Eric Church: Why is Anyone Surprised?

Why on earth is anyone surprised by Eric Church's Rollingstone interview?

So he said some swear words, he insulted the elderly and he said something that some of us already think about "The Voice" and Blake Shelton. Apparently Church is indeed the angry redneck that he presents himself as and he's also a bit eccentric. That's why his music feels authentic. That's why we (dis)like him. And yes, that's why he makes some of  us a little uncomfortable.

See previous blog post on my discomfort with Eric Church.

Was it good thinking for Eric Church to shoot his mouth off in a Rollingstone interview and hurt the feelings of some of his fellow country music stars? No, but if he finds himself in too deep he'll just jack up his truck a little higher and slog out of the muck as best he can with a mess of fans pushing from behind.

The line in the article that I found the most amusing was contributed by Arthur Buenahora, a Nashville macher (influencial executive) instrumental in getting Church on his way.

"He's probably the most misunderstood guys in our format because he's really the kind of guy you'd want to be buddies with" says Buenahora. "You'd want your sister to marry a guy like that."

Well, my sister is currently single, but I would really rather not have Eric Church and his dirty mouth at my Shabbat dinner table so I'm not going to encourage this relationship. I will continue to listen to him while chopping onions and basting the chicken.

If you haven't actually read it, find the Rollingstone article and do so. It's good reading!  The article isn't available online to non-subscribers. Unless you're willing to pay their small fee you'll have to do it the old fashioned way, go to a magazine stand, look for the Rollingstone with Obama on the cover (Wow, Church must hate that.) and stand there for eight minutes and read the article.

Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan and Lauren Alaina in Fayetteville, NC

Saturday January 21st, Crown Center, Fayetteville, NC

On Saturday night my husband and I drove an hour and a half through the rain to see Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan in Fayetteville. I realize this sounds a bit crazy since we get so many concerts in Raleigh, but I think it's worth driving to Fayetteville and we're going to do so more often. The Crown Center is a smaller indoor coliseum. One can see the performer without having to rely on video screens from any seat 100 level level of bleachers. Everything is also cheaper there than in Raleigh. Parking is free, a 24 oz beer is $8, a draft beer is only $6, and most of the food is under $5.  Tickets for better seats also tend to be less expensive than in Raleigh. The fact that it required us to pay an additional $20 for a babysitter's time is rather besides the point. I'd rather help out a college student than spend the same money on parking, overpriced domestic light beer, and nachos.


Waiting for Aldean to come on stage from the back of Crown Coliseum.
This was taken with an iphone. Objects are closer than they appear.



We arrived in time to hear Lauren Alaina's very short but energetic set. Even though it's a cheesy song, I teared up a bit during "Like My Mother Does".  The woman in front of me was bawling and my tear ducts involuntarily leaked sympathetically. Alaina did a cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" that she mashed-up to one of her songs but it wasn't memorable enough for me to even remember what song she sang. Her notable contribution to the tour is that she joins Aldean on stage and sings Kelly Clarkson's part in "Don't You Wanna Stay". After having seen a handful of concerts where the headliner sings with a projection of some sort, this is a welcome duet solution. Alaina has a strong enough voice to stand in Clarkson's shoes for a live performance of the duet. I doubt anyone in the audience was disappointed that Clarkson's digital image was left on the truck.

Luke Bryan opened with what my husband thinks is the stupidest song in country music, "Rain is a Good Thing". I'll argue that "Country Girl Shake it for Me" makes "Rain is a Good Thing" sound like an excerpt from Talmud. Luke Bryan really does have some idiotic lyrics. "Sittin' here, waitin' on a deer, drinkin' beer, and wasting bullets." "Girl, you make my Speakers go Boom Boom".  I happen to like "Do I", "All My Friends Say" and his new song "I Don't Want the Night to End", not that any of the lyrics to these songs are any better.  There is a grand canyon between what I think of Luke Byran's music, and my appreciation of him as a performer. The three times I've seen him live, he's been thoroughly entertaining. He's sexy. He wiggles his hips around, and all the ladies holler and giggle. He runs and skips all over the stage but also banters at the audience of 10,000 like it's an amusing intimate conversation. He's the perfect contrast to Aldean.  Jason Aldean is a serious guy. He's in the business of country rock, and he delivers his services with little fanfare. Aldean rarely talks and he never dances. The fact that they're such good friends and enjoy touring together benefits both of them.

