iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 1h

I love the fact that she'd heard it as a SteelDrivers album track and chose to cover it, and she does a very, very fine job. I'm not always a fan, but this suits her voice so well.

120

Reposted by Country Universe

Joe Sonka 😐 @joesonka.lpm.org · 16h

*CAYUTS INTENSIFYING*

13811

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 19h

Not to reignite any part of that Discourse, but this is a hell of a thing.

050

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 19h

Ayo @beedelores.bsky.social had you seen this shit? Just massively disappointing choices from Trejo.

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 22h

Oh, I will 100% go to bat for reputation.

120

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 22h

S. Crow, Pick You Up (**1/2): ... That's it? She's been coasting for quite a while, but this scant set, billed as a full album and not an EP, trades her usual wit and firepower for the most greige production and banal lyricism of modern Americana. Which, yes, includes the dreadful J. Welles collab.

Sheryl Crow's "Pick You Up" album cover.

021

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

Ah, my bad for the mis-read! It's an impressive work, for sure. Quite an uptick in concept albums this year, and it's a standout even in that lot.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

Yep. To date, she peaked *early*. Had so much promise on that debut record.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

I mean... Not if you read the two subsequent posts? It's a great album and not really about that!

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

... the prefrontal cortex development and base musical skill to have pulled off such a thing anyway. He embraces Amazon Wish List lifestyle signifier songwriting and flat-out cannot sing. He should send Graham Barham a sixer, since Barham is pretty well the only act setting a lower bar in 2026.

020

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

G. Adcock, ... Hang it Up (*): Having positioned himself as Music Row's latest Heel, he's now trying to speedrun Wallen's career arc. So here's his attempt at an "I'm the Problem": 1000 years long, feigned reflection, no actual capacity for growth or impetus to change a damn thing, and lacking...

Gavin Adcock's "The Day I Hang It Up" album cover.

120

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

No objections to "Fate of Ophelia" landing in RotY or SotY (other than preferring "Opalite" and "I Knew It, I Knew You" to that one), but if that album makes the AotY field in such a stacked year for quality popular music, it'd be worth bringing back the Blue Ribbon Committee for the general field.

250

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

Oh, no. That thing when your album's so reviled that you have to pull-quote the same source twice to fill out your Grammy FYC campaign.

Grammy FYC ad for Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl album, which was reviewed so poorly that two of the three pull-quotes are from the same absurdly hyperbolic Rolling Stone review.

160

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

... timbres of Kacey Musgraves (okay, taste) and Megan Moroney (My God, no). It leaves the impression after three albums that Watkins doesn't know who she wants to be as an artist beyond one who will chase a trend to be famous. So she trades way down on Musgraves and about even on Moroney. Pass.

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

L. Watkins, ... Honest (**): The title lands ironic on her 3rd album in 3 years. Her promising debut captured a clear-eyed POV, which her follow-up jettisoned for overtly Tradwife-coded aspirations. Now, every track alternates between aping the lyrical styles, songwriting tropes, and even vocal...

Lauren Watkins' "If I'm Being Honest" album cover.

131

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

It is very much that. Thematically, she's blowing shit up, but she sounds like Sad Girl Autumn Version of herself. Which is a sound I'm fine with, actually, but it doesn't really work for all of these songs.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

... no less than Cormac McCarthy as a primary inspiration for this project, and damned if he and his band didn't pull off this album in a way that earns the comparison. What sounds at first like an awfully good honky-tonk record emerges as a No Country (Music) For Old Men kind of effort.

020

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

Similarly, the three-act structure to this concept album on first pass might appear to rely too much on "& Western" iconography. But there's a depth to the scale of this narrative arc, which takes unexpected turns and gets dark and bloody in ways that challenge genre convention. Wayne has cited...

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

C. Wayne & HTM, Diamond Saloon (****1/2): Tremendous. Aesthetically, they make it perhaps too easy to dismiss what they're up to as mere bait for genre purists, but there is a very real sense of disruption and real skill in how they throw in some unexpected and effective improvisational flourishes.

Chasen Wayne & The Honky-Tonk Machine's "Diamond Saloon" album cover.

231

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

L.K. Booth, ... Heart (***1/2): This record showcases the fearlessness of Booth's songwriting and her unconventional POV. The production doesn't match that energy on a consistent basis, though: Many of these tracks owe an obvious sonic debt to Swift's folklore/evermore, which is a mismatched vibe.

Laci Kaye Booth's "Love Ain't for the Faint of Heart" album cover.

151

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 10/10/2026

Heart Eyes (now on Netflix) is a slasher x rom-com mashup that makes for a pretty fun ride on both counts. Will second the mention of Bubba Ho-Tep, too.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 09/10/2026

The list of talented women who deserved so much better than they got, especially in the early aughts, is a long one!

