Post by RS Davis on May 11, 2004 15:05:24 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Jesse Walker Wrote:[/glow]
If alternate universes exist, I'd like to think there's a world where Lou Reed never met John Cale. Instead, the Velvet Underground was formed by Jerry Reed and J.J. Cale, and they set up shop in Nashville, or Austin, or maybe Bakersfield. They didn't sell many records, but everyone who bought one went on to form a country band of his own. On that Earth, it's Bobbie Gentry, not Patti Smith, who recorded Horses; it's Townes van Zandt, not Richard Hell, who fronted the Voidoids. The Clash is a Texas punk band led by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, and no one is mystified on learning that CBGB stands for "Country, Bluegrass and Blues."
An artifact from that universe has just fallen into our world. Loretta Lynn's new CD, Van Lear Rose, was produced and arranged by Jack White of the Detroit rock band the White Stripes, who also plays guitar on the album and sometimes adds his vocals; the result feels like the lost bridge between Dolly Parton and the Stooges. Summarizing his approach for No Depression magazine, White said he was thinking, "Let's just let Loretta and that steel guitar be country, and whatever else happens—happens." What happened is the best CD to reach my ears in years, and I'll be amazed if a better one is released in 2004. It's the finest music Lynn has written and recorded since the '70s—indeed, some of the finest music she's created in her career. It's selling well and even getting some airplay, so I suspect I'm not the only one who likes it.
If alternate universes exist, I'd like to think there's a world where Lou Reed never met John Cale. Instead, the Velvet Underground was formed by Jerry Reed and J.J. Cale, and they set up shop in Nashville, or Austin, or maybe Bakersfield. They didn't sell many records, but everyone who bought one went on to form a country band of his own. On that Earth, it's Bobbie Gentry, not Patti Smith, who recorded Horses; it's Townes van Zandt, not Richard Hell, who fronted the Voidoids. The Clash is a Texas punk band led by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, and no one is mystified on learning that CBGB stands for "Country, Bluegrass and Blues."
An artifact from that universe has just fallen into our world. Loretta Lynn's new CD, Van Lear Rose, was produced and arranged by Jack White of the Detroit rock band the White Stripes, who also plays guitar on the album and sometimes adds his vocals; the result feels like the lost bridge between Dolly Parton and the Stooges. Summarizing his approach for No Depression magazine, White said he was thinking, "Let's just let Loretta and that steel guitar be country, and whatever else happens—happens." What happened is the best CD to reach my ears in years, and I'll be amazed if a better one is released in 2004. It's the finest music Lynn has written and recorded since the '70s—indeed, some of the finest music she's created in her career. It's selling well and even getting some airplay, so I suspect I'm not the only one who likes it.
Kinda hard to imagine really. 
I know! I think I might need to hear it for myself.
