Song Discussions- WHCJE?
In which Joe is too tired to think of a pun for the title. But hey, abbreviations are cool!
I thought I’d do something a little different this time around. Well, to be honest with you guys, I’ve hit an impasse in my writing. I had a flurry of creativity about two weeks ago and wrote up loads of ideas. I heavily invested time and thought into one of them and probably wrote a couple thousand words. Then, I got struck by the double whammy of work and writers block. To kick start myself, I decided to throw a mental curveball and try something different.
We’ll call this one What Has Caught Joe’s Eyes. Or for a more modern and snappy abbreviation, WHCJE. Caught between song rec and song review, I hereby present to you songs that I enjoyed, a few.
Hummingbird- Shane Smith & the Saints
2022
Well this is just amazing. Shane Smith & the Saints are a Texas based band, so if you’ve been following this blog for more then a minute or two, you assuredly assume that I adore them. You’d be right.
This is an out of the blue release. Hopefully, it’s to kick off a new album. There is no confirmation of that.
The arrangements are really what I found to be the most compelling part of the song. Just as an example, take the opening few seconds of the song. Soft strings begin to start things off. As soon as they get off the ground, rude blasts of harmonica overpower them and added with the thick guitar tones, provide the actual backbone of the song. The contrast immediately draws your attention.
Another part of the track that really drew my attention was the instrumental bridge. It has an electric guitar solo. (Quick tangent: This is pretty much de rigueur in country these days. I guess now that rock music needs to have a millennial whoop chorus and a disco bass line along with some trendy trap snares and auto-tune, country has to take upon the mantle of the generic All- American Electric Guitar Solo™️.) As the electric guitar solo finishes and you’d assume it winds down, the entire song is elevated by a killer fiddle solo. The fiddle was doing yeoman’s work in the background all song long, building up until the point when it burst forward in the mix overtaking the guitar. Squealing with emotion, it leads ands cements the emotional climax of the last minute. The song is almost orchestral in design and speaks to the complex instrumental interplay craftily woven behind the simple singing and melody which is the more recognizable part of song.
Sunday Call- Willie Shaw
2020
An artist that I found during lockdown. He’s a Nashville based pop artist. The track I first heard him in is a Charlie Puth style pop track called Dance. A fun but forgettable bop. He recently popped back onto my release radar and I did a discography dive on him. Very worth the thirty minute investment, as I discovered this heartfelt gem of a song. It takes a pretty standard trope of the son calling or writing home to the folks, but executes it masterfully. It’s a very sparse acoustic arrangement like an Ed Sheehan or Graycie York style acoustic rendition. As is the case in that style, the vocal work really needs to shine for the song to land. This absolutely does. Aside from the technical performance, which is spot on, I noticed a very careful emphasis in the delivery of specific syllables and words that really brings out the meaning and emotion in the song. This really got me thinking about delivery and the importance it plays in helping the listener really believe the song. Mere technical ability can only take you so far.
Sunset Carousel- David Nail
2022
This song plays right into what I’ve been thinking about regarding delivery. What I think is so difficult to pin down about music is that at the end of the day, all that matters is connection with the audience. No matter how technically sound, if it don’t click it don’t matter. In the world of professional critics, they look towards the more objective elements of music when rating it. Although useful, it misses out on the subjective elements. I think delivery is a hugely overlooked area. It is also tremendously subjective. In this song, David Nail, in my opinion, a supremely talented artist torpedoed by bro country, has a very particular tonal quality to his vocal delivery. To me, it screams of disenchantment and melancholy which perfectly fits the narrative of this song. To have those emotions displayed in the vocal performance of a tribute to love lost is perfect. The cherry on top of a well constructed song. However to others, the tone of the vocal delivery comes across as disconnected and mailed-in with a strong dash of boredom slathered on top of the unappetizing mixture. Contrasting opinions like this really hammer home the subjectivity of the finer elements of this hobby.
I also greatly appreciate the structural songwriting on the chorus. The We….We… structure give a rhythmic dynamism and punch to the beginning lines. The extended line before the quick finality of the end of the hook, when the songs signature piece of imagery quickly hits, just is a wonderfully paced setup with snappy resolution. It tickles the poet in me. Alternating structures and length of bars is not used commonly enough in Nashville writing. They enjoy a quick pun or short piece of vivid imagery to cement the chorus in your head, but they all too often neglect other structural and literary techniques that can enhance songs greatly.
This one just dropped on Friday (June 17th if you read this post at a later date). Check it out and let me know in the comments which side of the melancholy/bored debate you fall on!
Fast As You- Dwight Yoakim
1993
So yeah, it's a classic. Also, this may be a hot take, but I do not like Dwight Yoakims voice. Ergo, I never really bothered giving his songs a listen. As it were, I ended up hearing this track on a Spotify shuffle and immediately fell in love with it. It’s rollicking fun. Very heavily influenced by the 70s and 80s rock of Bruce Springsteen and the 50s rock that style owes a great deal of gratitude towards. Think of what the result would be if Elvis and The Boss recorded a country album together. Infectious upbeat energy. Driving guitar and drums really propel the track. Some would call this neotrad simply because it’s from the sacrosanct early 1990s, but this is really just a great country rock fusion song. A more rootsy and twangy spin on what soon became the normal Nashville sound. If I’m being honest, by the end of the song the one dimensional nature of the guitar lick started wearing thin. It really could’ve used a fiddle solo on top of the guitar riffs in the instrumental bridge to break things up. Regardless, a deserved classic.
