2011 – Page 12 – Country Universe

Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists: Sara Evans

August 7, 2011 Ben Foster 41

Ben counts down his favorite songs by Sara Evans.

Retro Single Review: Alan Jackson, “Don’t Rock the Jukebox”

August 7, 2011 Dan Milliken 5

That’s “don’t rock the jukebox” as in “I’m brokenhearted and that darn rock music won’t help. Play George Jones.” And the pun is that it sounds like he’s asking you not to jostle the machine. Which…people don’t commonly do, really. Kind of a stretch, right?

Retro Single Review: Tim McGraw, “Not a Moment Too Soon”

August 5, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 4

1994 | Peak: #1

The intense heat of McGraw’s record sales helped propel a handful of middling songs to the upper rungs of the chart.

Retro Single Review: George Strait, “A Fire I Can’t Put Out”

August 5, 2011 Ben Foster 6

1983 | Peak: #1

The weeping fiddle intro sets the tone perfectly. The fourth and final single from George Strait’s second album Strait from the Heart, also his second number-one single, found him once again tackling the classic country theme of a memory that won’t go away… and nailing it.

Retro Single Review: Dolly Parton, “In the Ghetto”

August 4, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 3

1969 | Peak: #50

As with her take on “Imagine” decades later, Parton’s cover of the now-classic Elvis Presley single “In the Ghetto” is fatally flawed.

Retro Single Review: Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, “Always, Always”

August 4, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 0

1969 | Peak: #11

Far too polite and matronly to make for an interesting country record.

CU Roundtable Review: Martina McBride, “I’m Gonna Love You Through It”

August 3, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 12

Written by Ben Hayslip, Sonya Isaacs, and Jimmy Yeary

Leeann Ward:

After changing record labels and subsequently releasing the refreshingly sassy “Teenage Daughters”, not to mention interviews that hinted that she hadn’t been completely happy with the direction that her music had taken in recent years, it seemed that blessedly gone might be the days of overwrought, cloying power ballads with generic productions for Martina McBride. The release of “I’m Gonna Love You Through It”, however, laid that hope to rest for those of us who had tired of such songs a zillion Martina songs ago

Single Review: Miranda Lambert, “Baggage Claim”

August 2, 2011 Dan Milliken 29

A swing and a miss.

Give Lambert her usual credit for adventurousness: the production on this kiss-off is rustic and snappy, like some lost 70’s folk-rock nugget. And “Baggage Claim” is an artist’s work, not an assembly-line knock-off; we certainly haven’t heard this central metaphor before.

Retro Single Review: George Strait, “Amarillo By Morning”

August 2, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 2

1983 | Peak: #4

Arguably his signature song, “Amarillo By Morning” officially announced Strait as a distinctive artist of substance and merit.

Listening to it 28 years after its original release, it’s amazing how much this sounds like George Strait, like he’s finally found his niche as a performer.

Retro Single Review: Tim McGraw, “Down on the Farm”

August 1, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 9

1994 | Peak: #2

How refreshing as it is to hear a country pride anthem that actually has country instrumentation and twangy singing.