by focusing on a consistently traditional, stripped-down, twangy sound.

The result was something of a split decision. Pistol Annies, Lambert’s trio with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, won the Album of the Year voting with their debut effort, Hell on Heels, which established a comfortable lead over Lambert’s No. 2 album, Four the Record. The title track from the Pistol Annies’ album was voted the No. 2 single — edging Lambert’s No. 3 “Baggage Claim” but falling short of Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter’s No. 1 “You and Tequila.” Pistol Annies were voted the Best Group or Duo and the Best New Artist, but Lambert was named the Best

Female Vocalist, Best Songwriter and Artist of the Year.

Other big winners in the poll included Eric Church, Hayes Carll, Sunny Sweeney, Brad Paisley, The Civil Wars, Gillian Welch, Taylor Swift and the late Johnny Cash. But when you added her solo and trio votes together, Lambert (see sidebar on p. 14) dominated the Country Music Critics’ Poll this year more than any artist ever has — more than Jamey Johnson did in 2010 and 2008, more than the solo Lambert did in 2009 and 2007, even more than The Dixie Chicks did in 2006 and 2002.

And she did it not with the kind of middlebrow seriousness and sentimentality that win so many Oscars and Grammys but with unabashedly irreverent humor.

The title track from Hell on Heels, for example, rewrites Steve Martin’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as an all-female, all-hillbilly production. The three women — Lambert casting herself as Lone Star Annie, Monroe as Hippie Annie and Presley as Holler Annie — take turns bragging about how they fleeced one rich man after another with ingenious con jobs.

They present themselves as polar alternatives to the pious Carrie Underwoods and Lady Antebellums of the world by bellowing out on another song: “Who in the hell’s gonna pay these bills when one’s drinkin’, one’s smokin’, one’s takin’ pills?” Nearly as funny and irreverent is the solo Lambert, who delights in singing

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Eric Church

Hayes Carll

about a cross-dressing congressman, a promise-breaking, shoe-gazing fiancé and a ’65 muscle car packed with a whiskey bottle and loaded gun.

Humor has always been a constant in country music, but sometimes it gets submerged beneath goody-two-shoes earnestness, especially when Music Row is gripped by dreams of crossover success and dresses up as if going to church — and later the bank. This has been true in recent years as country radio has tried to position itself as a refuge for socially conservative, wellheeled, mall-shopping suburbanites.

Country playlists have been dominated lately by self-righteous, breast-beating songs where fathers and wives are implausibly perfect saints and where dirt roads and fishing ponds were a way of life threatened by heartless city slickers. (Who are these phantom enemies? How come I, who live amid urban liberals, have never met one of these back-road-haters in the flesh?)

But whenever country music becomes too pompous, too bloated, a hillbilly singer with a sharpened needle always comes along to pop the balloon. And it wasn’t just Lambert, Monroe and Presley who were wielding barbs this year. Eric Church (No. 1 Male Vocalist, No. 3 Live Act, No. 5 Songwriter, No. 6 Artist of the Year

The House That Miranda Built With two critically acclaimed albums out in 2011, Miranda Lambert

and No. 7 Single) popped a few overinflated assumptions himself with the drinking tales on his No. 3 album Chief. This isn’t the standard-issue fare of tough guys downing shots, but rather the sheepish confessions of a guy who messed up after “Jack Daniel’s kicked my ass again last night.”

Hayes Carll (No. 3 Songwriter, No. 5 Artist of the Year, No. 7 Male Vocalist) pushes the limits even further on his No. 4 album KMAG YOYO. Carll presents himself as a screw-up in the army (the title comes from Army slang: “Kiss my ass, guys, you’re on your own”), as a target of his girlfriend’s vicious insults and as a songwriter who “ain’t a poet, just a drunk with a pen.” On her No. 8 album, Concrete, Sunny Sweeney (No. 2 Female Vocalist) mixes alcohol and marriage with hilarious results, warning her inattentive husband that she’s going to “Drink Myself Single” and allow “The Old Me” out of the closet if he doesn’t watch out.

Lambert, Pistol Annies, Church, Carll and Sweeney weren’t the only impolite comedians in country music this year, but they were the best. Because they knew it takes more than a good joke to earn a laugh; the music has to be part of the setup. If you’re poking fun at human foibles, you’re sabotaging yourself if your backing music is polished within an inch of perfection, compressed to an unchanging blob of sound and processed with enough effects to kill any pretense of spontaneity. Unfortunately, many would-be funny country songs were burdened by such

Miranda Lambert

finds that integrity and success aren’t mutually exclusive

By Geoffrey Himes

“W

henever someone says ‘That’s not country enough’ or ‘That’s too country,’ I don’t pay them any mind,” Miranda Lambert insists. “Because all these songs are part of who I am.”

Miranda Lambert made a big splash in this year’s Country Music Critics Poll by embracing a very broad definition of country music. Her new solo album, Four the Record, has songs that sound a whole lot more like Lynyrd Skynyrd than Loretta Lynn and songs that sound a whole lot more like Loretta Lynn than Carrie Underwood.

Meanwhile, her trio project with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, Pistol Annies, found the sweet spot between Appalachian string bands and roadhouse honky-tonk on their debut album, Hell on Heels.

Somehow Lambert tied these different arrangements together with her voice and personality — a feisty, big-lunged soprano from small-town East Texas born in the ’80s and raised on Southern rock, Hot Country, feminism and guns. As a result, Lambert and Pistol Annies dominated the Critics Poll in every category they were eligible for.

“I’m a country girl,” Lambert explains, “who grew up in East Texas with Loretta, Hank, Jerry Jeff Walker, David Allan Coe, but also with Skynyrd and Creedence.

