myTunes 36 Most Played Songs (12.10.08)

I’ve been thinking about doing this for quite some time – revealing what my top played songs are on iTunes.  By default, the most played playlist is set at 25 or something, but since 36 is my lucky number and 36 just happens to fit perfectly in the height of laptop screen monitor (to where I didn’t have to scroll down to see the whole list), it worked out so so good.

Revealing this list, for me, feels like letting out my public tax return information to the public lol (well, it wouldn’t be big at all, but just imagine that I’m a celebrity and this is now common knowledge).  I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, though some of my choices and rankings of some songs and artists might surprise/turn off/turn on some people, so it’s your choice on what you’ll decide to think of me from now on hahaha.  Whatever, though.  We all have our guilty pleasures/inner demons :p.

I’ll list it backwards, from #36 to #1.  It’s pretty accurate (well, these are based on plays from when I uploaded the tracks to my laptop’s iTunes in summer 2006, and from iPod plays, so it’s based from then).  You will see my varying tastes, from traditional/pop/alternative/rocking/country,bluegrass, rock, pop, and alternative rock.

These below are my stats, as of this moment, Tuesday night, December 9th. 2008 @ 11:23pm (out of about 39,000 plays):

51st GRAMMY Award Nominations / CMT Giants: Alan Jackson

I know I haven’t posted in a while (been busy and lazy and uninspired lol).  Since I did my afterthought review on the CMAs in November, I figured I’d do one for these two important items (as you can see from my glorious poster-like creation on the right side in this entry lol):

- The 51st Grammy Award Nominations

and

- CMT Giants: Alan Jackson

I decided to combine my thoughts into one post, since I’d rather not make two separate ones (I like them big posts!  Tags’R'Us).  Believe me, there are better ways of organizing these opinions, but I don’t feel like worrying about it lol.  They are placed in different sections.  Scroll down for the CMT Giants review.

The nomination for the 2009 Grammy Awards were announced a few days ago, and I’ve already commented on them already at a few sites, but here’s my more extensive analysis.

First of all, as I first read through the list, I was absolutely thrilled by their choices.  The Grammys has a respectable tendency in its history to appreciate and honor actual good music (well, in the country genre, at least.  I’m not sure about other genres.), and while they do have some questionable choices sometimes, they are definitely a lot more smarter and better judges when it comes to art and music than people are for say… country award shows (yeah, record sells always equal talent, don’t they Nashville?).  The Grammys enormously pleased me with the Dixie Chicks wins last time.  Anyway, like other people online have commented, the nominations for 2009 (or is it for 2008?  Whatever it is, for the upcoming awards) are really exciting and one of the best they’ve ever came up with.  I’m not going to list all the nominations or the categories, but I’ll give my opinion on what songs I want to.

Let’s start in the country genre (here’s an easy list to look at for country related noms from CU and here for the full noms), and let’s look at the nominations for “Best Female Country Vocal Performance”.   I thought they were pretty good, though I wouldn’t necessarily place Martina McBride‘s song in that category (it’s a decent song, but there are better choices).  I’ve never heard LeAnn Rimes‘s song until just right now: wow, very good vocals and not a bad song.  My choice (unsurprisingly) would be Lee Ann Womack‘s “Last Call”.  I wouldn’t mind if Carrie Underwood or Trisha Yearwood‘s songs won, because I love those ones too.  I’m glad Taylor Swift was left off.

Now: “Best Male Country Vocal Performance”… I’m not really blown away by any of those songs, but they’re not horrible horrible choices.  I gotta go with my man, George Strait, though.  I’ve grown quite a liking to “Troubadour”, as I heard it more as a radio single.

“Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals”.   Hmm… I’m gonna have to go with Lady Antebellum.  But wow, I just listened to The Steel Drivers‘s “Blue Side of the Mountain” and I love it… edgy mountain-sounding vocals with hard-driving bluegrass instruments.  Will definitely check them out!  Looks like Chris Stapleton sings for them… forgot about that.  I’d be fine if Sugarland‘s song or Brooks & Dunn‘s won too, but definitely don’t want Rascal Flatts to win a thing.

