I’m stoked to announce my latest freelance adventure – I’ll be blogging for the Houston Press on topics related to pop culture and music. You can read my first post below, the spawn of my discovery that pop star Carly Rae Jepsen is four days older than me (26). Read on…
Posts filed under Writing
“American Idol” Season 11 finale: Phonebook parody
An awesome way to remember one of my top three favorite seasons and arguably the best season in “Idol” history, even if I didn’t agree with the last man standing. You can read my full thoughts on Season 11 in my latest post for CultureMap Houston: Five lessons from “American Idol” Season 11.
The other highlight of the finale? This absolutely ridiculous performance by runner-up Jessica Sanchez and legend Jennifer Holliday. Run, don’t walk, to watch it.
CultureMap: Sizing up "American Idol" Season 11
If you’re not watching “American Idol” this year, you’re missing out on one of the most memorable seasons in “Idol” history. Why?
“My favorite seasons don’t just present us with potential recording artists; they take raw talent and cultivate it. They tell stories with artistic arcs. They create journeys. And that’s why I love this season.
Week after week, we’ve seen the contestants earnestly build their identities like puzzles, despite the meandering “constructive criticism” from the judges. We’ve seen them wrestle through emotions, intertwine personality and vision, and take creative risks. There’s real momentum driving this season — the kind that both captivates you and keeps you guessing.”
You can read my full thoughts on this season in my latest post for CultureMap, and find all of my “Idol” coverage here. And, seriously, watch this:
Houston magazine: Cool beans
Earlier this year, I got to meet the super cool dudes of The Beans, who entertained me with their bro-banter and laid-back passion for music. You can read my profile of the local band in the March issue of Houston magazine – its 7th anniversary issue. It’s hard to believe I held my first journalism internship at the magazine nearly six years ago…
Nashville Scene’s 12th annual Country Music Critics’ Poll
The excitement doesn’t wear off of after year one: I’m pumped to be a part of Nashville Scene’s annual Country Music Critics’ Poll again, published this week. The poll includes 77 writers and journalists from all over North America, all of whom share in the trials and rewards of covering country music. Check out all of the coverage below.
CultureMap: "American Idol" blogging part two
Country Universe: 2011 countdowns and personality test fun
New staff in tow, we counted down the 40 best singles and 20 best albums of the year over at Country Universe, ending with Taylor Swift”s freshly produced “Mean” and the Pistol Annies” searing Hell on Heels, respectively.
My personal favorite single of the year –which came in at #5– feels more like a country song than it sounds like one. Check out my write-up for “Colder Weather”below, as well as a video of the Zac Brown Band performing a powerful acoustic version with some famous pals a few months ago.
“Colder Weather,” Zac Brown Band
A piano, a wanderer’s tale and killer vocals are the bones of this song– none of which are unique to country music. And yet, “Colder Weather” pleads like the best country songs, hurts like the loneliest of country stories. It serves as an elegant reminder that while casinotives country music is sometimes marked by a fiddly sparkle, it can also turn up in the form of pure emotion – and how Brown emotes. His performance is both soulful and skillful, embodying the rambler’s spectrum of emotions with chilling accuracy – longing, regret, defeat, hunger –, right down to the final line that rings hauntingly hollow: “It’s a shame about the weather / But I know soon we’ll be together / And I can’t wait til then.”
We also did something slightly unconventional for a country music blog – we started a discussion based on personality tests results. Care to join?
Dixie Chicks: Defining Moments
Last Monday, I attended “Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas” in Austin, which ultimately raised $725,000 for the victims of the Texas wildfires earlier this year. The line-up was Texas stellar: Christopher Cross, Terri Hendrix, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Asleep at the Wheel, the Texas Tornados, Randy Rogers Band, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, the Dixie Chicks and George Strait. Superlatives are dangerous, but I’d rank it as one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
Strait closed the show, but to me, the Dixie Chicks stole the show with a fiery and pitch-perfect set. The band, currently on hiatus as a trio, reunited just for the event.
I love the Chicks for many reasons. Their harmonies. Their skill. Their tenacity. Their innovation. It’s hard to put into words my connection to this band and its music, but I can point to some small but meaningful ways they’ve marked my life over the years.
Back in the early 90s, the Dixie Chicks –albeit a different band at that time– played a small festival in Plano, Texas – my very first concert (period). My memories are fuzzy, but it’s fun hearing my parents talk about how much I enjoyed the experience. Five or so years later, when the band broke through in the late 90s, I was instantly sold on their sound. I have goofy memories of performing “Wide Open Spaces” with my middle school show choir at the height of its popularity.
In college, I wrote a divisive column on the Dixie Chicks’ 2007 Grammy sweep inThe Daily Texan that served as my first taste of reader backlash. Despite the snide comments that ensued, writing that column was one of the most rewarding and exhilarating things I did as a student. And though my perspective on the music industry has evolved over the past five years, I still stand firm behind the sentiment of my column.
Flash forward two years to 2009, and I found a little country music universe that’s since become like a second home. I quickly learned that the Country Universebloggers and I had something special in common, among other things – a fierce love for the Dixie Chicks. In some ways, it’s this love that’s shaped our philosophy as a country music blog, rooted in tolerance, respect and open-mindedness.
But at the end of the day, it’s always about the music. Two years ago, we named the Dixie Chicks’ Home and “Long Time Gone” the best album and single, respectively, of the previous decade. I’m particularly fond of Dan’s write-up for “Long Time Gone”:
“All right, so Country Universe loves its Chicks. But make no mistake: “Long Time Gone” earned every bit of this spot on its own merits. The lead release from Home, it came zooming in at the peak of the Chicks’ mainstream popularity and made as bold a statement to the country music world as the group would ever make.
There was the sound, for starters: feisty, swinging bluegrass-folk, with nary a drum beat to be found and stellar harmonies around every corner. There was the song: a deceptively plucky Darrell Scott story of dried up past days and even drier dreams. And of course, there was that final verse, in which the washed-up narrator decries the lack of soul in much of the super-polished music currently dominating country radio. It all flew boldly in the face of everything that institution was (and still is) about, but got played anyway, such was the Chicks’ star and the single’s undeniable charms.
As we look forward to the next decade of country music, ”Long Time Gone” is the kind of song we’ll continue to keep our eyes out for, the kind people will still want to sing along to decades down the line, that makes all the less admirable efforts worth wading through and reminds us why we fell in love with country music in the first place.”
Now excuse me while I go listen to Home.
Flight of the swan: Jacob Riley
Last month I got to interview a super cool –and aggressively humble– hometown kid for the October issue of Houston magazine. The actor-turned-Versace model was so dynamic that the story practically wrote itself. And how can you not dig this kind of shameless love for Houston?
“There’s so much ability here. There’s a possibility for everything. I think it’s stupid that they say New York is the city of opportunity. Houston is the city of opportunity.”
Sound Bite: Storytellers are crazy
“Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags and crazy people.”
-Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Novelist and Microsoft speechwriter Justina Chen used this quote in her inspiring session at a Ragan Communications conference that I attended this week at Microsoft’s headquarters.
