Perhaps the most impressive fact about Brad Paisley’s instrumental album, Play, is that it didn’t break his streak of #1 records. Play didn’t wind up going Gold or Platinum like the rest of his albums but it did top the country charts.
Most likely that is due to the album’s handful of vocal tracks, including today’s SOTD, a duet with Keith Urban. ‘Start a Band’ became Paisley’s ninth consecutive #1 single and his 13th overall. In keeping with Play‘s focus on the guitar, the song paired Paisley up with Urban, another country star known for his axe skills.
teacher’s pet or child prodigy
I wasn’t gonna get rich throwin’ a football
It’d take too long to get a law degree
So I sat down with momma and daddy
They tried to talk some sense into my thick head
But the best advice that I ever got
was from my sister’s rock star boyfriend
Just get you a guitar and learn how to play
Cut up some jeans, come up with a name
When you’re living in a world that you don’t understand
Find a few good buddies, start a band
Start a band, Start a band
And all those girls that were too cool to talk to,
They’ll be waiting in a line out back
Might get your picture in a hometown paper
Maybe buy your momma that Cadillac
Just get you a guitar and learn how to play
Cut up some jeans, come up with a name
When you’re living in a world that you don’t understand
Find a few good buddies, start a band
Start a band, Scrape up some money, buy a van
Learn free bird and ramblin’ man
Never buy another beer again
(Guitars)
So get you a guitar and learn how to play
Grow out your hair, come up with a name
With a little bit of luck you’ll be packing the stands
Find a few good buddies, start a band
No need to study, start a band
Call up some buddies man, and start a band
Meet Me In Montauk 
This is certainly a fun song, played well by two very good guitarists. Cute video also Still, it’s nothing I would ever feel the need to hear again.
On the way home from a wonderful birthday dinner for my wife last night (thank you:)), we were listening to Counting Crows’ Hard Candy. As I listened to track after track, I just kept thinking that “this” is the style and type of music that truly resonates with me as compared to songs by Paisley and most country artists. in trying to break down what it is that worked so effectively on me, various elements popped out. Certainly, a large dose of it is Duritz’ passionate, unique vocals. By contrast, Paisley’s vocals are clean but largely uninteresting. Then I focused in on the sound of the music–the choice of instrumentation, everything from the type of guitar played to the infusion of strings or a mandolin, all coupled with some really great background vocals and harmonies. It all created a diversity of sound that I just don’t hear in most country music. Now, I’m not going to declare “American Girl” as the second coming (though I like it well enough), but hearing that song juxtaposed with something like “Good Time” or “Butterfly in Reverse” just made the overall experience of listening to the album wonderful. And we arrived at home before even hearing “Miami,” let alone ‘Holiday in Spain,”
I guess my other point here goes back to what Amy has often said, which is that there is really just only so much time in my life to listen to music. And there is so much music out there, but really only a handful of artists, and then a subset of albums and songs by those artists, that truly grab me. Obviously, you have a need/desire to listen to a wider range of artists and albums from those artists, and Paisley also, for you, rises to the level of someone who grabs you. But, as for me, give me that same Hard Candy I’m remembering again, again, again, again and again:)
For my birthday, I request a cease fire on the either/or comments that suggest one artist must be appreciated at the expense of another. I adore Counting Crows, but I like today’s SOTD very much, so… thanks for not posting an instrumental on my birthday 😉
In fact, I think I posted this video on your blog when I was first falling for Keith Urban, no? Regardless, great song, great guitar duet, great country twang. This is the sort of country music I love the most. Makes me smile 🙂
As an obsessive list-maker, I can’t say I have a problem with comparing artists (or movies, or whatever) to each other and ranking one higher than another. On the contrary, I find it quite fun.
I find it harder to distill down what it is I like about a given artist or album and say that I value elements X and Y more than element Z. For me, each artist has a unique personal appeal that is contributed to but not limited to the technical aspects of his or her music.
In a movie, I could point to shot selection, frame composition, the use of sound, etc. — all technical aspects akin to the qualities you mentioned about Hard Candy — that make one movie more “worthy” in some sense than another. But I like I Love You Man a lot more than In the Bedroom for reasons unrelated to complexity or the film school definition of artistry.
So I guess I’m saying that country music (or at least the country music I like) is sort of the comedy genre of the music world… under-appreciated because of its relative simplicity, but a lot easier to love.
(And I say that fully aware that I’ve long been on the other end of this argument with regards to film comedy, though that has changed in recent years — perhaps along with my discovery of country music!)