This is theee… fourth instalment (I think) of Country Music News Blog’s G+ Hangout, to build up to the Thunder On The Mountain festival in Arkansas in June. Previous artists interviewed include Colt Ford, JT Hodges, Rose Falcon and Clayton Anderson, and this one was with Easton Corbin! This is my second Hangout (I did the Clayton Anderson Hangout last week) and it was tons of fun, although lots of technical issues did hinder the call a bit!
Check it out here, especially for the unnecessarily prolonged spotlight on me for a while during the middle! Haha woops
IT’S FRIDAY!!! It feels like it’s been the longest week ever. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow (I’ll probably still end up working, I’m a workaholic), but for now here is my review of the ‘Nashville’ soundtrack, volume 1. I know volume 2 is out in the US, but it isn’t quite yet in the UK, and this has been queued up for a while to post So if you haven’t bought the album yet (even if you don’t watch Nashville) check out my review! You won’t regret it.
Hey everyone! I was lucky enough to be part of this G+ Hangout with country artist Clayton Anderson, interviewing him as part of the upcoming festival in Arkansas, Thunder On The Mountain. It was a blast and Clayton is tons of fun to “hangout” with! Have a watch, if only if for my occasional social awkwardness. Tons more interviews coming soon, including Easton Corbin! Stay tuned for those, I’ll be taking part so I’ll let you know!
You can buy Clayton’s great record ‘Torn Jeans & Tailgates’ on iTunes!
PS: You may notice the new background color at forthecountryrecord.com! This is just temporary as I was bored of the brown. However, I am getting a brand new theme exclusively designed for FTCR, and that should be online by the end of May! Lots of changes going on here, yesterday I upgraded from just a blog to a full-on website (with web hosting, servers, the whole shebang!), and you should start to see advertising on the site from June. We also have a new Facebook page so go like us!
That’s it for now, but follow me on Twitter for exclusive updates and unadulterated country music opinion!
I’m really interested to know what all of you think about my choices, my stance, and who you would like to see winning more country awards, be it CMAs, ACMs, ACAs or CMTs, so let me know in the comments, tweet me, or comment on the article I’ve linked. Enjoy!
I am a big fan of the Pistol Annies, so that’s the perspective I take all of their material from. I love their sassy, edgy, feminist-tinged wit and their incredible singing and songwriting credentials, and for me their latest single, ‘Hush Hush’, is a great example of that. However, when I came to the see the video, I was somewhat disappointed.
The storyline is set within a small town church gathering, and Miranda, Ashley and Angaleena are housewives. The coloring is bright and at times saturated, and underlines their attempts of parody of ‘perfect’ American suburbia. Much of the video revolves around the women gossiping, the lines of the song mimed as if spoken in conversation, over-accentuated to further the impression of parody. This is interspersed with shots of the gathered congregation, sampling the food and as time progresses beginning to ‘misbehave’. This is all fine and a good, enjoyable interpretation of the song. However, I do have some issues that extend into their wider image as a band. Firstly, one of the scenes depicts them in ‘sexy’ clothing; leather, lace and corsetry in abundance, and Angaleena’s boobs looking like they came out of some cartoon porno.
This has no connection to the storyline and presumably how they’re representing themselves as a band, outside of the narrative. I’ve seen them in similar clothing, both in performance and in their album sleeve, and it’s beginning to get on my nerves to be honest. I’m all for women showing off their sexiness but it seems to have become their trademark, and I think it really cheapens them and their music. It’s so over-the-top that it’s unnecessary, and isn’t what their music is about. That’s only to add to their over-exaggerated appearances as housewives within the video, that could be argued as a continuation of the parody, but their excessive fake tan (which I’ve seen outside this video in other imagery of theirs) looks stupid, and Miranda’s hair stretched back over her head leaves her forehead looking quite laughable. That sounds bitchy of me towards the women and I don’t mean it to be; but it makes me cringe when I see it. I want them looking more natural regardless of intentions of parody, because I don’t think cartoonizing themselves (like a modern-day Dolly Parton) fits their musical output and it saddens me that they should be perceived in this way.
Other than that I enjoy the video, but I have to say I much prefer the Pistol Annies’ audio over visuals these days.
So if you haven’t bought the album yet (even if you don’t watch Nashville) check out my review! You won’t regret it.
