Ally's Corner

Blogmas Day Thirty One: It is the last day of December, the last day of 2023 and by default the final day of Blogmas! We're ending with a bang with a full album reaction of Ashley McBryde's "new" album, The Devil I Know !     There are eleven tracks on this album and I've heard six of them so far (those being Whiskey And Country Music which she played live at The Grand Ole Opry a while ago, Made For This which she also played at The Grand Ole Opry on her induction night this time last year [and released as a single in July], Light On In The Kitchen released as a single in the Spring, The Devil I Know ,  Learned To Lie and Cool Little Bars . Out of those, my favorite is Learned To Lie ).    Out of what I haven't heard, I'm claiming Single At The Same Time .    Let's get to the main event now.     Made For This: Alright, this one I more or less like, but I definitely feel like she's written better songs. 3/10.     Coldest Beer In...

  Blogmas Day Thirty: Alright y'all, I jumped on the Morgan Wade bandwagon last October and it's been a beautiful ride. I love Reckless and some of my favorite songs are hers.  Nonetheless her current era hasn't been my favorite.    I've never gotten around to listening to the full Psychopath album, so maybe that'll change my thoughts.    I've heard Psychopath since she first played it live and I honestly like it a lot. Back when I first got into her, I found a live video of Phantom Feelings and I've heard a   little c lip of Alanis .      I've also heard Fall In Love With Me and 80's Movie . I wasn't really impressed by either.  (I actually tried to do a reaction on the latter but it was just so, well, not great that I decided not to publish it. I try to follow a "good thing, bad thing, good thing" policy and I couldn't find enough good things about it to not feel complainy).    Out of the songs I ain't heard, I'm claimi...

  Blogmas Day Twenty Nine: Alrighty y'all, so as we know, it's like two days until New Year's (which means I've got a whole lot of stuff to get done, but let's sit THAT aside for a second) and talk about one of my favorite and least favorite topics: lore.    Lore is something that you certainly can't live with and I dare you to try living without. It makes a book (or book series or even a movie series) so rich and lived in and when done right, can even distract from an otherwise crappy installment of a series *cough cough* (I've attempted to fix a book or two through this lifeline and yeah, dumpster fire)...    But that's all gonna change in 2024! My resolution is to get all my writing stuff together (all the lists, worldbuilding stuff, lore, characters, backstories, family lineage, playlists, Headcanons, theories, all that stuff). I wrote six books in 2023, which honestly ain't bad (could be better, but it ain't bad). On the contrary, I started ...

  Blogmas Day Twenty Eight: Alright y'all, today I decided to do what a few people on YouTube have done and that is PERFORM THE ENTIRE ERAS TOUR!    I normally play real performances that are between five and fifteen minutes long, but my jam sessions with little to no audiences go on for much longer (sometimes an hour)!    Today I was in my house looking for something to do, so I decided "why not? Let's try to sing, screech and crack our way through The Eras Tour!" (As I mentioned a couple days back, I have a cold that I've had off and on since before Thanksgiving)...    Anyway, I tried it. I sat down with my Jasmine Acoustic Guitar at about 3:30 PM and started playing the intro version of Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince .     Cruel Summer was kinda a hot mess, but fun as always.    I was halfway through the Fearless act when I realized I had inadvertently skipped Lover (I know, I know, I ought to have my Swiftie Indenti...

  Blogmas Day Twenty Seven: Okay y'all, so Christmas was Monday and me and my bunch are still eating on leftovers. It's good though, I love it.    The other best thing about Thanksgiving and Christmas is we always have a ham! Now don't love ham off the bone (it's good, but if we've got almost literally anything else at Christmas, I'll eat that before getting ham). Anyway, with a ham comes the promise of a pot of pinto beans.    Now beans I love. If y'all ain't never had a pot of pinto beans cooked with a hambone and some jalapeno peppers, y'all are missing out.    We started eating on the beans today but we've still got some leftovers from Christmas.    Some people probably throw out their Christmas dinner right after they get done eating the first round of it, but I believe since we've been blessed with abundance, we shouldn't go a-wastin' it.    Especially if that abundance includes dressing, hashbrown casserole and tater salad. ...

