James Otto – Follow Up

I hate to brag, but when you nail one, you nail one.  I reviewed “Just Got Started Lovin’ You” back in November, the very week it went for adds.  And I said it was gonna be a big one.  This week, kids, it sits atop the charts, proving that perhaps country radio hasn’t totally lost it.  It led me to thinking about the amazing comeback the Otto has made in the past few years.  He is really a success that is attributed to coming into his own.  It’s rare in this world of handlers and over-bearing career management.  How many of the stars you love present themselves as who they really are?  I can only think of a few.  Look at Otto.  When you listen to him now, or see him in concert, is there any doubt that this is really who he is?  Not one doubt in my mind.  He’s comfortable in his skin, wears it well, and as a result, is turning out some great music.  Can you imagine what, say, Faith Hill would be capable of if she just let loose, like she did at the CMA’s a couple of years ago, carried it over to her music, and just had some fun?  She’s got the pipes, but has just gotten too commercialized.  Now it’s always a gamble.  It doesn’t always turn out so well.  Ask Ray Scott.  Ask Jamey Johnson.  Ask Dale Watson.  Walking your own path doesn’t always take you to the top, but I bet those boys sleep well at night, though they may not see the top of the charts for a long time.  How many record execs told Johnny Cash that a prison album would never sell?  And that it would ruin him?  Folsom and San Quentin later, how must they have felt?  Never underestimate authienticity. 

Now, to be fair, I must go ahead and say that I would rather have a botched root canal than listen to Taylor Swift.  But she’s got the ear of an audience.  Teens and tweens relate to her and can sense that she’s real, and she’s one of them.  She’s a real version of Miley Cyrus.  And like anyone who’s real, it ain’t always pretty.  If you saw her glitter guitared, arm waving performance at the CMA’s last November, you know what I mean.  She may seem a bit manufactured to the 30-something crowd, as it did to me at first.  But she was raised for this.  She was groomed to become exactly what she is.  Real sells records, like it or not.

And as a final example, I gotta pick a bit on Kellie Pickler.  Let me go down the list of sad strikes against her as a genuine persona in country music.  She came from American Idol, having changed her name to a more commercial friendly one, adopted Dolly as a hero, got a fake rack to match, and made an album that is tailored to get airplay on radio.  Decisions that will not put an artist in good standing on Nashville Now.  But, in four short minutes, she melted me.  Her performance of “I Wonder”, which she wrote about her estranged mother, broke my heart.  It was real, and as she ended it in tears, my heart went out to her.  She made me feel it.  And that, if nothing else, is very, very, real.

So, in conclusion, country music fans are very intuitive.  They see most artists for what and who they are.  And we know real.  Perhaps, with guys like James Otto sitting atop the charts, others will follow suit, find themselves, and then turn out a string of the best country music we’ve heard in a very long time.  He’s put it off to a great start.