Two comments on Nashville Scene this year.


Taylor Swift could do with a bit more self-awareness, but there is something tender about her songs that makes them seem so real. I know her problems with authenticity and pop, but there is something so lovely, so intensely broken about how she realizes she was told a lie. On the other hand, you do not want to get Miranda Lambert angry -you wouldn't like her when she's angry. Revolution is not the masterpiece of the last album, but enough of a new direction, with the same kind of pop instincts grafted onto a desire for Opry legitimacy. It makes me want to know what she's going to do next.
— ANTHONY EASTON

There is something so lovely, so exacting and so emotionally wrought about Lyle Lovett's Natural Forces. Filled with a swing that is only sometimes melancholy which sets the place with an exactitude that is effortless. It is also one of the most charmingly filthy albums of the year -including a cover of the Doughboys' epic food = fucking opus "Pantry," and perhaps the catchiest song about masturbation ever ("Choke My Chicken"). That he does this while covering Van Zandt's heartbreaking "Loretta" or "Bayou Song," the harshest text about Louisiana since Randy Newman, is even better.
— ANTHONY EASTON