Boston Country Oldies Expands to Four more Radio Stations

UPDATE: There’s good news on the ‘Boston Country Oldies’ front. In a message to their fans, Stu Fink and Michael Burns have announced an expansion to their brand:

Hello Friends…

We hope this finds you well and we wish all of you the best of the new year.  2015 is off to a great start.  After starting our new venture, Boston Country Oldies, back in July, we have now added 4 new stations to our network…for a total of 5 stations now airing the show.

Effective February 1, 2015, Michael and Stu will be heard on The Legends, WNBP 1450-AM and 106.1-FM in Newburyport, MA, and WWSF 1220-AM and 102.3-FM in Sanford and Biddeford, Maine.  The program will air at 9pm.

We hope these new stations can be heard in your area.  If not, you can get them online at www.wnbp.com or www.sanfordlegends.com.  Both are superb oldies stations, and definitely deserve a listen.

We are also in talks with other stations on the map, and we are hoping some new affiliates will be announced, if not sooner, than later.

Of course, in the Boston area, you can hear Boston Country Oldies on 1330-AM, WRCA, Friday night at 9pm, and again Saturday night at 11pm.  You can get them online at www.1330wrca.com.

Be sure to stop by our website, at www.bostoncountryoldies.com.  You’ll be happy to know our 2015 calendar is there and ready for you to print.

Thanks to many of you for staying close during these last months.  We are glad to now be able to reach out with some really good news.

Talk to you on the air,

Stu Fink and Michael Burns

I also want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who read and commented on my original post, last summer, when I lamented over the cancelation of their show on Country 102.5 WKLB. I knew I wasn’t alone in my distain for that decision, but it was wonderful to hear from so many of you. I’m pleased to able to bring you this positive update!

Album Review: Little Big Town – ‘Pain Killer’

Little Big Town

Pain Killer

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Little Big Town and producer Jay Joyce approach Pain Killer with red hued wild abandon, unapologetically subverting convention in favor of experimentation. If they thought of it, they used it, no matter how outlandish the result.

More often than not Pain Killer devolves into heavy rock, often smothering the individual tracks. “Turn The Lights On” is a progressive mess. “Stay All Night” and “Things You Don’t Think About” drown their harmonies in crashing drums. “Faster Gun” turns up the sexy factor with a filter on Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook’s vocal that renders them indistinguishable. “Save Your Sin” is more heavy metal than anything; a waste of what could be a shining moment for Kimberly Schlapman. “Good People” is just more of the same, with rock and pop colliding, but not meshing at all.

The band is slightly more enjoyable on “Quit Breaking Up With Me,” which is catchy, but rests its fortunes on a terribly unintelligent lyric. Lead single “Day Drinking,” which actually has structure and audible mandolin, is a step up from there.

For the remaining tracks, Little Big Town is good, if not great, or excellent. I love the title track, even though it features elements of the album at its worst, because the chorus is excellent and the band sounds engaged like nowhere else on the project. Second single “Girl Crush,” which only could’ve been written in this day and age, is an inventive lyric and one of Karen Fairchild’s most committed vocal performances. I do wish “Live Forever” retained more a country sound, but Joyce should be credited for a beautifully breathable harmony-centric production bed that’s too lush, but still a showcase for the band. Eerily similar is “Silver and Gold,” which keeps the harmonies in the forefront, but could’ve been a bit more interesting if Joyce had borrowed from “Shut Up Train,” one their strongest ballads.

Pain Killer is the blandest album of Little Big Town’s career. The elements of rock, pop, and metal do nothing to elevate their sound and are thus a distraction that deflects from their talent instead of enhancing it. The record is not without its bright spots, like Eric Church’s Joyce-produced The Outsiders. But I find it difficult to derive pleasure from wading through the dense forest to find them.

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Taylor Swift

Over the course of the last decade, no artist has been scrutinized and debated more than Taylor Swift. Large swaths of music fans don’t understand the appeal citing either weak vocals, the fact they’re out of her target demographic, or both in their critiques. But through it all Swift has grown into a one woman machine who’s become the heart and soul of the music industry. The first genuine superstar of the social media age, she connects with fans at a level never before seen. Her impact and influence cannot be understated.

On some level Swift is a brilliant business woman. You don’t sell a million copies of your last three albums – Speak Now (2010), Red (2012) and 1989 (2014) – in the first week by accident. Swift knows her audience inside and out, thus giving them exactly what they want.

I’ve loved Swift ever since “Our Song” was released to country radio in the summer of 2007. Her five albums have constantly been some of my favorite records during the years they were released. In fact, no other artist has gotten me more excited for new product than Swift. Why? Simply put, her songwriting speaks to me. No one crafts lyrics like her, framed impeccably in the melody and instrumentation that best suits the song. Taylor Swift has it all figured out – haters be damned – and is laughing all the way to global domination.

Ranking my 25 favorite songs of hers was a challenge. I finally got it down to list I could live with, which you see here, complete with commentary. These truly are my favorite songs by a favorite artist, a singer who’s grown from a teenager to a fully fledged woman before our eyes.

#25

The Way I Love You

Fearless (2008)

Written By: Taylor Swift & John Rich

I was obsessed with this thumper in the early days of the Fearless era, stomping to the infectious drumbeat and screaming along as she belted the lyrics. Swift rarely expands her co-writing circle, but she let in Rich, if only for a one-off. My ears find this a bit cluttered now, but how I loved it back then.