Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills): Chase Rice

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Chase Rice

That's Chase Rice's "Drinkin' Beer. Talking God. Amen." C.I. has a friend at Chase's label which is why she put the song into a snapshot weeks ago (she disclosed that at the time). I heard it because of that and I posted it here. It was like 120,000 views back then and it's now already up to 1.5 million. That's because it really is a great song. You listen to it and you love it -- unless you just hate country music.

His new album comes out tomorrow.

New album out Friday, May 28 @MusicRow

Chase Rice: 'I'm Finally Not Chasing Anything. I'm Just Being Me' [Interview]

Country singer-songwriter Chase Rice will deliver the final installment of his three part [...]

And he's a dog lover.

One of the best days of my entire life, y’all meet Jack

: @Kaaisserrr

5:53 PM · May 18, 2021

About the new album, Tricia Despres (TASTE OF COUNTRY) reports:

Every morning, Chase Rice makes it a priority to talk to God a little bit. And in one particular, pre-pandemic conversation, the North Carolina native had a rather an interesting request.

“I remember telling Him that I needed some real in my life, because I truly didn’t know what was real anymore,” Rice remembers in a interview just days before the Friday (May 28) release of The Album, the completed version of the multi-part project he began putting out in January 2020. "How do I calm this down? How do I get people around me that aren’t just there because of the music?"

Read More: Chase Rice Is a Changed Man, and 'The Album' Proves It | https://tasteofcountry.com/chase-rice-the-album-interview-2021/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

“There was this group of families who hung out with me at my farm,” Rice remembers of sweet days in the middle of the shutdown. “We sat around fires, we had a Beer Olympics, we had a Top Gun volleyball tournament -- we lived in a way that we will never do it again.”
And much as in his current single with Florida Georgia Line, “Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God. Amen.,” there were plenty of conversations around the campfire. "A lot of it wasn’t about music -- it was about what was going on in your life and my life," remembers Rice, who snagged his first No. 1 song back in 2018 with "Eyes on You."
"Those are the conversations I will take into my music and on the road and in that mindset that there is a life outside of that tour bus and on that stage," he continues. "I learned that you could have the calm and the chaos at the same time. Before, it was just the chaos.”
Fans will hear the backbone of this newfound philosophy all over The Album.
“All these songs are songs that didn’t belong, but they finalized my album,” Rice says of the record. "These songs came to be when I had a moment to step back and write real songs as opposed to trying to write songs. I’m writing about whatever happens. I’m living life again for the first time in eight years, and it’s been pretty awesome.”

I'm going to try to make time to listen to it this weekend.

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Thursday, May 27, 2021. An arrest takes place in Iraq though the western media and the Iraqi press are in conflict over what the arrest was for. The militias surround the prime minister's compound and you may be saying, "Huh? This wasn't on THE NEWSHOUR or CBS EVENING NEWS or . . ." No, it wasn't.

One day after protests across Iraq against the wave of terrorism gripping the country since activists with The October Movement started getting assassinated, someone is finally arrested for terrorism.

REUTERS explains, "Iraqi security forces on Wednesday arrested militia commander Qasim Muslih, the military said, in a move security sources said was linked to attacks on a base that hosts U.S. forces."

Oh.

He is thought to have carried out attacks on the activists but, to read the western coverage, that is apparently not part of the charges currently against him. Elsewhere? It's a different story. Iraq's NRT reports:

Iraqi police arrested a senior official in an Iran-backed armed group Wednesday (May 26) on suspicion of orchestrating the murder of a prominent pro-democracy activist, a security source told AFP.

Qasem Muslah, a commander in the state-sponsored Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition, is the first high-ranking official in the powerful group to have been arrested in relation to a wave of murders of pro-democracy activists and journalists that started in 2019.

A spokesman and other sources within the Hashed said Wednesday evening that Muslah had been released, but the government has yet to confirm the move.

"At dawn in Baghdad, police intelligence arrested Qasem Muslah, Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashed) operations chief for Anbar province, who gave the order to kill Ihab al-Wazni on May 9 and another activist Fahim al-Taie in December 2019," the security source said.

Anti-government campaigner Wazni was shot dead outside his home by men on motorbikes using a gun equipped with a silencer early on May 9 in the holy shrine city of Karbala, sending protest movement supporters onto the streets to demand an end to such bloodshed and official impunity.