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 08/10/2026

I'm sure the usual suspects will be *super normal* about this.

291

Reposted by Country Universe

Norman Records @normanrecords.com · 08/10/2026

PREORDER: 'Van Lear Rose' by Loretta Lynn Acclaimed, Grammy-winning, Jack White-produced 2004 album from the country icon, reissued on LP, CD, and orange coloured vinyl via Third Man records. www.normanrecords.com/records/2188...

083

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 08/10/2026

Tremendous. Would co-sign the whole way down.

250

Reposted by Country Universe

Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

What do you do when it turns out you gave birth the same week as a really wonderful country singer songwriter, and your babies are both about to turn 1? Interview them of course! Many thanks to Brit Taylor for her generosity and candor!!

dontrocktheinbox.com

Brit Taylor (and Me) on the First Year Of Motherhood

Brit Taylor is a wonderful Nashville singer-songwriter responsible for two of the best, most consistent front-to-back country albums of the past five years; the vocals are flawless, the sound is a wel...

26011

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 07/10/2026

I love them, but I've heard them cover "Joey," and... There is only one Johnette Napolitano. They get run the whole way over by that one.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 06/10/2026

Every line reading of that is *perfection*.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 06/10/2026

Ayo @mangiotto.bsky.social in re: Verity, just making sure you saw this.

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

Just Jayne, A Lil More Jayne (*1/2): "A Little Bit Alexis" as a pop-country album, with no one in on the joke. Just dreadful.

Just Jayne's "A Lil More Jayne" album cover.

010

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

Same. Group of 6 friends all saw this opening weekend and were all just pissed the entire time.

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

Goddammit, Walter, I did not have any intention of re-watching this one this year, and now I have to. Harris' performances in this-- and I always thought she was even better in the much-worse-overall fifth one-- is truly a great child actor turn. Plus her tremendous work in H2, of course.

040

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

And I don't know that I've ever written anything quite as savage as, "... when people dress like a Wes Anderson-produced Country Bear Jamboree character, move to Kentucky, and pick up someone else’s twang," and I once described someone very famous as a, "dead-eyed Teddy Ruxpin."

0111

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

@nathanevansfox.bsky.social just dropped one of if not the finest piece of criticism I've read on this topic. Not content to have released what might be the best country record of the year, he's also out here raising the bar for criticism. Guy's a beast: nathanevansfox.substack.com/p/authentici...

nathanevansfox.substack.com

Authenticity is Ass

Your cowboy hat doesn’t make your music suck any less.

2185

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

I've been pushing back against Authenticity Fetishists in the country space at least since the mid-aughts, when "authenticity" was a cudgel used to argue simultaneously in favor of Jamey Johnson and against Taylor Swift, and it's only grown more tiresome since then.

180

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 05/10/2026

Obvs, I'm on record as absolutely loving both of them, but I fully concede that Willow's voice is always going to be an acquired taste, at the very best.

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

Indeed. And our pal Hunter Kelly is working on a book, too, which I'm really amped for.

020

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

In hindsight, I'm far more forgiving of what I'd seen as affectations at the time. She was honestly just trying to find ways to express sincerely held beliefs in a way that was still palatable to her mother.

260

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

... Naomi still expected Wynonna to do her hair before every show. Or watch this clip, which posits "Hurricane Wynonna," when she's literally just describing being an actual professional and doing her job: youtu.be/4YHDDkB6uHc

youtu.be

The Judds Docuseries - Episode 2 - Hurricane Wynonna

YouTube video by SophiesMom318

130

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

... while still navigating everything that Naomi was. As a perfect example: They were on Oprah to talk about Wynonna's weight loss. There's footage of their rehearsal of "Flies on the butter." Naomi stops mid-song and says, "No wonder you like this song. It's about food." All the while...

120

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

I had some issues with how she threw in a lot of "sisterfriend" and "sheroes" and "herstory" type Oprah-isms at the time. Knowing more about the behind the scenes dynamics now, those make a lot more sense in context. She was trying to find ways to express a sincere brand of 90s-era feminism...

110

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

Hell, if we're spending the weekend as a Wynonna Stan account, a second entry for #CountryRockSunday. From the (mostly excellent) Judds tribute album a couple of years ago, here are two of the genre's all-time greatest singers at their bluesy, blustery finest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH1V...

youtube.com

Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood - Cry Myself To Sleep (Official Audio)

YouTube video by The Judds

162

Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 04/10/2026

For #CountryRockSunday, one of the many standout tracks on the Wynonna album. On this one, she's joined by DBT's Patterson Hood (!!!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=_km2...

youtube.com

Wynonna - "Everything (feat. Patterson Hood)" (Full Album Stream)

YouTube video by Wynonna Judd

192