The Sunday Yee-haw – Gretchen Wilson vs. Kacey Musgraves

The Sunday Yee-haw – Gretchen Wilson vs. Kacey Musgraves

GRETCHEN WILSON
Right On Time
Redneck Records

Oh, I remember when Gretchen Wilson first hit the country scene.  A huge burst of fresh air with some of the fiestiest female country since Tanya Tucker.  Ms Wilson was everywhere for a wee while, but the world moves on, and her first three albums all hit number 1 in the US country charts.  All the more remarkable because she was already thirty by the time she had her first hit.

Despite that, she parted ways with her record label, and since then she’s been releasing records on her own label to diminishing returns.  Of course, that may be down to the fact that she’s been drifting away from her early honky-tonk style to a more seventies rock sound, something that this record continues.

It’s still a good record, and there are some cracking songs here with the Bekka Bramlett co-writes, ‘The Gypsy In Me’ and ‘One Good Friend’ the highlights.  Whether she will find a new fanbase as large as her early country one is doubtful, but as she moves into her forties, she’s still doing her own thing, which is something to be applauded.

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KACEY MUSGRAVES
Same Trailer Different Park
Mercury

Back in Nashville, and here’s one of the latest young things looking to get some Gretchen Wilson sized success.  I say young, but in Wilson style she’s been fighting for attention for quite some time, with three self released records prior to this “debut”.

Her record company must think highly of her, as they ponied up for a UK tour with Lady Antebellum, and she’s placed a song on the hit US TV show, “Nashville”, the fantastic ‘Undermine’.  And it’s worked because this album got to number 1 over in the American colonies.

And it’s very good indeed, even if it strays from my preferred country sounds into more mainstream areas.   But Ms Musgraves is a fine singer, and a great lyricist, so there is always a story to be told, and to be told well.  Cock an ear to the likes of ‘Merry-Go-Round’ and ‘It Is What It Is’, and you’ll hear the sound of a major name in country music for years to come.

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