The A.V. Club - Nashville or Bust

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 29: Kinky Friedman, The Smartass

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:18:00 -0600

When Da Ali G. Show featured Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, sidling up to the stage in a redneck bar in the Deep South and singing an infectious ditty with lyrics like “Throw the Jew down the well so my country can be free / You must grab him by his horns, then we have a big party,” it struck me as the single most Jewish thing I’d ever seen. We Jews have survived millennia of bigotry, genocide, and oppression, in no small part by finding the pitch-black comedy in anti-Semitism. We’ve disarmed many an anti-Semite by making a ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:k.d. lang: The Iconoclast

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. For years, k.d. lang nursed a shameful secret: She wasn’t entirely like her country peers. She could pass as a regular hot-blooded American cowgirl, but deep down, she ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 27: Kris Kristofferson, Silver-Tongued Devil

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0600

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. Over the course of this project, I’ve written about a rogue’s gallery of drunks, ne’er-do-wells, and scoundrels, larger-than-life icons who lived fast, died young, and left behind ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 26: Kitty Wells, Doyenne Of Domestic Drama

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. About a year ago, I saw the film White Lightnin’ at Sundance. I could have seen Bronson with Noel Murray, but I was seeing Black Dynamite later that night, and ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 25: Roger Miller, King of the Road/Country’s Class Clown

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600

One or more of the interview subjects in And Here’s The Kicker…, Mike Sacks’ fine exploration of the comic mind, posits that a gift for comic thought represents a benign form of mental illness, since comic geniuses process the world in ways not only different from most people’s thought processes, but antithetical to them. They think in jagged zigzags instead of straight lines, subvert and distort conventions and clichés, and make words do wonderful, unexpected little tricks. Perhaps that’s why comic geniuses tend to suffer from plenty of non-benign mental illnesses as well, like insomnia, crippling ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 24: Gary Stewart, Bard of the Barroom

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:00:00 -0600

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. As a critic, I live for the thrill of discovery, for the aesthetic high of stumbling upon a song or movie or book that opens up a whole new world ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 23: George Strait, The Exception

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:42:00 -0600

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop writer Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. There is a strange category of artists I like to call “the exceptions.” Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Eminem, Digable Planets, and De La Soul all qualify ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 22: Lee Hazlewood, space cowboy/peculiar guy

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:48:00 -0600

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. I first remember reading about Lee Hazlewood in one of the British music magazines I devoured rapaciously during my sorry stint as a teenybopper music obsessive. That’s how friendless ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 21: Keith Whitley, son of Lefty

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. During my piece on Garth Brooks two weeks back, something bizarre and unexpected happened: People read and commented extensively on a Nashville Or Bust piece. This was quite a shock ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 20: Garth Brooks

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:29:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. Well, friends, we have come to a milestone here in the long, strange journey that is Nashville Or Bust. For the first time, I will be writing about a contemporary ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 19: The Legendary Lefty Frizzell

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:14:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. There have been times throughout Nashville Or Bust when I felt like I was writing about the same country legend over and over again. The names and specifics differed, but ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 18: Emmylou Harris and the perfection problem

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:42:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. When I began this project, I wondered if (or when) country music would stop feeling like alien territory, exhilarating in its novelty, and begin to feel like home. I think ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 17: Billy Joe Shaver, Honky-Tonk Hero

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:00:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. Blame it on Billy Joe. Billy Joe Shaver has a genius for getting people into trouble, myself included. Long ago, I was known and respected. Then one day I heard ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 16, Special Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club Crossover Edition: George Jones: The Heartbreak Kid

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:01:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about, but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. I am, and always have been, a depressive. I probably always will be. It’s hardwired into my DNA. But there are tangible tools I can use to fight depression ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 15: Jimmie Rodgers’ White Man Blues

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. Listen here, all you rounders… There is a fascinating track titled “Jimmie Rodgers Visits The Carter Family” on the fourth disc of Jimmie Rodgers: Recordings 1927-1933, a five-disc collection of ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 14: The Louvin Brothers’ tragic songs of Satan’s realness

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year or two immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 entries, Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. As a child, I lived in fear of everything. I was a sentient ball of anxiety convinced that a nuclear strike lurked forever on the horizon, followed by an eternity ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 13: Tom T. Hall, America’s Storyteller

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After 52 non-consecutive weeks of country (dated from the column’s introduction on March 3, 2009), Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. So far in this series I have wrestled with giants, towering, iconic figures blessed with prodigious talent and damned ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 12: Hank Williams' Lost Highway

Tue, 26 May 2009 15:36:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After one year of country (dated from the column’s introduction on March 3, 2009), Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. As you may have noticed, there was no Nashville Or Bust entry last week. When I introduced this project, I ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 11: Dolly Parton blows up and goes pop

Tue, 12 May 2009 12:23:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After one year of country (dated from the column’s introduction on March 3, 2009), Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. Dolly Parton embodies a venerable American archetype: the secretly sly country girl whose hillbilly demeanor masks a treasure trove of ...

Music: Nashville or Bust:Week 10: Bob Wills, King Of Texas, Father of Western Swing

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:15:00 -0500

A.V. Club head writer and hip-hop specialist Nathan Rabin recently decided to spend a year immersing himself in the canon of country music, a genre he knew little about but was keen to explore. The result: “Nashville Or Bust,” a series of essays about seminal country artists. After one year of country (dated from the column’s introduction on March 3, 2009), Rabin plans to travel south and explore some of country music’s most hallowed landmarks and institutions. Twelve years ago, when Keith Phipps and I were roommates, I used to avail myself regularly of his CD collection ...