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December 2017
Features
Old time music turned upside down
SHE’S PLAYED THE OPRY AND SHARED THE STAGE WITH LORETTA
AND SHE’S ONLY 13. HER ALBUM IS A ROOTSY TRIUMPH BUT KELLY
GREGORY WONDERS IF NASHVILLE MIGHT BE MISSING THE BOAT.
“W
ho’s going to be the next Dolly Parton?” That’s
what I was asked by Angaleena Presley just a few
months ago when we were discussing the lack of
female artists on the radio and country chart. It got
me thinking quite a bit and I started listing names in my head - Margo
Price, Brandy Clark, Miranda Lambert - of the women I thought could
fill the shoes, so to speak, of the great female country artists. And then a
few weeks later Ragged Dreams dropped through my door and I finally
had the answer to that question.
In country music it isn’t unusual for someone so young to be out there
making a name for themselves and thirteen has been the lucky number
for many. By the age of thirteen Dolly Parton had her first ever gig at the
Grand Ole Opry hotel where she met Johnny Cash; Tanya Tucker had her
first hit with Delta Dawn when she was only thirteen; and LeAnn Rimes
rose to stardom at age thirteen following the release of her version of
the Bill Mack song Blue.
Emily Sunshine Hamilton seems to doing it by the Dolly method:
making her Opry debut at ten years old and launching her professional
career in churches and at local festivals. (She’s even written an homage
to Porter and Dolly in the shape of Porter Wagoner Blues on her recent
album.) However, since her breakout at just nine years old Emi has
garnered more than 14 million YouTube views and half a million
Facebook followers.
“I think people first started noticing when I was around eight or nine
years old. I had a video go viral when I was nine and that was when
it really first started going. I think that people really started noticing
us and we got to go to the Grand Ole Opry, and after that they started
booking us at different gigs and they started taking us different places,
and after that it’s just been going ever since. Our Facebook likes keep
going up and things on YouTube would keep going and I think it’s really
just one thing at a time. That’s always been my thing that I say, you’ve
got to make one fan at a time or you can go to another place and then
make all these fans and lose them one day. I think that making them and
going out there and working hard to get them and being right there with
them and just interacting with your crowd and being there for them,
that’s how you get true fans.
“The internet is a very powerful thing. It can either do good for you or
it could fire one down. I feel like it’s a crazy thing that you’ve got to be
careful with also and it can either make you or break you. I guess that it
just kind of gave me a little bit of a push to go on my way and I think that
now that’s practically the only way to get noticed, and I feel like I do get
noticed. But it can only take you half the way. It can only take you a little
10 EmiSunshine
She’s played the Opry and shared the stage with Loretta and she’s only 13. Her album is a
rootsy triumph but Kelly Gregory wonders if Nashville might be missing the boat.
16 Randy Houser
Duncan Warwick reckons he’s one of the good guys. When they sit down in London he
finds Houser keen to get back to basics.
20 Christmas Gift Guide
A CMP guide to what the country fan in your life might like for Christmas.
56 Lars Pluto
Outspoken and opinionated, Lars Pluto is set to ruffle some feathers. What’s not to like?
60 Dale Ann Bradley
Five-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year has pizza with Walt Trott.
Reviews
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RANDY
HOUSER
One of the good guys
randy houser haS TOPPED THE CHARTS AS BOTH A SONGWRITER
AND A SINGER, BUT DUNCAN WARWICK FINDS A DESIRE IN HIM TO GET
BACK TO BASICS.
R
andy Houser is one of the good guys. He might laugh it off and modestly say,
“I try”, but Houser on any given day has more substance t han most of the Top
10 artists put together. Since he made his chart debut in 2008 there have been
ups and downs, and several recording contracts, but the Mississippian singer
and songwriter hasn’t just bounced back, he’s bounced higher each time.
Nonchalant, though, doesn’t really do Houser justice. A casual observer might
think he just doesn’t care, or that he’s not focused on his career, but it’s more a matter of
integrity. Yes, he actually has some, and values his artistry above commercial success. It
always seems as though Randy Houser would rather be performing his songs in a sweaty
little club miles off the beaten track than swanning around at awards shows.