Merle Haggard is my No. 1 hero — in fact, I’m wearing a Merle cap right now — but Steve Earle was also a big influence on me. I loved the raw sound and the honesty of those early records like ‘Gettin’ Tough,’ ‘Copperhead Road’ and ‘Guitar Town.’ I loved the angst in his voice.

“It all comes out in my music. My dad [Rick Lambert] was a police officer and private eye but also a songwriter who sang on weekends. There was always music around me — either a record was on, or my dad was playing John Prine and Merle. That’s where I found my love for music.”

Her father’s love of singer-songwriters who played acoustic guitar and told stories is at the heart of every-

thing Lambert does, no matter how many loud guitars are piled on top. One of the best songs on her new album is “Dear Diamond,” one she wrote by herself. It’s sung by a woman to an inanimate object, a venerable device ever since Willie Nelson sang to his walls and George Jones sang to his Elvis Presley decanter and Fred Flintstone jelly glass. This woman is singing to her wedding ring, asking the sparkling jewel if she should confess her infidelity to the husband she still loves. It’s a daring gender reversal for such a traditional song form.

It’s not the only unexpected twist on the album.

When her mama lends some advice about coping with a broken heart, Lambert doesn’t gratefully accept the words of wisdom on “Mama’s Broken Heart,” but tells her to butt out. When another mother “starts pushing that wedding gown” on “Look at Miss Ohio,” the singer replies, “I wanna do right, but not right now.” When she describes a male U.S. senator who dresses up as a woman on Friday nights on “All Kinds of Kinds,” she doesn’t condemn the hypocrisy of the congressman but of the finger-pointers who can’t accept what the senator’s own wife can accept. All these songs contradict the script formulas of modern country radio.

“I’d rather have something that’s polarizing, that makes you go one way, than just be vanilla,” says Lambert. “I figure that’s how I got here — by not worrying about politics or offending someone. If I change now, I’m going to lose what got me here. And I don’t want to change. I’m a real artist — that’s who I am. I’m not trying to be edgy and weird, that’s just the way I am. What I say on records and onstage is who I am all the time.”

“Look at Miss Ohio” is the second song by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings that Lambert has recorded.

She’s never been shy about reaching beyond Music Row into the Americana fringes for a good song. The new album also boasts compositions by ex-Steeldriver Chris Stapleton and by Steve Earle’s wife Allison Moorer; previous albums have included songs by John Prine, Julie

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Photo: Randee St. Nicholas

Miller, Patty Griffin, Fred Eaglesmith and Susanna Clark.

But neither is Lambert shy about working with the Row’s most commercial writers, such as Phillip Coleman and Don Henry, who wrote “All Kinds of Kinds”; Tom Douglas and Allan Shamblin, who wrote Lambert’s biggest hit, “The House That Built Me”; Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, who became her triomates in Pistol Annies; and Blake Shelton, her husband. Lambert launched her career by threatening to burn down a cheating boyfriend’s house with a Keith Richards riff and “Kerosene” and by threatening to perforate an abusive boyfriend with “Gunpowder and Lead.” But ever since then, she has broadened her range till she can now accommodate roadhouse rockers, hillbilly weepers and quirky tangents all on the same album.

“On my first two records,” she recalls, “I don’t think people really got me — a hardcore few did, but a lot didn’t. It was as if everyone was wondering, ‘Is she scary or what?’ I was named ‘The Most Terrifying Woman of the Year’ in Esquire Magazine in 2008, because

I was singing about guns and burning down houses.

But that was just one of the many elements in me.

Revolution was the turning point, because it had hits like ‘The House That Built Me’ that didn’t have any of these scary things — it was just a good country song.

People finally saw that there was another side to me.

“Don’t get me wrong: I like selling a lot of records,” Lambert admits. “But there are other kinds of rewards too. Having hits and critical success are what everyone wants, but a lot of people only have one or the other. As long as you feel good about yourself, that’s what’s most important.

“Maybe some people who have a more commercial sound and know the business, that’s OK, but if you have something to say, you have to find a way to say it. I want to be as successful as possible, but I don’t want to change what I want to say, and how to say it to be there. Dwight Yoakam and The Dixie Chicks made great records with great integrity, so that’s a big role model for me.”

Data mining

Selected factoids from the 2011 Country Music Critics’ poll

By Geoffrey Himes

B

lake Shelton outdid his wife Miranda Lambert on Billboard’s 2011 charts. He enjoyed three No. 1 country singles (“Who Are You When I’m Not Looking,” “God Gave Me You” and “Honey Bee”) and a No. 1 album on the pop charts (Red River Blue). She managed just one No. 1 single (“Heart Like Mine”) and a No. 3 (“Baggage Claim”). Her solo album, Four the Record, was No. 1 on the country charts but only No. 3 pop. The Pistol Annies single “Hell on Heels” didn’t place on the country charts at all, and the album only went to No. 5 pop.

But Lambert out-polled her husband with the critics. In contrast to her category-topping victories, Shelton could only manage the No. 28 album, the No. 22 Single, the No. 4 Best Vocalist and the No. 9 Artist of the Year. On the other hand, Shelton had a songwriting credit and/or lead vocal on three of the poll’s top seven albums: those by Lambert, Pistol Annies and Brad Paisley.

Blake Shelton

Lambert wasn’t the only one to combine commercial and critical success. Several other artists who finished in the top 15 of Billboard’s Top [Selling] Country Artists also finished in the top 15 of the poll’s Artist of the Year category: Taylor Swift (No. 1 Billboard/No. 2 Poll), Jason Aldean (No. 2/No. 7), Brad Paisley (No. 9/No. 4), Zac Brown (No. 4/No. 10), Blake Shelton (No. 5/No. 9), Eric Church (No. 14/No. 6), Kenny Chesney (No. 8/No. 13) and Keith Urban (No. 11/No. 11).

