Customer Reviews

Beneath the Country Underdog

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful album from an amazing singer/songwriter. I have been following Kelly Hogan since her days fronting An Evening With the Garbageman and later The Jody Grind. This album is more country than her other two, which had more of a trashcan jazz feel (whatever that is). No matter what you call the style, this is great music (in the vein of Patsy Cline/Dusty Springfield). My only gripe with this album is the fact there aren't more of Kelly's original songs on it. However, the covers are great. Go see her live show if you can. She plays Chicago and Atlanta often. Buy this CD! And you should just buy it here since it's kind of hard to find at retail stores. If only she had a video!

Sassy country with a strong R&B underpinning, this album offers a good variety.

Interesting choice of covers - Johnny Paycheck to lo-fi hero Stephen Merritt (Magnetic Fields).

Kelly is an energetic singer - the backing band is loose and grooving.

Fans of Neko Case, Dusty in Memphis, possibly even early Lone Justice, will enjoy this gem.

...but still pretty good. It would be all too easy to say that this album represents a departure of sorts for Kelly Hogan, but that presumes that we know where she was before. Her muscial tastes have always been a bit eclectic. Not as strong as "The Whistle Only Dogs Can Hear" (she must like dogs), but more consistent as she stays mainly on a country road. My faves would include "Still can't believe youre gone", "Mystery" and "Papa was a Rodeo." I'm not really sure where Pine Valley is, but once you've heard this album, you might think you've been there. It's a good place to be. For $15 you can see what I mean.

Kelly Hogan has a lovely, lovely voice -- and she also has a great deal of taste. The backing band, especially guitarist Andy Hopkins, has a nice groove; the covers are well chosen; and the voice never falters. It's not a perfect album, but only because Hogan likes to push and experiment, covering all kinds of music without anything holding the record together as a whole. Still, highly recommended.

Since I got this cd about a week ago, it has not left my cd player. The songs range from a feisty Johnny Paycheck cover to a sweet Percy Sledge number. Kelly's voice is fabulously suited to both and to everything else in between. This cd is a must have for everyone that's ever been dumped. Just slap it in the stereo and sing along at the top of your lungs!

Simply the best record Kelly has ever done. I have been following this singer's career for a long time and this CD pulls together all the things that make her such a talent. From the impassioned "It's a Mighty Thin Line" to the haunting "Whispering Pines", no one else reaches as deep to find the true soul of a song.

For some reason, Shelby Lynne's latest cd has been garnering all the press and raves--it's undeserved. This cd by Hogan is the one that deserves all the plaudits. Lovely voice, good song choices, basically the type of cd that stays in one's stereo for weeks at a time. Buy it.

She has a sweet voice and has compiled a group of meaningful, soulfull songs. Her Rodeo cover is my favorite- what more can I say.

This CD is not intended to change the listener's life. It's a county/hillbilly joyride covering a lot of artists--from Johnny Paycheck to Willie Nelson to Conway Twitty/Loretta Lynn to Magnetic Fields. However, the originals (especially Crackers Rule) stand up fine on their own. Basically another Pine Valley Cosmonauts trip down memory lane, with Hogan, who possesses a great voice, as the vocalist. A lot of fun to listen to.

If heard a couple decades ago, this CD would pass muster as classic country with the originals built from the same throwback sound as the covers that make up the majority of the tracks. Production and playing are excellent, but, to my listening at least, Kelly Hogan's vocals are curiously passionless on some cuts. She is very strong on the raucous It's a Mighty Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Papa Was a Rodeo, Crackers Rule (perhaps the single best cut), and Whispering Pines. But in some of the other ballads (I Still Can't Believe You're Gone and her own Gone, for example) she sounds tentative, as if she's so concerned about going over the top that she checks her emotion at the studio door. And Wild Mountain Berries is just the cutesy kind of song that makes mainstream country such a tuneout now. Even with those criticisms, however, Beneath the Country Underdog is a strong CD.