Jason Aldean played radio hit after radio hit and the audience was on their feet, bouncing around, waving their hands in the air, and singing for the entire performance. He opened with "Johnny Cash" and closed with "Dirt Road Anthem" and "Hicktown".  The one song that many in the audience didn't yet know is "Fly Over States", the last single he'll release from the My Kinda Party album. I am so glad that he's chosen to release "Fly Over States" as it's one of my two favorite songs from the album. Sadly, the song I think is the most interesting on My Kinda Party, "Church Pew or Bar Stool" will probably slip into obscurity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6OEPp3PSPA (click to hear "Fly Over States")


About halfway through Aldean's set, Bryan reappeared and the two of them did three or four acoustic songs on a platform in the back of the auditorium. It's not unusual for an artist to move onto a platform in the center of a performance space for a quiet breather. Both Brad Paisley and Tailor Swift do this at every concert. What I thought was special, if I dare use that word to describe part of a big commercial concert, was the combination of Aldean and Bryan, doing something very different than what we're used to seeing them do, an informal acoustic set. I'm sure it was mostly scripted, but the two musicians obviously trust one another enough to allow for moments of improvisation and their friendship is palpable.



Another bad iphone photo, this one of Bryan and Aldean during their acoustic set.
They were perhaps 40 feet in front of us.



 There was a big contrast between this Aldean/Bryan concert and the one I saw two years ago at the same venue. Two years ago the audience sat through most of the songs, waiting for the few familiar hits. The family sitting next to me had clearly attended the show just to hear "Big Green Tractor", as did my then six year old daughter. Both musicians have enjoyed a huge amount of success in the last two years. They've gone from being relatively new stars to enormous established stars. I'll be interested to see if they continue to tour together every few years, or if they will decide they need to separate their tours to keep audience interest. My opinion is if they both continue to record well received new music, and they both significantly change up their setlists and shtick from year to year, they could continue to reap the benefits of their terrific chemistry indefinately.



Hubby wore a smile and a plaid shirt as per my request. There was a whole lot of plaid at this concert.



New Years Notes, in a rush.

The blog has been terribly neglected during the last few months. My first resolution for the 2012 is to write more. At the very least, I will post a review of every concert I attend in 2012.

I also will not leave the house without at least some make-up on, and ponytails will be restricted to the gym and hiking trail.

But enough about resolutions. 

This year I saw a ton of live shows. The best show by far was Taylor Swift's. The best country show I saw was the Country Showdown with Willie Nelson, Jamey Johnson, and Randy Houser. The concert that was the most fun, was Kenny Chesney's. The one I wish I hadn't missed is Toby Keith with Eric Church.

I started out the year distrusting Eric Church and ended up loving him. I went from thinking that he is just too aggressive and rough to thinking he's rather sexy and brilliant (on top of being aggressive and rough). As a side note, the combination of attraction and revulsion to men of the sort Church represents has been plaguing me since Junior High.


I discovered that David Nail really doesn't enunciate when he sings. The first time I saw him was when he opened for Lady Antebellum and I was sitting way in back. I figured that I couldn't understand him because of a sound issue. I saw him again in a smaller venue with good seats. I still couldn't understand him. Note to David Nail for the New Year. If there is ONE THING a country singer needs to do, it's to enunciate.

This year I want to see Dierks Bentley, Zac Brown Band, and Little Big Town. I've made a resolution that I'll see their shows if they come to town even if I have to go alone. 

The first two shows of the year will be Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan and Lauren Alaina, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Let's kibitz later! A happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year to all.

Where are y'all going? Brad Paisley isn't done singing yet!

My friend and loyal reader, Rachel, reminded me that it's been a while since we've kibitzed country music, so here we go...

The last concert I attended was in September, Brad Paisleys' H2O2 tour with Blake Shelton and Jerrod Niemann at The Time Warner Pavilion at Walnut Creek, Raleigh. To much time has passed since the concert so I'll skip the play by play and just give brief impressions.

Jerrod Niemann apparently has a goofy side. His band dressed as superheros. He got people on their feet, making arm letters and singing along to "For Everclear". I'm looking forward to seeing him perform again in November, at the Durham Performing Arts Center in the Country for Kids concert supporting UNC Childrens Hospital. 