  Blogmas Day Twenty Six: Okay, so as everyone in this world knows, yesterday was Christmas. As I did on Christmas Eve, I'm going to be detailing a few more items I received.     #1: Studebaker Stereo:     So I spoke of this lightly yesterday but I'm elaborating! This is (arguably) my favorite gift of the year and it is amazing! It's a Candy Apple Red with the slightest Burgundy undertone.     As noted before, it plays CDs, AM and FM radio, is Bluetooth and MP3 compatible and plays and records Cassettes! (I'm so happy because my real recorder is lost in storage and I've been needing it! Now all I need is to get over my cold so I can sing and buy some blank tapes down at the friendly Walmart and then demos galore!     #2: Artist Loft art kit:     This came as a complete surprise and was nice! I don't know what the exact name of the set is (I'll have to check). It came in a silver case that looks as good as a brand new diamond pl...

  Blogmas Day Twenty Five: Today was Christmas obviously, and it was fun aside from my cold (which I've had since mid November) decided to amp itself up. It was fine though, it's probably Karma for something I've done to someone at some point and if that's the case, I'll take it on the chin.    I got a few things, including an American Girl Nicki Fleming doll, the Barbie Stevie Nicks doll, some art supplies and a stereo with a radio, CD player, Cassette player and recorder.    Anyway, I hope you all had a swell Christmas and have enjoyed my blog posts. Of course, I'm not done with Blogmas as I will be posting daily until the end of the month/year.    Still to come will be my year end album ranking and some other stuff!    God bless, a merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!    -Ally. 😎

Blogmas Day Twenty Four: It's Christmas Eve, y'all! I still can't believe it!    So today I wrote a while, played some Christmas Hymns on Guitar and opened a few gifts I've got myself or from friends or family.  

  Blogmas Day Twenty Three: So today I went out, finished off my Christmas shopping, got lunch from Subway and watched the new Universal Studios: Illumination movie Migration and also it's accompanying short film, Mooned (starring the Minions).    So here's my little reaction to both! THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING,BUT THERE ARE OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED... Minions: Mooned Short Film. I found this rather funny, and I was glad it didn't rely too heavily on the storylines of the other movies/Short Films as I've never seen them. I can't say much else, other than it was a delightful romp through outer space.

  Blogmas Day Twenty Two: We're officially into the Winter season and the days are getting longer!    Anyway, today I had a fairly successful writing session that lasted around an hour and a half and produced about 1,344 words, bringing my proposed yearly word count (as mentioned last night in this post ) of 961,975 up to 166,139!    I find when I'm not obsessing over my word count, I write more and when I can truly focus, I get more done.    If any of you are wondering what I was writing, I was working on a Fanfiction story I'm publishing on my Quotev account . The chapter I was writing probably won't be published for a while (maybe next year, who knows)? Because it's nowhere near done.    Anywho, that's my little rant for today! See y'all tomorrow! 😎

  Blogmas Day Twenty One: Alright y'all, so, as ya know, I'm an Author. (I perfer the term "Authoress" to be honest, but whatever). Anywho, I did NaNoWriMo this year, hitting 50,000 words on the 19th of November. (It was my first year and I was very glad at the turnout)!    My full month of November topped out at 86,643.    So far since the 19th of November, I've written 75,332 words.    Since I've never really obsessed over my word or page count other than this challenge, I don't know my exact word count for the year, I'm gonna do some guess work.    In the whole month of November, I wrote 86,000 words. I'm gonna round down to 80,000 and multiply by ten.    Basic multiplication is knowing that 80,000×10 =800,000.    And adding 86,643 brings that total up to 886,643.    And adding 75,332 to 886,643 equals 961,975.    So that gives us an approximate word count and the year ain't even over yet!   ...

