Yoakam has recorded a harmonious new duet with Submit Malone. Morris is stretching past nation’s borders. And Thompson — half of the duo Thompson Sq. — appears again to the roots of honky-tonk.
TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
Rock critic Ken Tucker has been listening to some latest nation releases, and he hears some thrilling blends of outdated and new sounds. Nation veteran Dwight Yoakam has recorded a harmonious duet with Submit Malone. Nation celebrity Maren Morris is stretching past nation’s borders. And Shawna Thompson – half of the duo Thompson Sq. – has chosen to look again to the roots of honky-tonk. Ken Tucker critiques all of them. Here is Dwight Yoakam with a brand new tune known as “A Dream That By no means Ends.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “A DREAM THAT NEVER ENDS”)
DWIGHT YOAKAM: (Singing) It is all proper. It is OK in case you depart me. For those who should go, know that I’ll perceive. However until then I’ll hope for a dream that by no means ends. And if I wake, I am going to shut my eyes and simply fake.
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: Earlier this yr, Submit Malone put out his first nation album, one through which he gave his hip-hop phrasing a twang that didn’t appear insincere in duets with a complete passel of nation stars. A kind of stars was not Dwight Yoakam. Malone’s album, known as “F-1 Trillion,” was nice sufficient, but it surely did not have a rustic tune with the rhythmic groove that Yoakam has written for a duet on Dwight’s new album, “Brighter Days.” It is a very adroit tune with a really unwieldy title – “I Do not Know How To Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Growth Growth).” And when Malone’s raspy razor of a voice cuts throughout Yoakam’s buttery croon, it achieves a unique type of nation concord.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SAY GOODBYE (BANG BANG BOOM BOOM)”)
DWIGHT YOAKAM AND POST MALONE: (Singing) I would must lie, it hurts to say, ‘trigger I do not understand how we misplaced our method. Bang, bang, growth, growth. There’s nothing left right here now however unhappiness – bang, bang, growth, growth – and the vacancy of all that is gone. Bang, bang, growth, growth. No sounds however simply sorrow and insanity. And bang, bang, growth, growth, it is how a damaged coronary heart beats on. Come on.
TUCKER: Yoakam’s “Brighter Days,” his first album of recent materials in nearly a decade, is an excellent compendium of traditional nation types.
One other performer bringing a contemporary gloss to outdated sounds is Shawna Thompson on her new album, “Lean On Neon.” Thompson is greatest often called half of the nation duo act Thompson Sq., alongside together with her husband, Keifer. Their music tends in direction of slick nation pop. However “Lean On Neon,” her solo debut, takes a bracing plunge into the form of honky-tonk music that was in style earlier than she was born. On the title tune, she drowns her sorrows beneath the neon glow of a bar with a unique singing companion, the veteran songwriter Jim Lauderdale. And Shawna Thompson’s distress is our pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LEAN ON NEON”)
SHAWNA THOMPSON AND JIM LAUDERDALE: (Singing) A whiskey glass. A smoke-filled room. Strangers that have been hurting too. Distress loves firm, I’ve discovered. A little bit joint the place you’d by no means be. What they do not ask ain’t exhausting to see the place lady goes to drown an outdated reminiscence. I used to lean on neon after I acquired down and lonesome. I used to carry a chilly one these nights after I had nobody. When a jukebox is your solely buddy, that quarter drops, and a heartache spins. You need to understand how I moved on? I used to lean on neon.
TUCKER: If Shawna Thompson desires to dive extra deeply into nation music, Maren Morris is at a stage in her profession the place she desires to form of skate alongside the floor of it and spin off in a unique course. Morris is a giant star who just lately has expressed dissatisfaction, changing into vocal about what she phrases poisonous parts within the Nashville institution. She has swaddled her indignant disenchantment in an irresistible new rhythm for a tune known as “Folks Nonetheless Present Up.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PEOPLE STILL SHOW UP”)
MAREN MORRIS: (Singing) Heroes would possibly disappoint you. Not everybody’s going to hitch you. Do not let the ache destroy you, simply go the place the arrow factors you. Free movement until you’re feeling that rush when folks nonetheless present up. Yeah, they are going to attempt to say you actually crossed the road, it is best to’ve shut your mouth and smiled ‘trigger now you lastly went and mentioned an excessive amount of. But it surely was simply sufficient, ‘trigger folks nonetheless present up, folks nonetheless present up.
TUCKER: The lyric of “Folks Nonetheless Present Up” carries the implication that whereas she could have been suggested to not court docket controversy together with her complaints, it will not have an effect on her profession so long as – you bought it – folks nonetheless present as much as purchase her music, to return to her concert events. Not like Dwight Yoakam and Shawna Thompson, Morris is not reaching out to hardcore nation followers. She’s making her enchantment to of us exterior the style. I hope that works out for her.
MOSLEY: Ken Tucker reviewed new music by Dwight Yoakam, Maren Morris and Shawna Thompson.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WIDE OPEN HEART”)
YOAKAM: (Singing) Hey, noticed you trying and will inform what was in your thoughts. Oh, spinning your wheels doesn’t suggest you are going to get to drive. You possibly can muscle up, present it off, strut and roll, however that do not imply you bought anyplace to go. Hey, the important thing to that candy factor, it ain’t in your ring. However if you wish to suppose it’s, buddy, go on forward and dream, ‘trigger you ain’t the primary and rattling certain will not be the final. I maintain the pink slip title together with her excessive heel on the fuel. She’s acquired a wide-open coronary heart, tearing up the highway. She took my outdated worn-out luck and plated it in chrome – from a pink flag cease to a revved-up rolling begin. She’s all mine to like, together with her wide-open coronary heart.
MOSLEY: Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, Trump versus the media. He is known as the media enemies of the folks and threatened retribution, together with jailing reporters, investigating NBC for treason and suggesting CBS’ broadcast license be taken away. We’ll discuss with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, and Marty Baron, former editor of The Washington Submit. I hope you may be part of us.
(SOUNDBITE OF AARON GOLDBERG’S “ISN’T THIS MY SOUND AROUND ME”)
MOSLEY: To maintain up with what’s on the present and get highlights of our interviews, comply with us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR’s govt producer is Danny Miller. Our senior producer at this time is Therese Madden. Our technical director is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer is Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and critiques are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producers are Molly Seavy-Nesper and Sabrina Siewert. Roberta Shorrock directs the present. With Terry Gross, I am Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF AARON GOLDBERG’S “ISN’T THIS MY SOUND AROUND ME”)
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