Despite Houser’s first single, Anything Goes, being one of the best songs of the late
noughties it criminally peaked at #17 and still sounds like a chart topper in anybody’s
book even now.
“I feel like that song was a bit ahead of its time,” he shares. “In today’s world,
especially in the States, I think that song…Even then that song felt very refreshing even
with as little airplay as it got. I think that it still felt like sort of a rose in the middle of a
wheat field. It was just this thing that stuck out and I think it was a beautiful time then to
put something like that out, but now I think that it would probably stand a better chance.”
Highlighting Houser’s big voice, things panned out a little better for the follow-up
single, Boots On, which came within a whisker of taking the top spot on the Billboard
Chart but just a couple of years later Houser moved to Show Dog Records and his
recording future looked less than secure. It seemed as though he was still riding on
the coattails of recognition from being one of the writers of the Trace Adkins monster
HonkyTonk Badonkadonk - his first cut after moving to Nashville to be a songwriter.
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Nice to meet y’all...
30 Album Reviews
52 Live Reviews
55 Book Review
Regulars
post-country,countrypolitan, and twangcore. That's the
official description of where dylan earl is at musically.
intrigued? then step on in to a steel guitar-soaked world.
My name is Earl
Dylan Earl
O
fficially Dylan Earl is a post-country/
countrypolitan/twangcore songwriter
currently based out of Fayetteville,
Arkansas but he also puts it simply,
“I make songs in the country and
western persuasion.”
With Dylan earl’s recent release - New Country To
Be - looking like it dropped from a record rack of
a store long ago shut down by the rise of the iPod,
the sound is as delightfully retro as the singer’s
moustachioed mug on the LP sleeve and Earl shares
his desire to create a period piece. With a laugh he
admits, “I’m a vinyl junky. I’m happy that I can go to
shows now and leave with vinyl instead of a CD that
might slide around my dashboard. It’s a physical
artefact rather than a digital representation.
“As far as designs go, I think people just realised
that perhaps artists had largely already mastered
album design concepts and styles. I guess there’s
just more room to work with on an LP. In all
seriousness, though, I’m glad I nailed something.
Hopefully the book is better than its cover.”
Dylan Earl’s debut EP was released in 2015 and
boasted Daniel Romano in the production chair
and the Juno-nominated Canadian has become
something of a mentor. “My experience with Dan
was important and certainly one that I didn’t see
coming. My buddy Hayden Johnson (Holly Grove,
AR) and I created a sad clown country band called
Keyless Gentry to open a show for him at one of our
favorite clubs in the great damn state of Arkansas,
JR’s Lightbulb Club (RIP); It was a weird night.
Anyway, that night I mentioned I was working on
some solo stuff and they had me up that coming
August to record. I put out Blessing in Disguise,
which Dan produced, on his Mosey label in 2015.
He was kind enough to have me out for his If I’ve
Only One Time Askin’ tour shortly after and I think
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4 News
8 Tour Guide
15 The David Allan Page
22 Nice to meet y’all - Dylan Earl
28 Week In The Life - Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn
29 Nashville Skinny
59 Americana Roundup
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HELLO
C
ountry music today might not be in
such a sorry state if people would,
as Dale Watson suggested in A Real
Country Song, “speak up and say
what’s wrong”. Artists, DJs, and anyone
involved in the industry. Secretly they
nearly all think it, but say something
and you might watch your career go down the
toilet quicker than the Dixie Chicks following
a George Bush comment. Even George Strait
and Alan Jackson had to backtrack when they
recorded Murder On Music Row. We all know
they meant every word but officially they had
to say that it was just a bit of fun.
Lars Pluto, however, will not be silenced.
The Michigan-born singer and songwriter is
these days based way out west… in deepest
Devon where as a devoted family man he is
fast losing his American accent. Catch one
of his live shows and you’re sure to hear him
sing his self-penned Dear Country Music, in
which he asks in no uncertain terms, “Dear
country music, what the fuck happened to
you?”
