Turnpike Troubadours End Up On Top and Under the Big Sky Fest

 Life and music are funny things. Last year at Under The Big Sky Fest in Whitefish, Montana, the talk was if the Turnpike Troubadours would ever get back together, and how perfect they would be to play what is quickly becoming the premier festival in independent country music. This year, they headlined the festival on Friday night (7-15) in front of what might be the biggest crowd that amasses in independent country music all year.

It’s not that the Turnpike Troubadours were just meandering along and mired in obscurity before their hiatus in May of 2019. But clearly the distance and time away made hearts grow fonder, and has acted like a slingshot for this band from Oklahoma to the point where they’re now at the top of the heap when it comes to independent country performers. And as they proved once again Friday night (7-15), they’re also at the top of their game when it comes to performing live, perhaps better than ever before.

The night almost presented some drama, and of a version Turnpike Troubadours fans are not entirely unfamiliar with. Not due to any personal issues, but due to the issues plaguing the American airline industry at the moment, Evan Felker fell victim to flight delays and almost didn’t make it to the stage. Ahead of their set, not a little hand wringing and hair pulling was happening behind-the-scene with worries the frontman would not make it on time. But he did, and by the time Turnpike launched into “Every Girl,” all those worries were forgotten.

“You couldn’t as for a better night,” said Evan Felker from the stage, later remarking that he wished he’d booked some more time to hang around Montana. But the band has been busy lately, playing festivals all across the country. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the Jackalope Jamboree, Palomino Festival in California last week all saw appearances by Turnpike. But none of them may be as big or as important as headlining at Under The Big Sky.

Time is the greatest judge of music, and as time has gone on, the music of the Turnpike Troubadours has proven itself to be absolutely vital, and some of the best to be found in country music as their long-time fans had been professing for years. It took some adversity, drama, and even the potential demise of the band for them to finally find their footing, and the prominence they deserve. But here they are at the top of the heap where they’ve always belonged.

SET LIST:

1. Every Girl
2. 7&7
3. Before The Devil Knows We’re Dead
4. Good Lord Lorrie
5. Blue Star
6. Shreveport
7. The Bird Hunters
8. Something To Hold On To
9. A Tornado Warning
10. The Housefire
11. Morgan Street
12. Gin, Smoke, Lies
13. Whole Damn Town
14. Kansas City Southern
15. Diamonds and Gasoline – Evan Felker w/ Hank Early
16. All Your Favorite Bands – RC Edwards singing
17. Long Hot Summer Day
18. Wrecked
19. Bossier City
20. Long Drive Home

Album Review – Arlo McKinley’s “This Mess We’re In”

 

One runs the risk of being labeled a musical misfit here in 2022 if you purposely ignore the release of new music from one of the premier songwriters of our time, of which Arlo McKinley most certainly qualifies. After all, his last album, 2020’s Die Midwestern won Saving Country Music Album of the Year. But this late bloomer had forty years to write that album, and the praise of John Prine who signed him to his Oh Boy Records label to live up to. It’s often the next release after a big one when you get the sense if a songwriter has the stuff to ultimately sustain.

Arlo McKinley and This Mess Were In most certainly have the stuff to sustain.

Unflinchingly offering brutal dispatches from the most downtrodden and desperate moments of life, Arlo McKinley delivers one body blow after another in songs that are brutally articulate about the level of depression and despondency suffered, yet are poetic in how they’re expressed as to foster empathy, camaraderie, and hopefully, understanding. The underlying philosophy is that being honest and unburdening about his own issues with loss and pain will help construct an avenue for healing in those suffering a similar fate. It’s the “sad songs make me happy” mantra, taken to its ultimate apex.

Arlo McKinley is only guilty of being country by association. He’s a pure singer-songwriter whose songs are expressed more as folk rock or Americana after he steps out of the studio, perhaps especially on this album, though there is superb fiddle throughout to help ground the album in the roots. This isn’t an album of solos and riffs. The song is always put first. But the tracks are decorated with some really excellent and often recurrent instrumental accentuations of the melodies—melodies which happen to be of a superior potency compared to many pure songwriters.