Sunny Sweeney production values this year — and by not particularly clever punch lines.

Nothing is more excruciating than a song that tries to be funny but isn’t.

The five acts above, however, know how to match let-it-hang-out commentary to let-it-hang-out music. Even though their five albums were careful studio constructions, they held back on the overdubs, compression and effects enough that you could hear dynamic differences between quiet and loud — you could hear a separation of instruments, and you could hear small mistakes and spontaneous gestures. There’s an element of unpredictability in these performances — and that’s an element crucial to comedy.

Brad Paisley (No. 1 Live Act, No. 2 Male Vocalist, No. 4 Artist of the Year, No. 9 Songwriter, No. 12 Single) knows how to deliver a funny song, as he does with “Camouflage,” “Working on a Tan,” “Toothbrush” and “Don’t Drink the Water” on his No. 7 album This Is Country Music. But after his boldest, most ambitious release, 2009’s American Saturday Night, this new album seems like a well-crafted but utterly safe retrenchment to consolidate his commercial base. That’s a reasonable trade-off, but you can’t expect critical huzzahs for such a move.

No one could deliver a comic song better than Johnny Cash, whose mock seriousness made preposterous lyrics even funnier before he allowed a sly smile at the end. You can hear his dry chuckle beneath “Jackson” and “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal” on the previously unreleased live recordings that make up his 2011 release, Bootleg Vol. III: Live Around the World, voted the year’s No. 1 Reissue. You’d have thought that Columbia had already released every known Johnny Cash recording by now, but the label found 53 for this compilation and 57 more for Bootleg Vol. II: From Memphis to Hollywood, voted the No. 5 Reissue.

Comedy gets no respect from the Oscars and Grammys, but the Country Music Critics’ Poll voters know that a funny song can illuminate human behavior as effectively as a sad one. If the greatest art explores the gap between the way the world should be and the way it actually is — or the gap between the way we see ourselves and the way we actually are — a sad song can reveal how painful our frustrations can be, but a funny song can show how ridiculous our shortcomings and hypocrisies can be. Each approach gets at a different kind of truth.

One could argue that in an era of housing foreclosures, mass layoffs and callous attitudes, comedy is out of place, what we need is a sober exploration of all the pain and cruelty out there. One could argue back, however, that in an era when our ongoing crisis is confronted by sanctimonious prescriptions with no basis in reality — prescriptions that flourish not only on country radio but also on pop radio and talk radio — that comedy is needed more than ever. Think of Carll and Pistol Annies as the hillbilly-music equivalents of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Email editor@nashvillescene.com.

Some artists sold a lot of records without impressing the critics. Rascal Flatts (No. 7 on the Billboard list), Luke Bryan (No. 10), Scotty McCreery (No. 15), Thompson Square (No. 17), Chris Young (No. 18), Billy Currington (No. 18), Tim McGraw (No. 20), Sara Evans (No. 21), Darius Rucker (No. 22), Carrie Underwood (No. 24) and Jerrod Niemann (No. 25) did not receive a single vote between them for the poll’s Artist of the Year.

On the other hand, some artists impressed the critics without selling many records. Several of the top 15 finishers in the poll’s Artist of the Year category failed to show up in Billboard’s top 50: Pistol Annies (No. 3 in the poll), Hayes Carll (No. 5), The Civil Wars (No. 8), Gillian Welch (No. 13), Matraca Berg (No. 14) and Steve Earle (No. 15).

The poll’s top single was “You and Tequila,” the duet between Kenny Chesney (Jimmy Buffett as a hat act) and Grace Potter (Bette Midler as a jam-bander). This surprisingly understated version came from Chesney’s 2010 album, Hemingway’s Whiskey, but the original version, written by Deana Carter and Matraca Berg, appeared on Carter’s 2003 album, I’m Just a Girl. This comparison of the intoxicating/debilitating effects of love and alcohol is so cleverly constructed that you can’t tell if the lover is being compared to the bottle or the other way around. Berg, the construction expert, included the song on her first solo album in a dozen years, Dreaming the Field, which was voted the No. 10 album despite being released by the tiny Dualtone label.

Country music critics are becoming as amnesiac as country radio. Jamey Johnson, who dominated this poll in 2010 almost as thoroughly as Miranda Lambert did this year, virtually disappeared from the voting. True, Johnson didn’t release an album in 2011, but he did release a single and continued to tour. Yet he fell from No. 1 to No. 38 in the artist-of-the-year category, from No. 1 to No. 16 in the male-vocalist category, from No. 1 to No. 46 in the songwriting category, from No. 3 to No. 15 in the live-act category, and from No. 6 to No. 105 in the singles category.

Taylor Swift didn’t release a studio album in 2011 either, but she didn’t fade from the voters’ consciousness as Johnson did. The 22-year-old blonde was voted the No. 2 Artist of the Year, No. 2 Live Act, No. 4 Female Vocalist, No. 5 and No. 18 Single and No. 6 Songwriter.

The New York Times cited Lady Antebellum’s Own the Night as the country album of the year, but the 77 critics voting in this poll disagreed, naming it the 38th best country album of the year.

Gillian Welch Lydia Loveless garnered more votes as female vocalist of the year than Patty Loveless.

The only act to appear in both the poll’s top 30 best new albums and top 30 best reissues was the Drive-By Truckers, whose Go-Go Boots was the No. 26 album and whose Ugly Buildings, Whores, and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009 was the No. 8 reissue. They were also voted the No. 9 live act. One suspects they might have done better in all these categories if so many critics weren’t ambivalent about their status as true country artists.

Gillian Welch was represented as a singer and/or songwriter not only on her own album, The Harrow and the Harvest (No. 6 in the poll) but also on Miranda Lambert’s Four the Record (No. 2), The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams (No. 23) and The Decemberists’ The King Is Dead (No. 49).

