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[Just posted this on Rolling Country. Was hesitant about posting, since I wanted to listen to the Zach James once more to decide if I should actually endorse it or warn you off. Folkie naval gaze from someone whose voice is no better than mine, with better-than-I-was-expecting melodies. I still haven't given it a third spin. —I seem to have left out a word or two in the sentence "I'm counting Taylor Swift's _______ as basically 2010," so I inserted a blank. Did I intend to put one of the following: arias? ungulates? mortgage-backed securities? What do you think? —I forgot that "Hell On Heels" was a single as well as an album, would have ranked it #5 or thereabouts. And despite the nice things I say about Ashley down-list, I did generally find the track and album too cute. Or anyway, Timberlee does a better cute. —Least extensive country-listening year for me since 1999, which is why my list looks like yourn.]

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2011:

1. Taylor Swift "Mean"
2. Reba McEntire "If I Were A Boy"
3. Jamey Johnson "Heartache"
4. Eric Church "Homeboy"
5. Reba McEntire "When Love Gets A Hold Of You"
6. Gillian Welch "The Way It Goes"
7. Taylor Swift "Sparks Fly"
8. Keith Urban "Long Hot Summer"
9. Aaron Lewis "Country Boy"
10. The Band Perry "You Lie"

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2011:

1. Miranda Lambert - Four The Record
2. Sunny Sweeney - Concrete
3. Lauren Alaina - Wildflower
4. Randy Montana - Randy Montana
5. Pistol Annies - Hell On Heels
6. Eric Church - Chief
7. Zach James - Machos Pathos

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2011:

--

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2011:

1. Toby Keith
2. Jamey Johnson
3. Eric Church

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2011:

1. LeAnn Rimes
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Sunny Sweeney

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2011:

--

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2011:

--

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2011:

1. The Band Perry
2. Pistol Annies

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2011:

1. Lauren Alaina

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2011:

1. Miranda Lambert
2. Sunny Sweeney
3. Randy Montana

(I'm counting Taylor Swift's _______ as basically 2010, even if there were a few spillover singles; anyway, decided to leave a few spots in my best-of for other people.)

Was going to say that Aaron Lewis can go fuck himself, but unfortunately when he goes he'll be going with my vote, since he put enough strong feeling and playing into his posturing that he moved me. He doesn't want to move himself, unfortunately; all I've got to say is that deciding what you are and what you believe and sticking to it despite hell, highwater, evidence, and life is not half as admirable as he thinks it is. Wish there were more learning and less stand-taking, esp. when the stands are based on symbols rather than thought.

Spent most of the year thinking that country could go fuck itself as well, though I can't say it threw anything different at me to make me feel this way. It was already capitulating to its audience's insecurity over a decade ago when I fell in love with Montgomery Gentry's "She Couldn't Change Me." But there was way more pathos and poetry in the insecurities back then; now it feels rote, and mean. But Eric Church isn't rote and mean, even though his ideas are as retrogressive as the rest. The home he's extolling, that didn't feel like home to the homeboy brother, is at risk, and he knows it. Maybe he's a step away from 1965 (remember, how does it feel, with no direction home, etc.?), where home is something you discover, you build, not just something you assert.

Some quick takes: Randy Montana's album is a hard-rocking sigh. Would have ranked even higher if there'd been more of the rockers. Lauren Alaina has no clue what she's doing, but flounders with a voice that aches and worries. Ashley Monroe is cute and funny without being cloying, and I hope the attention given to the Pistol Annies finds its way to the rest of her work.

Have a nice New Year.

Frank
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Frank Kogan

July 2025

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