It’s a pertinent question that has disturbed
many a country fan for the best part of
twenty years. The song didn’t make it onto
his recent album, The Remote Sessions, but
he promises it will be on his next. Still, in a
‘you can kiss my country ass’ kind of way
rather than some homoerotic imagery, Lars
bares his butt on the cover of The Remote
Sessions. Yes, Lars Pluto is a troublemaker
and if this alone doesn’t endear the tattooed
and quiffed singer to you then you’d better
stick with your Kane Brown records.
Just a few months ago Lars Pluto found
himself nominated for a BCMA award and
promptly posted a video of himself online in
which he sets fire to the nomination. Sure,
he might not be on a live telecast as Charlie
Rich was when he set fire to the John Denver
envelope at the 1975 CMA Awards show, but
it still makes a statement.
Trouble might well be his middle name,
but for Lars Pluto actions speak even louder
TROUBLE
LARS PLUTO
originally hailing from
Michigan, these days lars
pluto is now uk-based and
more than happy to speak
and say what is wrong
with country music on
both sides of the atlantic.
quite a lot it turns out.
he speaks to duncan warwick
than words and he is responsible for putting
on a show in Manchester in January which he
hopes will highlight a world of country music
far removed from that of The Shires.
“Well, I do my best,” laughs Lars at the
suggestion that he is a trouble maker. “I
think a lot of the powers that be, BCMAs
and whatnot, no one says anything to them
and you’d be surprised by the amount of
messages I get off performers that say, ‘Oh,
I’m so glad you’re saying stuff’. And I’ll go,
‘Why aren’t you saying anything if you agree
with me?’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t want to rock
the boat or make anybody mad or whatever’.
I personally don’t understand that kind of
mentality. I’ve always been raised that if
something feels wrong, sounds wrong, then
you say something or you do something about
it. I make my money elsewhere because there
isn’t really no money in this BCMA type UK
country music scene for the majority of the
acts, even the larger ones who are winning
these awards, they’re not making money off
their job. And because I’m not holding to them
in any way I feel like I’m free to be able to say
whatever I want and I just always have. I don’t
really know any other way to be but in some
circles it makes me unpopular.”
That Lars Pluto was even nominated at
all he suspects might have been a ploy to
silence him.
“That seems to be the case,” he affirms,
“I’ve been really, really vocal talking about...
Look at all these people that are nominated.
How many BCMAs has Luke Thomas won?
Six. He’s won six BCMAs in six years. His
mummy and daddy are on the committee so
it’s not really rocket science when you start
to look at the people they nominate and the
people that win year after year after year, like
Gary Quinn and his partner. His partner is
also on the nominating committee and he’s
been nominated for six years in a row. You
see a lot of that. It’s all this cronyism and
phonyism to me that just is so transparent
and I’ve been really vocal.
“I started being vocal because I just
didn’t, I was like, ‘Well, they’re never going
to nominate me because first of all I play
real country music and they don’t nominate
real country music.’ So I didn’t feel like I had
anything to lose. I was never going to be
quiet about it but then I got into a little bit of
an online spat with Luke Thomas’s mother,
she’s the director and secretary of BCMA,
and got into a pretty decent, heated debate
with her on it and then the very next day I was
nominated for a Horizon Act. It was the only
category where they had seven nominees, all
the others were like four or five nominees, but
they squeezed me in last minute. I honestly
think they were trying to shut me up like, ‘Oh,
we’ll give him a nominee and then he won’t
be able to badmouth us and say that we’re
rubbish and if we give him a nomination.
He’ll shut up and go away.’ But I just took
it as quite the opposite. I was like, ‘First of
all it’s not really a nomination, second of all
I honestly don’t believe that they count any
of the votes cast by the BCMA members
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Dale Ann
Charts
BRADLEY
walt trott catches up with the five-time IBMA
Female vocalist of the year over some pizza.