Pistol Annies were voted the poll’s top New Act, but that was misleading, inasmuch as Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe, two-thirds of the group, had both released major-label albums before 2008. If we set the Annies aside, the top New Act was The Civil Wars, the Nashville indie duo that was also voted the No. 5 Album, No. 8 Artist of the Year and No. 8 Single.

The poll’s top six string-band albums were: Gillian Welch’s The Harrow and the Harvest (No. 6), Alison Krauss’ Paper Airplane (No. 13), Sarah Jarosz’s Follow Me Down (No. 27), Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ Rare Bird Alert. (No. 32), Suzy Bogguss’ American Folk Songbook (No. 35) and Chris Thile and Michael Daves’ Sleep With One Eye Open (No. 40).

The top eight albums from artists older than 50: Lucinda Williams’ Blessed (No. 9), Vince Gill’s Guitar Slinger (No. 11), Steve Earle’s I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (No. 14), Merle Haggard’s Working in Tennessee (No. 16), George Strait’s Here for a Good Time (No. 17), Connie Smith’s Long Line of Heartaches (No. 19), Emmylou Harris’ Hard Bargain (No. 21) and Buddy Miller’s Majestic Silver Strings (No. 24).

The top-ranked album by an African-American artist in this year’s poll was The Blind Boys of Alabama’s No. 45 Take the High Road. That’s much lower than The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ No. 7 Genuine Negro Jig in the 2010 poll or Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis’ No. 24 Two Men With the Blues in the 2008 poll, but better than the Darius Rucker’s No. 78 Learn To Live in the 2009 poll. For every step forward, one step backward.

The Results Albums 1. Pistol Annies, Hell on Heels (Columbia Nashville) 2. Miranda Lambert, Four the Record (RCA Nashville) 3. Eric Church, Chief (EMI Nashville) 4. Hayes Carll, KMAG YOYO (Lost Highway) 5. The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow (Sensibility) 6. Gillian Welch, The Harrow and the Harvest (Acony) 7. Brad Paisley, This Is Country Music (Arista Nashville) 8. Sunny Sweeney, Concrete (Republic Nashville) 9. Lucinda Williams, Blessed (Lost Highway) 10. Matraca Berg, The Dreaming Fields (Dualtone) 11. Vince Gill, Guitar Slinger (MCA Nashville) 12. Glen Campbell, Ghost on the Canvas (Surfdog) 13. Alison Krauss and Union Station, Paper Airplane (Rounder) 14. Steve Earle, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (New West) 15. The Dirt Drifters, This Is My Blood (Warner Bros.)

16. Merle Haggard, Working in Tennessee (Vanguard) 17. George Strait, Here for a Good Time (MCA Nashville) 18. Various artists, This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark (Music Road) 19. Connie Smith, Long Line of Heartaches (Sugar Hill) 20. Randy Montana, Randy Montana (Mercury) 21. Emmylou Harris, Hard Bargain (Nonesuch) 22. Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party (Broken Bow)

THIS YEAR’S VOTERS Don Allred, Brian T. Atkinson, Tim Basham, Michael Berick, Leslie Berman, Jim Bessman, Matt Bjorke, Jon Black, Blake Boldt, Bliss Bowen, Jon Bream, Allison Brock, David Cantwell, Robert Christgau, Carol Cooper, Kandia Crazy Horse, John T. Davis, Stephen M. Deusner, Kerry Dexter, Anthony Easton, Chuck Eddy, Dan Ferguson, Ben Foster, Jon Freeman, Sam Gazdziak, Holly George-Warren, Gary Graff, Joey Guerra, Vernell Hackett, Rob Harvilla, Dave Heaton, Will Hermes, Chris Herrington, Jewly Hight, Geoffrey Himes, Lorie Hollabaugh, Joseph Hudak, Edd Hurt, Josh Jackson, Karlie Justus, Jonathan Keefe, Hunter Kelly, Frank Kogan, Tom Lane, Randy Lewis, Alan Light, Jim Macnie, Lynne Margolis, Barry Mazor, Michael McCall, Dan Milliken, Fred Mills, Rick Mitchell, Ken Morton Jr., Stuart Munro, Ralph Novak, Meredith Ochs, Rob O’Connor, George A. Paul, Chris Riemenschneider, Sarah Rodman, Dave

23. Various artists, Hank Williams: The Lost Notebooks (Columbia/ Country Music Hall of Fame) 24. Buddy Miller, Majestic Silver Strings (New West) 25. Toby Keith, Clancy’s Tavern (Showdog/Universal) 26. The Drive-By Truckers, The Go-Go Boots (ATO) 27. Sarah Jarosz, Follow Me Down (Sugar Hill) 28. Blake Shelton, Red River Blue (Warner Bros.)

29. Chris Young, Neon (RCA) 30. Jason Boland, Rancho Alto (Apex)

Singles 1. Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter, “You and Tequila” (Blue Chair/BNA) 2. Pistol Annies, “Hell on Heels” (Columbia) 3. Miranda Lambert, “Baggage Claim” (RCA) 4. Ronnie Dunn, “Cost of Livin’ ” (Arista) 5. Taylor Swift, “Mean” (Big Machine) 6. Zac Brown Band, “Colder Weather” (Southern Ground) 7. Eric Church, “Homeboy” (EMI Nashville) 8. The Civil Wars, “Barton Hollow” (Sensibility) 9. Miranda Lambert, “Heart Like Mine” (RCA) 10. Jason Aldean, “Dirt Road Anthem” (Broken Bow) 11. Chris Young, “Tomorrow” (RCA) 12. Brad Paisley, “This Is Country Music” (Arista) 13. Sunny Sweeney, “From a Table Away” (Mercury Nashville) 14. George Strait, “Here for a Good Time” (MCA Nashville) 15. Hayes Carll, “KMAG YOYO” (Lost Highway) 16. Dierks Bentley, “Home” (Capitol Nashville) 17. Toby Keith, “Red Solo Cup” (Showdog/Universal) 18. Taylor Swift, “Sparks Fly” (Big Machine) 19. (tie) Keith Urban, “Without You” (Capitol Nashville) 19. (tie) Sara Evans: “A Little Bit Stronger” (RCA)