Old Fashioned Girl Like You- Ronnie Milsap
1985
Putting aside the overstuffed and chintzy 1980s arrangements, you have to marvel at Ronnie Milsap’s effortless vocals. The part that sticks with me the most is the writing. It’s so overwhelmingly wholesome. Maybe this speaks to the sepia toned goggles we look towards the past with, but this seemingly speaks towards an era long past where promises were made and kept. This song was released in the Reagan era in which there was ostensibly a renewed appreciation of old fashioned “traditional” and “family” values. This taps into the nostalgic, positive, and wholesome side of that with a heartfelt love story that although may seems cheesy, when delivered by Ronnie Milsap, can’t help but conjure up memories of grand or great- grandparents and the loving relationships til death did them part that younger generations so greatly admire in the older generations. #GOALS
Leaving New Orleans- Jordan Davis
2018
Jordan Davis is often maligned as one of the new crop of faceless bland pop country artists being cranked off Music Row. That reputation is not without merit. His music is mellow. Often to a fault. His debut album is very emblematic of the direction Nashville thought was the future in the post Sam Hunt era. Big electronic drum loops with heavy emphasis on mellow atmospherics firmly anchor the project in Southern pop. The lyrics are again boilerplate Nashville assembly line material. All this mediocrity makes the occasional standout songs really pop in contrast.
And this song is exactly that. Davis is from New Orleans. The song is a Louisiana based twist on a breakup that leaves the protagonist so forlorn he has to leave his hometown locale. The difference between this attempt and the seeming dozens of other try at this trope is that instead of the generic missing them dirt road and them gas station cups of coffee in the morning mad libs, we get specific New Orleans themed details. The specificity is the key that really hits. The absolute best part about this song is the subtle tributes to New Orleans music with the stabbing horns and touches of strings that gets subtly tossed into the otherwise unexceptional atmospheric southern pop mix. It elevates it from radio fodder to a genuinely interesting song that properly understands itself as not just a romantic heartbreak song, but a proper tribute to the unique city that also has a strong hold on the heart of the protagonist.
(Also, is “laissez les bons temps rouler” an FGL shout out? More realistically it’s a BB King, Ray Charles, general French influence in New Orleans thing but I thought it funny nonetheless.)
Never Not- High Valley (without Curtis 😬)
2022
So this is what happens when a group known for family harmonies and bluegrass tinged pop country breaks up. As a solo act, nearly all the attraction to High Valley has been sucked out. As the sole remaining member, Brad Rempel has his eye on a new direction for the band. Apparently Curtis, the brother who after Covid decided to hang up his cleats, was the more traditional and creative of the two. It certainly shows. This track is what Mumford and Sons would put out if they were born in Ye Moderne Days of Tik-Tokke dance remixes. It’s a YouTube “country dance beat.mp3”, generic, 2012-ish pop radio instrumental blasting all throughout a meaningless and detail-less song about something or another. The melody is rote. The beat canned. The lyrics cliché upon cliché. I’ve completely forgotten it, despite it being placed on an exercise playlist of mine. High Valley is a mere shadow of itself now. Sad.
Fill ‘Er Up- Jon Pardi
2022
An odd quirk of my content consumption habits is that if I am certain I wish to listen or watch a particular piece of media, I will intentionally not check out the pre-release or the trailer. Once committed, I wish to preserve the purity of the entire experience. With today’s spoiler filled trailers and majority of albums being pre-released, it has been a sound policy. If however, I’m unsure if I want to go out of my way to engage with the content, the pre-releases and trailers are crucial to getting me sufficiently hyped.
As any oxygen breathing, get off my lawn yelling, George Strait worshipping, country music traditionalist would tell you, Pardi is our guy in Nashville. He’s one of the good ones. His last couple albums have been chock full of old school fun, mixing barn stomping honky tonk anthems with mournful fiddle driven tunes that properly punch in the feels. We even forgive his slight use of drum machines because his sound is so country. Also have I mentioned that I like his music?
Point is, I’m clearly hyped for this album. Why then am I discussing a pre- released song?. Why didn’t I stand strong? To put it simply, I am human. When I heard Mr. Pardi describe the new pre-release song on an interview as just a good ol’ fun honky tonk drinking song, I couldn’t hold myself back. I need a summer party song to energize those late night road trip vibes. Fill ‘Er Up is infectious. It’s full of energy. We don’t need to import EDM drops, or Guns n’ Roses electric axes, or Atlanta trap snares or other trendy artifacts of other genres to have an enjoyable upbeat “country music” banger. We can do it with actual country music. Country music isn’t only here to make you spill tears in your beers. It can also be fun, and rowdy, and still genuinely country. It’s refreshing in today’s genre-fluid era to see someone successfully focus on a specific sub-genre and just double down on making great music in that narrow niche.
Hope you enjoyed,
Joe
Plan is for a burd bites to drop before the end of the month. I just wanted to get this out there and get my brain juices flowing. I think it worked.