It’s another week, so we’re back to share some things we’ve been listening to. Charles is up first, then David. As always, we’ve listed a bunch of reading recommendations at the end.
The Del McCoury Band (feat. Molly Tuttle) – “She’s Heavenly” (from Songs of Love and Life, 2024)
Del and the boys are back with a new album that adds another chapter to their dependably delightful catalog. “She’s Heavenly” is one of those bright, major-key tunes that have always been a McCoury specialty, with Del’s still-sharp tenor dancing across the band’s classic bluegrass arrangement and joining together with bearhug-tight harmonies on the chorus. Here, the group gets a welcome assist from Molly Tuttle, who harmonizes on the second verse and then trades off with Del on a third verse that gives voice to the woman at the song’s center. “She’s Heavenly” is a love song that pays off its big feelings with a heart-skipping excitement that turns high lonesome into high romance. – CH
Kevin Gordon – “Simple Things” (single, 2024)
Roots-rocker Kevin Gordon’s coming back with a new album this fall, and – judging by this first track – it’s going to be a winner. Set in the original COVID-19 lockdown, “Simple Things” is a full-blast rocker with Gordon racing ahead of drums and guitars as they all wait for things to open up again. He relates the details of what he’s missing – hearing a band in a bar, hugging loved ones – with poignant relatability, but what really makes “Simple Things” click is that he captures the tone of what it all felt like. It’s edgy and restless, ready to burst out into the world and get rockin’ again. It’s not a period piece, of course, both because a new COVID could easily provoke another lockdown and because the “simple things” that Gordon’s describing are things we should seek all the time anyway. Stay safe, friends, and stay hungry. – CH
Ashley Monroe – “Hot Rod Pipe Dream” (single, 2024)
Any new music from the great Ashley Monroe is most welcome. And this thick, hazy glam rocker hits on all cylinders. (Pun intended.) “Hot Rod Pipe Dream” is gloriously sleazy, with Monroe lusting after the driver (who has “legs for days” but also “chrome for brains”) over a fuzzed-out background that finds just the right balance between tight and slippery. It’s as undignified and pleasurable as a good B-movie (dig the “two-lane blacktop” lyrical reference), with an arrangement built around Monroe’s voice as she hums, revs, and opens up all the way. And then, when you think it’s over, Monroe comes back for a reprise outro that builds a brand-new groove from just handclaps, bass, keys, and Monroe’s voice. Just when you’re ready for the full band to kick back in, it’s over, gone in 30 seconds and never to be forgotten. – CH
Megan Thee Stallion (feat. GloRilla) – “Accent” (from Megan, 2024)
This track from Megan Thee Stallion’s new album isn’t the first time the Houston MVP has teamed up with the ascendant queen of Memphis. But “Accent” feels like an announcement. As the title suggests, both MCs use their distinctive speech patterns as the central symbol for a song filled with allusive wordplay. Not only is it an excellent image for boasts and come-ons (“I’m thicker than my accent” is just the beginning), but the message here – the sounds and patterns of Houston or Memphis voices are unique, rich, and worth figuring out – isn’t just about attracting a lover. It’s about these two greats of the new Dirty South generation explaining their version of Andre 3000’s deathless reminder that “the south’s got something to say.” (There are even linguistic lessons, with Glo reminding that she adds “R” to any word with “U.”) The groove is appropriately humid, revealing the sonic lines between Memphis and Houston with an eerie melody atop spare bass and punching drums. “From the M to the H with it, they know what the fuck is goin’ on,” Megan raps during one of the pair’s collaborative verses. We sure the fuck do: Listen close and listen up. – CH
Kinky Friedman – “Marilyn and Joe” (from Under the Double Ego, 1983)