Despite the dour nature of the material, This Mess We’re In is an enjoyable listen, and super immersive. Most everything sits in the mid tempo, but volume and mood is utilized to create the requisite variety. Producer Matt Ross-Spang is considered more of a journeyman producer as opposed to a star one like Dave Cobb or Dan Auerbach, at least to some. But he really understood this group of Arlo McKinley songs, and made sure they were rendered in a way that most endeared them to the audience.

A few may question if the songs here are as powerful as on McKinley’s Die Midwestern, simply from how powerful those songs were. But the musical accompaniment and arrangements behind McKinley are as strong as ever. He has found his sound on This Mess We’re In, and sinks himself into it confidently.

The early single “Stealing Dark from the Night Sky” may seem a little monotonous at first, but patience reveals a superbly illustrative lyric about how darkness craves darkness, which is one of the reasons depression is so hard to shake once it sets in. The duet with up-and-coming Appalachian songwriter Logan Halstead called “Back Home” might have some of the best vocal performances of the album, dripping with emotion, and complemented by fiddle and saloon piano in probably the most country track in the set.

This Mess We’re In also contains a few surprises. “To Die For” shakes lose all inhibitions and turns in a straight-up boom crash rock track. The tinkling piano at the beginning of the title track reminds you of a Kenny Rogers love ballad, and that’s not too far off from what unfolds. Taking a break from the onslaught of acrid emotions throughout the rest of the album, “This Mess We’re In” is a surprisingly sincere love song, despite the sarcastic assessment of the title. This is the hope among the hopelessness Arlo hopes to drive home as the ultimate message of this album.

Written after a period when McKinley lost his mother and best friend, and witnessed some other close friends succumb to addiction, Arlo isn’t participating in cosplay when he writes and sings about such weighty and emotional matters. We’re living amid a Renaissance of songwriters sharing their deeply troubling and distinctly American experiences. Arlo McKinley isn’t just one of many, he’s one of the few elite. This Mess We’re In validates this assessment.

8.5/10

What Spotify data show about the decline of English

 BAD BUNNY may not be a household name in the English-speaking world. Yet the Puerto Rican rapper, whose verses are usually in Spanish (and, on one occasion, Japanese), was the most played artist in 2020 and 2021 for listeners on Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming platform. Such success might have been harder to achieve 30 years ago when English was dominant. In the new digital era, it is becoming ever more common.

To investigate the evolution of music tastes across the world, The Economist trawled through the top 100 tracks in 70 countries according to Spotify. Examining 13,000 hits in 70 languages along with other data like genre, lyrical language and nationality of artist, we sought to group countries according to musical similarity.
On these 320,000 records, we employed a principal-components analysis to assess the degree of musical kinship between countries, and then a clustering algorithm (known as k-means) to group them. Three broad clusters emerged: a contingent in which English is dominant; a Spanish-language ecosystem; and a third group that mostly enjoys local songs in various tongues. Across all, one trend emerged: the hegemony of English is in decline.

Similarity of music streamed on Spotify*

Least similar

Most similar

United States

New Zealand

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

South Korea

Switzerland

Hong Kong

Guatemala

Czech Rep.

Philippines

Costa Rica

Singapore

Honduras

Argentina

Indonesia

Colombia

Denmark

Germany

Paraguay

Australia

Thailand

Morocco

Uruguay

Malaysia

Vietnam

Portugal

Belgium

Ecuador

Panama

Sweden

Norway

Canada

Austria

Greece

Mexico

Taiwan

Ireland

Poland

Bolivia

Britain

Turkey

France

Russia

Egypt

Brazil

Japan

Spain

Israel

Chile

India

Peru

Italy

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Britain

Canada

Czech Rep.