I really like the choices with “Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals”, except for the obvious song that stands apart from the rest: the Kenny Chesney/Strait duet (which is only saved by George, but is still not a good song).  You know I’m dig the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant song (more on them later), and the Strait/Patty Loveless duet (my two most favorite male and female artists singing and honoring Johnny and June Carter Cash?  Excellence-ness.  And I hope they win).  Oh yeah, I’m not too fond of “Life in a Northern Town”, like I mentioned in my song review months ago (I would rather hear Chesney and Strait’s tune, to be quite serious).  I enjoy Trisha Yearwood‘s (with Keith Urban‘s harmony) song, so if she won, I wouldn’t cry.  It’s very nice.

iCF Music Site Rolodex (11.19.08)

I am loving the new amount of traffic that’s been coming through here lately (I had about an average of 35-40 different people per day reading the site this week, which is pretty impressive for this blog).  July had the most visitors for the month, but it died down as my blogging lagged, and that makes sense since people lose interest when there’s nothing new lol.  We’ll see how the end of this month does compares to then!  I actually had lots of visitors for the CMA Awards entry (probably because of all those artist tags ha).  I gotta thank Ken Barnes from the “LISTEN UP” USA Today Blog, for linking to this site for this week’s playlist for his Crystal Shawanda recommendation (there are others on the list as well)  Anyway, for this entry, I wanted to recommend the links from my “Other cool music sites” heading on the right, and explain why I chose them to be there.  This is one of my tributes to them and their great work (you can see my “blogroll” tribute here).

(I chose this picture because it was cool and kinda signified the link between my site and these other sites.  They are part of the puzzle that makes the online music world greater.  We may not always “fit in” with others, but we make it work, somehow.  A “necessary connection”, if you will.  Alright, enough with all the corniness.  It’s mostly because I think it’s cool to look at!)

So, let’s get to it.

iCF Music Site Rolodex:

> .::Strait-LAW Forums::. :

- O.K. I admit; this is a shameless plug for one of my own other sites lol, but why not?  It needs more traffic especially with all the info that’s been posted on it.  It’s a message board dedicated to two of my favorite artists, George Strait and Lee Ann Womack.  I spent lots of time on it over the years (the forums officially started July 2004!) and it has changed much since then.  It used to be only a Womack board, but became Strait too, in May 2005.  It’s had its in and outs, but I called it everything but quits ;).  Anyway, not to give a history lesson, but you can read more about the history here and check it out!  Tag-line is: “It’s where you’ll get the good news and the bad news (and anything in between)” - a reference to their first duet.

> All Music Guide :

- One of my absolute favorite sites I go to.  I constantly visit them to read their reviews and listen to audio clips for music.  I used their clips for this site because they’ve got tons of music to sample.  I really like the way all the information is organized and I’ve learned a lot, musically, from there.  They’ve got a music blog too, but their entries about country music seem to be lacking…

> Angry Country :

- This is an online magazine with plenty of country album/concert reviews, interviews, news, and such – “Honest Country Music News” is their tag-line.  I enjoy this site, though I do remember when it was different in the past and a bit more critical (which is more to my liking lol) on artists and a bit more traditional-sided.  Guess they’re not as “angry” as they used to be.  Still a worthy place to visit, for sure.

> Country Interviews Online :

- Just like it says, this is the site to go to for interviews and Q&A’s and also, CD/concert/video reviews and lots more!  There are a good amount of pages I still need to get through!  So much.  The site is structured around frames, so it’d be kinda hard for a visitor to link to a specific page if they didn’t know the whole “right click, copy properties” method, but it’s a nice set-up, overall.

> Country On-Demand :

- This site always impresses me with its colorful, diverse images and consistency with the latest country news.  I believe the site is run by Derrick and Dustin, both gentlemen who I’ve run across and talked to online many times and they’re good guys and have a huge commitment to the site and are also huge fans of country music (how’s that for a run-on sentence, but it’s true).  I’m so glad the site seems to be going strong and I’m a big supporter of it all.  They be goin’ places! Definitely check it out.

Recommendation XXXIV: Sheryl Crow

All I can say to this site’s audience: thanks so much for waiting.  It means a lot to me that people still check out this site regularly even when I don’t post too often.  With my time off from school, I’ve got my good times and bad: it’s nice not having to stress over work and papers (my film class woulda been so fun though), but it is killing me not being able to hang out with my many buddies and others back there.  I feel like I’m missing out and will miss out on lots of stuff, and I’m thinking I might not be able to return in 2009.  But I came up with a plan to visit my friends early than planned before 2008 is over, so I’m excited about that (will be kinda expensive though…lol).  Anyway, I can guess what most of you are thinking when you saw the picture on the side: what’s she doing on the site?  She’s not country! I know she may not be considered “country”, but she’s done several works within the genre and she has integrated it somewhat in her style throughout her whole career.  She’s worked with Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Johnny Cash, the Dixie Chicks, Jack Ingram, Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill, and others, and even her duet with Kid Rock (“Picture”) sounded more country than most songs on country radio, so I think she’s earned at least a recommendation (She even had another single on the country charts with the poppier single, “The First Cut is the Deepest”, if you can remember that.)

