Country Music Critics Ballot 2008
Dec. 14th, 2008 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotMy ballot for the Nashville Scene's Country Music Critics Poll:
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2008:
1. Taylor Swift "Should've Said No"
2. Willie Nelson "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore"
3. Taylor Swift "You're Not Sorry"
4. Allison Moorer "Dancing Barefoot"
5. Jessica Simpson "Come On Over"
6. Ashton Shepherd "Takin' Off This Pain"
7. Toby Keith "She's A Hottie"
8. Jamey Johnson "In Color"
9. Taylor Swift "Love Story"
10. Carrie Underwood "Just A Dream"
TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2008:
1. Willie Nelson - Moment Of Forever
2. Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song
3. Taylor Swift - Fearless
4. Heidi Newfield - What Am I Waiting For
5. Ashton Shepherd - Sounds So Good
6. Brittini Black - Good Happens
7. Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie
8. James McMurtry - Just Us Kids
9. Randy Houser - Anything Goes
10. The Road Hammers - Blood, Sweat & Steel
TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2008:
1. Toby Keith - 35 Biggest Hits
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2008:
1. Toby Keith
2. Jamey Johnson
3. Trace Adkins
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2008:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Trisha Yearwood
3. Brittini Black
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2008:
-
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2008:
1. Randy Houser
2. Jamey Johnson
3. Brittini Black
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2008:
1. The Road Hammers
2. Carter's Chord
3. The Mother Truckers
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2008:
1. Heidi Newfield
2. Ashton Shepherd
3. Brittini Black
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2008:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Willie Nelson
3. Jamey Johnson
COMMENTS: We were staring at a brick house in Denver, and a teenager said, "This brick house is like a ton of clichés." Well, you had to be there for this to make sense, but the house was sitting in its brick obviousness, at least that's how it hit us. Anyway, Ashton Shepherd sounds like a caricature of country music, a twang as wide as rivers are deep, no heart left unwrenched, no string untugged, the result being uncannily gleeful and exuberant; then at the end, "Whiskey Won The Battle" - as clichéd as the rest - is a gutkick of total conviction. Country song of the year, except maybe for Willie Nelson's "The Bob Song," a cover of some old Big & Rich fanpack folderol about a guy sitting in his tree taking the piss out of everything he sees, or something, Willie turning it into utter beauty. Brittini Black last told a joke in third grade, in response to which the mean boy next to her twisted her arm behind her back, squashing all silliness like Godzilla stomping a bunch of foreclosed houses. (Oh! Woe! The economy is bad!) So Brittini laments pawn shop angels and runs wild with the horses. Excellently passionate. Meanwhile, Jamey Johnson sings a forest of tears, tells us the reality was even more vivid than the song, more complicated, worse and better. James McMurtry throws up a screen of Springsteenish words between me and him, only crosses through when his voice goes to growls and slops, and the guitars to gurgling sludge. Taylor Swift is determined and tenuous and confident and wavering and incandescent and the time is hers and behind it all is a bomb of pain, and this pain has a name, and its name is "boys." Dolly Parton is only eight years older than I am, so I hate to say this, but her voice has creaks and scratches; but she also has songs, does better on the ones she wrote than on the ones she borrowed, scratching her way into the old sadness of "Only Dreaming" and "Cologne." Randy Houser never came up with his voice in the first place, aims for Ronnie Dunn, is neither as distinctive nor as evocative, a player who'll end up doing better as a coach, gets across anyway, on songwriting and smarts, rocks without being hard, is sentimental without being dumb. The Road Hammers' singing is only adequate, but adequate it is, as the music rides the mighty hammer.
--Frank Kogan
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2008:
1. Taylor Swift "Should've Said No"
2. Willie Nelson "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore"
3. Taylor Swift "You're Not Sorry"
4. Allison Moorer "Dancing Barefoot"
5. Jessica Simpson "Come On Over"
6. Ashton Shepherd "Takin' Off This Pain"
7. Toby Keith "She's A Hottie"
8. Jamey Johnson "In Color"
9. Taylor Swift "Love Story"
10. Carrie Underwood "Just A Dream"
TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2008:
1. Willie Nelson - Moment Of Forever
2. Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song
3. Taylor Swift - Fearless
4. Heidi Newfield - What Am I Waiting For
5. Ashton Shepherd - Sounds So Good
6. Brittini Black - Good Happens
7. Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie
8. James McMurtry - Just Us Kids
9. Randy Houser - Anything Goes
10. The Road Hammers - Blood, Sweat & Steel
TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2008:
1. Toby Keith - 35 Biggest Hits
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2008:
1. Toby Keith
2. Jamey Johnson
3. Trace Adkins
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2008:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Trisha Yearwood
3. Brittini Black
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2008:
-
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2008:
1. Randy Houser
2. Jamey Johnson
3. Brittini Black
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2008:
1. The Road Hammers
2. Carter's Chord
3. The Mother Truckers
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2008:
1. Heidi Newfield
2. Ashton Shepherd
3. Brittini Black
COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2008:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Willie Nelson
3. Jamey Johnson
COMMENTS: We were staring at a brick house in Denver, and a teenager said, "This brick house is like a ton of clichés." Well, you had to be there for this to make sense, but the house was sitting in its brick obviousness, at least that's how it hit us. Anyway, Ashton Shepherd sounds like a caricature of country music, a twang as wide as rivers are deep, no heart left unwrenched, no string untugged, the result being uncannily gleeful and exuberant; then at the end, "Whiskey Won The Battle" - as clichéd as the rest - is a gutkick of total conviction. Country song of the year, except maybe for Willie Nelson's "The Bob Song," a cover of some old Big & Rich fanpack folderol about a guy sitting in his tree taking the piss out of everything he sees, or something, Willie turning it into utter beauty. Brittini Black last told a joke in third grade, in response to which the mean boy next to her twisted her arm behind her back, squashing all silliness like Godzilla stomping a bunch of foreclosed houses. (Oh! Woe! The economy is bad!) So Brittini laments pawn shop angels and runs wild with the horses. Excellently passionate. Meanwhile, Jamey Johnson sings a forest of tears, tells us the reality was even more vivid than the song, more complicated, worse and better. James McMurtry throws up a screen of Springsteenish words between me and him, only crosses through when his voice goes to growls and slops, and the guitars to gurgling sludge. Taylor Swift is determined and tenuous and confident and wavering and incandescent and the time is hers and behind it all is a bomb of pain, and this pain has a name, and its name is "boys." Dolly Parton is only eight years older than I am, so I hate to say this, but her voice has creaks and scratches; but she also has songs, does better on the ones she wrote than on the ones she borrowed, scratching her way into the old sadness of "Only Dreaming" and "Cologne." Randy Houser never came up with his voice in the first place, aims for Ronnie Dunn, is neither as distinctive nor as evocative, a player who'll end up doing better as a coach, gets across anyway, on songwriting and smarts, rocks without being hard, is sentimental without being dumb. The Road Hammers' singing is only adequate, but adequate it is, as the music rides the mighty hammer.
--Frank Kogan
