Once in a while I like to compile reviews for bands and artists that I like to hear but some of those artists are worthy of one to two albums and then after that, I may have lost interest. The problem is that is so much music out there but we never have the time to take it all in. Although having car CD player has enabled me to at least listen to them whereas I was at home, the CD would be stacked up gathering dust. The Passing Interest Series takes a gander of some folk who was worthy of a look or two.
The Lost Trailers-These guys were very good Americana artists when they were signed to Universal Republic and made a decent debut Welcome To The Woods to which they had a right amount of twang to make them a bit country and a bit of Wilco. In some ways that album reminds me of the now forgotten Old Pike, whose album should have sounded this good rather than being strained. Welcome To The Woods didn't much of a dent on any chart and Universal bounced them. And then The Trailers sold themselves out to the big Nashville music machine and returned with a very stale and cliched self titled album that didn't sound like the preceeding album, they became Emerson Drive in our very eyes. The rule of thumb is that beware of signing to BNA Records, one of the most crappy labels this side of Curb. The good news for them was that this album sold twice more. But the bad news is that their follow up album Holler Back was even more cliched than the last Lynyrd Synyrd album. No longer the up and coming Americana rock band, The Trailers never sounded more Lost in their polished Nashville sound. So far Holler Back has bombed on the charts. So much for selling out and losing your fan base. BNA would drop them soon after.
Wilco-The more successful of the life after Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy has managed to carve out a decent following although once he discovered Radiohead's OK Computer, Wilco's music went even more wilder and less listenable. For them I still perfer AM, their 1995 debut overall but with each album Tweety led them more into a Crazy Horse indulgence sound (Being There), sunny Brian Wilson like pop (Summerteeth) before making their granditose Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album so off the wall that Reprise rejected it and then Tweedy shopped it around till Nonesuch took it, which was a part of Warner Music Group. And people wonder why the music industry is a joke. I find Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, while put together fine, very boring and too over the map for me to listen all the way through and A Ghost Is Born, their answer to Kid A. Once they started acting too much like Radiohead, I tuned out. I heard that Sky Blue Sky is their most accesible since AM but it doesn't rank high on my list to check out. It's either AM or the Mermaid Avenue albums with Billy Bragg to which showcases their smarts of rewriting the Woody Guthrie songbook. But Jeff Tweedy has managed to do better than the Jay Farrar led bands since Uncle Tupelo.
Frank Sinatra-The voice of seven decades and define pop music as we know it. The man could sing a song and make it his own but I find trying to find the ultimate Frank album is like trying to find an honest Republican, non existant even among the 100 albums that he had put out. He did very well in the Columbia years to which ladies of the 40s would swoon over All Or Nothing At All and then moved over to Capitol for his glorious 50s period. And then got to know him quite well on the AM pop side with the Reprise hits of the 60s. Even with his best concept albums, I couldn't get through his masterpiece Only The Lonely although his version of One For My Baby (and one more for the road) remains definitive. Perhaps out of the big three of The Rat Pack, I perferred the more hipper Dean Martin who seemed to be more updated than Frankie. Capitol did put together a good Frank overview and so did Reprise (The Very Good Years) but so far Rhino's latest Frankthology left off key songs. So I guess I'll listen to Frank when the oldies station plays That's Life or Summer Wind or One For My Baby. But I still can't bring myself to buy a Frank Sinatra album without people thinking I'm a old fuddyduddy. I did eventually settled on the Frank Sinatra Greatest Hits that Reprise put out and it's all the Frank that I need. Till I get old and senile and start looking for more of his classic albums.
Sammy Davis Jr. Which leads to Sammy. I think the best Sammy overview was a best of on Garland/DCC to which Steve Hoffman (CD mastering expert) made Sammy sound like he was in your living room. Anything mastered by Steve Hoffman is worth getting since he doesn't believe in compressing the sound till it's only suitable for IPODs. But for every good song such as I Gotta Be Me or a faithful Mr. Bojangles, we have to sort through his gastly and best charting The Candy Man to which made me turn off when I was in 5th grade and Craig Rothmeyer, being the rock and roll expert he was, called up the radio station to request The Candy Man. Again, Rhino put out a exhaustive four cd box set that has everything but so did most of the hits on the Garland label. Warner also had a nice retrospective of the Reprise years too and even up till 1977 when he had a hit with Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow with Rhythm Heritge. Makes me wonder if Gamble and Huff could have done anything with Sammy, since Sammy could do pop and then soul as well before going back to the fluff. And everytime I do see him on that All In The Family show, I still get a kick out of him.
Taylor Swift-Country's sweetheart of the moment, Taylor kinda reminds me of my old high school crush who was a cheerleader and honors student but I don't think my high school crush could sing or write like Taylor does. She struck it big with her debut album and for the last couple years still sells. Unlike the other Nashville harlot Carrie (I can do it all) Underwood, Taylor is a good songwriter and for a being a teenager has more creado than Carrie. Sure she can stand there and look pretty, but so far unlike Carrie, Swift does have a heart and cares a bit more about the fans too. At the first concert in Cedar Rapids since the historic 2008 flood she donated part of the gate for flood relief. And she did put on a great show. I don't tend to write her off, her album's very good but too pop Nashville for me with the usual cliche fiddles and steel guitar. And I can't believe that the boy interest in Teardrops On My Guitar would drop her in favor of some skanky looking chick (sometimes it happens in real life), the guy oughta hung up by his gonads for that. It should be interesting to see how her next album fares, and I have doubts about teenaged country stars (remember Lila McCann or Alicia Elliott anyone?) but here's hoping that Taylor can keep her audience. Myself I'd love to see her get paired up with Miranda Lambert's studio band. Betcha the results would be a bit more rocking. 2014 Update: Taylor remains the scorn of Country's old school as she continues to go more pop and top forty than actual country and the fact that she's survived this long in the spotlight is a miracle upon itself. I have no use for her music and sometimes she gets compared to the crap Bro Country monstrosity that has made new country radio unlistenable to this day. But as long as she remains on Big Machine Records, she's not going to go away. She's already made it this far down the line.
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