  Blogmas Day Twenty: So today I made Christmas cookies, rolled out sugar cookies to be exact. That was a lot of fun and made me feel like a kid again. I had lunch with a few close family members and made the final additions to my Christmas Playlist.    It includes all the songs off of Taylor Swift 's 2007 Christmas EP, Sounds Of The Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection , (later re-released as simply  The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in 2009, for anyone who doesn't know), the songs from Maddie & Tae 's 2020 Christmas EP, We Need Christmas , and other Christmassy releases.    All through the year, I add gems I find to the playlist and at Christmas, spin it when I'm in the mood (and sometimes even when I'm in the mood and it ain't even Christmas).    Anywho, that's it! 😎

  Blogmas Day Nineteen: Hey y'all, so as I mentioned yesterday, today I'm talking about Americana Country  music!    I've been into Americana Country since the late Spring and I love it. Artists such as Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons (whose collaborative work I mentioned yesterday, you can find that little write up here ) and a modern duo that I'll be raving about a lot today, The Secret Sisters have been all over my playlists.    So anyway, The Secret Sisters have some incredible music, harmonies as high in quality as The Everly Brothers', and not a lot of fans. If y'all ain't heard their stuff, I suggest you try it. My favorites are the same-tragic-story-from-different-point-of-views pair " Mississippi " and " Iuka " and " Tommorow Will Be Kinder " which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2011 film, The Hunger Games.    I cover their semi-upbeat yet extremely sad ballad " He's Fine " in my live sets often a...

  Blogmas Day Eighteen: Well, as most of y'all know by now, I'm a crazy music lover and we've seen posts about Niall Horan ,  Ta yl or   Sw ift ,  Harry Styles ,  The Love Junkies (Lori McKenna, Liz Rose and Hilary Lindsay) ,  Justin Moore and Priscilla Block ,  Ashley McBryde ,  Olivia Rodrigo ,  Kelsea Ballerini ,  Carrie Underwood ,  Abbey Rowe  and  Abbi Scott  on this here blog.    Anywho, I love me a duet and have recently-ish gotten into a lot of Americana Country Music, which could have a whole post. I have been super obsessed with Emmylou Harris since before Halloween. And obviously, as it happens, Emmylou led to me getting into "the tragic nut", as I've started calling him, Gram Parsons .    It's simply impossible to be a  musicaholic and not know at least a little about these two.    Their duet and collaborative projects are so stunning and their voices very mu...

  Blogmas Day Seventeen: Okay y'all, so I'm obviously old, but I watched " The 7D " on Disney XD when it was on the airwaves and was obsessed with it. As I stated Friday, I don't generally love newer shows or movies but the humor was impeccable and I loved the overall storyline of it.    It only lasted for two seasons, and the reruns were moved and smashed in on one time slot with the new episodes; Saturday mornings at 9:30 AM.    I never really cared for Disney XD aside from this, " Phinneas & Ferb ", (which was often played on Disney Channel), I still don't.    Anyway, it seems Disney has pretty well disowned this show, along with " Wander Over Yonder " which I've never watched but seems absolutely hilarious.    Disney XD official has never uploaded any episodes or even clips to YouTube and I hear it ain't on Disney+. I get it, " Gravity Falls " and " Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil " were more popular, but I n...

  Blogmas Day Sixteen: Today I went to the movie theater and saw the film I've been waiting for since late June: Wonka . WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!

  Blogmas Day Fifteen: Hey y'all! Welcome back to Blogmas!   Today I'll be talking about the fact that new movies just don't have what old movies do.   Now not to age myself too much, but to give y'all an idea, I'm in the under forty category and have always fancied watching movies such as " The Wizard Of Oz " (1939), " My Fair Lady " (1964), " Singing In The Rain " (1952), stuff such as that.    So as per usual on any given night, I settled myself in front of the TV with a film; tonight it was The very first Ma And Pa Kettle movie, The Egg & I , released in 1947.    I've obviously seen it before, but in a conversation yesterday somebody brought up Ma And Pa Kettle so I decided then and there "I'm gonna watch myself a Ma And Pa Kettle movie tonight".    And it was great, it's a good movie! I've always thought it was pretty funny being The Egg & I doesn't actually center on Ma and Pa and their above...

  Blogmas Day Fourteen: Today we're playing Pick One Or Kick One! The video this is based off of can be found here and to my deep annoyance, the maker of the video made the decision to count the Originals and Taylor's Versions as one, completely erasing the existence of the Originals. This is simply my disclaimer to say I don't support that. Nevertheless, it's a good game.

  Blogmas Day Thirteen: Hey y'all! Today is Taylor's birthday and since it is, I will be ranking my top thirty four songs. Now, this is super hard because I've been in the fandom somewhat since the original Speak Now Era. Some of this will be based off of my Taylor Swift album ranking obviously. Also, if I offend anyone with my opinion, I'm real sorry. I also tend to like deep cuts. Let's go!

