Tonight’s selection from the Turnpike Troubadours’ third album, 2012’s Goodbye Normal Street.
I have a conflicted relationship with country music. I love the guitar-based sound, two-step rhythms, and well-worn themes of heartbreak and hard-living. That said, I have a really hard time with what contemporary country music has become – a slickly produced pop parody of its former self, mass marketed to the lowest common denominator and promoting a crude stereotype of the "real" America. No, I don't think Hank [Williams] done it this way. But I do think Hank would take comfort knowing that bands like the Turnpike Troubadours – who in May released their third album, Goodbye Normal Street – are still putting out quality country music, even if only at the margins of the radio mainstream. — No Depression
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Good Lord Lorrie [2012]
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Goodbye Normal Street starts off a little deceptively, with two heavy, hard country songs that may hint this is the new direction they're going in when in truth they're just getting your attention. "Gin, Smoke & Lies" with its Queen-esque "We Will Rock You" opening beat and banjo lead-in let you have fair warning not to expect your usual sweet and safe mainstream fare from this release. "Before The Devil Knows Were Dead" builds out from the sharp wit of the title line to become a tribute to mortality with an approach that waxes towards an almost Hank III, Johnny Hiland-style heavy handed guitar solo. — Saving Country Music
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Gin, Smoke, Lies [2012]
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When you sit down and try to define it, one of the big differences between mainstream and independent music, or music that people listen to actively, and music people listen to just because it is there, is the presence of a love dialogue. Mainstream music usually works with very catchy, very transparent love themes that are easy to pick up on and identify with, while independent music tends to work more with internal dialogues, struggles and personal experiences, and worldly observations. Love songs can come across as so saccharine to advanced music listeners, while traditional heartbreak songs about being "oh so lonesome" can be so cliche.
This has left a void for the love song in much of independent music, and this is where the Turnpike Troubadours and songwriter Evan Felker have found their niche. Sharp wit, self-reflection, specific references to characters and situations in an almost Townes [Van Zandt] or Robert Earl Keen-like storytelling approach imbibes this music with a freshness and engaging nature, revitalizing the old-fashioned love and heartbreak songs in the modern, independent context. "Good Lord Lorrie" gives us all a situation and characters to relate to. So does "Wrecked" and "Empty As A Drum." The slow, heart-wrenching "Gone, Gone, Gone" may very well be a Song of the Year candidate. "Good Lord Lorrie" may be a runner up. — Saving Country Music
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Empty As A Drum [2012]
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Johnny Knoxville, Jude Hill
Jimmy Fallon: Kevin James, Ilana Glazer, Jacques Pépin
Stephen Colbert: Kate Hudson, Oliver Hudson, St. Paul and the Broken Bones
Seth Meyers: Kenan Thompson, Tom Riley, Larnell Lewis
James Corden: Jared Leto, David Cross
Trevor Noah: Lindsey Vonn
SPOILER WARNING
A late night gathering for non serious palaver that does not speak of that night’s show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don’t want that to happen to you. It's a fate worse than a fate worse than death.
Kentucky musicians...
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Palace Brothers :: (I Was Drunk At The) Pulpit [1993]
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Gladys :: My Old Kentucky Home [1998]
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LAST WEEK’S POLL: WHO IS GOING TO WIN THE SUPER BOWL?
Buffalo Bills 26% 7 votes
Cincinnati Bengals 4% 1 vote
Green Bay Packers 30% 8 votes
Kansas City Chiefs 7% 2 votes
Los Angeles Rams 19% 5 votes
San Francisco 49ers 4% 1 vote
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7% 2 votes
Tennessee Titans 4% 1 vote
PICKS
KC, Pat, Yes, Ja'Maar, No
LAR, Jimmy, George, Over, SF