Blake Shelton sweats like a drunk...pig isn't accurate...I don't know. He sweats like a drunk country music star. At any minute you wonder if he's going to do or say something outrageous. But apart from the slight gross factor (Lord knows how he scored Miranda), my friends and I really enjoyed his show. I love Ol' Red, Austin, and Hillbilly Bone.

Brad Paisley is Brad Paisley. Everything about him and his performance is polished.

So what am I going to kibitz about? I'm going to kvetch about my pet peeves; sitting next to empty seats and people leaving concerts early  in order to beat the traffic.

We had cheap lawn seats and were upgraded to real seats inside the pavilion. I'm assuming that they had security walking around the lawn handing out tickets for these seats because the area around the end of the catwalk, between the blue areas of sections 6 and 7 in the diagram below, was not full. It would have been embarrassing for Brad Paisley to sit on the end of the catwalk (on a toilet that night, due to a prank by Sunny Sweeny's band) singing a love song surrounded by (pink flamingos and) empty seats.

We were sitting in the back-middle of section 8.
Many seats in front of us and all of the seats to our left were empty.
This map is not to scale. The lawn is deeper than the pavilion itself and appeared to be very full.

It's unlikely that I will take those free upgraded tickets again. It's a buzzkill to sit in the back, on the edge of a puddle of bodies around the end of the catwalk, with a sea of empty seats stretching into the distance. The venue should try and fill the entire pavilion if they're already giving free upgrades. Why leave 500 or more empty seats? There were probably 8000 people on the lawn. Unless folks have learned their lesson and know that staying on the lawn is just more fun, they could have found takers for those tickets among people sitting very far back. A big part of a being at a concert is a sharing energy with other attendees. The only energy to be felt where we were sitting was from a group of shrieking sorority sisters sitting behind us. Being surrounded by empty seats sucks the life out of me.

Then, to make it worse, about halfway through Brad Paisley's set, people started to drift out. Why did these people come at all? Some of them payed over $100 a ticket. The people sitting next to us left 45 minutes before he was done in order to avoid traffic.

I think it is rude for an entire party to walk out of a concert in the middle of an artist's set. It's rude to the performer (even if they're used to it and no longer give it much thought) and it's rude to the audience. Perhaps the fact that I grew up attending classical music performances influences my opinion here. I can't imagine a quarter of the audience getting up and walking out of Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh in the middle of a performance by Yo-Yo Ma in order to avoid getting caught in a bit of traffic.

What makes it OK to walk out on Brad Paisley?

Joe Nichols, Take It Off!

Joe Nichols' new video for "Take It Off" is out. Here's a link to the video.

In the video Nichols creates a magical "Take It Off" frame out of newspaper.  When a woman, walking down the street minding her own business, crosses into the frame, she suddenly finds herself in a bikini holding a beach bag.  Of course she's thrilled and proceeds to the party happening at the large above ground pool in the middle of an intersection.

Apart from the fact that this song had much greater video potential than just another girls in bikinis party video, I'm wondering if Joe Nichols doesn't realize that his greatest fan base is female. We're not interested in watching another bunch of skinny girls in bikinis frolicking in a pool. At the very least, Mr. Nichols, take your own shirt off! Why is it that everyone else in the video is half dressed when viewed through the "Take it Off" frame, but you, Sir, change into a drab grey T-shirt?  If you can dish it, you can take it...off!

"Kennyyyyyyy, I love youuuuuu!!!!!!" screached the drunk blond.


Anytime you tell anyone who has been to a Kenny Chesney concert that you're going to a Kenny Chesney concert, they say "You'll have fun. Kenny Chesney puts on the best show", or "Kenny Chesney concerts are a blast." Kenny Chesney has been channelling Jimmy Buffet, so my assumption before the concert was that it is going to be one big party.

The scene is set when we park our car and out of the SUV next to us tumbles, like clowns out of a phonebooth, a seemingly endless stream  of barely legals with open containers and attitudes. One young lady rushes across to the edge of the woods and squats in plain view of the parking lot and the handful of men also doing their business along that strip of woods. Welcome to a Kenny Chesney concert.



Happily waiting for the show to begin.



