I was asked by LA Record Magazine to do a list of my Best Albums of the 2000s. So, I put together this collection. Then they asked to run the list without my commentary. Then they asked me to trim a couple of choices. Then they haven’t run the series….as it is January 8th and quickly becoming irrelevant I thought I’d put the collection up here.
When it appears on LA Record, I’ll link to the article.
In no particular order…
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
From a songwriting standpoint when I heard Bruce was doing a record about 9/11 I thought, “This is going to be a disaster,” and man was I wrong. He took archetype imagery - a kiss, blood, bonds, honor, loyalty and tied it, in artful ways, to a city in ruin. In terms of difficulty, it is, in my opinion, the greatest songwriting feat ever. When that choirs sings, “Rise Up” I still cry.
Delbert McClinton - The Cost of Living
How many records has Delbert released? 15? 20? It must be so tempting to just phone it in, but the 2006 release “The Cost of Living” has what so many blues albums lack - unbelievable songs. In fact, there’s not ONE bad song on this album. It also won a 2006 blues grammy.
Lee Ann Womack - There’s More Where That Came From
Nashville country done right. The cover hints that it is a throwback record. Simple production. Great songwriting, and Lee Ann Womack returning to real country after 5 years making boring pop records. It won a hemp of awards, but that’s not the reason it’s good. A cross between classic Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.
Dwight Yoakam - Blame the Vain
Here’s a man who understands his brand. Bakersfield country with enough modern tones to make it still matter. The telecast licks are awesome, and Dwight’s voice — are you KIDDING ME? He sings the harmony parts and his choices are always right on the money. The title track is a killer.
Gretchen Wilson - Here for the Party
The kind of record I want to hate, but cannot. It puts a stake in the ground and says “Tough Shit”. The songs are all arena rock singalongs, but the attitude was sorely needed in Nashvegas. Credit Big and Rich for making this record old country and big rock. Gretchen was a shooting star, it seems, but what a show.
Hank Williams III - Straight to hell
I can only imagine that every record company in the world has throw zillions of dollars at Hank to make him a mainstream artist. With his lineage, he is a music marketers dream. But he does not care. He makes vile, offensive, hardcore honky tonk records about drugs, drink and life on the road. It is a BEAUTIFUL thing to behold and this 2006 release is his best. I hope he can hold out.
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
MMJ is a hard band to define. To me, they stand shoulder to shoulder with Wilco, making the most interesting American pop music on the scene today. It’s complex. It’s emotional. It’s rootsy. And they seem to be doing exactly what they want to do — the hell with the rest of us.
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Before they were the new Fleetwood Mac, Rilo Kiley was a cute little band that made fun albums with catchy songs and a simmer sassy sex appeal. I spent the fall of 2004 singing along.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Boy, do I hate giving this album any more praise. When someone handed it to me, I thought it was a joke, but holy smokes is it good. It could be that Alison Krauss could of made this album with a number of old guys, but it doesn’t take away from the power of the final product.
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
I have a stack of Ryan Adams records that are simply terrible. Clearly for 6 years or so his label said, “Record anything you like! We’ll put it all out!” The boring sound sketches that a good producer would’ve tossed in the trash end up as full blown album tracks. But HEARTBREAKER, wow. This is how he sells all those terrible records. It’s so good, it hurts. Need Proof? YouTube - “Come Pick Me Up” on the Letterman show. It is the SINGLE best live performance in the history of the DLS.
Merle Jagger - Rancho Los Angeles
Guitarist Mark Christian and LA stalwarts, Merle Jagger, have done everything a band can do - without a lead singer. They open for the big acts. The put tunes in movies. They are the best band you’ve never heard. Instrumental acts have a hard time busting out…but this record is the soundtrack to my nights driving around Hollywood.
