ILM just ran a Poll Of Many Colors, women in country music: best or favorite artists, albums, tracks. I only did tracks. Poll results will probably start next Friday, possibly with a new thread.

This is what I wrote, with a few tweaks, and I've added embeds. The person making the Spotify playlist was kind enough to post what he could:

I'm late to ( Read more... )

Posted these on Rolling Country:

POST ONE:
Jiyoon and Gayoon of the great K-pop girl group 4minute are billing themselves as 2YOON and have just released a country-dance-pop (or something) EP called Harvest Moon [EDIT: But see below]. I'll report back when I hear it. In the meantime, there's the single, "24/7," which subdee calls a mess - ( Read more... )

Just posted this on Rolling Country:

I don't think we've talked much about Korean country music - there not being much Korean country music to talk about. Han Myeong Suk's "The Boy In The Yellow Shirt" (1961) uses a self-consciously old-timey string band arrangement, though with a more aggressive '60s rhythm. Melody and singing are - I don't know ( Read more... )

Billboard has a squib today, describing its new way of computing the Country Songs chart. The chart used to be airplay alone, as compiled by Nielson; now it includes streams and downloads (though I presume there's no way to tell where and whom the downloads are coming from - that is, whether they're coming from the country audience or not). Also: " ( Read more... )

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Just posted this on Rolling Country about the Alaina-Scotty final on AI:


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Here's my ballot for the Nashville Scene's Country Critics Poll ( Read more... )

In regard to Wednesday's post about Dottie West: I should point out that pre-makeover Dottie is already going pop (the country-pop of Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis, etc.), and whatever the lyrics and dress and placid instrumentation tell us about her in "Country Girl," there is a pop-jazz sense of rhythmic (dis)location in her singing, and at the ( Read more... )

Why country singers want to go pop.

Dottie West 1968 ("I Was Born A Country Girl"):

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Dottie West 1979:

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[EDIT: Well, YouTube killed the clip: It might have been a live version of "You Pick Me Up (And Put Me Down)" with her look at its most disco. Anyway, here's "A Lesson In Leavin'" from probably about a year later.

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And here's a link to a ( Read more... )

Sunny Sweeney had an album out several years ago that I've yet to hear but that Don and Xhuxk praise, and has a single now that reminds me in sound and melody (though not at all in lyrics or arrangement) of Vanessa Carlton's excellent "Spring Street."

Click to view

What I wrote on Rolling Country: "Woman in the shadows realizes she's stuck being the other ( Read more... )