Denmark

Ireland

Malaysia

New Zealand

Norway

Philippines

Portugal

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

South Africa

Switzerland

United States

Brazil

↑ Countries within the

English-language group

have similar tastes

Egypt

France

Germany

Greece

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Israel

Italy

Japan

Morocco

Poland

Russia

South Korea

← The local-language group is

the most diverse. Many countries

here have a strong indigenous

music culture

Sweden

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkey

Vietnam

Argentina

Bolivia

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

← The Spanish-language group

has little in common with other

countries, but music taste here is

very homogenous

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Spain

Uruguay

*From a model comparing top tracks, artists, genres and languages between January 1st-November 12th 2021
The drop over the past five years is mostly concentrated outside the English sphere. Within the Spanish cluster, English quickly lost ground—from 25% of hits to 14%—as native artists like Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro became internationally ascendant. Among the local-language cluster, in countries with strong, indigenous music cultures—like Brazil, France and Japan—English declined even more precipitously, dropping from 52% of hit songs to just 30%. Only in the English cluster did the language remain unfazed, dropping only slightly from 92% to 90%.
There is no doubt that, despite its decline, English is still king. Of the 50 most-streamed tracks on Spotify over the past five years, 47 were in English. And the genres it incubated are being widely adopted elsewhere. There is now excellent rap available in Arabic, Russian and, of course, Spanish. A sign of the momentum in global-music tastes comes from a collaboration in 2018 between two superstars—Bad Bunny and Drake, the self-proclaimed king of rap in English. On that occasion, Drake delivered the chorus in Spanish.
Songs jump musical cultures more often than before. Modern drivers like social media are to blame. To demonstrate this, we plotted the most-streamed song for countries in each group weekly for the full five-year period, revealing precisely when and where these leaps happen.
Luis Fonsi (featuring Daddy Yankee) | “Despacito”
Crossovers can be engineered. “Despacito”, a huge hit in the Spanish-language ecosystem for Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee in the early months of 2017, ascended to the top spot in 36 countries elsewhere thanks to a remix featuring Justin Bieber, the Canadian pop sensation.

English-language group

Local-language group

Spanish-language group

2017

Original

Remix
Mariah Carey | “All I Want for Christmas is You”
Christmas is big business in the streaming charts. For that reason, Mariah Carey returns to the most-streamed lists seasonally on the strength of her modern-day Christmas classic. She takes the top spot in 24 countries in the English-language group, and manages to make incursions into the local-language group, for example in Germany.

English-language group

Local-language group

Spanish-language group

2020

Germany

Britain
BTS (featuring Halsey) | “Boy With Luv”
Many of the K-pop bands popular in South Korea manage to achieve global success by mixing in some English. Some simply mix in English words amid their Korean crooning. Others choose an English title. And some do entire songs in English. None has managed the transition as deftly as the boy band BTS, epitomised by their international hit “Boy With Luv” done with the American songwriter Halsey.

English-language group

Local-language group

Spanish-language group

2019

Vietnam

Malaysia
We have designed an interactive matrix showcasing the most-streamed song on Spotify in 70 countries every week from December 2016 to the first week of 2022. These range from global blockbuster hits like Ed Sheeran’s exceedingly saccharine and exceedingly catchy “Shape of You” to niche sensations in Japan and Iceland. Hover to reveal the song and its language, and see how far its popularity spread. Click to listen to snippets of every song and explore musical tastes around the world—from Polish rap to Brazilian pop.

A Short Reminder of the History of the Democrat Party in America

 

Young military leaders are taught to study history and battles to look for parallels. There are certain principles that are immutable and transcend time. Last week as we heard about the televised January 6th hearings, more of a Stalinesque show trial, I reflected back upon the history of the Democrat Party in America. It is a history that can be summed up in four S-words; slavery, secession, segregation, and socialism. And if there is one unifying word that transcends each of those phases, it is violence.