Reissues 1. Johnny Cash, Bootleg III: Live Around the World (Columbia/Legacy) 2. Mickey Newbury, An American Trilogy (Saint Cecilia Knows/Mountain Heart) 3. Various artists, The Bristol Sessions 1927-1928: The Big Bang of Country Royko, Lloyd Sachs, Tara Seetharam, Ed Shane, Sylvie Simmons, Scott Stem, Rob Tannenbaum, Juli Thanki, Ken Tucker, Ellis Widner, C.M. Wilcox, Kent Wolgamott, Mikael Wood, Ron Wynn, Greg Yost, Lee Zimmerman.

OUR VOTERS WROTE FOR THE FOLLOWING OUTLETS IN 2011 ABC Radio, All Things Considered, American Profile, American Songwriter, American Way, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, ARTicles, Associated Press, Austin American-Statesman, Austin Man, Austin Woman, Austin Monthly, AwaitingTheFlood.com, Backstreets, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore, Barnes & Noble Review, Best in Texas, Big Takeover, Billboard, Bluegrass Unlimited, Blurt, TheBoot.com, Boston Globe, Burnside Writers Collective, Country California, The Californian, Canadian Cowboy Country, CBS Watch, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Scene, CMA Close Up, Country

Music (Bear Family) 4. The Louvin Brothers, Satan Is Real/ Handpicked Songs (Light in the Attic) 5. Johnny Cash, From Memphis to Hollywood (Columbia/Legacy) 6. Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Tell My Sister (Nonesuch) 7. Buck Owens, Bound for Bakersfield 1953-1956: The Complete PreCapitol Collection (Rock Beat) 8. The Drive-By Truckers, Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009 (ATO) 9. Hank Williams, The Legend Begins: Rare and Unreleased Recordings (Time-Life) 10. Loretta Lynn, Your Squaw Is on the Warpath/Fist City (Raven)

Male Vocalists 1. Eric Church 2. Brad Paisley 3. George Strait 4. Blake Shelton 5. Ronnie Dunn 6. Chris Young 7. Hayes Carll 8. Vince Gill 9. Jason Aldean 10. Dierks Bentley

Female Vocalists 1. Miranda Lambert 2. Sunny Sweeney 3. Alison Krauss 4. Taylor Swift 5. Gillian Welch 6. Connie Smith 7. Martina McBride 8. Emmylou Harris 9. Sara Evans 10. (tie) Jennifer Nettles 10. (tie) LeAnn Rimes

Live Acts 1. Brad Paisley 2. Taylor Swift 3. Eric Church 4. Miranda Lambert 5. Zac Brown 6. Keith Urban 7. Kenny Chesney Chart Talk, CountryMusicHallofFame.com, CountryMusicPride.com, Country Standard Time, Country Universe, Country Weekly, Culturemap.com, Desert Charity News, Dish, Downbeat, Emusic.com, Engine145.com, Entertainment Weekly, ErasingClouds.com, Examiner. com, Expert Witness, Freelance Mentalists, Fretboard Journal, Fresh Air, Fuse TV, Georgia Music, Goldmine, Guitar World, Hearsay Now, Houston Chronicle, Houston, Houston Press, Independent Weekly, Irish Fireside, iTunes, Jambalaya News, Jazzespress.com, Jazziz, Jazz Times, Kansas City Star, Lincoln Journal Star, Lone Star Music, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Weekly, Maverick Country, Memphis Flyer, Minneapolis Star Tribune, M: Music And Musicians, Mojo, More, MSN.com, MTV Hive, Music Blog, MusicFest, Music Connection, Music Row, Nashville Arts, Nashville Scene, National Geographic Traveler, National Public Radio, Nerve, New Times, The New York Times, 9513.com, NoDepression.

8. Jason Aldean 9. The Drive-By Truckers 10. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings

Songwriters 1. Miranda Lambert 2. Matraca Berg 3. Hayes Carll 4. Gillian Welch 5. Eric Church 6. Taylor Swift 7. Guy Clark 8. Lori McKenna 9. (tie) Brad Paisley 9. (tie) Angaleena Presley

Duos and Groups 1. Pistol Annies 2. The Civil Wars 3. The Band Perry 4. Zac Brown Band 5. Alison Krauss & Union Station 6. Sugarland 7. Lady Antebellum 8. Little Big Town 9. (tie) Chris Thile & Michael Daves 9. (tie) Thompson Square 9. (tie) Eli Young Band

New Acts 1. Pistol Annies 2. The Civil Wars 3. Randy Montana 4. Thompson Square 5. Sunny Sweeney

Artists of the Year 1. Miranda Lambert 2. Taylor Swift 3. Pistol Annies 4. Brad Paisley 5. Hayes Carll 6. Eric Church 7. Jason Aldean 8. The Civil Wars 9. Blake Shelton 10. Zac Brown Band

com, North County Times, NPR Music, Nylon, Oakland Press/Journal Register, OffBeat, The 1-to-10 Country Music Review, Orange County Register, Pasadena Weekly, Paste, Penguin Eggs, People, Perceptive Travel, Pitchfork, Playboy, PopMatters.com, Providence Phoenix, Recreation News, Relix, Reuters, Revolver, Rhapsody, Richmond Style Weekly, Rock & Roll &, RocksBackPages.com, RockPaperPhoto.com, Rolling Stone, RoughStock.com, Salon.com, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Shuffle, Singles Jukebox, Sirius/XM Radio, 614, Slant, Songwriter’s Market, Sound and Vision, Southern Rhode Island Newspapers, Spin, Stereophile, Stomp and Stammer, Strings, Tennessee Tribune, Texas Music, Texas Music Chart, That Nashville Sound, Time Out New York, A Traveler’s Library, TV Guide, The Village Voice, VEVO, The Wall Street Journal, Washington City Paper, The Washington Post, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Yahoo.com.

