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"Remaking Country's Gender Politics, One Barroom Weeper at a Time - The Nashville songwriter Shane McAnally is behind many of country music's No. 1 hits, which aren't as straight as they seem.": nyti.ms/3Kh19RC
You won't read this. That's the dirty little secret, nobody clicks through. They've been burned with bad, or mediocre, articles too many times, and they only have a limited amount of time to begin with, everybody, even babies, are overscheduled. Which demonstrates how hard it is to reach people today, ask them to listen to a three minute song and they won't, it's too big a chore.
Not that I recommend this article. It's not bad, but not great, not necessary reading. But I'm a fan of Shane's work and I was interested in a bit of backstory, what he was hyping.
Not that I could figure out what it was. You see no article just appears out of thin air. There's a publicist, the artist is promoting something. Maybe it's set-up for Shane's ultimate solo album, which he is working on, or something bigger, it's definitely part of a plan.
And every article has to have a hook. And the first one is that Shane is gay. Which everybody in Nashville knows, I certainly know, but that's not the audience they're looking for, they're trolling for newbies, and that's a revelation to them.
And, that McAnally lost his voice, it's psychological, he has trouble singing. It's coming back with treatment, however the extensive focus on this in the article was because...I'm not exactly sure why, it's not like he makes his living singing, at least not at this point.
Then again, you write these articles and then they're edited, and the final product might barely resemble what you laid down.
But the writer, Carlo Rotella, does nail songwriting:
"Think of a song as an ancient technology for imposing form and meaning on experience, a device for filtering the chaotic noise of inner life and the world around us so it can be translated into meaningful signal. Or think of a song as a container into which you can pour a distilled feeling that others can then imbibe by playing or singing or listening to it."
Could have been written in a more simple fashion, but intellectuals want to appeal to other intellectuals, to make themselves feel good, and the ultimate point comes across...
THE BEST SONGS ARE ABOUT INNER LIFE, WRITTEN IN A WAY THAT PEOPLE CAN RELATE TO THEM.
Try relating to the hip-hop and pop songs dominating the Spotify Top 50. It's fantasies, cartoons, akin to the Marvel movies that dominate the cinema. It's far from your regular life. Or so bland as to be unrelatable.
But Shane McAnally's songs...
Now as you read the article you'll wince a bit. Over the fact that Nashville's a machine, and you play by the rules, or try to break them very very slowly, which McAnally is doing. It's a controlled marketplace.
I was listening to the Highway on SiriusXM yesterday and you could see the cynicism behind the songs. They were written to be hits. And therefore they didn't ring true, never mind being rehashed. But I did hear one good one, Kelsea Ballerini's "What I Have."
"I bought the shoes where the bottom is red
But who the hell am I tryin' to impress
When you sit back that's when you notice
The Joneses can't even keep up with the Joneses
I know, don't gotta shine to be gold"
Even I know the brand name of the shoes with the red soles. The name isn't checked, the reference is enough, a great songwriter knows when you're obvious you usually sacrifice greatness right out of the box, it might be a hit that panders to the masses, it might be serviceable, but it's not a classic.
And we've got a war going on in America between the red and the blue, but in truth we're all just trying to get along. Then again, unless you're a member of the one percent, you're struggling. You can identify.
"'Cause I got a roof over my head
I got a warm body in bed
I'm doing all right where I'm at
With what I have"
A bit too optimistic, a bit too glass half-full for this boy, but the chorus immediately conveys what the song is about and it's catchy, the whole number is a bit sing-songy, but that's what hooks you. Does country radio want to play a soft number like this? That's irrelevant, "What I Have" is a good song. Not forever, but pretty good.
As for "Follow Your Arrow"...
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The article says "Follow Your Arrow" is one of the lowest charting songs to ever be anointed the CMA's Song of the Year. It was cowritten with Shane by Brandy Clark and Kacey Musgraves, and the latter recorded it.
I figured the number was from Kacey's last album, you know, the one that wasn't country enough for the country awards.
But it turned out that "Follow Your Arrow" was from 2013. I'd never heard it. And that's something that media and society have yet to realize and acknowledge. Every person today has huge blind spots, they might know about certain subjects in depth, but they're clueless as to others. As stated above, time is precious, and there's no authoritative voice directing you to greatness outside your field(s) of interest. That used to be radio, especially back in the sixties, AM would play country tracks along with the Beatles. And MTV featured a smorgasbord of acts that everybody knew about, you couldn't avoid them. If you were alive in the early eighties, you not only know Culture Club, you can sing their hits, which is impossible with most of today's hit parade.
So I listened.
The article quotes the lyrics from the chorus, supporting the gay-theme penetrating country point of the article.
"So make lots of noise
Kiss lots of boys
Or kiss lot of girls
If that's something you're into
When the straight and narrow
Gets a little too straight
Roll up a joint, or don't"
Some might say it's subtle, but to me it's pretty obvious. If this is the breakthrough we're waiting for... We'll be waiting a very long time. Come on, there are gay people everywhere, you're related to them, this song is not going to change beliefs.
But the rest of the number...
"If you save yourself for marriage
You're a bore
You don't save yourself for marriage
You're a horrible person
If you won't have a drink
Then you're a prude
But they'll call you a drunk
As soon as you down the first one"
We ALL face these issues. It's not a matter of being born one way or another, you've got a choice, which path are you going to take? The religious one? The one society tells you to? Or the one that feels right to you? And if you stumble from your perch, take a risk, you will be labeled. Come on, we all grew up with the concept of refraining from sex until marriage. To break that taboo was not so easy.
