Country radio is in a ratings slump. And no, not just due to streaming. “When it becomes harder to distinguish who’s who and there’s an increase of pop sounds in the music, this tends to be the result … We need balance. That’s the key, and hard to do if so much of the music has that pop sound,” one expert says.
Part music conference and part fan festival, artists, fans, and independent music industry will come together in scores of venues across Nashville for hundreds of performances and showcases spanning six total days. From country and bluegrass, to folk, blues, roots rock, and everything in between, from up-and-comers to legends.
Being a modern day country music fan in many ways is like resigning yourself to getting your heart broken on a regular basis. All your favorite legends seem to be dying off left and right, or they have one foot in the grave, and the newest generations just aren’t replenishing the ranks of legends like they used to in previous eras.
A new dramatic film called Patsy & Loretta is on its way that follows the careers of Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn as they intertwined in the early 60’s. A trailer just released for the film shows that the subject matter will not be all rosy, and the story will delve deep into the complicated relationships the two women faced.
Songwriting legend John Prine has been forced to cancel numerous performance dates this summer due to ongoing health concerns. Prine has been advised by his doctors that he is at an elevated risk for stroke, and will be having surgery this week to hopefully remedy the issue.
Mainstream traditionalist Jon Pardi’s third album Heartache Medication isn’t out for another two months yet (September 27th), but the California native continues to not just say, but do all the right things to get you excited for what he has in store. “There’s a big void to fill in country music, to be more country, or traditional.”
It’s a sad time for the roots music community in Arkansas and beyond after multi-instrumentalist and music guru “Smilin'” Bob Lewis of the Ben Miller Band, Tyrannosaurus Chicken, and other projects passed away Friday evening, July 19th after suffering from Stage 4 Cancer.
The Texas music and Red Dirt movement is growing. There is no doubt about that. The appeal and participation in the music is no longer regional, despite what the names might imply. It’s just as much of a genre at this point as a collaboration of local scenes, offering a much more healthy alternative to the mainstream of country.
The upcoming Linda Ronstadt documentary called Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice will soon be headed to a theater (hopefully) near you. Produced in part by CNN Films, there was at least the notion the film might be broadcast on the cable news station only. But Greenwich Entertainment and 1091 have co-acquired the North […]
Sturgill Simpson has a new album coming this fall called ‘Sound & Fury,’ and it will be accompanied by an anime film of the same name to be released on Netflix. This was the news coming out of the San Diego Comic-Con panel Sturgill Simpson participated in on Saturday (7-21) evening.
Some great new songs have just been recruited for the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist meant to keep you up to date with the latest songs and album releases. Starting us off is the First Couple of Texas Country Bruce Robison and Kelly Wills putting their spin on the old country class “One Dime At A Time.”
As if answering a distress call sent out over the airwaves or via a spotlight beamed over Music City, the Highwomen have assembled in the form of the Grammy-winning Brandi Carlile, fiddlemaster Amanda Shires, songwriting markswoman Natalie Hemby, and superstar Maren Morris. “Redesigning Women” is their first taste.
If you’re itching for some new music from Canadian country artist Corb Lund, well you’re in luck, even if this new record won’t contain any new original material … that’s coming later. But for now, Corb is preparing for the release of an album called ‘Cover Your Tracks.’
“It All Comes Out in the Wash” is lighthearted and playful, and country and folksy in its mannerisms, if not entirely in its music. Literally built out from a colloquialism by the Love Junkies (Lori McKenna, Liz Rose, and Hillary Lindsey) with an assist from Lambert herself, it calls back to the more classic style of Miranda, with sass and attitude.
None of this is real ladies and gentlemen. From the fake controversies, to the gaming of the meme culture and social media to make 30-second snippets somehow compete with actual songs on charts, to the paying for streams to create false positives on breakout hits, the malfeasance in the monogenre space with country music as the heel…
There are few moments that are more significant in the lives and careers of country and roots musicians than making their debut appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Often it’s artists in their 20s and 30s who are the ones who get that special opportunity, but at 72, Ray Wylie Hubbard finally got his turn.
You won’t find many country music fans who have a discouraging word to share about “King” George Strait. But the one point of contention some have brought up in rebuttal of Strait’s greatness over the years has been that he doesn’t write his own songs. This opinion deserves a little context of course.
How hard could songwriting really be? You learned a few chords on the guitar in college, and if you had some more free time you could probably gnaw on rhyming a few lines of verse … or so you tell yourself. Then you hear an album like ‘Beautiful Lie’ from the First Couple of Texas Country, and it’s so enriching, you’re immediately demoralized.
What I’m getting at here is that I don’t think I just speak for myself when I say I wouldn’t be opposed to hearing you take a stab at releasing an original album of some sort. I’m talking about something beyond what you’ve already been doing on the stage. Get Dave Cobb involved as a producer, or perhaps your buddy Sturgill Simpson.
There is daylight at the end of the long tunnel that has been the dearth of new music from one of country music’s most revered songwriters. Chris Knight can stand toe to toe with just about any of the songwriting stalwarts of the era, but it’s been seven years since he last hunkered down in the studio and given us something new.
Emerging from the ashes of one of country music’s most legendary underground outfits in the .357 String Band, and sprouting up from beneath the obscurity blanketing the truly independent musician, Joseph Huber has become to many like a Townes Van Zandt of our time, terribly under-the-radar, refreshingly untainted by the trend chasing….
Solo country music artist, #1 hit songwriter for multiple performers, and the singer and frontman for the Amazing Rhythm Aces, Russell Smith has passed away. The 70-year-old died on Friday, July 12th after a prolonged battle with Cancer. Smith was also the songwriter behind big country music hits, as well as a solo performer.
The Country Music Antichrist Scott Borchetta is hellbent on world domination ladies and gentlemen, and in the process expect him to pull country music in the pop direction more than ever before. In an interview, he downplayed Luke Combs and Kane Brown, while touting Thomas Rhett as the only true 20-something headliner.
On October 10th, 1969, Merle Haggard and his famous backing band The Strangers rolled into Muskogee, Oklahoma to play the Muskogee Civic Center for a packed house. Just two weeks previous, on September 25th, Haggard had officially released the song “Okie From Muskogee” as a single.