My thirty-fourth recommendation is: Sheryl Crow’s “Anything But Down” from her 1998 The Globe Sessions album.  Sheryl is one of my favorite rock/pop artists and I like a fair amount of her work.  I’d have to say that “All I Wanna Do” (the much much better of the songs with that name.  Yeah, I said it, and I do mean it, Sugarland.) is my favorite song of her’s because it’s so catchy and reminds me of the ’90s.  It’s got a slight country feel to it with the steel guitar that’s used prominently in the track, and her voice is always easy to notice.  Even when she turned pop with “Soak Up the Sun”, she was still as good as ever (though, her rockier, edgier stuff is preferred).  I remember when I was young, I confused her with Martina McBride when I saw her lol, especially with her music video for the James Bond movie, “Tomorrow Never Dies” (now I don’t really see any similarities, except that they had real short hair in the past).  My only complaint about Ms. Sheryl Crow is that she seems to kinda mumble when she performs live and while it it part of her style and isn’t done on purpose, it gets somewhat distracting.  But whatever, she’s still a great music icon.

Recommendation XXIX: Loretta Lynn

Hello all. Nice to see you. It’s been a long time… (well, it sure feels like it!).  I feel bad that I haven’t been able to update this site regularly like I was in early July (trust me- if I had internet at home, I’d stick to that routine, but I don’t).   Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been working a lot at two jobs and I’m usually pretty busy.  Thank God one of my best friends works with me at one of the jobs, so it’s fun to just talk and hang when it’s possible.  For the most part, with my free time, I usually relax and watch TV, play video games (classic N64 lol), and rent and watch DVDs from NetFlix.  Right now, I’m stoked for the U.S. release of Crystal Shawanda‘s new album (Dawn of a New Day) out Tuesday, August 19th. Anyway, I’m typing up this entry at home, and will copy and paste it when I get to the library. So here goes…

My twenty-ninth recommendation is: Loretta Lynn’s “Miss Being Mrs.” from her 2004 Van Lear Rose album.  I dunno how it took me so long to spotlight this great legend, but I think she’s the perfect person to come back with after my 2-3 week absence.   It’s hard to know where to begin with Miss Loretta Lynn. I don’t think I really knew her too well growing up in the ’90s.  I remember reading and hearing her name when my favorite artists would list their influences or their own personal favorites, and seeing her on TV for news and countdowns and such, so I grew intrigued.  Her music is so country and has a lot of spirit and attitude, and she’s so funny and kind to everybody.  What a woman.  I remember my mom loves her video for her duet, “Portland, Oregon”, with Jack White (of The White Stripes fame) because she thinks it’s cute how their relationship is like that of a grandmother and grandson.   I’ve always enjoyed Loretta’s wit, and how it shows in her songwriting and songs.  Her heartache songs are like no other, so I was definitely pulled towards that (also, it’s pretty damn cool that she’s Patty Loveless‘s distant cousin… or the other way around ;) ).

iCF Single Reviews #3 (Week of July 6, 2008)

I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many posts, because this massive amount of posting within days is not the norm around here lol, but I just felt like writing tonight. Just felt inspired by other blogs that I read today. Blogging can be very…therapeutic and admit it: it’s pretty fun (just like in real life, I like to express my opinion when I feel like it). O.K. Here’s Numero Tres… and just like last time, the numbers I chose are kinda odd, but I’m going to pick up where I left off last time: #17 and go to #36 (since that’s my lucky number ;) ). I’m getting my chart rankings from Radio & Records‘ site once again, though it is last weeks’ chart I’m using since they have yet to post the latest, but it doesn’t matter. On with the show…

17. “Learning How to Bend” – Gary Allan:

- When Gary started coming out with more rock/pop-sounding material, I was a bit weary. I did love his remake of “Best I Ever Had”, but I missed his more countrier stuff. With his new album, Living Hard, and its first single, “Watching Airplanes”, I initially didn’t like that song. I grew to love it because of the video and its footage of my Colorado’s Red Rocks and now I’m loving it. With this new one, it sounds good, and keeps with the heavy rock sound with strings and such, but I’m not feeling it totally. The chorus, especially, feels too much like the previous single. I don’t consider it “country”, but otherwise, overall, it’s not a bad tune. I wish Gary all the best (btw, does it bother anybody else when people misspell his last name into “AllEn”? I guess I’m nitpicky lol). 3.5 out of 5 stars. Buy here!