"If you can't lose the weight
Then you're just fat
But if you lose too much
Then you're on crack"
This is brief, but brilliant.
You can't talk about being fat in a song, even worse you can't reference fat-shaming.
But come on, when you see these super-skinny people, don't you wonder if they're doing drugs? And the truth is, if you've been following the recent news, THEY ALL ARE! They're all taking the the diabetes drug Ozempic to lose weight. Hell, Lisa Marie Presley took drugs to lose 50 pounds in a matter of weeks, to look good for the potential awards for the "Elvis" movie. I have no idea if she was taking Ozempic, but while you're worried about exceeding size 10, the celebrities believe if they're not size 0, with no extra flesh on their bodies, THEY'RE FAT!
Ultimately "Follow Your Arrow" is not a hit. A hit is something you hear once and need to hear again. Or as Ahmet said, something you hear on the radio and have to get out of bed and go to the all night record shop to buy.
"One Night Standards" is closer.
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"One Night Standards" I knew. From hearing the Ashley McBride song on the radio. It's got a groove and a catchy chorus to the point where you can like the song without even knowing most of the lyrics. Hell, I caught the chorus but not every word, but when I listened this afternoon...
"I ain't gonna stay for the weekend
I ain't gonna jump off the deep end
I ain't gonna ask where your ring is
Thing is, we all got secrets"
Let's skip the moral debate, the truth is an incredible percentage of people in relationships cheat. And girls as much as guys, some studies say more. And just because you're married that does not mean you don't look, don't fantasize, and "One Night Standards" speaks to the situation, the dilemma.
This is sex. Probably more. There's always a basic connection, but you don't really know the person. You have to jump over so many hurdles, endure so many hardships to make a relationship sustain. That person who titillates you at the bar, two or three days later might drive you nuts. But while you have the desire...
"It's just a room key
You ain't gotta lie to me
Can't you just use me like I'm using you
How it goes is bar closes
There's no king bed covered in roses
Just a room without a view"
It's down and dirty. She's empowered. This isn't a fantasy, what she wants is an experience, something physical, to take her away from her regular life, she knows you do too.
"Well I ain't Cinderella, but who is?
Call me what you want if the shoe fits
I ain't gonna say I never do this, 'cause truth is
Lonely makes a heart ruthless"
Self-knowledge. It's so appealing, and so rarely encountered. Few of us are Cinderella, and you know the cliché, show me a man married to a beautiful woman and... Sex happens inside the brain.
As for "lonely makes a heart ruthless," I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I know what it FEELS LIKE!
"No I don't give a damn about the morning after
Bottles on the floor don't even matter
I don't want a number, you ain't gonna answer
Let's just stick to the one night standards
The one night standards
The one night standards"
This isn't romance, this is sex. This isn't about the trappings, but the essence. You get hooked on the music and ultimately hear the song enough to get the rest of the lyrics, assuming you hear it to begin with.
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Chris Stapleton keeps winning all the awards. People e-mailed me about his performance at the Super Bowl. He's the king of Nashville, he may have a few hits, but it's something more, Stapleton is authentic, he's doing it his way and having success, which everybody else wishes they could do, stop pandering and be real.
But the above lyrics are much more real than those you'll find in the Spotify Top 50. You can relate to them. They're issues you've thought about, dealt with.
And Ashley McBryde and Nicolette Hayford cowrote "One Night Standards" with Shane, and that checks the box for me of having the performer involved in the songwriting. Then again, writing sessions... I'm more about inspiration.
Then again, if you read every word of the article, you'll see that in truth it is all about inspiration. Shane doesn't show up to the writing room empty-handed, he's got an idea, a phrase he heard, at a party, at the grocery store. And it's a very short window within which you can lay it all down. Then the muse goes. You need to get caught up in the mood, lose your self-consciousness, and as soon as you think about what you're doing you lose it. Ultimately the great stuff is about inspiration.
It'd be one thing if I heard these words on Active Rock.
And too many of today's singer-songwriters have inadequate voices and substandard songs. When these "artists" complain, saying Bob Dylan has a poor voice, I always tell them that might be true, but Bob Dylan IS THE GREATEST LYRICIST OF THE PAST HALF-CENTURY!
Maybe Shane will have hits on his own.
As for making a complete album, I hope he enjoys the process, because getting people to check out an album of music today is nearly impossible unless there's a hit. If you want to be a star, find a hit and then build upon that. And go short with frequency if you want to make albums. Less than forty minutes, like the old days. And regular releases, to satiate not radio, but your FANS!
Of course the rules can be broken, but when Morgan Wallen released the double-album "Dangerous" he already had success under his belt.
I don't know where this leaves us. I'm inspired by these songs. But this movement is constrained by the Nashville establishment and doesn't spread that far to non-country fans. It could. At festivals. And despite country's image as being all-red, that's no longer the case, don't forget Maren Morris calling out Brittany Aldean's transphobic Instagram post and her her husband Jason's PR firm dropping him. As for trans issues... You use the same bathroom at home, right? And it's barely an issue. What I mean is gay people are not going to take over the world, be fifty percent of the population, and neither are trans people, can't you leave these people in peace and let them live their lives? After all, as in "Follow Your Arrow" we're all struggling, just trying to get along, why are you so interested in what everybody else is doing, especially when it doesn't even impact you?
But at least these songs lead to questions. There are no questions in the Spotify Top 50, just dashes for cash.
And cash is very important, but Shane McAnally was writing songs when he was in the single digits, it's not solely about the Benjamins, and how much money do you need anyway?
Enough.
But money isn't everything. You need soul fulfillment, you want art you can relate to. One thing is for sure, Shane McAnally and his posse are on the right path.
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