Every since last Wednesday night’s CMA award show, I’ve been hit with a small avalanche of texts, emails, and other messages about Taylor Swift. Friends, colleagues, curious bystanders kicking my tires and asking, “What do you think of all that?” Some of them know that I saw Taylor do a couple of acoustic songs as an unknown in LA at The Whiskey a few years ago, with a coterie of serious music business types cheering her on. At the time I thought - “This seems like a perfectly nice teenager, but she has no unique talent as a singer, personality, or songwriter.” That isn’t a dig. That’s what you might expect from a young woman who is learning and getting her music chops together. The weird part was the entourage of serious business people that had clearly already invested heavily in this young woman. It was confusing to me and my pals. “What talent have all these people invested in?” - was the question of the evening from a group of pretty serious musicians.
I have waxed at various times since then with amazement at the phenomena that Taylor has become. It’s as if my next door neighbor, who likes to clean his lawn mower with his beer gut hanging out, were to suddenly appear on my TV in a Laker uniform shooting three pointers. Whether he’s doing it well isn’t the point. The fact that he is doing it at all is dumbfounding.
Rather than reply to all these questions individually, I’ll give a broad public response.
My feelings come on several different levels:
LEVEL ONE - Congratulations. You’re making a living in a tough business, and you seem like a nice person. Don’t start smoking. Don’t get married til you’re 30, and save your money.
LEVEL TWO - Wow, country music has discovered the tween and teen market. They’ve always been so jealous of the pop world. “How do we rope in those tweens and teens. They are good business.” But you DID IT! These consumers are too young to have any sense of what is good and bad, and developing acts for them is a pretty easy process. Hit a few basic music themes, market correctly, tour correctly and BAM the money comes in. New Kids on the Block, The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, The Jonas Brothers, David Muthafucking CASSIDY - teen bands have been around a long time and if some teen artists put more money into the system to develop adult artists then god bless them. But much like heroin and reality TV you have to go easy on this stuff…if you take too much you get addicted to that teen $$$ and it’s hard to want to put out adult music.
LEVEL THREE - Really? We’re going to celebrate teenager pop as if it were some of the most important art our genre has to offer? That’s sad. The movie business handles this quite well. That business LOVES the blockbuster. They love the big dumb popcorn movie. Those films are so cheesy, but they bring in the fun-loving audience and they make lots of money. Those films keep the lights on and the Bentley in the driveway. BUT THEY DONT AWARD THEM BEST PICTURE OSCARS!! They don’t pretend that they are the best art that the industry has to offer. They, generally, save the awards for real artistic achievement, and that makes sense to me. These awards drive the viewers to check out the movies that they normally wouldn’t see, and thereby expose them to a higher level of film making. What if the Oscars were like, “The Best Picture Award of 2008 goes to Bride Wars!”
If it so hard for me to understand why Country Music, and music in general, has chosen to award nominations based on sales figures. The small artist who creates a masterpiece will never get an award. He will never even get nominated. That can’t be good for the level of quality in our business.
LEVEL FOUR - Country Music is a thing. If I called a musicologist and said, “What are the traits that make a piece of music COUNTRY MUSIC?” They would have an answer. They would be able to give me 3 or 4 or 15 traits that make country music a distinct style of music. Clearly, all music isn’t country music. For example, we know that there is a difference between classical music and country music. There are obvious differences that would make an individual piece of music either country or classical or something else. So, if we start with that obvious fact, it is a fair question to ask whether Taylor is even making country music and therefore entitled to be eligible for a country music award.
This perspective has gotten legend George Jones into hot water. (If such a thing is even possible.) He has rightly pointed out that, “They had to use something that was established already, and that’s traditional country music. So what they need to do really, I think, is to find their own title, because they’re definitely not traditional country music.” Now George is 78 years old and for some that means that what he thinks doesn’t matter. There’s always an element of “These kids and their rotten music today!” whenever an older guy criticizes current music. But if country music has a definition, and surely it must, you have to wonder if Taylor’s style really qualifies. Maybe a new name is in order….”Modern Rock-try” or “Poppa Country”. Ug, I’ll work on that.