18. “Holler Back” – The Lost Trailers:

- I read a review somewhere a while back that mentioned that the idea of the song came from Gwen Stefani’s pop hit, “Hollaback Girl”, and that was interesting. I think this uptempo is somewhat catchy but for the most part, just sounds “B-A-N-A-N-A-S” and kinda annoying like the pop song (funny side note: coincidentally No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” is on the radio right now as I’m writing this haha). Hopefully, The Lost Trailers have more offer than this, and can distinguish themselves from the other groups with similar names (too many of them!). 2.5 out of 5 stars.

19. “Every Day” – Rascal Flatts:

- Yeah… already reviewed that one last time. Still… 1.5 out of 5 stars.

20. “Do You Believe Me Now?” – Jimmy Wayne:

- I’ve come across this single several times on the radio and seriously thought I was listening to a rock station or something. The song could totally be played there with its heavy use of loud electric guitar and drums, even with it’s slight mandolin usage. Sounds like something Rob Thomas would release, which is not particularly bad because he’s a good singer, but does it belong on country radio? I really like Jimmy’s voice a lot and will forgive him for it, and the song alone is pretty good, so I’ll let it slide. 3.5 out of 5 stars. Buy here!

21. “That Song In My Head” – Julianne Hough:

- The beginning of this song reminds me Jo Dee Messina’s current single lol (I like to make a lot of connections, you see. And Jo Dee’s tune will be reviewed later on in the post). I think the song is alright. The voice is Kellie Pickler-ish (which is not good in my books) but I won’t hold that against her because Hough’s voice is better (she’s also very easy on the eyes). I do understand how it is to have a song stuck in your head all day: even bad ones do, and that’s when it drives you crazy. I like this dancer/singer’s effort but this is not a song I’d want stuck in my head: it’s too ehhh for me. 2 out of 5 stars.

22. “Troubadour – George Strait:

As anyone should know by now, I love George’s music (he’s my #1), but his current single fails to impress me. Even when I first heard it, I thought it was O.K. and even Vince Gill’s harmony wasn’t enough to change that. I dunno… I like what the lyrics say but something about it doesn’t grab me. I wish they didn’t release it as a single, but I may change my mind if I hear it enough and I like it more. I really hope the next single is his duet with Patty Loveless, “House of Cash”! (Oh btw, I also wish George would write more… he said he isn’t motivated, but his older songwriting work was good, especially the greatness of “I Don’t Want to Talk It Over, Anymore” from his box set.) 3 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation XVIII: Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris

Yes, yes, I know – I’ve been away way too long…two months now since my last entry! I can’t believe it’s been that long and I really do apologize. I went home for winter break and had no internet to work with and since then, I’ve been back in school for January and have been as busy as ever, but now I finally have time to do more online stuff (lucky you). 2007 was quite a year for me and I thought the music was overall pretty good. I was planning on making a ’07 Best-of list, but now, it just seems too late hahaha. Alright, ‘nough chit-chat, and onto the recommendation…

My eighteenth recommendation is: Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris’s “My Baby’s Gone” from the 2003 Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers tribute album.  I remember that back in 2003, I had no idea at all who the Louvin Brothers were but I saw online ads for the tribute album on CMT.com and I read that Patty Loveless and Ronnie Dunn and many others were collaborating on there and I just had to check it out. CMT.com had an online Listening Party for the album and back then, you were only able to listen to one song per day, and from what I heard, I really loved it. The sweet pure country sound and vocals coming from it were just intoxicating to the ears and soul, and it was not usual to hear an album like this these days, especially with today’s mainstream country stuff. The Louvin Brothers are my kind of guys because based on the music covered on the album it’s perfect for hardcore traditionalists and for fans of the artists on the project. I love the production by Carl Jackson (he’s got a really good voice too!). I keep saying that if I was ever able to make a country album, I’d want Carl Jackson to produce it…or Marty Stuart, because I’d want that type of sound for my record. Anyway, this is one of the BEST albums that I own and I think more people should know about it.

Recommendation XVI: Porter Wagoner

Right now, I’m sitting in the lounge of my dorm residence hall typing this up late Sunday night/Monday morning because I feel like I need to put up my tribute to the late Porter Wagoner as soon as I could. Once I read the news a few hours ago, I was shocked and very saddened, though I knew it was coming some time. I do have class tomorrow (or I should say, later today), but it’s not until about noon, so I should be fine, and I really want to do this.

