New young country diva Katie Armiger certainly has the image of a nice girl, but on her new album Confessions of A Nice Girl, it is clear that Armiger is a nice girl who has been hurt and is becoming tough. Even the sunny opening track “Best Song Ever” has an ambiguity between whether it is to be taken at face value or sarcastically, and songs that follow like “Nice Girl”, “Cry Cry Cry”, “Ain’t Gonna Happen”, “Scream” and “Ain’t So Sweet” are all about a girl who might have once been “sweet and nice” but who has been hurt to the point of fierce resistance. Perhaps the saddest song of the album is “Leaving Home”, in which Armiger explains to her mother that she has to leave to pursue her dreams of country stardom. Ultimately, with Confessions of a Nice Girl, Katie Armiger has burst onto the country scene with an album of stark originality and conviction.
country
Hearing Colt Ford on a studio album is one thing, but hearing him live, with the enthusiastic cheers of his fans and backed by his first-rate band is something altogether different. Recorded at a live gig at the lovely Suwannee River Music Park in 2009, Live at Suwannee River Jam shows Ford at his best, comfortable in a backwoods outdoor venue performing for an appreciative audience. Most of the songs are familiar to anyone who has heard Ride Through The Country, but the cover of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” is noteworthy, as is “Saddle Up”, on which each band member takes a solo. “Dirt Road Anthem” is here, too, of course, and the overall feel of the album is an odd mix of love of God, love of country and love of raising hell. But it’s great fun, and you’re left with the feeling that Colt Ford really loves the country, really loves his fans, and means every word he raps. And that’s ultimately what it’s all about.
Hearing Colt Ford on a studio album is one thing, but hearing him live, with the enthusiastic cheers of his fans and backed by his first-rate band is something altogether different. Recorded at a live gig at the lovely Suwannee River Music Park in 2009, Live at Suwannee River Jam shows Ford at his best, comfortable in a backwoods outdoor venue performing for an appreciative audience. Most of the songs are familiar to anyone who has heard Ride Through The Country, but the cover of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” is noteworthy, as is “Saddle Up”, on which each band member takes a solo. “Dirt Road Anthem” is here, too, of course, and the overall feel of the album is an odd mix of love of God, love of country and love of raising hell. But it’s great fun, and you’re left with the feeling that Colt Ford really loves the country, really loves his fans, and means every word he raps. And that’s ultimately what it’s all about.
Album Review: Colt Ford’s “Chicken and Biscuits” @coltford
The marriage of rap and country is not as contrived as one might first imagine. For one thing, if hip-hop was born in New York, that doesn’t change the fact that many of its originators were the children of African-Americans who had recently migrated from the South. Furthermore, there is a fairly long tradition of “talking records” in country, a tradition that might have been influenced by “talking blues” from Black rural communities. So what Colt Ford is doing with his sophomore album Chicken and Biscuits is not a divorce from the grand tradition of country music, but a contribution to it. Songs like “Cricket on a Line”, “Nothing in Particular” and “We Like to Hunt” celebrate the classic pastimes of the traditional South, but from a younger perspective. The title track portrays the ideal woman, comparing her to the goodness of a plate of chicken and biscuits. “Ride On, Ride Out” is a collaboration with DMC of Run-DMC, and “Hip-Hop in a Honky Tonk” deals with some of the ambiguities of country’s attitude toward rap. “Convoy” is a remake of the classic 70’s trucker anthem, which was itself a sort of rap. Ultimately, while Chicken and Biscuits may not be every country fan’s cup of tea, it is great fun, and masterfully conceived.
Jimbo Mathus (@JimboMathus): Clinging to the Roots at the Levitt Shell (@LevittShell)
Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition, kicking off the Levitt Shell season at Overton Park on May 14, 2011 with a set of songs from his upcoming new album “Confederate Buddah” on Memphis International Records, out May 24. The crowd particularly enjoyed the eerily-prophetic “Cling to the Roots and You Won’t Wash Away” and “Too Much Water Under The Bridge”, which were both written more than a year BEFORE the Memphis flood!