Recommendation XLV: Marty Stuart (w/ Connie Smith)

Yeah, I know. You can’t believe your eyes? Me neither haha. Poor pathetic ole me is back with a new entry! I haven’t posted in like a year (even after I did a new look to the site. Sad, isn’t it?) Well, I got the writing bug biting again and wanted to fill you a lil in on some new stuff about me and what I’ve been digging lately.

The main reasons I haven’t been posting is life has been/is just busy, and I’ve dived into other more time-consuming activities… but one big significant problem is that my freakin’ computer is too damn slow! Every time I turn it on, my laptop literally takes like 30 minutes to start up the screen and sometimes it’ll shut itself off when it has too much going on. Utterly irritating, to say the least, but I digress from my main subject…

My forty-fifth recommendation is: Marty Stuart’s (with Connie Smith) “I Run to You” from his 2010 Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions album. My post title practically gave it away haha, and I’m sure most people who read/used to read my blog already know about this gem however I wanted to write about it regardless.  I realize that I have already recommended Marty’s music in the past but 3 years has passed and this record can’t go ignored. Truly one of country music’s best guides to its history and tradition, Marty Stuart can always be counted upon to create timeless soul-driven pieces of art and this is no exception. I love watching his Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV when it airs and soaking up on that intoxicating steel and fiddle (which is pretty much meaningless on today’s radio) and really feeling it, so real country fans oughta check that out.

Recommendation XXXVI: Vince Gill (triple-track)

Now we’ve hit a milestone (for me, at least)…: number 36. This one is real special for me because it’s my lucky number (won’t tell ya why), so I needed a special artist to go with it. I had trouble choosing the artist and the songs that I’d select from them. I know it needed to be a triple track one (hmm, that sounds like a better title than “threesome”, doesn’t it?. Okay, I’m changing it to that now, because the former was almost borderline weird-ish, though it wasn’t intended to be), so I finally made a choice I was satisfied with. This post will be a kinda long one, so prepare yourself for it: take out a comfortable chair and a nice glass of something to sip on…

My thirty-sixth recommendation is/are: Vince Gill’s “Out of My Mind” and “What You Don’t Say” from his 2006 These Days album, AND “Kindly Keep It Country” from his 1998 The Key album.  Yes, yes, it is Vince!  I really couldn’t imagine not discussing him and his music, and it took me quite a while to get to him, but the time has finally come.  Vince Gill is truly one of my absolute favorites and he’s one of the one most talented people in the music industry, ever.  He can sing, write, produce, and play at the highest quality there can be, and that makes him an all-around five-star musician.  I was a fan of his back in the ’90s when I was a little boy, and I didn’t realize how great he was until I bought the Souvenirs album (a greatest hits collection) some years ago and remembered all those songs I loved back then.  As of this moment, I own 71 of his songs (not including the songs I own that include his harmonies/background vocals) and I do plan to add more (he’s probably worked with everybody that I’ve reviewed on this site already lol).  Choosing the three tracks for this recommendation was not an easy task , but I made up my mind.

Recommendation XXXIII: Garth Brooks

Howdy there. Guess what? I’m back at the library, and able to blog once more. I had an exciting last week with all the hype that came with the Democratic National Convention here in Denver and it was crazy to see all those huge amounts of people out and about in downtown (I woulda really liked to have experienced seeing one of the protests though haha). I liked hearing the speeches last week and am looking forward to listening to all the speeches that will be given this week with the Republican National Convention (I was really thrilled to hear Brooks & Dunn‘s “Only In America” come on the speakers after Obama gave his speech – that was pretty cool). Now, we’re dealing with Gustav, and it’s good to hear that it’s not as bad as expected and New Orleans was better prepared this time. Lately, I’ve been watching the news a lot, so I’m pretty aware of things going on (which is good for a young guy like me… I should know this stuff). Right now, it is almost 1:30am and Tuesday morning, and I’m typing up my first draft to post later today (I am lovin’ having the day off)…

My thirty-third recommendation is: Garth Brooks’s “Don’t Cross the River” from his 2001 Scarecrow album.  This is actually a first for iCF Music (and surprisingly, the first time I’ve ever mentioned Garth in this blog, I think).  It’s a first because usually the music I recommend is available for legal download on iTunes or somewhere else (I wouldn’t recommend obtaining it illegally either), but unfortunately, Mr. Brooks and his decision doesn’t leave me any choice in the matter because songs of his’ cannot be purchased individually (you have to buy the entire album somewhere online or offline).  His argument has something to with songwriters and something else, or whatever (can’t remember exactly, but it did make sense)… though I think putting your music on iTunes and other online stores makes it easier for fans (and the environment, to an extent) because buying songs individually is better for the wallets and IMO, lessens the risk of illegal downloading.  But whatever, that’s a whole other issue lol, and I want to get to the music and the man.  Garth Brooks is one of my very top favorites (my fifth most favorite artist) and I think he’s incredible.  He’s so good that my most favorite song of his’ keeps changing and it’s tough for me to pick just one (I think I’ve got the top narrowed down to either “That Summer”, “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)”, “The Beaches of Cheyenne”, or “The Dance”.