Our car is parked almost mile away, so for 16 minutes we march with our lawnchairs past tailgaters swilling beer, with their tents and cornhole. We know we are close when we arrive at the RV parties, complete with bigscreen TVs and Karaoke machines. There is always tailgating at Walnut Creek, there is just more of it than usual. We are a little surprised when we were able to score a spot on the lawn about a quarter of the way back, right in the center. The gates have been open for half an hour but everyone is still outside partying, and has been for almost two hours. As we're sitting there observing the abundance of cute girls in their daisy dukes, boots, and braids we notice a young woman weaving back and forth as she approaches the group sitting in front of us. "Where do I know you from?" she slurs. There are smiles and hugs and then she stumbles back to her seat. The concert hasn't even started yet and she's already smashed.

Photos from www.newsobserver.com of the tailgating at Walnut Creek.


I thought these young women looked great in their get-ups.

 Uncle Kracker was the first to open. My friend Kristie jokes, "Well of course he's opening. Isn't it his job to follow Kenny Chesney around?" It's easy to poke fun at Uncle Kracker but I like his song "Good to be Me". In general, his set is underwhelming. He closes with his buddy Kid Rock's "All Summer Long", and by then most of the partiers have drifted in, filling in the spaces. An unconscious vomit streaked 20 something is spotted being carried out on a lawnchair by an army of security. The concert has barely begun. That's not fun.

Billy Currington gets the crowd on their feet. I love the sense of humor in his songs. Because we are sitting so far back at the concert I don't have much to say about Currington's set apart from that it's fun to sing along with him. He has just enough hits to make him the perfect opening act. He can fill his short set with songs we all know.

I head to the restrooms right after he leaves the stage, and, after being stuck in a crushing bottleneck that forces me to tread across the former contents of someone's stomach, I find myself in a line to the ladies room that was, I kid you not, at least 1000 women long. The bathroom mission is aborted and replaced by a beer run. I did manage to make it back to the restroom in the middle of Chesney's set. There was no line and just one sick girl standing over a garbage can with her very patient friend, missing the concert. That's not fun.


The lawn was packed at Walnut Creek

Enter Kenny Chesney! "I love you Kenny! I love you!" Shrieks the drunk blond behind me, right into my ear. We are so far back that when I extend my arm and hold up my thumb, Kenny Chesney is the height of my thumbnail. Although with better visibility comes a better experience, being at a concert where the audience knows every single word of every single song is a whole lot of fun, regardless of where you're sitting.  The crowd is singing along, and when he quiets for even a second, the space is filled with a roar. Everybody is dancing, from the 6 year old in a gingham dress on her father's shoulders to the shirtless beer-bellied 65 year old with the handlebar mustache. All the couples are hugging and quite a few making out, including the lesbian couple nearby. There was so much love and happiness in the amphitheater it's clear; when people say that a Kenny Chesney concert is a blast, that's what they're talking about.
Photos of Kenny Chesney in concert from www.newsobserver.com

The concert ended. While waiting for my friends to get through the restroom line, I shared a picnic table with a family. Their 20 year old son appears to be a mean drunk, strutting around, flexing his bare pectorals and looking for a fight. I said to his older sister, "Maybe he just needs a hug." She snorts. He suddenly sits down. "Mama, I'm so thirsty. I'm just so thirsty." Mama rolls her eyes. I toss him my water bottle. He drinks it down, shuts up and puts his head in his hands. He has stopped having fun.

We march back to the car, past the recharged RV parties, over the creek and through the woods (literally) with a lively bunch of folks, to find the youngsters from the car parked next to us locked out of their car, with the battery dead. Two of them are curled up on a blanket exhausted or nearly passed out. Nobody has a AAA account except one of the girls on the blanket, and she'd have to call her Mom for the number. She wasn't rushing to call Mom. After attempting to help them problem solve for a few minutes we threw in the towel and said "Good luck." Security would eventually help them or the seemingly sober driver would break down and call his parents. They would be OK, but that's not fun.

Now you may ask, why is so much of this article about drunks? Because apart from the music, there is a whole lot of drinking at a Kenny Chesney concert. I've been to around twenty concerts and shows in the last two years and haven't seen so much drunkenness. Even I, for the first time in my 25 years of driving, decided to leave my car where I parked it that afternoon, in a friend's driveway, and pick it up the next morning. If stopped by the police, I surely would have failed a breathalyzer test. I was not the designated driver so it's neither here nor there that I drank a couple beers into tipsy, but it is no wonder that so many of the twenty somethings ended up as complete messes.

