Lav's Music Corner

Lonesome Drifter  - Charley Crockett  Charley Crockett has long been a bubbling up figure in a country music scene that exists outside of the tightly controlled Nashville country mainstream. His prolific output has resulted in a pretty dedicated fanbase in love with his throwback country sentiments and dusty vintage outlaw cadence. I've covered his music twice now, but heard several more or his albums and I pretty much always come away with the same impression, mixed. While every record he releases has its high points, they also tend to repeat themselves and occasionally slip into even too obvious country cliches. More importantly, the “character” of Charley Crockett as The Man From Waco , The $10 Cowboy , or in this case, the Lonesome Wanderer , can start to feel a little routine.  I think Lonesome Wanderer starts off strong with its title track and the dejected “Game I Can't Win.” But from there it slips directly into the first song that feels like pure parody, the sau...

I've been bad about covering new country releases, at least the ones music fans are actually talking about. So let's fix that.  Anniversary  - Adeem The Artist Adeem The Artist is an alt-country artist who I first heard about thanks to Spectrum Pulse who covered their 2021 release Cast Iron Pansexual . That was followed by the even more widely discussed White Trash Revelry, though I wasn't quite as much of a fan of that one. Adeem represents one of the most unique and earnest figures in country music, unburdened by the machine of Nashville that controls the genre with an iron fist, yet with a clear appreciation for the genre's history and pioneers, even if they may be those very same Nashville stars.  This unencumbered style of songwriting allows Adeem to say things like the instantly iconic opening lines of Nancy , one of the best songs on the record. The record is at its best when Adeem's earnest sentiments lead them to a place more vulnerable than many of their c...