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Tim McGraw apologizes for Greatest Hits album


Billster

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sorry, you guys need to take your heads out yer asses. I don't care for all of Tim McGraw's music (namely, "Don't Take the Girl") but he has cut some great songs that move people (albeit the kind of people you may look down on). Take "Live Like You Were Dying", for example. That song is a classic already and it has staying power.

 

It's pretty easy to diss top 40 country- lots of built-in internet support for that- but alot of the best songs (and worst too, I admit) of the last 15 years have been top 40 country. Soon as you give up on it, another one comes along that nails you to the floor. All but the most jaded of us can still appreciate a great song and the stellar musicianship of the past and present Nashville cats. I play blues, jazz etc. but I am always proud to play with a good country band.

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Whoa... the AutoTune on "Live Like You Were Dying" is pretty annoying. I didn't listen to the very end -- I found the sound of the vocal quite unfomfortable -- but the lyrics definitely sounded interesting,

 

I like the fact that it's actually about something other than cheatin', drinkin', drivin' truck, and cheatin'... but I don't much care for that big Nashville pop thing at all.

 

Nothin' wrong with liking it, mind you.

 

 

 

But, see... I like my country more like the Louvins, Hank (grandpa), Cash, Jones, Tammy, Loretta, Merle Haggard, Patsy, Merle Travis, Ernest Tubb, the Osbornes, Lefty, Buck, Willie, the Gosdins, Gram Parsons, classic Dolly... the list goes on. If I wanna hear newer stuff it's gonna be someone with some grit and feel like Guy Clark, Emmylou, the Two Dollar Pistols, Gillian welch, Junior Brown, Dwight Yoakum, Steve Earle, Alison Krauss (in bluegrass mode), Slaid Cleaves (except for the freakin' AT abuse on all his new stuff -- it's worse than "Dyin'" -- but otherwise I like him)... anyhow... that kind of thing.

 

So, you know... big stretch to that ulta-slick Nashville pop sometimes called contemporary country.

 

It's a big world. Lots of room for lots of different kinds of music. But you don't have to like it all... ;)

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I don't care for all of Tim McGraw's music (namely, "Don't Take the Girl") but he has cut some great songs that move people (albeit the kind of people you may look down on).

 

 

No people should ever be looked down on, we're all in this together.

 

That said, country music is like all other forms of music: 1% genius, 9% pretty darn good, 10% okay, and 80% - pass it by.

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I just read the story. You think someone like McGraw would have at least some artistic control over his music; I don't know the situation, but my gut feeling says the label saw a chance to make money with no additional investment.

 

Of course, McGraw still gets royalties. So by apologizing to his fans, and telling them he does not endorse the album--which will presumably cause some people not to buy it, who would have otherwise--he's at least put his money where his mouth is.

 

Frankly, I'm glad a musician spoke out about wanting to make new music instead of just coasting on another greatest hits package. And it's also in his interest to do so, because the way to continue to build a career is NOT to coast.

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Tim's got a song called "Back When" where he laments that:


"I'm readin' street slang for dummies/Cause they put pop in my country/I want more for my money/The way it was back when"


Ahhh, the irony
:freak:

 

Well... you know... I like a lot of Alison Krauss a lot... but she's got some Nashville pop stuff that really turns me off, too. Ditto Dolly.

 

Not my main girl, Gillian, though.

 

 

There's just something about syrupy strings and synthesizer that just draws some of these country people like moths to an electric candle...

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There's just something about syrupy strings and synthesizer that just draws some of these country people like moths to an electric candle...

 

 

What I wonder is, when did country music retire the angelic choir? I try to approximate it on "He Stopped Loving her Today" with a preset on my P120 piano but it's not the same.

 

It almost sounds like Tim McGraw took an admirable stand, here. But I admit you don't have to like his music and that has nothing to do with elitism. (sorry guyz)

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Now, if he'd only apologize for the rest of them...

 

HAW! Funniest post of the week. :)

 

Of course, McGraw still gets royalties.