I need not articulate the abject violence of the period of slavery in the United States. But it is imperative to remind the readers that this heinous institution was wholeheartedly supported by one organization or political party. It is the same political party that did not support the ending of said institution, the Democrat Party. And as a further reminder, the Republican Party was established in 1854 as a single-issue political party, the abolition of slavery.

Now today, we no longer have the institution of slavery since the 13th amendment to our Constitution was passed. Albeit, Joe Biden asserts that no amendment to the constitution is absolute–go figure. But today, instead of physical bondage and enslavement, the same political party is pushing policies of economic bondage and enslavement…just look at the past 18 months of inflation, high gas prices, lack of baby formula, shrinking investment plans, and a retracting economy headed towards recession. Always remember, there are two ways to enslave individuals, work them for no pay or pay them for no work, one group has done both in America.

We hear all the claims of insurrection, and there is one party that did so and supported such action. And the same party has also been responsible for the creation of two deadly domestic terrorist organizations — the Ku Klux Klan and Antifa. I do not consider Black Lives Matter, Inc. a terrorist organization, but they are a subversive Marxist organization. All of these were part of the policy extension of the Democrats, who were responsible for Jim Crow 1.0. Matter of fact, it was a Democrat, first progressive, president, Woodrow Wilson, who hosted Klansmen in the White House to debut the film, “Birth of a Nation”. And let’s not forget the ugly history of lynching for which no Democrat president lifted a finger to end. And we know very well the documented history of the Democrats in the south, such as my ol’ Georgia Governor Lester Maddox. Many were friends of Joe Biden.

Assessing the violence brought forth by the aforementioned Democrat-sponsored groups is important. It was on President Trump’s inauguration day that cars were being torched, and storefront windows broken. It was a Bernie Sanders supporter who opened fire on the Congressional Republican baseball team practice. It was a leftist who hatched an assassination plot on a Supreme Court justice. It is a radical leftist pro-baby killing group, Jane’s Revenge, that has claimed responsibility for the firebombing, vandalizing, and destruction of churches and pro-life pregnancy centers. This same group has vowed continued violence against pro-life centers if they do not disband in 30-days.

We remember the summer of 2020, also known as the summer of violence. Funny, how authorities cannot seem to find any Antifa leaders or members and have them arrested. The establishment of an unconstitutional “autonomous zone” in Seattle was not deemed an insurrection, nor were the countless attacks on government buildings, police stations, and even an ICE headquarters.

And now we have progressive socialist leftists in positions such as district attorneys and judges who are releasing violent criminals back onto the streets…while calls still go forth to defund law enforcement. And open borders have created a drug, human, and sex trafficking crisis along with foreign terrorists flooding into our Country.

And somehow, the Democrat party and their leftist minions in the media and others want us to take them seriously with these staged and produced hearings?

There is a reason why the left wants to purge American history; facts are immutable, and as George Santayana hinted, oft time repeats itself to the unaware. 

Tolerance has become a one-way street and when combined with an effort to disarm legal, law-abiding American citizens, it leads to cultural suicide, a perilous road to perdition.

Totalitarians and tyrants do not advance their cause by way of legitimate persuasion; it only comes by way of creating fear, intimidation, coercion, threats, and yes, violence. History is replete with such examples, and sadly, it is now playing out here in our America.

Our constitutional rights are immutable. This is why we are dedicated to defending them at the American Constitutional Rights Union. If we fail to protect them now, we fail to pass on individual rights, freedom, and liberty to subsequent generations…and that ain’t happening on my watch!

Steadfast and Loyal.

The Deranged Liberal World Order

 

“What you heard from the president today is a clear articulation of the stakes. This is about the future of the liberal world order and we have to stand firm.” – Biden administration National Economic Council Director, Brian Deese

This quote came during an interview on CNN with Mr. Deese after President Biden responded that the American people would have to endure the exorbitantly high fuel prices as long as the conflagration in Ukraine continues. In essence, what Brian Deese was expressing is what we would say in military vernacular, “embrace the suck.” And the “suck” is the liberal world order, better known as the progressive socialist Marxist ideological agenda.

