Album Spotlight: Rylie Bourne: Rylie Bourne

Turn off your mainstream radio station. Get plugged into some music blogs that feature music you like. Then go support the artists you find that you like.

Rylie Bourne was a name I never heard until yesterday. Then I saw a review of her debut album at Country Music Minds. Read it, if you want a good review. Better than I could do.

Bourne does justice to traditional country without sounding dated. Think Kacey Musgraves and Sunny Sweeney with a bit of Dolly Parton sprinkled in.

And she's got swamp, that sultry, bluesy, organic thing that can only be described as swampy.

Here is "Mary Ann" from an NPR Tiny Desk session.

Kac

Q and A With Singer/Songwriter Kate Lynne Logan

Photo By George Bentley

I recently had the opportunity to conduct a long distance interview with singer/songwriter Kate Lynne Logan. The tagline under her name on her website is "Americana In The Emerald City". She says about Americana "it means a ‘modernized version of Old Country.’ I think it means the contemporary version of artists like Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. I would love nothing more than to be compared to such artists."

Kate grew up among the wheat fields of western Washington. She now resides in the emerald city of Seattle and has released five studio projects including her most recent full length album, 2014's Animal Dreams.

She is currently finishing up another project which includes the song "Roosey Roads" which Kate says is "the true (love) story of how/when my parents met in the 1980's. We all think the perfect love story doesn't exist, but my parents will celebrate 33 years this October. That kind of love happens in real life."

Cover Songs: Lita Ford - Only Women Bleed, Mindy Smith - Jolene

My views on cover songs have been documented. Most of the time, just give me the original.

That doesn't mean there are not covers that I enjoy. Here are two.

First is Lita Ford's cover of Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed." I love Alice and his original version is fantastic. Lita's cover is spot on and it's nice to hear this song sung in a female voice.





Next is Mindy Smith's version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene." Now, nobody can touch Dolly. I like this cover. It's slower and more haunting than the original.

Working Women's Wednesday: Dolly Parton

Yeah, I know. Last time Stevie Nicks, this time Dolly Parton. Nothing groundbreaking in featuring these two icons.

But a lot of people don't know of their greatness, their contributions, their legacies. And that's a shame. If I can educate just one person, I've done something.

Dolly Parton has recently released her 1,497th album. You might want to fact check that....it's just an estimate. Blue Smoke came out in the U.S. in May of this year and hit #2 on the country album charts. You probably won't hear any of the music on mainstream country radio.

How does Dolly stay relevant, other than the fact that she is Dolly freakin' Parton? Why not commission the boys from Bon Jovi to re-write "Lay Your Hands On Me"? Sure.

Playing to a huge crowd at Glastonbury, England, accompanied by estranged Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, Dolly killed it, as only Dolly can.

This performance overall, not this particular song, has come under some scrutiny as being lip synced. While I don't believe this song was, you can read more about it here at Saving Country Music.




Whether solo or with Porter Waggoner or Kenny Rogers, Dollly Parton has always commanded attention. I would be remiss to not include some version of "Jolene".  So here you go:

Dolly Parton's Jolene

So, we were looking for a particular version of Dolly Parton's song Jolene. We then stumbled upon 40+ recorded versions of the song.

While that, in and of itself is not particularly noteworthy - surely there are other songs that have been recorded countless times. However, there was one facet of this we did find particularly remarkable.

There are versions of Jolene recorded in genres ranging from punk to bluegrass, from dance to jazz, from rock to Persian. There have been artists as diverse as The White Stripes and Olivia Newton-John take a stab at the song.

Some versions were really very good, others? Well, let's just say that it probably wasn't thought through very well, just to be kind.\

The interesting part of all of this is despite the different musical styles, different instrumentation, different arrangements, one thing remained very consistent - the melody. While artists had no qualms taking liberties with everything else, the melody seems to be untouchable.

Maybe some things are just too iconic to be altered.