 

There's some variation on that with Greatest Hits albums isn't there? Mark McGrath was saying on talk radio they sold 16 million copies of Sugar Ray's Greatest Hits and he got less than one penny per. Or was that just his deal?

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I admit you don't have to like his music and that has nothing to do with elitism. (sorry guyz)

 

 

 

I agreed with your first post. I go back and forth, in and out of listening to modern country. Back in the late 80's early 90's I took a serious stab at writing for Nashville. I listened to the Country Top 40 and started studying. I was seriously out of my league. The consistent creativity in word play and story nailed me. I didn't expect to find that sort of quality.

 

But it is pretty typical for people I have a lot of respect for musically to not see this the way I do. They hear the cliche... I hear the variation on an age old theme.

 

AutoTune doesn't keep me from admiring today's Nashville writers.

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But I admit you don't have to like his music and that has nothing to do with elitism. (sorry guyz)

 

 

Sure. It's just different strokes for different folks. I'm not going to try and convince you about the brilliance of late '70s punk rock any more than you should expect me to see the genius of pop country. I like the fact that there's so many kinds of music to choose from!

 

And I'm not always in the mood for just one genre. I'd go nuts if life were all country, all hip hop, all metal, and so on.

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AutoTune doesn't keep me from admiring today's Nashville writers.

 

 

But it does keep me from hearing their songs all the way through, in more than a few cases. I'd cut this one off in the middle but thought since I was about to post something about it I ought to at least listen to the song, so I went back and did.

 

I suspect it's probably actually Melodyne on the lead vocal but I less exposure to excess or clumsy use of that one (or it's simply better at covering its own tracks, which does seem to be consensus).

 

I can fight my way through one of the later Slaid Cleaves albums because I like his writing a lot, they have mostly fine players, and I like his basic voice (his first album is, far as I know, robo-tune free and sounds just fine) but an albumr or so after that the tuning glitches start showing up. There's less really glaring glitches as time goes on -- but, really, it's very distracting and irritating.

 

 

FWIW, I am not anti-robo-tuning. I used it recently myself to bring one vocal in a doubled vocal a little closer to center. And for spot fixes, it can usually be worked in a way that doesn't sound too distracting.

 

I just don't want to hear the glitches or that relatively subtle yet bothersome thing going on pretty much throughout with the McGraw tune in question.

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What I wonder is, when did country music retire the angelic choir? I try to approximate it on "He Stopped Loving her Today" with a preset on my P120 piano but it's not the same.


It almost sounds like Tim McGraw took an admirable stand, here. But I admit you don't have to like his music and that has nothing to do with elitism. (sorry guyz)

 

 

I was listening to some Ray Price yesterday -- a guy who didn't seem to be afraid of a few layers of strings or a pretty uptown feel, for that matter -- but, you know, there's still something transcendent about the best of his stuff.

 

Now I love Dolly Parton. But then there's some of that late 70s/80s Dolly stuff and you just want to take her and shake her. (Of course, I've always kind of wanted to... er... never mind. I love Dolly, whatever pop excesses she may have been led to. We'll leave it at that.) I just regret some of her flings with the disco country ultra slick pop stuff... the Dolly of "Jolene" days didn't do it that way.

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But it does keep me from
hearing their songs all the way through
, in more than a few cases. I'd cut this one off in the middle but thought since I was about to post something about it I ought to at least listen to the song, so I went back and did.


I suspect it's probably actually Melodyne on the lead vocal but I less exposure to excess or clumsy use of that one (or it's simply better at covering its own tracks, which does seem to be consensus).


I can fight my way through one of the later Slaid Cleaves albums because I like his writing a lot, they have mostly fine players, and I like his basic voice (his first album is, far as I know, robo-tune free and sounds
just fine
) but an albumr or so after that the tuning glitches start showing up. There's less really glaring glitches as time goes on -- but, really, it's very distracting and irritating.



