Album Review, “Love on the Inside,” Sugarland

When Sugarland first burst onto the scene in 2004 with Twice the Speed of Life, they were something of an insatiable ray of sunshine. Nothing but positive, happy music (“Stand Back Up” is the only track that isn’t totally upbeat, but its “nothing is going to hold me down” message still fit) meant to bring a smile to the face of the audience. That trend mostly continued with 2006′s Enjoy the Ride, another album full of happy lyrics and catchy beats…with the notable exception of “Stay,” an award-winning ballad of heartbreak, which clearly broke with their usual style up to that point. Their songs weren’t entirely substanceless (“Settlin’” and “Something More,” for instance, were both lyrically solid messages of getting the most you can out of life)…but their success has largely been driven by their great melodies.

With this newest release, Love on the Inside, the songwriting has taken a bit of a turn toward the bittersweet. “Stay” was just a story, but not an autobiographical one…I would venture a guess that there’s quite a bit of personal story in this album. It would seem from listening to it that life has finally hit them in the face a little bit; I’m pretty sure that a lot of this could be pointed toward lead singer Jennifer Nettles’ divorce, which took place in between the writing of the previous album and this one. By no means do I think this shift in tone is a bad one…the best artists are the ones who convey all emotions, both happy and sad, rather than leaning too heavily on one or the other. I really like this third release from the duo who is now challenging Brooks & Dunn as the the biggest duo in country music.

The happy-go-lucky Sugarland certainly isn’t gone, as you can tell from their first single, “All I Want to Do,” a fun summer hit that is already in the top 5 on Billboard with a good chance at becoming the duo’s third #1 hit.

Roadtrip/Concert Report (Part 3)

Saturday, June 21st (the concert)

The Sleep Train Amphitheatre is a little bit out of the way, in the sticks…nothing like The Gorge in Washington, but it was definitely taking up its own little area out in the country. We arrived a little past 5:00, knowing that will call opened up a couple of hours before the show. We parked and headed over there to pick up our tickets. We were very happy to receive tickets that put us in the 8th row in the center section of the floor. The Brad Paisley fan club certainly does hook you up. I’ve done the pre-sales through other fan clubs, and they didn’t nearly do this well for me.

Back to our car, we started trying to scope out whether or not the silly “public alcohol consumption” laws were being enforced here or not. Thankfully, unlike the nonsense that goes on in Seattle, these laws were being entirely ignored. People were all drinking out of beer bottles with the labels showing, and cops were walking by and smiling and waving at them. All was just as it should be. So, we comfortably enjoyed a few drinks (hiding inside of the air-conditioned vehicle, it was just too hot to hang outside) before heading into the venue. The venue was nice, pretty comparable to the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, WA. The 8th row seats were even better than we expected. There was a center platform that reached out into the middle of the venue, just a few feet from us, and the performers would all come down this aisle once every two or three songs to sing. These were officially the best seats I’ve ever had at anything.

Roadtrip/Concert Report (Part 2)

Thursday, June 19th

This was an incredibly long day at work…time always feels like it’s going in reverse on Thursdays (and Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays) at my job, but this took it to new levels as I was incredibly anxious to take off and enjoy a long-awaited trip. It had been a couple of years since I had bedded down in another state for even another day or two, and I was getting stir-crazy to break up the monotony a bit. After a 10 hour work day that felt more like 20, I headed home. Aaron and I met up at my place, threw a few things in the car, and headed down I-5. We had hotel reservations in Vancouver, WA, for the night. We liked the idea of hacking some hours out of the trip on Thursday, making the whole thing a pretty leisurely drive from Thursday through Saturday before having a very long return trip to make on Sunday.

Upon hitting the road, I successfully pitched the idea of trying to get to Vancouver in time to catch a late showing of Iron Man at one of the theaters there. We made good time and got into our seats in the theater with about two minutes to spare. In short, I think this is the best movie I’ve seen this summer, much better than The Incredible Hulk and even a bit better than Prince Caspian. Great acting, enjoyable characters, cool action scenes…one of the best superhero flicks that I’ve seen. I scoffed at the idea of this movie before it came out, as the trailers looked simply horrible to me…but I was dead wrong about my initial feelings toward this one. I’ll be purchasing this one as soon as I can on Blu-ray.

Roadtrip/Concert Report (Part 1)

How it came together

On my birthday in 2006, my friend Aaron popped in with an odd but thoughtful care package of a bottle of Miller Genuine Draft, a plastic apple juice bottle, and a pack of Swedish Fish. That was about as good as presents come for less than $5. So, when he called ahead to ask if he could pop in on me during my 2007 birthday, visions of random cheap treats danced through my head. When he came through the door empty-handed, I admit to mild disappointment. Then he said, “So, I figured out a birthday present for you this year.” After I said, “Yeah?”, he said, “I’ll pick up the tab at Cracker Barrel.”

Naturally this confused me, as there are no Cracker Barrel locations in this state or even immediately adjacent states. Finally, bewildered, I said, “We’re going to Montana?” He proudly said, “Yep.” We had taken a roadtrip in 2003 that took us through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and Nevada…he knew from that trip how much I enjoyed Cracker Barrel. Anyway, I was duly impressed that his wife had happily signed off on him taking another roadtrip, and we tentatively planned to make a weekend trip at least to Montana sometime. As time passed, though…it didn’t happen. We would periodically bring it up, but never made firm plans.

2008 ACM Awards recap

The 2008 ACM Awards have come and gone, and it was a good show.

Here was the highlight performance, in my view…Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood singing “Make the World Go Away” in tribute to the late Eddy Arnold.

Some other thoughts on the show…

Album Review: “Good Time,” Alan Jackson

In 2002, Alan Jackson released his last great album with Drive. The title track, “Drive,” along with “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” dominated the charts…”Work in Progress” was the other great song on this album. He followed that album with one of the best songs of his career, “Remember When.” After that, though, the well seemed to dry up. For almost five years, he didn’t score another #1 single, and the only song I would speak particularly well of from that period is 2004′s “Monday Morning Church.”

I’m happy to report that with his latest release, Good Time…Jackson is very much back, and has shown that he’s still got it. This is his best album in five years, and one of the best of his career. To make it even better, this is the first album that he has penned each and every song on.

Idol: Everyone else is an opening act for David Cook.

Yep…I watch American Idol.  In fact, it’s the only show not named The Office that I make sure I watch weekly when it’s in season.  So, tease away.  Anyhow, I’m pretty sure that I have readers who also watch, so I figured I’d put some season 7 opinions down.

Nobody remaining on Idol this season is bad.  Everyone sings reasonably well, so on a technical level you have to nitpick to find major faults.  With that said, most of them come short of greatness.

Album Review: “Troubadour,” George Strait

George Strait really seems like he should’ve started resembling a has-been by now. His first album, Strait Country, was released 27 years ago. His first #1 hit single, “Fool Hearted Memory,” topped the charts 26 years ago, and was the first of a staggering 42 #1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Lots of country stars (George Jones, Marty Stuart to name a couple) are still kind of lingering on the scene in semi-retirement, putting in occasional appearances at the Grand Ole Opry, but aren’t really anything more than a novelty in the “aging legend” category.

Strait manages to continue to be entirely relevant, and is still really one of the biggest stars in the industry almost three decades later. Coming off another stellar album, It Just Comes Natural (released in 2006), it comes as absolutely no surprise that this latest effort, Troubadour, debuted at #1 on the U.S. Country albums chart this past week. Unfortunately, while it’s a pretty good effort, it doesn’t hold up as being as good as his last release.