Music

A A A Comments By Chuck Eddy Tuesday, Feb 22 2005

Big news on the hillbilly front these days is that some a&r type at Koch is suddenly doing a really good job of luring me into not hating alt-country. More big news is that I finally realized that the reason Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill is so much more alive and less puritan than all those older albums I remember by him is that he and Ricky Van Shelton are two different people. And the final news is that Nashville Star alumnus Miranda Lambert's big-label debut opens with a track that screams "Screaming Blue Messiahs," and Lee Ann Womack's current hit sure does sound a whole lot like "Little Green Apples" by O.C. Smith (not to be confused, then or now, with O.B. McClinton or O.V. Wright).

He earns his mustache.

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BEAUREGARDE
Beauregarde
(Jackpot crack-pot '80s hard-assed garage-boogie reissue)
View Video Introduction to Beauregarde (Flash)

BILLY DON BURNS
Heroes, Friends & Other Troubled Souls
(IndieMafia outlaw alt-country album)

HACIENDA BROTHERS
Hacienda Brothers
(Koch border-accordioned blues-country album)
Download "Looking for Loneliness" (MP3)
Download "Mental Revenge" (MP3)
Download "No Time To Waste" (MP3)
Download "Walkin' On My Dreams" (MP3)

SHOOTER JENNINGS
Put the O Back in Country
(Universal South nepotistic country-rock album)
Download "Busted In Baylor County" (MP3)

MIRANDA LAMBERT
Kerosene
(Sony Nashville country-rock album)
View "Me And Charlie Talking" Video (QuickTime)
View "Me And Charlie Talking" Video (Windows Media)
View "Me And Charlie Talking" Video (RealVideo)

TIM MCGRAW
"Drugs or Jesus"
(Curb country single)

MARY PRANKSTER
Lemonade: Live
(Palace Coup cabaret-tinged swingabilly cowpunk album)
Download "Whistlestop" (MP3)
Download "New Tricks" (MP3)
Download "Arms Length" (MP3)

LEANN RIMES
This Woman
(Curb buxom-country album)
Stream "Nothin' Bout Love Makes Sense" (Real)
Stream "Nothin' Bout Love Makes Sense" (WMA)

SAWYER BROWN WITH ROBERT RANDOLPH
"Mission Temple Fireworks Stand"
(Curb gospelized country-rock single)
View "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand" Video

TURPENTINE BROTHERS
We Don't Care About Your Good Times
(Alive hard-assed garage-boogie album)
Download "We Don't Care About Your Good Times" (MP3) Download "Why Can't I Do" (MP3)

DALLAS WAYNE
I'm Your Biggest Fan
(Koch honky-tonk country album)
The Little Darlin' Sound of Should Have Been Hits
(Koch '60s-'80s honky-tonk country reissue compilation)
Stream "Crank the Hank" (WMA)
Stream "Tex Tosterone" (WMA)