In conclusion, I’m aware that being called the “Entertainer of the Year” isn’t some title of artistic perfection. It’s about entertaining people and Taylor Swift seems to be doing plenty of that. All things must evolve and change. It would be a boring business if every new artist sounded just like George Jones or George Strait. We need room for innovation, but we also need to have the courage to say, “Sales are great, but sales don’t make it an artistic achievement.” We need to leave room for artists that are doing important, groundbreaking music in the genre that we all know as Country Music.
Maybe it’s just me. It sure seems like it gets harder and harder to write good songs. I’ve done some mulling on the reasons, and it probably isn’t what you think.
It isn’t, for instance, that I have too much to do. I’ve had too much to do for the last 15 years. When I was 15 I had nothing to do. Hours and hours of nothing to do and the songs I wrote then were terrible. I can remember getting home from church on a Sunday, eating some dinner and rolling into my bedroom. I would often play and write until supper. 5-6 hours. Nothing to do but sit in there and hammer away. Wow…those songs were terrible.
When I first moved to LA I had nothing to do. I kept a diary for a time and reading that thing now is hilarious and quite sad. Sunday, May 9, 1992 “Ordered Pizza”. That was my entire days activity, and this was before the Internet. I remember one Labor Day weekend where i left my backbreaking job moving boxes at 6pm on Friday night and did not speak to another live human being until Monday morning at 7:30am. Lots of writing going on. Not nearly as bad as the teen years, but not so great either.
It isn’t because I’m happy. Although I am now mostly happy. (As long as I don’t think about how much my cell phone company rips me off.) Most songwriters start writing in order to express feelings of sadness or anger. All that piss and vinegar makes for conflict, drama and good songs. (good art in general.) Once life sorts itself out and they make enough money to live and find someone to love them - they have nothing to write about. These often leads to a sudden and unfortunate loss of quality in the songwriting department.
There are artists that never really get it together. Life is one personal disaster after the next and this helps them avoid the problem entirely. But GEEZ what a life. That would be like agreeing to relive my 28th year over and over in order to write good songs about my personal misery. I’d rather take a bullet. No, like many of the writers I admire - John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, to name a couple, I have gotten a handle on writing songs from a happy life. The songs aren’t happy, but I am. I just keep my ears open and my heart open and there’s enough pain and interesting stuff to fill my notebook. Of course, occasionally I do bump into some personal pain and that gets poured in as well.
It isn’t because I’ve said everything I need to say. I HAVE heard writers say this. “Well, I’ve got nothing more to say.” That strikes me as odd. Sort of like, “I have no more conversations I’d like to have.” or “I’ve met all the people I’d like to meet.” We all get burned out from time to time but I always seem to have something new that I’d like to tackle. Hell, I could write 10 songs that are attempts to do a better job of covering topics that I tried with past songs. If that makes any sense.
No…the reason it gets harder and harder to write good songs is that I seem to discover more and more rules. I see what people say about my records and my songs. It’s hard not to see it, because you’re trying to pass it along to others. I think I have a pretty thick skin in that I don’t take it personally. (After all you can’t criticize a critic for critiquing a record that you sent him to critique.) But when it is time to sit down and CREATE again…that stuff comes creeping back in. You play a riff and you think, “That’s a cool starting place.” and you hear a voice that says, “…retreading Rolling Stone licks isn’t country…” and you think, “Wait. Is that just a Rolling Stone lick? That isn’t really country, is it? That rhythm is too rock, and it takes the song too far away from what most people think of as honky tonk. Damn, maybe that isn’t good. Do we have any beer?”
You come up with a title that sounds interesting and you jot down a first line. Then you think, “That sounds mean. I sure have taken a lot of criticism for being mean. Maybe I shouldn’t write that. Is music supposed to be mean? Buck Owens wasn’t mean. Shit, do we have any beer?”
And sometimes you think…WHO CARES I’LL JUST DO WHAT I WANT. But if you do, and you finish, you still think, “You know my kind of country music can’t be like that. We could play the song…but doesn’t it just confuse the audience?” I suppose some writers are just like a machine that cranks out a clean and pure type of song. No questions. No variation. I can’t do it. I have a desire to wiggle around a little. Twist it. Turn it. And over time it’s easy to take the feedback that you’ve violated some sacred rules of songwriting for a particular genre. There are lots of rules, and as time goes on I seem to find a way to violate them all - “too slick”, “too dumb”, “too mean”, “too funny”, “too traditional”, “not traditional enough”. And of course…all the feedback could be right.