Wazni had for many years criticized Iraqi armed groups and Iran's influence in the country, leading protests in Karbala, where pro-Tehran armed groups hold major sway.

The arrest warrant was issued on May 21st.

ALJAZEERA notes, "A copy of the arrest warrant issued for Muslih that circulated on social media and was verified by the security sources said he was arrested under the anti-terrorism law, but did not have further information."

ALJAZEERA's Shelly Kittleson offers this thread:

#Iraqi #Shia militia commander/w. #Anbar #PMU chief Qassim Musleh was arrested today, allegedly on terrorism and corruption charges. Accused of activists' murders. Militias entered the Green Zone to try to force his release.I have interviewed him twice (pic in #Karbala)/thread

1:08 PM · May 26, 2021

In a 2018 interview with him for @AlMonitor
, he told me: “This [attack] only happened because they took it away from us and gave it to the army, which is under the Americans (...)The army is weak. It can’t control anything.’’

Iraqi army, non-local PMUs at cross-purposes in western Anbar

Non-local Popular Mobilization Units seem to be quietly gaining influence on Iraq’s border with Syria against a backdrop of attacks on local facilities now und

"Local security sources contacted by @AlMonitor
 in #Qaim claimed that non-local PMUs were actually behind the attack. The sources said the move was in retaliation for cutting the route used by PMU fighters to bring supplies into #Syria, and to prevent investment"

1:13 PM · May 26, 2021

"Musleh said Danish forces shot at the PMU headquarters in Qaim and spoke of the United States as the enemy throughout the entire interview, barely mentioning IS at all except to claim that the Americans were supporting it."

1:16 PM · May 26, 2021

"Musleh made some easily disputed claims throughout the interview, such as that the city of #Rawa had been liberated before #Qaim (...) “When the PMUs entered Abu Kamal’’ just across the border in #Syria, he added, grinning, “that was the final blow to the US"

1:22 PM · May 26, 2021

Conflicting reports as to whether he has since been released. Iraqi Commander-in-Chief spokesman says he "will remain in the custody of the Joint Operations Command until the end of the investigation"

From my 2nd interview with him for @AlMonitor
: "#Musleh, the deputy head of security at the #Karbala shrines, said "#Israel and #America" were trying to create divisions(...) he holds both a governmental position and one within the religious establishment"

Iranian consulates torched in Najaf and Karbala

Protesters attacked the Iranian consulates in the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala over the past month, yet officials deny that protesters are anti-Iran

Not everyone is happy over the arrests. Syed WaQas Ali Tweeted:

 Iraqi resistance commander Qassim Musleh was arrested earlier today on bogus charges by order of the US puppet Mustafa al-Kazemi.

#Iraq

8:54 AM · May 26, 2021

And the PMF has issued demands:

conditions have been given by the PMF: 

The immediate release of Qassim Musleh
An official apology by al-Kazemi 
Abu Ragheef's resignation

8:34 AM · May 26, 2021

That was online. Offline? AP reports:

Shortly after the arrest, forces affiliated with the PMF, which maintains offices inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, were deployed surrounding Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's headquarters.

Tensions reached fever pitch when Iraqi security forces and the elite Counter-Terrorism Service were deployed to protect the government and diplomatic missions, sparking fears of violence. Some armed PMF factions gathered around the Green Zone's entrance gates.

The presence of the PMF inside the seat of Iraq's government was considered by some senior Iraqi government officials as a way to pressure al-Kadhimi to release Musleh.

The prime minister described the show of force as “a serious violation of the Iraqi constitution and the laws in force," adding in a statement “we have directed an immediate investigation into these movements.”

Antonio Guterres is the Secretary General of the United Nations. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is his Special Envoy to Iraq. She Tweeted the following:

Any arrest case should run its course, as goes for any Iraqi. And surely, nobody should resort to a show of force to get their way. Such behaviour weakens the Iraqi state and further erodes public trust. State institutions must be respected at all times. Nobody is above the law.

12:00 PM · May 26, 2021

In Karbala some took to the streets to protest the arrest.

Demonstrations in the holy city of Karbala infront of Imam Hussain’s shrine denouncing the kidnapping operation of a leader of the Popular Mobilization Units by Al-Kadhemi, Abu Ragheef and the US.