He's a rambling man

Wherein I can feel the power of Jack Sparks' convictions and even though I'm not much of a country fan I know he speaks the truth


Jack is back with a vengeance. Sad thing is, what Jack writes about the country music industry and radio play could probably be written about all types of music on the radio. It's a dirty, corrupt business.

The Little Willies sound interesting, I'll have to check them out.

Do that clicky thing:

Drive By Truckers, "A Blessing and A Curse"

A few minutes into the second song ("Gravity's Gone") of the Drive By Truckers' latest record, A Blessing and A Curse, we get this:
Between the champagne, hand jobs and the kissing ass by everyone involved
Cocaine rich comes quick and that's why the small dicks have it all.
"Cocaine rich comes quick..." Members of the Teimon school in the 16th Century used to furtively self-flaggelate hoping for 5 syllables like that.

The Little Willies

When you add the 4 short bars of ringing piano following these words, Lee Alexander and the buttery voice of Norah Jones, through their side project The Little Willies, have done in 50 seconds what DC and BFW would probably argue that Lange and Twain have been attempting for roughly 11 years. Compared to this, the latter have been abject failures. If you want pop infusion and influence with some meat in it, you need to start with a base of talent that has room to grow inside the music it chooses where it can find its way and maybe leave a few marks here and there. Whereas Twain's music is chosen for its pop sensibilities and whether it fits her image and is sellable on shithouses like K102, the members of the Little Willies chose the music they recorded for its depth and feel, then tailored their talents around bringing a pop sensibility to the obviously twang underbelly. Because Twain's talents are purely showmanship and looks, the interpretation that the Willie's bring to bear on the non-originals they recorded for this album, will never be a part of her repertoire.

Hank III, "Straight to Hell"

I like Hank III more than I like Shooter Jennings. I can't put my finger on it, but I've not only seen, I've also observed them both, and Hank just has a leaner, more desperate, slant to what he's doing. Both are derivative (Jesus, how could they not be?), but Hank has more of an edge; at the end of a Shooter show, I find myself wondering who the lazy stoner is.

I like that this 2-disc set was put out by Bruc records. He used to record for Curb Records in Nashville, the same fat shit heels who brought you Tim McGraw. I can't tell you what Bruc is; I can't tell you if it's just a play on words and he's still on Curb. But, if he's not, this is certainly a clever way to tell a major label to shove their whole program up their asses.

I like that most of this album couldn't be played on K102 by whole-milk and Wonder Bread Travis Moon and his army of robots, without heavy use of Cool Edit and the bleep.

I like that every other song is about drug abuse.

Why Jack did not watch the CMAs

I don't need a self-righteous man in his 70's wearing Prada shoes and Gucci sunglasses to tell me what these things mean. In my heart I know that Kenny Chesney is the biggest phoney fucking poser since Milli and/or Vanilli. But, just like the Church, millions of people still tune in for "the message," when it's written down plain as day for them to read at any local independent record store into which they may stumble.