So, we’ll see how it goes. I’m hammering away now. It gets harder and harder. But I get more and more determined. I love this quote from Samuel Beckett.
“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.”
At this point, I’ve been fronting bands for a long time. There is a certain degree of difficulty in filling the time between the songs. When to talk? When to say nothing? When to explain the song? When to talk about yourself? All this is often done on the spur of the moment. When you throw in the random heckles and happenings that pop up at every show, disaster is always right around the corner.
So a fair amount of the time, I say something extremely stupid. Something that I don’t mean, and regret instantly. I’m usually just trying to be funny…and I come off like a dickweed.
Here they are - based on my personal experience - the 10 things you should never say on stage.
1. Jokes about marriage. (The men will laugh and the women will glare.)
2. Any songwriting explanation that lasts over 3 minutes.
3. Exact details about your hotel. “Before, the show we were over at the Holiday Inn on Route 2 having some drinks and I told Josh…” Congratulations, you just told a room full of strangers where they can find a van with 30 grand worth of musical equipment.
4. “There’s more Mexicans in here than the Alamo.”
5. Any stories regarding mentally handicapped individuals - even if they are true, and not necessarily disparaging.
6. “Our music is best described as Cowboy Homo-Core.” (Even in jest, especially in Texas)
7. Any remarks directed at an audience member that can be construed as cruel and antagonistic, even if the bozo is throwing peanuts at your head. It just makes you seem like a whiner. One of your bandmates should quietly tip off club personnel.
8. “On drums tonight, Tony Horkins. His people killed my Lord.”
9. Politics. You may think you know which way the room leans, but you can never be quite sure, and a misstep is deadly.
10. Dedicating the Banjo and Sullivan classic, “I’m Home Getting Hammered. She’s Out Getting Nailed” to a bachelorette party.
Bonus suggestion:
11. Any stories about 4 guys sharing a hotel room that seem funny when they happen and very homo-erotic from the stage.
Well…i don’t know. I love SF. It isn’t really a country music kind of town, unless you’re Tim McGraw I suppose. But we always have a good time, and usually have a good show.
On June 14th we played at the North Beach Festival. It is a massive Italian-themed block party. We were playing in a club called Grant and Green - going on at 4pm. We rolled into town from further up the 101 and after getting past security we were able to unload, park the truck, and stroll around.
All this is pretty standard band on the road happenings, but then Josh said, “Holy Shit!” and I turned to see two dozen naked bicyclers tearing down Columbus. I took some snaps. Check out the whole collection here.
On June 6th, we participated in an amazing show. Radio Personality Scott Cox is known for occasional outrageous behavior and good tequila. He’s put both of those skills to work for a very good cause founding ScottStock. This yearly show in Bakersfield raises money for Operation Interdependence, a charity that sends care packages to our troops overseas
ScottStock Founder Scott Cox
Shawna and Andrew at Fishlips hosted the event. A number of great musicians had signed guitars being auctioned off. (GE Smith and Willie Nelson, for example) Scott also auctioned off shots of a wonderful tequila he found while wondering around Mexico.
Scott also lost some crazy bet so that he ended up dressed in a kids medium t-shirt.
It’s a Northern Cali Weekend with shows in Fairfax, Point Reyes and San Francisco. If you live in the area, we’d love to see you at one of these fine country music shows.
One of the digs on Los Angeles is that it is a city without a center. This criticism is odd in some respects…it’s almost like saying, “You have too many cool and distinctive city sections to pick one true city home plate.” But it is true that in the past downtown Los Angeles has been an underdeveloped place - dead empty at night. No entertainment. Very little livable space.
Over the last 5 years much of that has changed. The Staple Center and the Lakers moved downtown. Builders started putting up cool spaces to live, and refurbishing old factories. Some nice restaurants have moved in…but in terms of Live Music things have remained a little sad.