Recommendation XXXI: Ricky Skaggs

Man, going to sleep so early (12am midnight) feels so weird because I’m totally a night person (or at least, I was, until I got back home from college), but now I gotta get up at like 8am or earlier. Just very strange. I remember going to bed at like 3am or later lol. Times and responsibilities sure do change. August came pretty quickly and lots of events are coming up sooner than I think, so I’m excited and also nervous at the same time, so I’m hoping I can motivate myself to do the best that I can and get ready for them when they come. Anyway, I just got done watching some of the Olympics on TV, and I’m very proud of Michael Phelps and his accomplishments he has done for himself and for the U.S. Very, very cool. Nice to see such great things happening past China’s Great Wall… which is also a nice segue to my recommendation (somehow I was able to make a connection, coincidentally haha)…

My thirty-first recommendation is: Ricky Skaggs’s “Walls of Time” from his 1999 Ancient Tones album.  During the ’90s, I don’t think I even knew who Ricky Skaggs was or had even heard of him.  It was not really until the 2000′s that I discovered all the great stuff he has done with country music and bluegrass.  I found out more about him through his appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and countdowns and such.  I didn’t find out until later that he helped sing harmonies on Vince Gill‘s “Go Rest High On That Mountain” and on Lee Ann Womack‘s “Never Again, Again”, two of my favorite songs ever.  His high-pitched mountain vocals are instantly recognizable and his dedication to the preservation of the bluegrass genre is remarkable.  I may not own much of his music, but I respect and admire him a lot (as well as his wife, Sharon White, and The Whites‘s work).

Recommendation XXX: Tracy Lawrence (threesome)

Alright, alright.  So the “threesome” title for three songs may not be the best name (or even sound appropriate, which it’s not supposed to) for the feature, and we may have worried parents call in with protests, but whatever, here goes.  Since this was #30, I wanted to do something special and since I mentioned it in one of my older posts, I figured recommending three songs at one time would be a cool idea, and a great time to debut it.  I struggled on who I’d choose for numéro trente, and this Texan guy —> just seemed like a good idea, since I’ve wanted to feature him for quite some time.  This will probably be a long post, so hopefully I finish this on time.  Get ready…

My thirtieth recommendation is (are): Tracy Lawrence’s “For the Love” (duet with Brad Arnold) from his 2007 For the Love album, “Strong” from his 2004 Strong album, AND “If I Don’t Make It Back” from his 2005 Then & Now: The Hits Collection album.  It was way too hard to pick just one from him, so I had to do this way.  It was just a coincidence that the two listed above (“For the Love” and “Strong”) happened to be the title tracks, so I was not being lazy.  I love a lot of Tracy Lawrence‘s music, especially his more traditional stuff from the ’90s like “Time Marches On”, and I’ve always been a fan of his’.  This is a man, who even when he sometimes records poppish-country material, cannot not sound country. His nasal Texan drawl is so distinct, he can’t be confused with anybody else really.  I really think he’s one of the best. He’s also really exciting to see in concert.  I happened to catch him with Mark Chesnutt and Joe Diffie on tour in Greeley, Colorado, and it was a very good time (and I just found out here’s coming back here in late November!).  Now, on with the selected songs…

Recommendation XXVII: Dan Colehour

Whew, today has been a long day: waking up, working, eating, walking, napping, driving, tennis-playing, eating, music listening, and web surfing. I’ve got a full schedule set for the rest of the whole year: three jobs and I’m already feeling exhausted (I’m currently training for one job, and will start my third job next week).  Right now, it’s a bit late, and while I do have to get to work tomorrow (or, should I say, later this morning since it’s like 1:30am here lol), I felt like writing a new entry right now. Today, I finally received a CD I’ve been wanting for quite a while…

My twenty-seventh recommendation is: Dan Colehour’s “Father’s Son” from his 2007 Straight to the Highway album.  You’re probably like “who’s that?!?“.  He’s probably the only artist I’ve reviewed so far that you haven’t heard of, yet.  Dan is an artist I only know of through one of the album’s special guest vocalists, Ms. Lee Ann Womack (I know, I mention her all the time, get over it.  And I also notice how I call these artists’ by their first names, but whatever lol).   Back when this album was released almost a year ago, I saw that Lee Ann contributed her background vocals to the project but I didn’t know for what songs, so I took a listen to the clips, and liked what I heard.  I could never really find out which song/s she was on, but it didn’t really matter then, because the music was really catchy and worthy of purchasing alone – this Dan Colehour‘s voice was amazingly good.  I figured eventually I’d buy the CD when I had more money, and that time finally came to be this month (though, I don’t really have much money at the moment.  I used a Best Buy gift card my aunt gave me from Christmas that I had forgotten about – it had some credit left on it).  I received the album today and finally got to hear the whole thing.  I’ve been trying to find out more about Dan, and the names, Bruce Springsteen and Chris Knight, kept popping up, when compared to Dan’s style.  I just looked up Chris Knight (I didn’t know who he was, I’m embarrassed to admit) and their voices/styles are similar, and that’s good.  “Father’s Son” is one of the songs on the album that hooked me immediately, as well as the song, “Leaving Meridian” (a heartbreak steel-guitar drenched slow shuffle about leaving a Texan town because of the memories it has).