FWIW, I am
not
anti-robo-tuning. I used it recently myself to bring one vocal in a doubled vocal a little closer to center. And for spot fixes, it can usually be worked in a way that doesn't sound too distracting.


I just don't want to hear the glitches or that relatively subtle yet bothersome thing going on pretty much throughout with the McGraw tune in question.

 

Sorry, I realized that AutoTune comment might sound as if it were directed to you. It wasn't. It was only to point out that it doesn't get in my way. I've been the guy who will listen to certain types of music and hide the fact. Because I don't want to have to deal with my friends and colleagues "in the know" that would think I'm crazy. So I learned a long time ago to keep it to myself. I was sincere, it doesn't get in my way. BTW, I don't mind them thinking I'm crazy, I just don't enjoy having to deal with it, so I don't. :)

 

Modern Country is written by some extremely talented people. I seriously admire their talents. And I regret how their talents are overlooked by various people. People I look up to but don't see the same thing I do.

 

Like I've said, I've learned to accept it. And respect it.

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Sorry, I realized that AutoTune comment might sound as if it were directed to you. It wasn't. It was only to point out that it doesn't get in
my
way. I've been the guy who will listen to certain types of music and hide the fact. Because I don't want to have to deal with my friends and colleagues "in the know" that would think I'm crazy. So I learned a long time ago to keep it to myself. I was sincere, it doesn't get in
my
way. BTW, I don't mind them thinking I'm crazy, I just don't enjoy having to deal with it, so I don't.
:)

Modern Country is written by some extremely talented people. I seriously admire their talents. And I regret how their talents are overlooked by various people. People I look up to but don't see the same thing I do.


Like I've said, I've learned to accept it. And respect it.

 

Even if it was directed at me, it's a valid point of view and comment. I can separate the song from the performance -- but I'm probably not going to linger over (or even finish listening to) something that really bothers me. I've had to do that on occasion when critiquing songs or productions on occasion when someone is using AT as an effect or -- even more vexing -- when they have used some sort of phase-distorting "stereo widening" effect. (Those things make me want to tear my ears off my head and bury them 6 feet down.)

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I just read the story. You think someone like McGraw would have at least some artistic control over his music; I don't know the situation, but my gut feeling says the label saw a chance to make money with no additional investment.


Of course, McGraw still gets royalties. So by apologizing to his fans, and telling them he does not endorse the album--which will presumably cause some people not to buy it, who would have otherwise--he's at least put his money where his mouth is.


Frankly, I'm glad a musician spoke out about wanting to make new music instead of just coasting on another greatest hits package. And it's also in his interest to do so, because the way to continue to build a career is NOT to coast.

 

That's the bottom line. How does the label control that?

 

The big labels have issued "Greatest Hits" releases for artists (loosely defined) who have only two albums out. :freak: Of course that's probably the only way to get a third album out of some people who are minimal talents anyway, and a greatest hits package is fast turn around catch a few sales before someone's Warholian 15 minutes are up.:rolleyes:

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That's the bottom line. How does the label control that?


The big labels have issued "Greatest Hits" releases for artists (loosely defined) who have only two albums out.
:freak:
Of course that's probably the only way to get a third album out of some people who are minimal talents anyway, and a greatest hits package is fast turn around catch a few sales before someone's Warholian 15 minutes are up.
:rolleyes:

 

Am I mistaken in remembering that the third Creedence Clearwater album was a greatest hits package?

 

[Checking AllMusic, I don't see one until after Cosmo's Factory -- but I sure remember one; but they don't always seem to get all the GH stuff, seems like.]

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Whether or not you like the music or the genre, we're talking about an artist being totally dissed by his label. Especially if they consider a reshuffled 'Greatest Hits' album as fulfillment of their contractual obligation to produce and promote a certain number of albums. He may or may not have material. If he does, and the suits say "It's too contraversial", or "It's not what we think the fans expect of you", He's screwed. I'm sure he'll get another chance at an album. If it tanks, he's fired. If it flies, they'll be kissin' butt to get him to sign another unreasonable contact. Business sucks.

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