D
64 Americana & UK Country Charts
65 Billboard Country Charts
ale Ann Bradley breezed into town to prompt media
to plug her new album, a follow-up to her first-
production effort, the Grammy-nominated Pocket
Full of Keys. Thanks to publicist Vernell Hackett,
we exchanged pleasantries and proceeded to play 20 Questions,
all about Dale Ann, at Edley’s, a popular pizza parlour in East
Nashville.
“When you make a record, you put your whole heart and
soul on the line,” says Bradley, in her most charming Sweet Tea
twang. “Everybody does, especially when you produce your own
album. Fortunately, somebody liked that first one alright, and
believe me, this ol’ girl was relieved and happy.”
Earlier Bradley collections were produced by such bluegrass
enthusiasts as Sonny Osborne, Alison Brown, Tim Austin
and Dan Tyminski, collaborations that helped ensure five
International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) wins for her
as that genre’s best female vocalist.
This year and last year, she and her all-girl band Sister Sadie
were IBMA nominees, as was her 2016 premiere production CD,
Pocket Full of Keys, in her first year as a solo artist for Pinecastle
Records. Incidentally, her Sister Sadie team again nabbed a
2017 nominee as best emerging act (consisting of Tina Adair,
Gena Britt, Beth Lawrence and Deanie Richardson), which we
mistakenly thought was a one-year only category.
Not so coincidentally, the Dale Ann Bradley backup band’s
heard on the new CD, which we concluded was a comfort factor
for the artist-producer, who agrees, “Well that and because of the
connection and love we have for one another in this configuration
(Mike Sumner, banjo; Tim Dishman, bass; Scotty Powers,
mandolin; Matt Leadbetter, guitar). So many musicians come
into your band through the years, and I loved ’em all, but this
particular group seems to really enjoy being part of the program
and truly love what we’re doing creatively. And hey, they treat
me like a queen!”
Aware the lady has umpteen albums to her credit, we wondered
Courtesy of Billboard Inc.
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aloud why this specific CD was self-titled, something usually
affixed to an artist’s first-time project? “I’ve added it all up and
with all the bands I’ve been a part of, this was the 14th album,
but this time I just wanted to say, ‘This is me - Dale Ann Bradley
- and I hope you like it!’ I wrote a couple songs on it, I sing and
play, and produced it,” so sink or swim, it’s D.A.B. all the way.
Seems self-penned Southern Memories or Now And Then
(Dreams Do Come True) might have ser ved the purpose equally
well, particularly the latter title, which she co-wrote with Jon
Weisberger. Nonetheless, Jon’s pleased by the news, “Dale
Ann Bradley’s got a new album coming out, and she’s recorded
a song that she and I wrote for my album, I’ve Been Mostly
Awake’(2015, featuring her vocals). Excited to hear what she and
her band have done with it!”
There’s also a much-touted duet on there - I Just Think I’ll Go
Away - with superstar Vince Gill (now touring with an iconic,
though reconstituted, vocal band The Eagles). So how did that
old Carter Stanley song fit into the “D.A.B.” mix?
“Vince loves bluegrass and unashamedly says so and means
it,” Bradley responds. “We first met at the Opry, and he likes
to help anyone, he’s just that way. I opened a show for him in
Chattanooga, and he said we ought to record together sometime.
Well, Pocket Full of Keys was underway and I invited him to sing
on it, but the timing wasn’t right and it didn’t work out. Yet he
said, ‘Remember me . . . call me.’ In fact, he ended up writing the
liner notes for that album.”
Apparently Gill remembered, too, and added a guest vocal with
Dale Ann for this album, and like her, loves to poke around in the
attic for old treasures, coming up with their duet title, originally
performed by the Stanley Brothers (and later Keith Whitley).
“We both love the Stanleys’ music. You may remember, Vince
even performed, along with Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless, at
Ralph’s funeral. Anyway, I Just Think I’ll Go Away was a song
we both loved, and was on my bucket list, so we were anxious to
sink our teeth into it. I think it came out OK, don’t you?”
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