Category: country sort of

Deep South country also gets hot in the winter. “White Christmas” is what Amber DeLaCruz doesn’t have. 87 degrees driving ATVs through the pine trees is more like it.

Pickup Sticks is sad, western rocking “I Wish It Was Christmas” from the bowels of summer. That electric bill just went up to two-hundred seventy-eight, just the amount returning gifts would bring. Or, wait, maybe the cold of December wouldn’t ramp up the AC usage. Regardless, i too wish it so–and dig their twangy tirade.

A little soul, a little soft rock, a lot of country pop, “366 Days (Next Christmas)” starts us on the eve of this year but promises love through every holiday until that day of next year. Bob Mader croons for the lonely.

Lori Triplett is blue in “Coming Home Alone.” Around Christmas time Saturday morning, little half past 5:00, she doesn’t feel like packing up and seeing the family. Why? In misty folk-country vocals she hints at having promised to come home WITH someone. But since the accompaniment ain’t in the cards…. Pretty–and pretty sad.

Tara Oram works out her Daddy issues with a rockin’ country tune about how she was becalmed on the eve of a big storm with her pop’s telescope and a makeshift astronomy lesson. They counted “538 Stars” and discussed the one who led the three kings. It ain’t in the Bible, it ain’t worth looking at.

Mr. Kenny Rogers capitalizes on smarm, but he’s an artist so occasional poignancy peeks through like with “727 East Magnolia Avenue.” Maybe it’s my advancing years, but i have driven slowly by a previous residence and reminisced–including Xmas flashbacks. So this soft country has weaseled into my heartstrings. I’ll deal if you will.

Colleen Rennison has a sad story about that week between Christmas and New Years (Thank God the clock just turned 8:59). She’s sorry and she wishes you could see that little one and she’s tried of drinking and–she misses you. But “Some Things You Lose.” And that’s an alt-country way to see it.

“Suffering,” an emotional indie from Fab Foursome, Frode Johannesen, and Line Merete Larsen, asks that you put on the old records. And, i guess, it’s Christmas–somewhere.

Rod Picott waxes tragic over his repressed upbringing symbolized by the “Jackknife” gifted to him way back in ’73 for Christmas. It glints, it cuts, it lasted, it’s cold… you get the drill.

These year references are stretching back pretty far… time to drown in treacly nostalgia!

Ye-haw! Modern pop country from Michael Ray. One Day All You’re Gonna Have is a “Picture“! It’s just that back then it was a printed photograph (KODAK is product placed in the first line), not no digital image. Even with people still dying today, memories are snaps. Don’t forget ’em.