Kinky Friedman, who died last week, will probably be most remembered for his satiric side. (For better or worse.) One of the Kinkster’s best tricks was couching some songs that are dead serious, and deeply humane, with whimsical lyrical flourishes, like the title of the Holocaust elegy “Ride ‘Em, Jewboy,” or pronouncing the title to “Rapid City, South Dakota” so that the last word rhymes with “wrote her.” These songs show what a surprisingly elegant songwriter, and performer, Friedman could be, and one of my Friedman favorites drops the wink completely. “Marilyn and Joe,” from 1983’s Under the Double Ego and later re-recorded as his contribution to a very fine tribute album, is a graceful slow dance. Friedman is at his tenderest singing about how the past fades away and the only way to recapture its sweet dreams is to stay close to those you cherish in a place called love. “There’s a little bit of yesterday still in your eye,” he notes as the trembling mandolin doubles his voice, “to show that dreamers never die.” There’s no punchline here, except for the one that punches me right in the heart. – CH
Billy Dankert “I Wanna Dance” and “So Many Gone” (from All Eight, 2024)
Billy Dankert’s latest album opens with a frustrated cut (“Release,” as in there isn’t any) that would’ve worked well for his old Minneapolis rock-and-roll band, the rootsy Gear Daddies. What follows, mostly, is a string of synthy, new wavey and low-tech numbers about the stresses of modern high-tech society (“Small Screens,” “Fine Programmer,” “Terrible Choices”), plus one wisely unsubtle political tract (“Jesus Was a Socialist”), and I could easily have recommended any of them. But this week I’ll settle on “I Wanna Dance” (as in, “but not with you”), where drone guitar, keyboard beats and synth piano parts courtesy of Jiropole, fight one another, and against the rhythm, in a way that insures there’ll be no dancing tonight, and on “So Many Gone,” another Gear Daddies-appropriate cut, about death (as in, “See Emma fail, fail to breathe on her own”) and about hopes for reunion. – DC
Lola Young – “Messy” (from This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, 2024)
London’s Lola Young lists her lover’s contradictory complaints about her: “I’m too messy and then I’m too fucking clean,” “I’m too clever and then I’m too fucking dumb,” and so on and so on and so on. “A thousand people I could be for you,” she says, “and you hate the fucking lot.” The punky pop chorus flies anthem high as she insists all she really wants is to be herself, so the next verse should be about her packing up and leaving this asshole behind. But the repetitive bass plunks along menacingly, like an itch she’s rubbing raw or a ticking time-bomb or a nagging conscience, and she’s still there, counting off her partner’s version of her flaws again and maybe starting to believe them. –DC
Chris Housman – “Guity As Sin” (from Blueneck, 2024)
Another anthemic nineties country throwback that should be a big hit but won’t be—and for reasons this song hints at. In the real world, Chris Housman is out, but here he still can’t quite shake the view that desiring another man is sinful, and forget something to declare pride in—all as he pulls the man in tight anyway. “If loving you is wrong,” he cries, “I’m guilty as sin.” All right then, he says, he’ll go to hell. – DC
Warren G. & Nate Dogg – “Regulate” (from Regulate… G Funk Era, 1994)
Back up, back up ‘cause it’s on, people! All the way back to 1994 and the Song of the Summer. Well, my nomination for that title anyway. Twenty years ago this week, “Regulate” was in the middle of a three-week run at No. 2 on the Hot 100. That chart-peak detail, combined with the single’s oh-so-smooth groove—sampled from Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’”—would eventually provide a key plot point in one of the more hilarious episodes of web series Yacht Rock. More importantly, the record spliced Warren G.’s gangsta storytelling with Nate Dogg’s chill croon, then let it ride atop McDonald’s mellow rhythm. The sonic result was a whole new era where “the rhythm is the bass, and the bass is the treble. Chords. Strings… Melody.” In other words, pop music—and still a can’t-miss edition to your summertime playlist. – DC
Recommended readings:
-Caryn Rose on the Born in the USA remixes, for NPR
-Annie Zaleski talks to Mike Campbell about songwriting, Tom Petty and more, for Slate
-Kinky Freidman on the 10 albums that changed his life, for Goldmine (2020)
-Taylor Crumpton on Megan Thee Stallion, for Autostraddle
-Andrea Williams on why Darius Rucker is wrong about Morgan Wallen, for The Nashville Tennessean
-Michael Barnes on the late Michael Corcoran, for The Austin American-Statesmen
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Nice picks! The whole Del album is excellent.