Lady Antebellum "Lady Antebellum" (Capitol-Nashville, 2008)
Tragically bad, prefab pop-country, with alternating male/female vocals. Like their predecessors, Sugarland, they seem at least as equally rooted in rock and pop as they are in country (or what passes for country these days...) There are also some tepid nods towards some watered-down version of old-school R&B... I can't help thinking of Hall & Oates or John Mellencamp... But that's really giving these guys way too much credit. This is not worth listening to. Although the band is coed, gal singer Hillary Scott is generally overshadowed by the dude, Charles Kelley, and his vibe doesn't do much for me. They were wildly popular, of course, scoring several #1 hits and winning all kinds of industry awards. For a twangfan, though, this music is simply dreadful.

Lady Antebellum "Need You Now" (Capitol-Nashville, 2010)
Tragically worse than before, the band delves deeper into what seems to be a frightfully sincere love of really, really bad pop music. Hillary Scott forcefully comes into center stage, and with her increased exposure reveals herself to have even worse taste in pop music than what we'd heard before -- the worst, most vapid fake-soul melodrama, etc., etc. It's really horrifying -- while their first album wasn't one you'd want to waste time on, this one is sheer torture. Blech. I'll pass.

Lady Antebellum "Own The Night" (Capitol, 2011)

Miranda Lambert "Kerosene" (Sony, 2005)
(Produced by Frank Liddell & Mike Wrucke)
Newcomer Miranda Lambert was a finalist on the Nashville Star talent show. But since I don't get cable, I can't hold that against her. All I've got to go by is the album in front of me, and it's pretty damn good. Lambert has a distictive, plaintive voice that makes up in sincerity and emotional directness what it lacks in richness of tone. She also has an unusual repertoire of seemingly awkward lyrics wed to sleek-yet-twangy tunes... Sound familiar? It should: listening to Lambert's debut is a bit like listening to a theoretical solo album by Nathalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. And I don't mean that as a slam -- hardly! I like the 'Chicks a lot, and I think there's plenty of room in the Country charts for like-minded gals, particularly when they pen memorable material like the songs on this album. Several melodies echoed around in my head on the days that I was listening to this disc, and yet these tunes -- all but one of which was written or co-written by Lambert -- have little of the overblown, over-the-top pop feel of contemporary Nashville studio music. There are a few raspy, Sheryl Crow-ish blues/rock touches that could've been left out, but other than that, I gotta say I'm impressed. And I'm looking forward to her next album!

Miranda Lambert "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (Sony, 2007)
(Produced by Frank Liddell & Mike Wrucke)
First-rate top country... On the opening tracks, Lambert lays it on pretty thick with the bad-gal/outlaw schtick... On "Gunpowder And Lead," she follows the Dixie Chicks' example of glorifying murder as a solution to domestic violence: Lambert's character sits at home in the dark, a shotgun on her lap just waiting for Mr. Wrong to come back, so she can get to the gunshot heard at the end of the track... This is followed with the similarly rowdy, but funny "Dry Town" about the arcane liquor laws of the Midwest and South (and, hey, it's written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings! Nice indie roots, there, gal!) From there on out we are treated to a wealth of original tunes written or co-written by Ms. Lambert, all of them impressive, in various ways. "Famous In A Small Town" is a great tune about life inside a goldfish bowl, while the title track brings us back to the Gretchen Wilson-esque tough-girl routine... but it's also a funny song, and not just a gimmick. Then come some slow, sad ballads, and the force of personality that propelled us through her rowdy songs suddenly gives way to some genuine interpretive powers: this gal really can sing country, when you take the neo-Southern rock guitars out of the mix! I'm not fond of a few tunes -- "Down" and "Getting Ready" are real clunkers -- but overall this is a very impressive record. Lambert emerges as a potent songwriter (as well as an anomaly in the Nashville machine, where most singers are interpreters first, songwriters second...) and with this batch of self-penned smashes, Miranda firmly establishes herself as a force to be reckoned with. Plus, her cover of Susannah Clark's "Easy From Now On" is a nice way to close the album... Hey, I'm sold!

