Recommendation IV: Kathleen Edwards

Hello once again: I’m actually writing this right now from LAX waiting for my flight to arrive so I can go back home for spring break. I’ve had such stressful and long weeks of school work, so I’m so happy and relieved to get some kind of break now, and relax and finally make a new entry for you all and myself. By the time I post what I’m writing now though, it will probably be quite a few hours after that lol (update: right I kinda was: it’s now a day and half later and I’m barely posting it). So here it is! :

My fourth recommendation is: Kathleen Edward’s “In State” from her 2005 Back to Me album. This is the first recommendation which I do not currently own the full album of, but from what I’ve heard of it online and on an Austin City Limits television performance I’ve seen of Kathleen Edwards‘s, the whole album sounds really good. Her style is definitely not traditional country unlike two former songs I have recommended: she’s more Americana/alternative country and rock-sounding IMO, so somewhat like Lucinda Williams. It’s a fine genre to be in because more and more over the past years, I’ve been digging into some independent label or not-very-commercial artists, and I find it’s really a great mix of styles and a very nice break from some of the popular “country” radio type of stuff.

Recommendation III: Mark Chesnutt

Finally…I have a little time to do a third one. I’ve had such a busy (and stressful) week, and I tried to post earlier, but Blogger’s site was down. While I should be doing other things right now (college stuff), I needed to make a new entry because I didn’t want to lose my audience because I wasn’t posting anything new on here lol.

My third recommendation is: Mark Chesnutt’s “The Lord Loves the Drinkin’ Man” from his 2004 Savin’ the Honky Tonk album. Mark is the most underrated man on country radio I think (as Patty Loveless is the most underrated for the females), and this whole album is just INCREDIBLE. One of my favorite albums of all time! If you love honky-tonk songs with lots of steel guitar and fiddle that you can dance to and shuffle along with, this is the album to get. Mark’s voice sounds so good and it’s at its finest on this album. I can’t say enough good things about this album!

Recommendation II: Patty Loveless

O.K…here is the second blog entry: I typed this one up all of yesterday (Friday) and then I came back on this morning and saw that it had disappeared, so here I am writing it all over again. Anyway, thanks to all those who gave their feedback in the comments section and at other places! I really appreciate it!

My second recommendation is: Patty Loveless’s “Same Kind of Crazy” from her 2005 Dreamin’ My Dreams album. Patty is my #1 favorite female artist of all time: she’s just so awesome. She can sing a straight-up country song, a contemporary pop-country ballad, a southern rocker, or a down home mountain-soul bluegrass song, or whatever and her talent is just so good on different styles and she’s so versatile. And man…her voice! Just amazing and it has so much emotion! Ask any sophisticated country fan and they’ll tell you that Patty Loveless is one of the best. I had a hard time choosing a song for this second entry and had so many choices, but I went with a female (the best!) and a rockin’ country uptempo about the mutual insanity this couple in the song shares for one another. Also, it was really tough only selecting one song from this album because I try to review only one song and not the whole album, but really, the whole album is just incredible, and you’d love it, if you like traditional country, contemporary country, or bluegrass!

Recommendation I: Clint Black

Welcome to the new blog for iCF Music!!! I created this blog just so I can write down my thoughts and opinions on different songs (mostly country music stuff) and share it with anyone who will read them. I was inspired by Kevin @ his Country Universe blog, and I was inspired by other blogs as well. I’m not new to making websites or anything (I’ll list them later), but I’m kinda new to blogging (I do have some experience with it, though) and wanted to get more into it, since it’s such a cool way to connect to other people across the world and I love talking about music and recommending anything good that I hear. I’m a male college student and I really love traditional country music, so there’ll be a good amount of that represented, along with some other types/styles of music. I’ll try to do reviews/recommendations as often as I can. So I hope this turns out to be an active blog that people read!

My first recommendation is: Clint Black’s “Go It Alone” from his 2005 Drinkin’ Songs & Other Logic album. Clint is one of my top 10 most favorite artists of all time, and I just love his music and the songs he writes, though I was not able to get this album until about two weeks ago through a birthday present. Anyway, I’ll get to the review of the song: it is one of the best songs on the album!

When I heard the steel guitar and fiddle intro with the harmonica and steady acoustic guitar strum in the beginning, I knew I’d love it, because I love traditional stuff and this slow-tempo one just does it for me. It reminds me of something he might have released in the ’90s or late ’80s when country was more country and he could get recognized for his talent and I think he could have had a big hit with this one (almost sounds like “Walkin’ Away”, which I love too!). The chorus makes me sad and is the best part of the song: it’s the part that holds you in even more: ” you go it alone my old friend, we could never know how just how it would end… “. It reminds me of my 17-year-old dog that I recently lost in February, because we went on so many adventures in life, out there in the Arizona desert and the song has a very cowboy-feel to the sound and the lyrics, so it goes with that too. And I believe, from my own interpretation, that the song’s gotta be about the death of a friend, so that’s how I connected to it.