Recently, some great stuff has come together downtown.
The Redwood Bar and Grill - The Sunday Brunch Americana Show that started at Safari Sam’s a couple of years ago moved downtown when SS closed last fall. We just played Sunday…and this place is very cool. Great Acoustics, Good food, and a welcoming vibe. They have shows during the week nights as well, and most of the LA Country guys are on the scene.
Saloon Monday at Bordello - This show is run by LA Band, Killing Cassanova and without a doubt the Bordello space is one of the coolest in town. Lots of red velvet, and artwork reminiscent of it’s history as a brothel.
And finally, when you try your hand downtown don’t miss out on this new restaurant - Wurstkuche. They call themselves a purveyor of exotic grilled sausages, and they ain’t kidding. Larry and I went down after the show sunday. I had the Duck and Bacon sausage. Larry had the Rattlesnake and Rabbit - Look OUT! It’s all sausage…Belgian fries, and the best Belgian and German beer you’ve ever had. Let me know if you want to go! I’ll meet you there!
Grant Langston with Dale Watson, Drummer Tony Horkins as well
So, we played a show last night, opening for Texas Honky Tonker Dale Watson - and it was a barn-burner of an evening.
We’ve opened for Dale in the past, but last night was different. Maybe it was the weather. It was, without a doubt, the nicest weather I’ve ever seen in Bakersfield. 72, gentle breeze, perfect.
The show started at 8pm…and the place was packed before we even took the stage. We did our bit, and the crowd was warm and fun. But the REAL fun started once we were done playing.
When I was a teenage someone told me, “Learn to play an instrument and you’ll never buy another drink.” - and so it isn’t uncommon to have kind fans buy you a drink. It seems rude to me to turn away such a gift, but if you’re not careful 5 enthusiastic fans can mean 5 Jagermeister shots, on top of the 3 beers you had during the set. the road to ruin, for sure.
But, what the hell!, right? You’re done for the night. Folks want to share their good wishes. It’s time to kick back and enjoy yourself. Last night was one of those nights. We were done by 9:30, and by 10:30 I had accepted several shots of Patron Tequlia from the kind-hearted fans at Fishlips. I remember looking at my blurry watch at 10:45 and thinking, “Man, I’m glad I don’t have to sing anymore tonight.”
Which is why it is fairly terrifying to hear Dale say from the stage, “Grant, come on up here and let’s sing something.”
Tony took the stage to sit in on drums, and as I stumbled towards the stage I heard Dale say, “Looks like Grant is drunk already.” and he was RIGHT.
I can spare you the details…i made an ass out of myself. He asked me if I knew any Merle, or Wille, or Hank, and I couldn’t remember my name. We did Silver Wings, I couldn’t remember the words and just mumbled through the song, like a jerk. I then suggested, Misery and Gin, which offered me a bit of redemption. We sang some harmony and I did remember some of those words, but lordy, I’ve never wanted to get off a stage so bad.
I’ve done it. I’ve discovered the worst music ever recorded. I don’t mean the worst music ever made. That honor probably goes to some bar band in Phoenix. I don’t mean the worst single album ever recorded, because every year about 70% of released music is complete crap.
I’m talking about the worst genre of music ever recorded.
And I was pretty surprised by the outcome of my search.
First off, I’m a music fiend. I can see the art, the joy, the power in so many different kinds of music. The bassist in my band likens jazz to listening to a fax machine. I have 15 Miles Davis records. My mother says that modern classical music sounds like cats fighting. I love Cage, Stravinsky, and Ligetti. Most of my Americana cohorts hate electronica, and with its endless repletion it is a tough child to love – but it has a certain cold-hearted charm – and I own quite a bit of that stuff. I love Motorhead. Black Flag. The Florida Boys and the Happy Goodmans.
On and on…blues, gospel, prog rock, metal, country – all of it has something to latch on to and admire. When I go to a club and a band is playing I can usually find some element to love. “That drummer has a great foot.”