My sixteenth recommendation is: Porter Wagoner’s “Committed to Parkview” from his 2007 Wagonmaster album. Right away after reading of his passing, I felt the urge to listen to his music, because I, unfortunately and regrettably, did not own any of his music before this, even while excellent reviews from sites such as The 9513 and Country Universe raved about the album. When I did listen to the clips of Wagonmaster when it came out earlier this year, I liked it a lot and of course, was thrilled by Porter Wagoner‘s devotion to the traditional, classic country sound and I loved that Marty Stuart produced it. For some reason, sometimes with these older country singers/legends, I shy away from their work at times because I feel like my ears only have enough time for my favorite artists and ones I know better. I know that’s a terrible way to be and it’s a plague that hits a lot of the younger generation of mainstream country music listeners and it’s not good. It seems like it’s only until the singer turns for the worst, or dies, that people pay attention to them, and I admit I did that right now. I knew about Porter’s recent health issues but didn’t really think much of it, other than I hope he’ll be fine and make it through. The country music industry and the listeners should learn by now that an artist should be honored for their contributions to the genre before it’s too late, and there’s been so many times when they had their chances to but waited too long until after they were gone to honor them (Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, etc.). There are, of course, exceptions, and I’m glad that the Grand Ole Opry gave Porter a very worthy tribute some months ago for his 50th anniversary with his friends: Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Marty Stuart, and on – that was a great show! I always thought that the Porter & Dolly duets I’ve heard before were really cool, and I’m glad I did know a good amount about him before all this. I just didn’t own any of his music, until now.

Recommendation XIV: Marty Stuart

Greetings to all, once again. As always, I gotta apologize for my absence – I cannot believe I have not posted anything since July 4th, so almost three months! It’s been way too long and working all the time doesn’t help. I will try a new thing in which that I will post entries regularly but it does not have to be a recommendation. I kind of felt like every entry had to be a recommendation, but it doesn’t have to be. I don’t want to drift too far away from the main theme of this blog, but I’ll start a new thing where I’ll make my comments on current radio singles (because I usually review non-singles), and I’ll try to keep them short. Anyway, here goes with my new recommendation – I’ve had this one in mind for a long time now!

My fourteenth recommendation is: Marty Stuart’s “Casino” from his 2005 Badlands album. I was first introduced to this album when CMT aired a special about Marty’s journey to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. I knew of him before that and liked his music but I was not really into him, for some reason. The special was really captivating because I could relate with some of what was going on. I myself am Native American and I knew a little about the Lakota tribe and the Badlands area, so seeing how passionate Marty Stuart was about helping out this tribe, who live simple lives on the rural, significantly-impoverished reservation land, was amazing. His goal was to bring awareness to their situation by using his talents in music, like Johnny Cash‘s Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian concept album, to get the message across. I have plenty more to say about the topic, but not enough space lol, so you can read this to find out more.

Recommendation XII: Johnny Cash

Again, I have returned after another semi-long absence. I do apologize for not blogging too much as I should be: I get way busy and since it is summer, I’m trying to spend my time exercising, being outside, and trying to find a job lol, and whenever I do come on here, I put off blogging since it takes over an hour just to set up the entries for me. Even though I’m posting this late in the day: Happy Father’s Day to all worthy fathers out there! This somewhat ties into my latest recommendation…

My twelth recommendation is: Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” from his 2002 American IV: The Man Comes Around album. I’m a pretty big Johnny Cash fan, but I pale in comparison to those who own so many of his albums and songs throughout his lifetime. What drew me to Johnny initially was his song, “Hurt”. I’d love to review that song too, since it is my favorite all-time Cash song, but I chose to do the above song instead. Anyway, I heard “Hurt” for the first time in a country music chat room (believe it or not) and his vocals were so dark and full of real-life pain and…hurt. I knew of Johnny Cash before that, but to be honest, like the fool I was at that time, I didn’t care much for the older singers. It was not until later, after Johnny’s death that I, like so many other people, really listened to and appreciated him and his music. I read lots and lots of things about what he had done in life: so many to list, and I won’t go into that, but he has led such an amazing life and I find his music to be quite unique and incredible compared to everybody else and he was a huge influence on many of my favorite artists. I consider him to be my favorite classic country music legend, or legend in any music in general, and I truly cannot say enough things about him. I really think, had I the chance to meet him when he was alive, we would have so much to talk about.