First, as a matter of political philosophical clarification, what the left desires really has nothing to do with classical liberalism, as advanced by John Locke, which is rooted in individual liberty and freedom. The socialist, globalist, linguistic manipulators of the left kidnapped the term liberal to mask their true Marxist nature.

This thing called the “liberal world order” is what then candidate Obama asserted back in late October 2008 in Columbia Missouri, the fundamental transformation of the United States of America. Now, I spent some 22 years in the U.S. Army “embracing the suck” for a noble reason, supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States. I will not embrace the deranged concept of a liberal world order…and it appears that I am far from being alone.

Look at the recent developments in the country of Sri Lanka. They rejected the liberal world order, big time. Sri Lanka once boasted an ESG (environmental social governance) score of 98%. See, when you score high on the liberal world order, the end result is economic collapse, high energy and food costs, and equal sharing of misery. As well, further evidence of the deranged liberal world order is in the Netherlands where farmers are rejecting the destruction of their livelihood due to high fertilizer costs, as well as fuel.

Hmm, does any of this sound familiar?

This is what President Biden and his incompetent economic council advisor Brian Deese are pushing upon the American people. Point of order, a recent report from real economists, Stephen Moore and Jon Decker of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, examined the resumes of 68 Biden economic advisors and discovered over 60% had no business experience. In other words, the deranged liberal world order is being advanced by economic “know-nothings”…remember that political party from the mid-1800s? Well, these economic know-nothings are the reason why America has a 9.1% rate of consumer and an 11.3% rate of producer inflation. And this rising inflation is far outpacing the wage growth in America, but we are supposed to embrace this suck, the liberal world order.

The green new deal is so successful here in Texas that ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) told Texans last week to tamp down energy use. The reason? Well, those wind turbines, which cause so many traffic delays being transported by trucks on roads, ain’t turning because the wind ain’t blowing. Even Tesla headquarters sent out a notice to Tesla owners in Texas to refrain from charging between the hours of 2-8pm. Energy sources should be dependable, accessible, and reliable. What Texans have learned recently is that solar panels and wind turbines freeze over in the winter and wind fails in the summer. Heck, even Germany has decided to reopen coal fired plants. Instead, our president jets off to Saudi Arabia to fist bump and beg a maniacal tyrant for energy resources when we have an abundance here, and a better quality. That is just stuck on stupid.

But the deranged liberal world order is not just about energy and food costs and inflation.

The dangerous liberal world order is one that promotes releasing violent criminals and felons from incarceration. While a bodega store worker who defended himself against a released criminal should be incarcerated. This is a world order that does not believe you, the legal, law- abiding citizen, has the constitutional right to keep and bear arms for your self-defense and protection. As the Mayor of Philadelphia asserted, only police should possess firearms. How well did that work out for the helpless children in Uvalde Texas?

The liberal world order is a collection of delusional ideas and policies intent on tearing down the fabric of a civil society. It advances insidious open borders policy that enables a drug, sex, and human trafficking epidemic. It promotes the idea that men can get pregnant and biological males should compete against females…hence ending the achievements of Title IX. The liberal world order would rather not teach our children reading, writing, math, and science, but about drag queens and gender modification procedures and hormonal therapies.

And most diabolical, is the liberal world order’s insatiable thirst for murdering unborn babies.

No, we should not embrace the suck of the deranged liberal world order, which is a recipe for chaos, failure advanced by know-nothings and evil doers.

What we should be embracing is the foundation of the longest running constitutional republic the world has ever known–the U.S. Constitution and our free market economic system. That is what we embrace at the American Constitutional Rights Union…join us.

Steadfast and Loyal.