The comments The State of Country Music There’s been a lot of talk about the rockradio format taking a nosedive, but I’m hearing that ultra-masculine, modern hard rock sound drifting over to the country-radio format, above and beyond the Def Leppardstyle production that’s been embraced within the genre the past several years. As exhibit No. 1, I offer Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party, stacked with layer upon layer of muscular electric guitars, which became this year’s CMA Album of the Year. My guess is we haven’t heard the last of this by a long shot, because it’s found a lot of fans. But like Creed or Nickelback — rock bands who deliver blunt, anthemic force and care little for musical or lyrical cleverness — it’s not the sort of thing that’ll do much for critics. —Jewly Hight Nashville’s worst ongoing trend: songs that consist almost entirely of “Here’s how country I am: I fish and I drive a truck and I drink plenty of beer and whiskey, usually in bars.” Identity isn’t a checklist, guys. And it is almost always the guys — as Rosanne Cash sang years ago, the women are smarter. It’s as if rockers sang exclusively about “Here’s how punk I am: I know only three chords and wear wallet chains.” —Rob Tannenbaum Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood and the Zac Brown Band are no doubt wonderful people, but they aren’t my idea of country music. Likewise, a Top 50 survey (Billboard’s) where Taylor Swift is No. 1, Martina McBride is No. 40, and Merle Haggard, George Jones, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton are not even there, seems strange to me. While I couldn’t be happier from a political standpoint about the warm reception given Darius Rucker, I doubt he’s what Big Al Downing, O.B. McClinton or Stoney Edwards had in mind when they were stumping for increased black inclusion in country circles. (I know Charley Pride agrees with that as well.) —Ron Wynn Beyond a great record by Pistol Annies and a near-great record by Pistol Annies pistol Miranda Lambert, country music in 2011 was pretty banal. I enjoyed Randy Montana’s self-titled full-length for its verve and pop smarts, but it really wasn’t a country record in any sense but the thematic — the young man struggling to find his place in a world bereft of heroism. OK, that was a pretty good theme for a so-called country singer to explore in 2011, which saw the entire concept of American unity and polity go ever farther down the drain than you would have ever imagined. —Edd Hurt I’m starting to accept the fact that I am no longer part of the desirable demographic for mainstream country music, and what’s more, that mainstream country music doesn’t really want me listening to it anymore. After all, I didn’t grow up in a holler, the sticks, the boondocks or a small town. I grew up in Chi-

cago with 3 million of my nearest and dearest friends. I didn’t spend my youth fishin’ on a creek bank, drinkin’ moonshine on a pickup truck tailgate or goin’ skinny dippin’ with the preacher’s daughter. Instead, me and my friends played at the Aladdin’s Castle video arcade at the nearby mall. —Sam Gazdziak As expected, the country radio listening experience mostly continued to be one big yawn in 2011. While the fiercely un-country sound of the material has been a common complaint, the greater loss has been the ongoing quality slump in lyrical material. There was a time when it seemed country music had more to say than just about any other genre. Now, having been largely taken over by inoffensive message-free schlock, mainstream country music has mostly become music that is about absolutely nothing. —Ben Foster A glance at the syllabus for the online course Country Music Blogging 101: Week One: Creative Nicknames for Justin Moore, Gary LeVox and Brantley Gilbert.

Week Two: 50 Ways to Work Emmylou Harris into Album Reviews.

Week Three: The Great Rating Debate: Stars, Thumbs or Scales?

For Final Exams, students must develop an Outlaw-Meter comparing and contrasting Jamey Johnson, Eric Church and Hank III. Required materials: laptop, iPod, email address set up specifically for comments sections and a cautious respect for the loyalty of Carrie Underwood fans.

—Karlie Justus

The Miranda Miracle The best country song of the year combined drugs, alcohol, marital unrest and some insurance fraud for good measure. Standard (or, perhaps more precisely, stereotypical) country fare, one could argue — except for the fact that it appeared on a mainstream album by three females that topped the charts as a digital-only release. The Pistol Annies’ drab and depressingly gorgeous “Housewife’s Prayer” took a page out of the Loretta Lynn playbook, writing and singing about the grim and gritty side of marriage and motherhood. In heels, no less. —Karlie Justus

That the Pistol Annies debut surpassed Miranda Lambert’s fourth solo record was no big surprise (the title warned us to lower our expectations), but the vast disparity between the two albums certainly was. She may share the spotlight with two friends, but Lambert sounds hungry as a Pistol Annie. As a solo artist, she has lost some of the fire that distinguished her early albums and sounds almost content to simply release product. It’s good product, but there’s more of her in one Annies song than in all of Four the Record put together. —Stephen Deusner More cynical sorts might roll their eyes now that the various acronym organizations have begun to shower Miranda Lambert with honors. Others will speculate that her marriage to Blake Shelton has made her soft.