  Blogmas Day Twelve: Hey friends! It's Ally! Today we have part two of my Women In Country Music deep dive! Today's lady is Abbi Scott. So as with last time, I punched her name into the YouTube search bar and got a Topic channel and some Auto-Generated By YouTube songs. The first song is titled " Got My Own Shotgun ". Wow, this is gorgeous! I love her voice already! It's pretty and got some power behind it, but she doesn't over-sing, like some people! I love this song, to have been cut in 2015, is delightfully Country (probably why it never went mainstream)... This is a great song and one I'm gonna revisit! I'm gonna listen to a second song, titled " Flying ", also released in 2015. (Also, unrelated but how in the Dan Hill [yes, Faith Hill McGraw's ex husband] was 2015 8 years ago!?!?!?!? The lyrics on this one gives me some early Taylor Swift vibes. Again, it's unquestionably Country and it's a shame she ain't well known. I...

Blogmas Day Eleven:   Hey y'all! It's Ally again! Today I'm going to be talking about Women In Country Music, but in alphabetical order! This is considered a Deep Dive, so let's talk about the rules. I'm using a list of every Female Country Artist from www.countrystartpage.com (here's the list ) and adding a couple people the list was missing. If I know her, I'll list how much I like her, whether or not I have any of her albums or have heard them and my favorite song. If I don't know her, I'll bang her name in the YouTube search bar and listen to the first song that is displayed. So now that that's done for, the first lady we'll be talking about is Abbey Rowe. Now, I think I may've heard of her but never consciously listened to her before doing this deep dive. Let's see what song I'm listening to.  *Types name into YouTube, results show*. The song is called " Miss Wannabe ". There's a Auto-Generated YouTube channel u...

  Blogmas Day Ten: Welcome back to Blogmas! Today I'll be going on a rant, so be warned. If you don't care for negativity, I encourage you to leave and come back tomorrow.    So now that that's over, the rant.    Earlier, me and some of my family went out to the local Wendy's for supper. (For y'all big city folk, supper is the night meal).    Anyway, I shouldn't have went, because I was badly disappointed. Not surprised, but disappointed. Last time I went, I ordered their Biggie Bag with a Crispy Chicken BLT. Last time I got it, they screwed up and didn't put no tomato.    Well,guess what? Today, there wasn't no tomato again and no bacon!    That's right; a Crispy Chicken BLT with no tomato and no bacon.    What kind of an idiot don't put the T and the B on a BLT?    I'm slowly weeding out corporations, starting with Taco Bell, who sold me a Nacho Bell Grande once with hamburger meat instead of steak, a second ti...

  Blogmas Day Nine: It's me again! Now I'm reacting to Give Her That by Carrie Underwood! I love this one! It reminds me lyrically of I Got The Boy by Jana Kramer. I also relate to it, just like I relate to I Got The Boy. The Lyric Video was nice too! All and all, 10/10! See y'all tomorrow!  😎

  Blogmas Day Eight: Hey y'all, I wrote this yesterday but didn't manage to get it up until today. Now I'll be reacting to Rolling Up The Welcome Mat (For Good) by Kelsea Ballerini. Since I obviously listened to it when the original EP came out in February and only four of those six tracks were worth listening to, I'll only be reacting to those four and the new song. Mountain With A View: This one ain't bad, but it ain't crazy good either. It's a pretty mediocre song. 4.5/10. (Skipping Just Married). (Skipping Penthouse (Healed Version). Interlude (Full Length): This one ain't good. .5/10. Blindsided (Yeah, Sure, Okay). I remember when she played this version on SNL or whatever it was, I thought it was good. 5/10. Leave Me Again: I think this is the best one, and I remember relating to it when it came out. I obviously haven't listened to it since then. 8/10. How Do I Do This (The Final Chapter): This one wasn't very good either. .2/10. Full album...

