A few choice cuts have just been added to the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist meant to keep you up-to-date with latest songs and albums that should be on your listening radar. Leading the pack is the unexpected, yet very welcome return of Sturgill Simpson to the traditional country realm with his song “The Dead Don’t Die.”
The first question many will have is just how honest and thorough a book like this can be with Randy Travis still rendered unable to speak due to his 2013 health problems, including a massive stroke. If you want the definitive and unabridged perspective into the life of Randy Travis—from the victories to the falls from grace—it’s all here.
“All Your’n” has been a fan favorite live for the last many months. Similar to one of Tyler’s signature songs from his first record, “Feathered Indians,” it’s a sincere love song delivered with soul and conviction to his wife and fellow performer Senora May. It’s the arrangement of the studio version that makes it come across as less than ideal.
‘Red Bandana’ is anything but typical, for Aaron Watson or anyone else. When Watson says this is his most involved and personal work that he rates at the top of the heap, believe him. When others say they’re shocked or ecstatic about how good this record is, take their word for it. With Red Bandana, Aaron Watson defies his own odds.
Miranda Lambert has a new album coming, and the word is it will be a return to the old Miranda in large measure. “I would call it old Miranda, but a Miranda at a whole new level, if that makes any sense,” she says. “And yeah, there is this vibe of being happy that goes through this album. I am really, really happy.”
Those who don’t know the name soon will. Those who do know the name have probably been wondering why it’s been so long getting here. But the moment has arrived for Jason Hawk Harris to go from an obscure country songwriter and performer, to a name to look out for.
Independent fans might be both shocked and jubilant to turn to the very final page of the memoir to see Randy Travis talking about upsurging country artist Cody Jinks. When it comes to the other performers mentioned in ‘Forever and Ever, Amen,’ it mostly involves artists signed to major labels.
Singer, songwriter, performer, and Pistol Annies member Ashley Monroe is no longer singed with Warner Music Nashville, Saving Country Music has confirmed. Monroe exited the label on May 1st. No reason has been given by Monroe’s management, or Warner Nashville for the departure.
“As fans of Yellowstone, we have been engaged with the storyline since the show began,” Blackberry Smoke frontman, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Charlie Starr says. “What Taylor Sheridan, Kevin Costner and their whole team have created is fantastic and we’re humbled to have Blackberry Smoke’s music be such a big part of season 2.
An album is something you listen to. A song is something that can change a life. The places a song can take you, the realizations and perspectives it can impart, the way it can touch something inside of you to make you feel something you never have before, or haven’t felt for a long time is the reason we cherish music so much.
Whether you’re a fan of The Mavericks from the days of old when they were launching radio hits like “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” or their newer era with albums like their return record In Time from 2013 that won SCM’s Album of the Year, whenever they’re rolling through your town, they are a sure bet for one hell of a show to see.
Upcoming Garth Brooks concerts have raised the ire of performers and attendees of the 50-year-old Regina Folk Festival in the Saskatchewan Province of Canada after Brooks booked consecutive shows in the city the same week as the 2019 Folk Fest. Regina Folk Festival is one of Canada’s many long-standing and nonprofit folk festivals.
Once again a major periodical has presented a completely false timeline for the removal of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” from the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in an attempt to pin the inspiration for the removal on Saving Country Music. The ‘Bitter Southerner’ article written by Dr. Joycelyn Wilson, PhD published on June 13th….
83-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis is on the road to full recovery after suffering a mild stroke earlier this year. The episode happened with the country and rock ‘n roll icon on February 28th, and though he initially wasn’t expected to miss any performance commitments, in late March he was forced to cancel numerous shows while in recovery.
Johnny Cash and his imposing figure will now forever be standing at the foot of 999 S. Cooper Street in his second hometown of Memphis, Tennessee after a new bronze statue in black patina was just unveiled at the location. Based off a 1962 portrait of Cash by photographer Leigh Wiener, the statue honor’s Johnny’s first public performance.
It’s the common bane of most second and third generation music performers that they are expected to carry on the legacy of their parents in form and fashion, and perform up to a standard dictated by their pedigree that is often difficult to impossible to attain. But with the natural gifts for music making that […]
Brooks & Dunn is going through one of those late career resurgences that artists whose music withstands the test of time tend to enjoy about 25 to 30 years after they first came to prominence. But those hoping this might be the precursor to new music from Brooks & Dunn may want to temper their enthusiasm just a little bit.
The intimacy of Bruce Springsteen’s earlier “West” records is replaced by a truly cinematic scope, because things are still possible here. Pedal steel and throaty, tremolo guitars paint pastoral soundscapes interwoven with sweeping strings and orchestral horns; more Countrypolitan than country. Glen Campbell, not Gram Parsons.
Travis Tritt once wondered aloud where the hell the drive in country had gone. Well it comes flying right in your face whenever Whiskey Myers takes the stage or gets cued up on the stereophonic speakers, so much so it’s more apt to label them Southern rock, if not rock n’ roll entirely in some selections.
For those Sturgill Simpson fans who’ve been hoping and praying for more of that hard country sound like you heard on his debut record ‘High Top Mountain’ or in large portions of his magum opus ‘Metamodern Sounds in Country Music,’ you get what you wish for and then some on the just released song called “The Dead Don’t Die.”
On Sunday night (6-9), legendary hip-hop outfit The Wu-Tang Clan made a stop at the Ryman Auditorium as part of their 25th Anniversary tour for a sold-out performance. Known affectionately as the “Mother Church of Country Music,” the booking of Wu-Tang at the Ryman might have seemed a little weird to some.
Of course Tompall is where the attention usually dwells when bringing up the three siblings from Spalding, Nebraska. But youngest brother Jim, who died of a heart attack on April 6th at the age of 81, and Chuck Glaser, who died Monday, June 10th at the age of 83, also contributed heavily to country music as songwriters and performers.
Surging up-and-coming country music artist Luke Combs will be the next member of the Grand Ole Opry. The 29-year-old was surprised during the Tuesday night (6-11) Opry presentation by traditionalist Craig Morgan, country legend John Conlee, and recent Grand Ole Opry member Chris Janson with the invitation.
Fans of country and Red Dirt’s Turnpike Troubadours were left forlorn late last month when it was announced that the band would be going on an indefinite hiatus amid a rash of cancelled shows and concerns for frontman Evan Felker, which begs the question of who might be able to step up to fill this important void.