Recommendation XXV: Josh Turner

Today for 4th of July, I wanted to do a recommendation that was connected to the day in some way, shape, or form. I went through my list of potential recommendations to post about, and then went through my iTunes to see songs and artists I might have missed, and I didn’t have any typical patriotic songs set up, but then I saw it and knew it was about perfect.  I’ll get back to that later in the post, though. What are you up to for today?  Any special festivities you’ve got planned/already celebrated so far?  All I’ve done so far is worked, deposited my paycheck, and am now online reading things lol – no fireworks, no barbecues, or the like for me – definitely not an exciting Independence Day for me, but everything is fine.  I was going to take my mom out to dinner tonight but my plans fell through and it will not work out, but I still plan to celebrate the day as an American and probably watch TV tonight to check out what’s going on in the nation.  Back to the music… last year, my post was “Recommendation #13: Lee Ann Womack” and now here’s my latest…

My twenty-fifth recommendation is: Josh Turner’s “The Longer the Waiting (The Sweeter the Kiss)” from his 2007 Everything Is Fine album.  Back last year in late 2007, I won a free album download from The 9513 in a contest (along with 39 other people) and I chose this album from Josh Turner (there were some other choices but from what I heard of this one, it sounded good and plus, I loved “Firecracker”).  I’ve been a fan of Josh’s since I heard his deep baritone voice gravel through his bluegrass-ish debut single, “Long Black Train”, and I’ve liked all his singles since then – he’s pure country and couldn’t be taken for anything else (I say “pure country”, meaning, despite some of his songs having a pop/ac-sound to them, his heart and soul are dedicated to country, and most of his catalog is traditional stuff anyway).  He, and Brad Paisley, I’d say, are our younger modern-day real country saviors who keep the mainstream format from going to hell, and I’m proud to be a fan of this South Carolina guy.

Recommendation XXIII: Dierks Bentley w/ Sarah Buxton

…And we’re back.  My summer’s going pretty well for me so far: I’m just hoping that I can look back at it and say that I didn’t waste it like past summers.  Too many days come by when I feel I could’ve done more and done something more productive (beside working, of course).  I hope I can get outside more and spend less time online (I admit, I’m lazy and I could’ve made more posts on here lol, but I’m a to-be-junior in college, so give me a break: I could do much worse).  Alright, alright.  ‘Nuff small talk…Imma gonna get to the music!  Lately, I’ve been listening to my local alternative/independent rock station at home, and sometimes, my local country stations (but they suck, for the most part, as we all know), so I’m sticking to the rock station because it sounds better ;), but that isn’t a segue into the following paragraphs (or maybe it is?), but anyway…

My twenty-third recommendation is: Dierks Bentley’s (with Sarah Buxton) “Sweet & Wild” from his 2008 Greatest Hits – Every Mile a Memory album.  These days, Dierks is pretty well known amongst country fans because he’s gotten really big now quickly since his debut single, “What Was I Thinkin’?” came out years ago, so he’s one of the bigger, currently popular artists I’ve discussed on this site so far.  With him, I’m pretty much hit-and-miss with his music, but I really appreciate his respect towards real traditional country music and the history.  I gotta admit: I was a big fan of Dierks’s when he first came out: I loved his debut single, and then the honky-tonker, “How Am I Doin’?”, and then the Waylon-ish, “Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do”, but I began to lose interest in him because it seemed like he wanted to be a rock-star sex symbol (like Kenny Chesney) or something (and also the fact that my sister is obsessed with him, contributed a lot to it haha).  My favorite song of his’ is actually “Settle for a Slowdown” because it’s just an awesome song through and through, though after that, I really didn’t like his choice of singles because they seemed to become less country-sounding (with one exception, of course) and it turned me off even more.  I didn’t care to hear his music much anymore.

Recommendation XX: George Strait

I am aware of my blogging tendencies – no need to tell me – I am aware :-\ . Maybe subconsciously, I feel like I need to wait a month in between posting new recommendations? I really don’t know!… Anyway, I had a tough time deciding on who to spotlight with #20, but I knew I wanted to choose a guy, so then I remembered that George Strait (my absolute #1) is about to release a new album this upcoming April 1st called Troubadour, and my eyes lit up and my ears perked up: I have made my decision.

My twentieth recommendation is: George Strait’s “You’re Stronger Than Me” from his 2000 George Strait album. It’d hard to believe it took so long for George Strait to finally release a self-titled album after all those preceding years of success but he finally did in the dawn of the twenty-first century with this CD. This was actually the FIRST country album I’ve ever owned (yes, it took me quite some time to get into it!) and I bought it through the BMG Music Service online and man, oh man, am I glad I did. At first listen, I wasn’t totally impressed with the music (at that time, it was my re-introduction back to country music, and the album is full of slow-paced tunes, so give me a break! lol) but I do remember that I really enjoyed the more traditional numbers, like “You’re Stronger Than Me”. Side-track: I’m not really crazy with the artwork for the cover though…I wish they didn’t choose to design it that way, but it is a nice picture of GS.

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.