Miranda Lambert "Revolution" (Sony/Columbia Nashville, 2009)

Miranda Lambert "Four The Record" (Sony, 2011)

Cristy Lane - see artist discography

k. d. lang - see artist discography

Blaine Larsen "In My High School" (Giantkiller, 2004)
WOW. Mark my words, this guy -- or should I say, this kid -- is going to be huge. Like, super-duper, Kenny Chesney-Tim McGraw-Alan Jackson mega-huge. Blaine Larsen, an eighteen-year old newcomer from an old logging town in Washington state, has a tremendous voice, with perfect vocal control, and a strong command of the musical conventions and sentimental lyrical formulae of modern neotrad country. I put this disc into my player not knowing what to expect and was, quite simply, totally blown away. I've heard a lot of independently produced country records which aim at recreating the sound that the fats cats in Music City use to put a lock on the Top 40, and usually these underfunded efforts fall well short of the mark... This is the first one I've heard that really had no flaws -- Larsen's voice is tremendous, and the simple, strong studio accompaniment is right there to back him up. Plus, he writes most of his material, and the songs are pretty darn good. You might never have heard of this guy, but if you like those deep-voiced, sensitive hat act guys who are on TV and the top of the Billboard charts, then you should buy this record and enjoy the fact that you just got in on the ground floor. I think he's going to be huge.

Blaine Larsen "Off To Join The World" (BNA, 2005)
The first time I heard Blaine Larsen sing, I thought, Dang! This kid's got the goods! That was about a year ago, when his name came up as a customer recommendation on Amazon... I was working as an online Country Music Director, so I got ahold of Larsen's independently-released debut album and was pretty blown away... I mean, there is a whole substrata of country music that practically nobody ever hears, of commercially-inclined, indie-label folks who are nowhere near the Nashville power structure, but who are also not aligned with the twangier-than-thou, alt-country scene... These are people who want to make it big, but probably never will, and usually their demo tape-y releases fall pretty short of the mark. Blaine Larsen was the first of these would-be chart stars who simply blew me away, and the only one who I knew from the instant I heard him sing that he was gonna be a star. To begin with, he's got an amazing voice, more rich, confident and resonant than any eighteen year old has got a right to sound. Then, there's his material, and his allegiance to rootsy-sounding, rumbling country. Oh, sure, he's very commercial sounding, but he's got real roots, too, sort of like Alan Jackson or Randy Travis... I played several songs off the album in a variety of radio formats and they all did really well... So, here it is a year later and sure enough, Larsen is blowing through the roof and sailing up the charts. This album is mostly a reprise of the original record, In My High School, with one new tune ("That's All I've Got To Say About That," which unfrtunately is the weakest tune in the set...) and a fresh coat of paint on that fine batch of tunes (including an added-on cameo by Mr. Haggard himself on the end of the tribute tune, "If Merle Would Sing My Song...") And it's still a damn fine album. If you want to hear some Top 40 country that's heartfelt and doesn't suck, then pick this album up. You won't be disappointed.

Blaine Larsen "Rockin' You Tonight" (BMG/BNA, 2006)
(Produced by Rory Lee Feek & Tim Johnson)
Washington state's Blaine Larsen continues to be one of my favorite new country singers, precisely because that's what he really is: a for-real country singer, a guy who sounds great when he digs deep into style's long tradition of morose emotional ballads. Now a country veteran at the ripe old age of 18, Larsen's deep baritone growl is less remarkable than when he put his first album out (at age 16), but he still sounds like the guy most likely to be the next Alan Jackson -- and I mean that in a real good way. This disc took a couple of listens before I was really sold, but, yeah -- the kid's still really, really good. The opening track, "I Don't Know What She Said," is one of those tropical-themed, margaritas-and-little-grass-shack songs that seem to be all the rage in Nashville these days. It's okay, but it doesn't hold a candle to the album's best songs, the heartrending "They Don't Grow Enough Roses," "Lips Of A Bottle" (a great duet with Gretchen Wilson) and "No Woman," a hilarious guys-will-be-guys novelty song penned by Larsen and co-producer Tim Johnson. Larsen also covers Mark Chesnutt's hit, "I'm In Love With A Married Woman" (also written by Johnson) and turns in another rollicking performance on the uptempo "I Don't Wanna Work That Hard," wherein the singer decides his high-maintainance girlfriend just ain't worth the effort. There are a couple of misfires, though. The title track is terrible: Larsen should stay away from that kind of loud, rock-based material, and stick to the Lefty'n'George side of the street, rather than getting all Montgomery Gentry about it. Also, his version of "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" initially struck me as a mistake (really, no one's ever gonna take that tune away from Mac Davis -- why even try?) but eventually I decided it was okay... Not great, but okay. The album's closer was another nice surprise, a gospel tune called "At The Gate" which summons a lot of depth and further demonstrates Larsen's versatility. All in all, a Top 40 country record with just one song on it that I don't like is a damn good ratio... I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this guy could be country music's real future. Check him out.

Tracy Lawrence - see artist discography

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Hick Music Index

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