That Rebel Moon Is Shining

Back in the nineties I had a deep disgust of country music as I felt it contributed to the dumbing down of its listeners with its songs about sexy tractors. I am pretty sure my country music fans peers in high school grew up to be the people that blacked out John McCain’s name on their front yard McCain/Palin ’08 sign. It wasn’t until college that rediscovered the genre thanks to Rick Rubin reintroducing Johnny Cash that I realized that is basically country radio, much like Top 40, was contributing to the dumbing down of its listeners, but if look deep enough you could find quality country music.

Of course today the borders of pop and country are getting so melted to the point where singers like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift are considered country even though they are basically just pop singers who occasionally utilize fiddles and banjos. But Emmylou Harris they are not. These last two weeks those borders have gotten even murkier.

The melding of pop and country come to a head with current Swift opening act Gloriana which even features Cheyenne Kimball whose reality show chronicled her attempt to be the American Avril Lavigne. Now in a group with a heavy dose of mandolins Kimmel is happy to straddle the two genres. Their self titled debut starts well enough with the southern rock of How Far Do You Wanna Go? which is followed by the mellow clap along Wild at Heart that will probably ever Swift fan will be singing along to by the end of their tour with her. The only song after track two worth mentioning is You Said which sounds like a left over from Kimmel’s solo outing. Sadly the rest of the album if ripe with filler, and with a group of four singers I was expecting more harmonizing, but the four tend to just take turns with lead vocals.

Gloriana gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.




No one, though, has blended the two genres more than Jessie James to the point that more than anything James acts the part of a country singer with the cut off jeans and t-shirts (with that said, her name is no pseudonym, she was born Jessica Rose James) but she is much more a Christina Aguilera clone than Reba McEntire. Yeah there is an occasional banjo, but songs like Wanted are as disposable as disposable pop can get (although any red blooded American male won’t get tired watching the video). And the lyrics don’t help her out much like “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me” from Bullet which was not surprisingly co-written by Katy Perry. Interestingly enough the strongest song on her also self titled debut is Psycho Girlfriend. Cheesy titles and screaming intro aside, it is one of the few songs James doesn’t try to out-Aguilera Aguilera and utilizes a silky vocal over a sly track and even slips in some Suzanne Vega to boot. If only her whole was this fun and clever.

Jessie James gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.