However, throughout my life I have had a kind of music that I labeled as “the only style of music I hate”. It was doo-wop. The falsetto sung by a guy that’s supposed to be a tough “street” kid from, say, Philly. The silly dance moves of the 4 backing singers. You’ve got to be kidding me. “Weee-ooo the lion sleeps tonight”. Tough guys like this music?
But as a musician that loves harmony…and that has recorded quite a bit of harmony, it’s hard for me to hate doo-wop. Sure, its fake, and girlie, but that stuff isn’t easy to sing. Hell some of those bands were prepubescent, and once the voice changed the career was over. It takes focus and talent, and with the primitive studio arrangements of the day these acts had to have the goods.
And there is one overriding reason why none of these styles of music can win the “worst music ever recorded” award. Because to this day they all have fans who love and consume the music. You can get in a bar fight in a 50’s café by talking smack on Doo-Wop. Some 65 year old with a Corvette and a silk windbreaker will punch your lights out for talking trash about Frankie Lymon.
No friends, the worst music ever recorded doesn’t have a strict genre name but here is my best description. It was American Adult-Pop recorded from 1973 to 1981. 70’s pop-shlock. Examples?
Barbra Streisand Streisand Superman
Crosby Stills and Nash CSN
Kenny Rogers Kenny
What’s a matter with this stuff, you ask?
1. No one loves it, or misses it.
Most important styles of music have fans or adherents. A guy in Toronto will cut you for bagging on Rush. A fellow in Austin will knock your block off for slamming Willie Nelson. Hell, people even love Dave Matthews. But this 70’s pop-schlock was so inane and soulless that no one ever bonded with it. No one fell in love to it, or sat in their room smoking a joint and fell in love with it.
Almost every kind of music has a champion. Not this stuff. Seriously…when is the last time you heard someone talking about Kenny Rogers? Or playing his stuff on the radio. Not the older country stuff…the pop stuff. The answer is never. Because no one cares if Kenny Rogers’ music is ever played again.
It was celebrated at the time. These are big stars, of course. But even still when someone reaches for a Babs record…they aren’t pulling Streisand Superman. Because it doesn’t represent anything but slick semi-hip 70’s pop.
It’s cocktail background music, at best. Music people talk over, and never ever really listen to.
2. The style is completely contrived.
You may be wondering. If I were to play this music, Grant, what would I hear? Could it really be that bad? If you could, you would hear a music that is totally based on triangulation. “Hey, the disco records have this kind of guitar. Let’s put that on our songs, it will make them sound hip.” “Hey, the disco kids like this strings, let’s put them on.” Like maybe Bill Clinton is producing. It is just one long lesson in stealing what you think it cool and jamming it all together to create a smelly soup that is neither fish nor fowl.
You can hear some of it. Right Here.
This is never more apparent than in the “crossover” records of Kenny Rogers. You might think that just recording a great song…and muting the pedal steel and fiddles might qualify a track to cross over to the pop charts. But apparently that’s not what the record business wise-men of the day thought. Yes, you must mute the country instruments and then add congos, wah-wah- guitar, black chick back-up singers, and a disco beat. It sounds like a producer who is cutting a record with a gun to his head, “Make this thing sound like Donna Summer or I’ll blow yer brains out!”
3. It is soulless and lazy.
Perhaps this is the most infuriating point. The people involved in these projects are VERY TALENTED. Some of the most talented people alive. Barbra Streisand is talented. Crosby, Stills, Nash? Even Kenny Rogers. And because of their stature in the business they worked with the BEST.
Moderately talented people making marginal music is no crime. But this stuff is intentionally silly and vapid. Bab’s does a version of New York State of Mind . I was thrilled to hear it, and in the liner notes she damns Billy Joel with faint praise, “he is not only a fine writer, but has a wonderful voice.” Barbra IS the quintessential New York singer and she should slay this tune. Instead it lays there like a possum. Holding out notes as if she’s doing a crossword puzzle. I’ve always be put off by the term “too white”, but good lord she has no soul. If she cut a James Brown song it would sound like a toothpaste jingle. (and she would probably write that he has a “wonderful voice”.)
