The magic of what makes Tyler Childers able to write country songs that seem to resonate so deeply with listeners is not rocket science. The reason Tyler Childers and other Kentucky-born songwriters are currently acting like the spearhead in the effort to save country music is because they’re singing what they know about.
Full-time Navy enlistee turned country music songwriting sensation Zach Bryan has acquired some big muscle behind him to help forward his burgeoning music career. It’s not just fans who’ve been paying attention to his rapid ascent. Managers, booking agents, and labels have been hot on the trail of the Tulsa, Oklahoma native.
A piece of iconic country music history has been stolen. Country guitar-playing legend Junior Brown’s legendary “guit-steel” guitar was burglarized from a vehicle parked at a hotel in North Attleboro Massachusetts on Sunday, October 6th. Music fans in the area are asked to be on the lookout for the unique instrument.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have another name you should make sure to include in the mix whenever speaking about the wild resurgence of independent music shaking up mainstream country, and it’s the Southern rock and country band out of east Texas known as Whiskey Myers. Releasing their fifth record on September 27th…
The pedigree that runs curiously through country music did not pass Georgette Jones up, and her talent for singing and finding songs that embody all that’s great about the country genre is on full display on her latest record, Skin. This album has not scored the insatiable buzz some other records from women in country have this year.
Bass player Larry Junstrom, who was one of the founding members of preeminent Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the long-time bass player for .38 Special, has passed away at the age of 70. A classmate of Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Bob Burn, he helped form Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1964.
Man, the Academy of Country Music sure knows how to soft pedal the excitement behind some of their awards. Recently they’ve been unveiling their ‘Decade’ awards, stringing them out over months instead of having an event to announce them, surprising artists backstage at gigs and shoving an award in their face as a few flashbulbs go off.
The original Willis Alan Ramsey album released in 1972 is the stuff of legend. Considered one of the very foundations of the Austin music scene that was just starting to emerge as a point of national interest at the time, the enigmatic songwriter recorded 11 original songs for Leon Russell’s Shelter label, and they would go on to be covered…
Something that became obvious while watching the Ken Burns documentary is a few of the egregious oversights the Country Music Hall of Fame has been a party to when it comes to its inductees. Unlike other Halls of Fame, The Country Music Hall of Fame is extremely selective of who they let in, only allowing three new members in each year.
Boy howdy. It takes all of 12 seconds to fly by in this new Jason James record before you decisively know that you made the smartest of all country music decisions by giving this young man your time and attention. Where have all those true sounds of country music gone? Straight into the lungs of Texas City’s Jason James.
Add Sturgill Simpson to the list of things in society that are extremely polarizing, right up there with politics, religion, LeBron James, pumpkin spice, and whatever else people get worked up about, with half the world professing something or someone is utter and unequivocal garbage, while the other half can’t contain their enthusiasm.
Well because they’re fans of The Likely Culprits, of course. Who are The Likely Culprits? It’s a crew of seven all-star band members and session musicians who comprise some of the most highly-regarded pickers and singers in the country music business.
Recorded in San Clemente, California where the desert meets the sea, Michaela Anne’s Desert Dove looks to capture the majesty and wonder many feel while in the midst of these arid landscapes, and instill it into songs about life and love. Produced by contemporary California country artist Sam Outlaw (now in Nashville), and Kelly Winrich…
Sturgill Simpson made his fourth appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast Monday night (9-30), and revealed that he and Tyler Childers will be touring together in 2020. The tour is said to be about 40 dates, and will be behind the new album Sound & Fury Sturgill Simpson just released. Ahead of the tour, Sturgill Simpson is playing six club dates.
When the Ken Burns documentary was first announced a few years ago, the hope was the film could act like a big reset button on the status of country music, and give a boost to many of the songs and artists abandoned by radio in the present day. It has been a big boon in sales and streams for many of the classic country artists featured.
The worst part about Zac Brown’s The Controversy is that it was released on September 27th—one of these “Super Release Days” that we’ve been getting more and more of recently, where there are quite literally a dozen marquee albums being released simultaneously, and ones that are much more worthy of people’s attention than this.
It’s not that that the previous works by Jon Pardi haven’t helped define that hard country edge of the mainstream, because they have. But on his new record Heartache Medication, this is not country music by close approximation, or considering it on a sliding scale based off the output from peers on Music Row. It’s By God country.
It’s dizzying enough trying to keep up with all the great releases in country and roots music, especially with the kind of super release days we’ve been experiencing lately where eight to ten highly-anticipated titles come out at the same time. the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed of all the best songs and albums.
Not as a rebuke of the work of the documentary, but as an addendum for those who watched and might want to dig deeper into the history of country through some of its more important personalities not represented well in the film, here are some of the Country Music film’s biggest oversights.
If you wanted to see Tyler Childers perform at the picturesque Red Rocks Amiptheater in Morrison, CO just outside of Denver this Monday, September 30th, well tough titty, because the show sold out months ago. But even if you couldn’t get a ticket or convince your boss to give you time off to make it to the show, you’re in luck.
If you’re overlooking the world of bluegrass and what Billy Strings is accomplishing, a malevolent blind spot has infiltrated your point of view. After all, bluegrass is the vessel for the oldest forms of country, and Billy Strings is adhering to it, while somehow pushing it forward like never before in its nearly 80 years of existence.
The music of Charley Crockett takes you back to a time and place when country rubbed up against other genres in a good way, and no matter what type of music you ran across, it included that touch of human emotion that didn’t get hung up in the cogs of the machines stamping out music as commercial product.
If you’re wondering what you might look forward to listening to in the final portions of 2019 in country and Americana music, let this be your guide. Here’s all the information Saving Country Music has been able to compile on the most anticipated upcoming releases, along with a more extensive catalog of releases to have on your radar.
If you’re a country music fan and are disappointed that your favorite artist didn’t get enough screen time in the Ken Burns film on country music, well guess what, your favorite genre did, and by the most revered documentary filmmaker of our time, and before rock n’ roll, pop, the blues, soul music, or hip-hop.
