Last year, I opened this list with a discussion of 2016 was the year that bro-country was forced to reckon with itself, that songs about short shorts and pickups would no longer make you a top country star. 2017 has mostly borne that out; the bros have given way to a gentler shade of male, like singers like Brett Eldredge and Chris Young, guys who won’t sing about Fireball or any other rail whiskey product.
But ultimately, it was a quiet year for country music. Chris Stapleton dominated the charts for more than a quarter of the year, but there wasn’t a lodestar album that dominated the conversation this year, and it seemed like every other week boasted a country album that needed attention. Shania came back, Kane Brown came up, and everybody from Jason Isbell to Brad Paisley took their time at number one.
If there was a debate to be had, it was over that recurs every 10 years debate over who gets to make country music, like it wasn’t decided at least by the moment that Merle “Born In California” Haggard became one of the genre’s biggest stars in the ‘60s that literally anyone anywhere can be “authentic” country. A bunch of performers found themselves embroiled in debates that were litigated in Rolling Stone Country and elsewhere over who qualifies as getting to make “real” country. It’s a debate that’s been had over and over--CMA Entertainer Of The Year Garth Brooks used to be considered “inauthentic”--and the 10 albums below sometimes found themselves embroiled in that discussion. But this year proved, for the millionth time, that great country music can be made by former ad execs, and former models, and former Pistol Annies, and 22-year-old wunderkinds from Saskatchewan.
今年大部分时间里,Jason Isbell 在 Twitter 上以及在采访中,成为了为数不多的公开质疑当下事务——特朗普、白人特权、男性性暴力的乡村明星之一。Isbell 的观众可能与 Luke Bryan 的观众没有太多重叠,后者可能在这些问题上与他意见相左,因此风险更小,但乡村明星敢于公开这些问题,仍然令人耳目一新。《The Nashville Sound》中的一些歌曲反映了这种对权力结构的质疑开放态度,从 “White Man’s World” 到 “Anxiety”,此外,它也是 Isbell 自离开 Drive By Truckers 以来最强壮、最“摇滚”的作品。《The Nashville Sound》可能没有 Isbell 的上一张专辑那么耀眼,但这就是重点;经历了多年的个人和职业动荡之后,看到他以健康和叛逆的精神在这里制作他想要的音乐,真是太棒了。
今年几乎没有哪张专辑像《Highway Queen》这样强烈开场:“yippee ki yay”的呼喊揭开了“700,000 Rednecks”这首歌的序幕,这是一首关于 Nikki Lane 认为成功的乡村音乐生涯只需要 70 万名乡村迷来购买她的唱片并支持她的巡演的自我指涉歌曲。Lane 是另一位在意识到自己可以写得比她那烂透了的前任更好的歌后开始她职业生涯的乡村局外人,在《Highway Queen》中做了许多努力来实现她的 70 万乡村迷目标——这张专辑既传统,又有些边缘,有些歌曲听起来像 1971 年的酒吧乡村音乐,还有些就像2017 年由一个不屈不挠、历经沧桑的女人制作的乡村专辑。
对于乡村音乐的网络粉丝来说,这可能是一个有些“深挖”的事情,但今年没有哪张专辑比 Midland 的首张《On The Rocks》更具争议。从音乐上讲,Midland 生活在 1997 年的乡村音乐世界中;他们的首张专辑假设 Garth Brooks、Alan Jackson 和 George Strait 是顶点,他们的专辑充满了聪明、有趣的创作,全是排舞和各种酷炫。“Drinkin' Problem”统治一切。
但是,从人际关系上讲,他们曾是模特、肥皂剧演员和音乐视频导演,然后才成为乡村音乐艺人,不知为何,这让乡村网络迷们抓狂。但问题在于:你可以分辨出某件事让互联网疯狂是因为毫无理由的,而某件事让人兴奋是因为触动了某种未被敲响的钟声。如果 Midland 的这张专辑不是真的棒极了,那么它对任何人都毫无意义,所以这次“真实性”争论是他们不幸必须背负的沉重负担。所以,听听这张专辑,戴上这个 bolo 领结,没有人会盯着你看。
Chris Stapleton 经常被视为“好”乡村音乐的典范,是那些在乡村电台占据主导地位而名为 Chace 的家伙的替代品,尽管在他成为一位巨大的独唱明星之前,Stapleton 大部分的房租是通过卖歌给 Thomas Rhett 和 Luke Bryan 来支付的。但那次CMAs 演出让 Stapleton 成为了他自己的小产业,一张接一张地出售《Traveller》(他的 2015 年专辑今年卖出了大约 500k 份)。这使得 Stapleton 面临他音乐生涯中从未遇到过的实际压力:他会如何超越《Traveller》?
他进了录音室,进行了一些松散的录音,导致了这对专辑,总的来说,它们比《Traveller》更强大。从“Broken Halos”的开幕号角声到 Pop Staples“Friendship”的封底,这两张专辑展现了 Stapleton 在他力量的巅峰时期:清晰、写得好、制作得当的乡村音乐,他那震撼人心、一流的嗓音完美地传达了出来。Stapleton 花了几年时间尝试制作他想要的音乐,直到终于机会降临。这些专辑证明了他将能够继续这样做,只要他愿意。
Andrew Winistorfer is Senior Director of Music and Editorial at Vinyl Me, Please, and a writer and editor of their books, 100 Albums You Need in Your Collection and The Best Record Stores in the United States. He’s written Listening Notes for more than 30 VMP releases, co-produced multiple VMP Anthologies, and executive produced the VMP Anthologies The Story of Vanguard, The Story of Willie Nelson, Miles Davis: The Electric Years and The Story of Waylon Jennings. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.