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koganbotCountry Music Critics Poll ballot 2012
[Regarding my wager at the start of my comments, Geoff emailed me back to point out that Taylor Swift got 7 votes in 2006 for "Tim McGraw." So much for my hubris, and my fact-checking. Fortunately I didn't put up any money.]
Geoff - For the first time ever, I whiffed on the albums list. I enjoyed a bunch of albums but didn't give them enough attention to vote in the category. After 2011's dismal year my listening veered away from country; oddly enough, this year I found way more country songs that I actually liked, while not looking half as hard. My top ten could happily have been a top twenty-five. I did keep my critic's hand in, writing for the Singles Jukebox, which introduced me to several country tracks I wouldn't have heard otherwise. Was a good year for new acts. So I hope you don't disqualify me; and even if you do, keep me on your list for next year, since I hope to be cookin' again.
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift "Red"
2. Miranda Lambert "Fastest Girl In Town"
3. Charles Esten & Hayden Panettiere "Undermine"
4. Lionel Richie ft. Jennifer Nettles "Hello"
5. Taylor Swift "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
6. Eden's Edge "Too Good To Be True"
7. Eric Church "Creepin'"
8. Kelly Clarkson ft. Vince Gill "Don't Rush"
9. Luke Bryan "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye"
10. Kix Brooks ft. Joe Walsh "New To This Town"
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2012:
1. Toby Keith
2. Luke Bryan
3. Eric Church
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Jennifer Nettles
3. Hayden Panettiere
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2012:
1. Kacey Musgraves
2. Thomas Rhett
3. Eden's Edge
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Eric Church
3. Kix Brooks
[In addition to not voting Top Ten Albums, I also didn't list Top Five Reissues; Three Best Live Acts; Three Best Songwriters (though Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift would surely have been in the competition if I'd given this category any thought; along with her own "Merry Go 'Round," Musgraves helped write the Esten/Panettiere "Undermine" (Musgraves' own version is scheduled for her alb)); and Three Best Duos, Trios, or Groups.]
COMMENTS: I'll wager I was the only one of your voters to put Taylor Swift on my 2006 ballot. At the time she was in a world that seemed to reach back and place her (a world of family and God, even if her parents were in the financial industry and her taste in country leaned towards the wild wild left: Dixies and Dolly and Faith Hill), while simultaneously she was stepping into no man's land. Which is to say that she was a teenager, and this split in her was as indicative of that as her setting her songs in high schools and lovers' lanes. I'd say she now lives in Taylor Swift Land, and though she seems as restless and uncertain as ever, the restlessness doesn't have the sociological edge it once did, the question of which part of the world she's to inhabit, and whom she might pull with her. The question whether she'll take country in too pop a direction is probably irrelevant, since she's entirely inimitable. No one else sounds like her, even the ones who work with the same producers. But this is the first year I'm in a quandary over her. It's not whether to vote for her. As long as she's in country's sights and country can't duck her, and she keeps up the quality, I'll vote for her. But I'm genuinely confused by what Billboard did, the week they switched their formula and pushed "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" from almost off the Country Songs chart up to number one; not sure what it was, exactly, their switch in policy when it came to their genre charts. I think it was to count overall streams and downloads wherever those streams and downloads were coming from. Maybe this was just Billboard's capitulating to the fact that they don't know where the sales and listeners are coming from. But I think that their genre charts should be a reflection of what a particular market is doing. Personally I'm not going to let a market define for me what country is. But I think Billboard's job is to give the readers an idea of what a market is doing. If Swift and what's generally thought of as the country audience have diverged, that's something I'd like to know. And Billboard doesn't seem to have a handle on that anymore.
I will say that "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" has the sort of glorying in self-deception that country lyricists and singers drool over; and even if the sound is fundamentally pop, there's a clarity in the arrangement that likely comes from country. Meanwhile, "Red" is the first time Taylor's written what sounds like an actual teenybopper song, as if it had been created during an elementary school exercise in beginning poetry. That's meant as a huge compliment.
Hayden Panettiere, who as a true teenpopper had thoroughly bored me, suddenly has a bead on my emotions. Talk about finding her voice.
I don't know if "Don't Rush" is a direction for Kelly Clarkson or just a blip. She was confused and feckless on her last two albums, the wrong big blast of this person's and that person's pop rock. And now here she is in '70s middle-of-the-road warmth and pain, and the richness of her pipes returns. And Lionel Richie, who to a good extent defined '70s middle-of-the-road warmth and pain, provides a terrific setting for Jennifer Nettles' half sandblaster of a voice, lushness that doesn't lose its gristle.
Lots of great male voices in country, which is fortunate because in every other genre I pay attention to the men tend to sound ridiculous.
Frank Kogan
[Regarding my wager at the start of my comments, Geoff emailed me back to point out that Taylor Swift got 7 votes in 2006 for "Tim McGraw." So much for my hubris, and my fact-checking. Fortunately I didn't put up any money.]
Geoff - For the first time ever, I whiffed on the albums list. I enjoyed a bunch of albums but didn't give them enough attention to vote in the category. After 2011's dismal year my listening veered away from country; oddly enough, this year I found way more country songs that I actually liked, while not looking half as hard. My top ten could happily have been a top twenty-five. I did keep my critic's hand in, writing for the Singles Jukebox, which introduced me to several country tracks I wouldn't have heard otherwise. Was a good year for new acts. So I hope you don't disqualify me; and even if you do, keep me on your list for next year, since I hope to be cookin' again.