It’s clear, though, that commercial success and conjugal bliss haven’t spoilt her punk attitude. From the pulp-fiction angst of “Mama’s Broken Heart” to the angry funk of “Baggage Claim,” Four the Record finds Lambert expressing a young person’s aches and pains in more grown-up ways. —Blake Boldt

The Church of Country Music From first track “Creepin’ ” to closer “Over When It’s Over,” Eric Church’s Chief is darn near flawless. Rarely does an album begin and end as strongly as this one — and catch me so fully upon first listen. To each line he sings, he adds tics and pops, eccentric signatures that could belong to no one else. From the foot stomp to the tongue wag, Eric may have his share of onstage shtick, but isn’t that what makes a great showman? There’s no boot-gazing during a Church sermon. —Joe Hudak At first I thought Eric Church’s “Homeboy” was either borderline bigoted or borderline brilliant. I’m going with the latter, which isn’t to say the former isn’t

still true. Playing, as they say, the race card even while avowing its color-blindness like a mantra? Yeah, this is country music all right. So is Church’s tempering of his provincial and prejudicial sneering with armaround-the-shoulder, big-brother concern for prodigal sons and parents not long for this world. Especially that. —David Cantwell What was once pathos and poetry in the insecurities of country music now feels rote and mean. But Eric Church isn’t rote and mean, even though his ideas are as retrogressive as the rest. The home he’s extolling, that didn’t feel like home to the homeboy brother, is at risk, and he knows it. —Frank Kogan I’m still getting hate mail over two pans of very different acts, but despite the abuse, I stand by both reviews: Mumford and Sons are still the most insufferable act ever to be categorized as Americana, and Church’s “Homeboy” single flirts uncomfortably with racial profiling. Neither is exactly malignant within the genre, but both are ham-handed and thickheaded, carelessly embracing the worst impulses of their respective genres. —Stephen Deusner Eric Church’s “Homeboy” made me feel uncomfortable the first time I heard it, because I could not quite figure out the racial politics, I was worried that Church was asking for the kid not to be black. I think that he is asking him not to be a thug, not to be taken in with a media constructed AfricanAmerican identity that it is problematic for white kids to adopt. I was also worried that it underestimated how dull, oppressive, and frustrating small-town life is for people who are a little more ambitious — but that may be me being from a small town, and not being able to make it there. After I got over all that, it dawned on me how well-constructed the song was — the three small anecdotes over a lifetime does not forecast the last verse, and the last verse will break your heart. It’s a smart song, and one that reflects issues of family, class and location that country has been wrestling with this year. —Joe Hudak

Americana Like Alison Krauss, The Civil Wars are an act that somehow grabbed the attention of mainstream country listeners and seem to be rising on the strength of their music rather than the marketing machine.

Maybe country is once again embracing outsider acts like it did in the ’80s, when the Steve Earlecoined “great credibility scare” occurred, allowing artists like Earle, k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett to slip through.

Interestingly, I had a friend who watched the

The success of Miranda Lambert’s scrappy Pistol Annies side project — which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart on the basis of digital sales alone — shows that country fans are more willing than ever to go online in search of music that moves them.

In an extraordinarily underwhelming year for mainstream country radio, that’s good news for fans and performers alike. —C.M. Wilcox Miranda Lambert’s fingerprints are all over my lists. She released not just one, but two really good and traditionally country albums in 2011, as well as a great single (“Heart Like Mine”) from her previous album.

Her records have plenty of left-field rock and indie-snob-friendly touches, to be sure, but if you were to play them for someone who had never heard of her and ask what kind of music it was, the answer would invariably be “country.” —Jon Freeman

The Civil Wars Photo: Eric England

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BIRCH and Buddy Miller. Hey, if these artists are your beacons of quality as you pit Americana against country music, all I can say is that you live in a world of diminished expectations. —Edd Hurt

Lady Antebellum Austin City Limits Americana awards show and said he wished he’d heard The Civil Wars before seeing them. Something about their look struck him as too slick. Which raises the question: Can you be commercial without the trappings? —Lynne Margolis Not only would I consider Steve Earle a country musician, I would consider him one of the premier country musicians of our age.

In terms of music, instrumentation, lyrical conventions and subject matter, Earle is clearly a country artist. At the end of the day, the argument to exclude Earle from the country fold seems to rest not on anything artistic but on the idea that country music has only one “editorial position” — one with no room for Earle’s left-wing feistiness. That is a poor way to define a genre. —Jon Black Speaking of Americana music, what is wrong with the Grammy voters? I’m not even talking about the Linda Chorney nomination controversy. I’m referring to the fact that the Americana category has become the de facto destination for old rock ’n’ rollers. True, four out of the five nominees in the category released great music, but there is no nominee under 50 years old. The current generation of Americana singers, like Hayes Carll, Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell, the Drive-By Truckers, The Avett Brothers and many others deserve some notice, too. I wish I knew how they can be marketed to a mainstream audience and gain some much-needed name recognition. The Americana genre is so vibrant, with so many talented singers and songwriters, and it remains the music industry’s best-kept secret. —Sam Gazdziak What did interest me this year, despite my long-held bemusement at the genre itself, was Americana. Todd Snider’s live record made it into my top 10 album list, because here’s a pot-smoking, liberal guy who writes about the blue-collar, hipster underclass with more humor and smarts than just about any country-as-country songwriter I can think of. And he lives in Nashville. I also enjoyed and admired Hayes Carll’s latest, which takes the conventions of the overrated Townes Van Zandt and turns them into something close to what Snider does so well.

But there were also ambitious but quite mediocre records by Tom Russell, Steve Earle

My picks for best songs and albums of 2011 include only two alt-country acts: Hayes Carll and Lydia Loveless.

