“The whole of their sustained attack against Merritt is founded on the dangerous and stupid notion that one’s taste in music can be interrogated for signs of racist intent the same way a university’s admissions process can: If the number of black artists in your iPod falls too far below 12.5 percent of the total, […]

 
Today we add one of my favorite essays by critic Dave Marsh to our Reading List. The piece originally ran in the long-since defunct Record in 1983, and it was subsequently included in the 1985 collection Fortunate Son: The Best of Dave Marsh. This essay is remarkable, I think, for several reasons. For starters, it resists reducing […]

Recent discussions regarding the respective merits of rockism versus poptimism (such as…) reminded me of the following essay by Cheryl Cline in which this former editor of Bitch and Twangin’ nails the ways that writers with a rock bias often misunderstand or condescend to country music when they write about it at all. There’s now a permanent link to […]

Just returned from a trip to Nashville where we made it a point to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and its fine current exhibit “I Can’t Stop Loving You: Ray Charles and Country Music.”  My favorite of the many artifacts on display, hands down, was the dozen or so examples of the Ray-Ban sunglasses Charles’ sported over […]

The best criticism is revisionist. It offers readers the means to re-vision, to see or hear again, what we immodestly reckoned was already sufficiently understood. Thanks to Greil Marcus and his Mystery Train, artists like Elvis and Sly Stone are now widely seen as embodying peculiarly American strivings. In A Change Is Gonna Come, Craig […]

Missouri Town Denies Unmarried Couple Permit
Wednesday, May 17
Black Jack, MO (AP) - The city council has rejected a measure allowing unmarried couples with multiple children to live together, and the mayor said those who fall into that category could soon face eviction.
Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit after moving into a […]

 
The Seeger Sessions opens with Bruce Springsteen laughing. He’s counting off the intro to “Old Dan Tucker,” and from the sound of it, a smile like the wide Missouri is beaming off his familiar mug. Springsten starts in to telling about this ”fine old man” Tucker, a character sketch that’s all myth and tall tale–”He combed […]

We’re probably going to be stepping away temporarily from the strictly country-focused posting for a bit. Too much great music of all types coming out right now–and too many other thoughts rattling around in my head. But before we turn to other topics, I want to comment upon a trio of swell retro country releases […]