So is there a moral to the story? Of course, but it's obvious. I had fun. The majority of attendees had fun. The only people who didn't have fun are the ones who drank themselves into oblivion or had to take care of a sick friend. Don't be one of those people. Kenny Chesney concerts are a blast.

1300 Calories Later, Jason Michael Carroll's Numbers

Jason Michael Carrol
image from  Cracker Barrel's website

Did you know that Cracker Barrel actually has its own record label? The other day I had to google "Cracker Barrel locations" in order to purchase Jason Michael Carroll's new album, Numbers. I met my friend Rachel and her sweet little girl for lunch and as we walked in I shook my head and said to Rachel "the things I'll do for country music...."  After partaking of a biscuit, chicken & dumplin's, green beans, fried okra, sweet tea (all adding up to over 1300 calories, oh no!) and good conversation, I bought the CD, loaded it into the player in the trunk of my car and headed home, speakers blasting.

Country Kibitzer wondering why she's eating at Cracker Barrel when she's on a diet.

This was just the beginning.

 Jason Michael Carrol lives in the Raleigh area, so I've seen him perform three times in the last nine months and have heard at least half of the songs on the album during those performances. I expected to like this album. What was unexpected was my becoming so completely immersed in the album that I missed two separate exits onto highways that could take me home. If you happened to see a chubby but cute blond mama in an old Mercury, singing and dancing in her seat while circling the RDU Airport on August 2nd, after lunch, that was me.

The album opens with a "This is for the Lonely", an uptempo song, with terrific lyrics, that showcases Carroll's beautiful voice. When Carroll hits those low notes, it goes straight to my toes. Of all the songs on the album, they definitely chose the right one to start with. I'd like to hear "This is for the Lonely" on the radio.

JMC performing "This is for the Lonely" at UNC-Pembroke.

As videos recorded from the audience go, this one has decent sound.

Numbers, the first single off the album, has grown on me over the last few months. QDR, our local country station, has played it with such frequency that my original wall of resistance crumbled. That was the song I was belting at the top of my lungs as I missed the exits to the highway.  Still, the subject matter is perplexing, but who cares? It's a pretty song.

A fan made video for "Numbers" with photos of JMC in concert. 

"Numbers" is followed by a spiritual but sad "Ray of Hope", a song about loneliness and prayer. It is a quiet and lovely song that many people will be able to relate to.

"Meet Me in the Barn" is the party song on the album and I'm thrilled to finally have a recorded version to dance around the kitchen to. I've heard him perform "Meet Me in the Barn" three times with his band, so was taken by surprise when toward the end of the song a female voice enters the mix. The addition of the female voice is great but it's unclear who the woman singing is. Does anyone know? This song was supposed to be the first single from the album, but due to another song about a barn being released by Trace Atkins at the same time, they decided to release the song "Numbers". I do hope "Meet Me in the Barn" makes it to radio because it makes me smile.

Another good recording from the UNC-Pembroke show by the same fan.

"Meet Me in the Barn" performed without the female vocalist mentioned above.

Another entertaining song is the quirky "Can I Get an Amen", an odd and unexpected political song. It sports lines like "I believe in equal pay, if the job's the same why pay somebody less. It don't make sense. And I believe in women's rights, but I ain't gonna lie, I do like a short, tight dress." and "I believe in loud guitars, smoky bars and muscle cars, pick-up trucks and gun control, as long as they leave mine alone." The originality of having a gospel choir accompany him on this type of song is disarming and caused me giggle until I teared up with happiness. Finally, a song about being a moderate redneck. Beautiful!

The remaining six songs are all about relationships.  They range in quality from OK to good. He performed "Let Me" and "Last Words" at Rapids Jam and I enjoyed them live. The weakest one is "My Favorite" which is just too schmaltzy. "Stray" is interesting but it's about knowing that your partner is destined to cheat. Oy. What a bummer of a topic. According to the dates on YouTube videos, "Stray" (click for info) is a song Carroll has been performing for some time.  Apparently he wanted to put it on his first album but the record label refused.  If he's been performing "Stray" for this long it was probably a great decision to finally record it.

"Stray"

He closes the album with his hit from a few years ago, "Alyssa Lies". I have seen grown men cry during this song at his show. It's a good one.

If you like Jason Michael Carroll's voice I suggest going to Cracker Barrel and buying the CD, but learn from my mistakes. Don't overeat! Tonight I had carrots, celery, and pickels for dinner.