I’ve had far more enjoyment out of Nashville music lately than antiNashville music, largely because the latter prioritizes authenticity over wit or spunk or glorious background vocals. I have a friend who’s so boring, my nickname for him is The Jayhawks. —Rob Tannenbaum While many acclaimed artists in the big tent Americana format are undoubtedly more twangy than Taylor Swift, you get the feeling most of them don’t really want to be called “country” or associated with the mainstream in any way. Which I get. Country radio has too many cliché songs about pickups and dirt roads (“Dirt Road Anthem” being the lone great exception) and too many sentimental ballads about being young. Sometimes substance is sacrificed for a hook (cf.

Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)”). Then there’s Toby Keith’s “Red Solo Cup,” which manages to be both stupid AND brilliant. —Jon Freeman

on the corporate fat cats. As he completes yet another job application, the narrator realizes his fate but refuses to admit defeat.

Along those lines, a young woman dreams of far-off redemption on Pistol Annies’ “Lemon Drop.” Taking stock of her personal effects — a broken-down car, dirty second-hand clothes — she tries her best to keep on the sunny side. Her hopeful sermon ends with a quiet amen: “I know there are better days ahead,” she sings with a shrug. —Blake Boldt When Alabama sang “40 Hour Week (For a Livin’),” a salute to the low-wage worker, their message was one shared by many Americans. Same goes for Dolly Parton’s “9-to-5,” an upbeat rant against the almighty executive and his greedy ways. But in this day and age, the workweek and workday have gotten longer. A few of this year’s hit singles, including Dierks Bentley’s “Am I the Only One” and Eric Church’s “Drink in My Hand” failed to reflect that shift in reality.

The phrase “It’s finally Friday!” means precious little when you’re punching the clock on Saturday and Sunday, too. —Blake Boldt

For blue-collar workers, bound to time clocks and bank notices, country music has often served as a healing salve. No other genre has offered such a rich chronicle of the cash-poor and their everyday labor.

My two favorite performances of the year explored those often grave experiences. A gritty snapshot of the working class, Ronnie Dunn’s spare and unflinching “Cost of Livin’ ” considers uncomfortable truths that are lost

Country radio has long been where old genres go to die. Or, put another way, it’s where the blues, swing, Tin Pan Alley, rock ’n’ roll, soul, Southern rock, arena rock, singer-songwriter pop and [insert next former Next Big Thing here] can go to enjoy a much deserved afterlife. Country music, in other words, was into recycling way before recycling was cool. With that in mind, I thought I’d save myself some time and submit my 2020 ballot for the Top Country Singles right now: 5. “It’s Gettin’ Country, Y’allz (Take off Ya Overallz)” by Nelly (featuring Hank Williams Jr.) from the album Country Grammar, III 4. “I Will Always Love You”

by Adele from the album 30 3. “Rolling in the Deep” by Miranda Lambert with Eminem and The K-Pop All-Stars (live performance from Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show) 2. “If We Make It through December”

by Bruce Springsteen from the album Born To Work: The Merle Haggard Sessions (available in special collectors “compact disc” edition from Hatch Print) 1. “The More Things Change”

by George Strait from the album The More Things Change —David Cantwell

Country, Politics and Recession In the wrong mood, Brad Paisley’s “This Is Country Music” can find me disagreeing with nearly every line. “Is there anyone who still has pride in the memory of those who died defending the old red, white and blue?” Paisley asks, patting himself and his audience on the back as he sets upon the flimsiest country straw man since Daryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten?” Similarly, “[T]elling folks that Jesus is the answer can rub ’em wrong” is hardly the rebel stance Paisley thinks it is, not in this incessantly proclaimed Christian nation, and anyway it’s ain’t the “Jesus” that rubs people wrong so much as the “the.” But I’ll take it as proof that “This Is Country Music” is doing something right if it can have me yelling at the radio — hey, give or take a tractor reference, this is all pop music — even as I’m singing along. And this is the way it’s ever been, or at least the way it’s been since 9/11, when mainstream Nashville committed itself to identity politics more or less full time. —David Cantwell

you, Kenny Chesney. And you, Toby Keith.) —Lynne Margolis

Todd Snider Photo: Señor McGuire

What Is Country Music?

What is country music? Every year I ponder this question, and every year, I’m a little conflicted about what to answer. Yes, I believe Lady Antebellum, The Band Perry and similar artists are country. But do I believe that because they show up on the CMA Awards and on the country charts, or because of their music? I’m afraid it’s as much because of the marketing as anything else. That is not to say I don’t respect these other acts; I think Taylor Swift has got it goin’ on — or at least, has her heart in the right place. But like Lady Gaga, she’s most impressive when she’s sitting alone in front of a piano, pouring her heart out with that fabulous voice. If we strip the glitz from any of the mainstream country acts, would they impress us as much?

Some, yes. Others, no way. (I’m lookin’ at

Put 10 music critics in a room, ask them to define “country music,” and you will get 11 different answers. Whether we like to admit it or not, music is as deeply personal an experience for critics as it is for casual listeners. Each of us will not only define country differently, we will also apply those definitions differently.

Therefore, spilling ink over whether this or that artist is or isn’t country is not only silly, it is a red herring from our real mission of helping our readers make informed choices about whether or not a particular album or artist will appeal to their individual tastes. At the same time, it would not in a million years occur to me to not consider acts like Lady Antebellum, The Band Perry and Thompson Square as country. If anything, they sound so mainstream-pop to me that I tend to conceive of them as guilty pleasures. —Jon Black As a child I heard the same things in country music as blues and R&B/soul, though certainly presented in vastly different approaches. Each featured distinctive, impassioned performances that underlined and punctuated emphatic tales of triumph or loss.

That’s remained my litmus test for whether something was truly country. If it didn’t have the expressiveness and soulful wail, it didn’t matter how many fiddles or banjos were in the arrangement or how much twang in the vocal. But as country’s outreach and appeal expanded over the decades, it has increasingly downplayed those elements. —Ron Wynn Email editor@nashvillescene.com.