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift "Red"
2. Miranda Lambert "Fastest Girl In Town"
3. Charles Esten & Hayden Panettiere "Undermine"
4. Lionel Richie ft. Jennifer Nettles "Hello"
5. Taylor Swift "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
6. Eden's Edge "Too Good To Be True"
7. Eric Church "Creepin'"
8. Kelly Clarkson ft. Vince Gill "Don't Rush"
9. Luke Bryan "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye"
10. Kix Brooks ft. Joe Walsh "New To This Town"
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2012:
1. Toby Keith
2. Luke Bryan
3. Eric Church
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Jennifer Nettles
3. Hayden Panettiere
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2012:
1. Kacey Musgraves
2. Thomas Rhett
3. Eden's Edge
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Eric Church
3. Kix Brooks
[In addition to not voting Top Ten Albums, I also didn't list Top Five Reissues; Three Best Live Acts; Three Best Songwriters (though Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift would surely have been in the competition if I'd given this category any thought; along with her own "Merry Go 'Round," Musgraves helped write the Esten/Panettiere "Undermine" (Musgraves' own version is scheduled for her alb)); and Three Best Duos, Trios, or Groups.]
COMMENTS: I'll wager I was the only one of your voters to put Taylor Swift on my 2006 ballot. At the time she was in a world that seemed to reach back and place her (a world of family and God, even if her parents were in the financial industry and her taste in country leaned towards the wild wild left: Dixies and Dolly and Faith Hill), while simultaneously she was stepping into no man's land. Which is to say that she was a teenager, and this split in her was as indicative of that as her setting her songs in high schools and lovers' lanes. I'd say she now lives in Taylor Swift Land, and though she seems as restless and uncertain as ever, the restlessness doesn't have the sociological edge it once did, the question of which part of the world she's to inhabit, and whom she might pull with her. The question whether she'll take country in too pop a direction is probably irrelevant, since she's entirely inimitable. No one else sounds like her, even the ones who work with the same producers. But this is the first year I'm in a quandary over her. It's not whether to vote for her. As long as she's in country's sights and country can't duck her, and she keeps up the quality, I'll vote for her. But I'm genuinely confused by what Billboard did, the week they switched their formula and pushed "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" from almost off the Country Songs chart up to number one; not sure what it was, exactly, their switch in policy when it came to their genre charts. I think it was to count overall streams and downloads wherever those streams and downloads were coming from. Maybe this was just Billboard's capitulating to the fact that they don't know where the sales and listeners are coming from. But I think that their genre charts should be a reflection of what a particular market is doing. Personally I'm not going to let a market define for me what country is. But I think Billboard's job is to give the readers an idea of what a market is doing. If Swift and what's generally thought of as the country audience have diverged, that's something I'd like to know. And Billboard doesn't seem to have a handle on that anymore.
I will say that "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" has the sort of glorying in self-deception that country lyricists and singers drool over; and even if the sound is fundamentally pop, there's a clarity in the arrangement that likely comes from country. Meanwhile, "Red" is the first time Taylor's written what sounds like an actual teenybopper song, as if it had been created during an elementary school exercise in beginning poetry. That's meant as a huge compliment.
Hayden Panettiere, who as a true teenpopper had thoroughly bored me, suddenly has a bead on my emotions. Talk about finding her voice.
I don't know if "Don't Rush" is a direction for Kelly Clarkson or just a blip. She was confused and feckless on her last two albums, the wrong big blast of this person's and that person's pop rock. And now here she is in '70s middle-of-the-road warmth and pain, and the richness of her pipes returns. And Lionel Richie, who to a good extent defined '70s middle-of-the-road warmth and pain, provides a terrific setting for Jennifer Nettles' half sandblaster of a voice, lushness that doesn't lose its gristle.
Lots of great male voices in country, which is fortunate because in every other genre I pay attention to the men tend to sound ridiculous.
Frank Kogan
Chuck's Nashville Scene ballot
Date: 2013-01-01 05:41 pm (UTC)1. Taylor Swift – Red (Big Machine)
2. Jerrod Niemann – Free The Music (Sea Gayle/Arista Nashville)
3. Blackberry Smoke – The Whippoorwill (Southern Ground)
4. Thomas Rhett – Thomas Rhett EP (The Valory Music Co. EP)
5. Darrell Scott – Long Way Home (Thirty Tigers/Full Light)
6. Kip Moore – Up All Night (MCA Nashville)
7. Turnpike Troubadors – Goodbye Normal Street (Bossier City/Thirty Tigers)
8. Kix Brooks – New To This Town (Arista Nashville)
9. Bryan Clark & The New Lyceum Players – Southern Intermission (Rainfeather)
10. Drew Nelson -- Tilt A Whirl (Red House)
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2012:
1. Kacey Musgraves – Merry Go ‘Round
2. Pistol Annies – Takin’ Pills
3. Carrie Underwood – Blown Away
4. Edens Edge – Too Good To Be True
5. Kix Brooks feat. Joe Walsh – New To This Town
6. The Farm Inc. – Home Sweet Home
7. Dean Brody - Canadian Girls
8. Alan Jackson – So You Don’t Have To Love Me Anymore
9. Toby Keith – Beers Ago
10. David Nail – The Sound Of A Million Dreams
TOP [ONE] COUNTRY REISSUE OF 2012:
1. (Various) – Country Funk 1969-1975 (Light In The Attic)
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2012:
1. Blackberry Smoke
2. Turnpike Troubadors
3. Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2012:
1. Thomas Rhett
2. Kip Moore
3. Miss Willie Brown
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Jerrod Niemann
3. Lionel Richie
Re: Chuck's Nashville Scene ballot
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2013-01-01 05:58 pm (UTC) - ExpandRe: Chuck's Nashville Scene ballot
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2013-01-01 06:01 pm (UTC) - Expand