The last time I saw Jim Lauderdale, it was at a morning show at a bar in Nashville, where he was teaching the audience Tai Chi. He had a big smile on his face during his instructions, as he explained how Tai Chi helps one de-stress. Lauderdale seems to always have a smile on his face. I have seen him perform many times over the past 20 years, as a solo act, with a celebrated duet partner such as Ralph Stanley and Buddy Miller, with full combos and a set list, and with pick-up bands at music fests. He’s always smiling.
That does not mean he’s always happy; Lauderdale can pick and croon a sad song as well as anybody else in Bluegrass or Americana these days. Or as he sings on the maudlin opening track to his latest LP, “I’m optimistic / but realistic / about what may be up ahead.” Like a true country purist, he looks at the sunny side of life. However, the method by which he croons the previously mentioned phrase suggests a deeper appreciation of the hard times. He spends five seconds gurgling the word “realistic” before moving on.
Or perhaps labeling his new record Country Super Hits Volume 2 reveals Lauderdale’s innate positivity. There are no hits on it, at least not yet. While there are no explicit liner notes, the singer-songwriter apparently penned each of the 13 new songs. It’s Lauderdale’s 38th full-length album under his own name, and apparently a sequel to his 2006 album Country Super Hits Vol. 1. Thematically, the two records are very similar, with a mix of honky tonk and roots music with all sorts of country styles thrown in.
Volume 2 may be more mature. Songs such as “Everybody’s Got a Problem”, “People Get Hurt Sometimes” and “While We Learn to Break Each Other’s Heart” suggest pain rather than playfulness (compared with Volume 1). Importantly, these tracks also have a brighter side to them that provides a silver lining to life’s dark clouds. Lauderdale tells his listeners they are not alone. We all have difficulties, deal with distress and injure one another. The singer is our friend and comforting companion.
Other cuts are more explicitly happy, with titles such as “I’m Wagging My Tail”, “Hope Springs Eternal” and “Making a Believer Out of Me”. He sings of nice surprises, love as strong medicine, and the sweet inspiration of kindness. These songs are transformative in that they initially evoke an unhappy past before alluding to present joyfulness.
Then some songs are just purposely weird, which follow in a country music tradition of never taking oneself too seriously (Johnny Cash‘s “The Chicken in Black” or Dolly Parton‘s “I Yell Out”. Lauderdale’s “Artificial Intelligence” offers a lesson about the future, God, and consciousness, to a Bakersfield beat. He sings in a twisted voice that squeezes the notes out of deep inside his throat. He wonders if he wrote this song or what? The joke is on the listener. Jim Lauderdale aims to make one smile, and he understands the best way to do that is to smile at the other person first.