TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
Rock critic Ken Tucker has been listening to some recent country releases, and he hears some exciting blends of old and new sounds. Country veteran Dwight Yoakam has recorded a harmonious duet with Post Malone. Country superstar Maren Morris is stretching beyond country's borders. And Shawna Thompson - half of the duo Thompson Square - has chosen to look back to the roots of honky-tonk. Ken Tucker reviews them all. Here's Dwight Yoakam with a new song called "A Dream That Never Ends."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A DREAM THAT NEVER ENDS")
DWIGHT YOAKAM: (Singing) It's all right. It's OK if you leave me. If you must go, know that I will understand. But till then I will hope for a dream that never ends. And if I wake, I'll close my eyes and just pretend.
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: Earlier this year, Post Malone put out his first country album, one in which he gave his hip-hop phrasing a twang that did not seem insincere in duets with a whole passel of country stars. One of those stars was not Dwight Yoakam. Malone's album, called "F-1 Trillion," was pleasant enough, but it didn't have a country song with the rhythmic groove that Yoakam has written for a duet on Dwight's new album, "Brighter Days." It's a very adroit song with a very unwieldy title - "I Don't Know How To Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom)." And when Malone's raspy razor of a voice cuts across Yoakam's buttery croon, it achieves a different kind of country harmony.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY GOODBYE (BANG BANG BOOM BOOM)")
DWIGHT YOAKAM AND POST MALONE: (Singing) I'd have to lie, it hurts to say, 'cause I don't know how we lost our way. Bang, bang, boom, boom. There's nothing left here now but sadness - bang, bang, boom, boom - and the emptiness of all that's gone. Bang, bang, boom, boom. No sounds but just sorrow and madness. And bang, bang, boom, boom, it's how a broken heart beats on. Come on.
TUCKER: Yoakam's "Brighter Days," his first album of new material in almost a decade, is a wonderful compendium of classic country styles.
Another performer bringing a fresh gloss to old sounds is Shawna Thompson on her new album, "Lean On Neon." Thompson is best known as half of the country duo act Thompson Square, along with her husband, Keifer. Their music tends towards slick country pop. But "Lean On Neon," her solo debut, takes a bracing plunge into the sort of honky-tonk music that was popular before she was born. On the title song, she drowns her sorrows beneath the neon glow of a bar with a different singing partner, the veteran songwriter Jim Lauderdale. And Shawna Thompson's misery is our pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEAN ON NEON")
SHAWNA THOMPSON AND JIM LAUDERDALE: (Singing) A whiskey glass. A smoke-filled room. Strangers that were hurting too. Misery loves company, I've found. A little joint where you'd never be. What they don't ask ain't hard to see where a good girl goes to drown an old memory. I used to lean on neon when I got down and lonesome. I used to hold a cold one those nights when I had no one. When a jukebox is your only friend, that quarter drops, and a heartache spins. You want to know how I moved on? I used to lean on neon.
TUCKER: If Shawna Thompson wants to dive more deeply into country music, Maren Morris is at a stage in her career where she wants to sort of skate along the surface of it and spin off in a different direction. Morris is a big star who recently has expressed dissatisfaction, becoming vocal about what she terms toxic elements in the Nashville establishment. She has swaddled her angry disenchantment in an irresistible new rhythm for a song called "People Still Show Up."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PEOPLE STILL SHOW UP")
MAREN MORRIS: (Singing) Heroes might disappoint you. Not everyone's going to join you. Don't let the pain destroy you, just go where the arrow points you. Free flow till you feel that rush when people still show up. Yeah, they're going to try and say you really crossed the line, you should've shut your mouth and smiled 'cause now you finally went and said too much. But it was just enough, 'cause people still show up, people still show up.
TUCKER: The lyric of "People Still Show Up" carries the implication that while she may have been advised not to court controversy with her complaints, it won't affect her career as long as - you got it - people still show up to buy her music, to come to her concerts. Unlike Dwight Yoakam and Shawna Thompson, Morris isn't reaching out to hardcore country fans. She's making her appeal to folks outside the genre. I hope that works out for her.
MOSLEY: Ken Tucker reviewed new music by Dwight Yoakam, Maren Morris and Shawna Thompson.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDE OPEN HEART")
YOAKAM: (Singing) Hey, saw you looking and could tell what was on your mind. Oh, spinning your wheels doesn't mean you're going to get to drive. You can muscle up, show it off, strut and roll, but that don't mean you got any place to go. Hey, the key to that sweet thing, it ain't on your ring. But if you want to think it is, buddy, go on ahead and dream, 'cause you ain't the first and damn sure won't be the last. I hold the pink slip title with her high heel on the gas. She's got a wide-open heart, tearing up the road. She took my old worn-out luck and plated it in chrome - from a red flag stop to a revved-up rolling start. She's all mine to love, with her wide-open heart.
MOSLEY: Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, Trump versus the media. He's called the media enemies of the people and threatened retribution, including jailing reporters, investigating NBC for treason and suggesting CBS' broadcast license be taken away. We'll talk with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, and Marty Baron, former editor of The Washington Post. I hope you'll join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF AARON GOLDBERG'S "ISN'T THIS MY SOUND AROUND ME")
MOSLEY: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our senior producer today is Therese Madden. Our technical director is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer is Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producers are Molly Seavy-Nesper and Sabrina Siewert. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF AARON GOLDBERG'S "ISN'T THIS MY SOUND AROUND ME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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