  Blogmas Day Seven:  Hey y'all! It's Ally!   Today I'm talking about McDonald's now discontinued Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry that they had back in the late summer (I know, late post). I'm an Oreo McFlurry girl, but when they had this one, I decided "Why in the world not?"    So I tried it.   It was honestly better than I thought it was going to be and reminded me of something I had from Sonic once (I can't remember the name right now).   Conclusion: I'M STILL AN OREO GIRL! IN AN OREO WORLD! But peanut butter was pretty enjoyable!    -Ally 😎

  Blogmas Day Six: Welcome back to Blogmas! I'm your host, Ally Kat Tomlinson and today, I'll be ranking Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album, Taylor Swift, which was released in 2006 (that sounds SO   HARD to believe, good gosh)!    Anywho, let's go!    #14: Cold As You.     This one hasn't ever been a favorite, though I do think it's good and can never get over how strong the line  "every smile you fake is so condescending counting all the scars you've made" is!    #13: Picture To Burn.     At the risk of getting my OSIC (Official Swiftie Identification Card) revoked, this is next to last. I feel like I loved it just a little too much back in my days of being a Junior Swiftie (in 2010-ish) and nowadays, I hardly ever listen to it.     #12: Tim McGraw.    Again, at the risk of getting my OSIC revoked, this case is sorta similar to Picture To Burn. I honestly love it, but it's not my absolute favorit...

  Blogmas Day Five: Hey y'all! Today I'll be reacting to bad idea right? (Clean) by Olivia Rodrigo!    So, this sounds kinda similar to Brutal and I think it's honestly pretty cool! I know Vampire had to exist due to the cultural reset it caused, but this feels (to me) more like a lead single. (Same way Good 4 U is more lead single-ish than Driver's License).    Being who I am, "I'm sure I've seen much hotter men, but I really can't remember when" simply sent me flying off the face of this earth.    I'm kinda a hopeless romantic, to say the least.    I started laughing at the bridge or whatever, where she is chanting/singsaying "yes, I know that he's my ex" because it reminded me too much of "Improbably Knot" from Phineas & Ferb! (I know, I know, I'm old)!    Anywho, this gets a 0/10.  That's "the biggest lie I've ever said" by the way, it obviously gets a 10/10!    See y'all tomorrow ! 😎

Blogmas Day Four: Hey y'all! Welcome to Blogmas day four! Today I'll be reacting to Cool Little Bars by Ashley McBryde!    This one is super cute and might be my second favorite single from her new album!    (Quick ranking:     #5: The Devil I Know.    #4: Made For This.    #3: Light On In The Kitchen.    #2: Cool Little Bars.    #1: Learned To Lie).    Alright, now that we are done with that, back to the reaction!    My hometown has the coolest little restaurant that I pray never gets turned into a dollar store or something, so I get her sentiment.    Anywho, I like how Country and traditional this one sounds! All and all, 10/10. See y'all tomorrow, Ally! 😎

  Blogmas Day Three: Hello and welcome to Blogmas Day Three!  Today I'm reacting to You, Me, And Whiskey (Acoustic) by Justin Moore and Priscilla Block! Now this came out in July and I've obviously just now got around to listening to it! One thing I'm a little annoyed about (no, scratch that, I'm a lot annoyed about but the  music industry has annoyingly normalized it) is that this ain't even really a fresh recording. It's the one that came out last year with the electric guitar cut out. It actually ain't bad once you get past that little irk. All and all, 8.5/10. If you'd like to see/hear me react to the original cut that came out last year, you can find that here and if you'd like to see my reaction to the visualizer, you can find that here . Well, that's about it for today! Bye! 😎

Hey y'all, it's me again and today I'm going to be attempting Blogmas! That means posting a post every single day! As you know, I didn't post yesterday, but I wrote this post yesterday. If you don't already know from the title, I'll be reacting to Driving Back There In My Mind by Lori McKenna, Liz Rose and Hilary Lindsay (otherwise known as The Love Junkies, the greatest writing team in Nashville) which came out in July or so and being  Alison "Out Of The Loop" Tomlinson as I am, I've yet to listen to it. I love all three of these ladies' stuff, so I'm very excited to hear this.   This one broke me, so bad. It's probably one of the best they've ever written. Lori sounds as great as ever and it's simply amazing! I'll eventually listen and react to the Miranda Lambert recording and see which I like best. Well, all and all, 9.9/10. (The only reason it's not a full ten is I wish it was longer)! Bye, Ally! 😎