Now that the 2018 CMA Awards nominations have been announced, the people who care about the awards can pour over the lists and find things to complain about, while the people who complain about the awards can pour over the lists while professing to not care. This is the way of things, and what happens every year.
The summer is winding down, but the fall and winter release cycle in country and roots music is heating up, with some of the most anticipated projects of the entire year to be released between now and when the hammer falls on 2018. To help you keep up, here’s a list of Saving Country Music’s most anticipated releases for the final portion of 2018.
Nominations for the 52nd Annual CMA Awards were announced Tuesday morning (8-28) on Good Morning America between recipe reviews and celebrity gossip. Leading the nomination charge is Chris Stapleton with five nominations. All the nominations, plus observations and predictions.
Fans of Kentucky-based singer and songwriter Chris Knight have been waiting impatiently for news on a new album for a few years now. His last record ‘Little Victories’ was released in September of 2012, and since then folks have been salivating for new material.
After Saturday night’s show at Bass Hall, Jason Isbell headed down to the much smaller, but very legendary Continental Club on South Congress in Austin to play a surprise sit-in set for folks lucky enough to experience it, sitting in with Joe Ely’s band The Booze Weasels.
Just the name “Shooter” elicits strong opinions from people in country music. This is the result of being the son of a country hero whose legacy looms so large, the history of the man himself could never match the mythos. Hank Williams Jr. was saddled with such burdens. He’s also the primary inspiration behind “Shooter.”
Oklahoma’s Turnpike Troubadours were forced to cancel their appearance Sunday night (8-26) at the Fayetteville Roots Festival after frontman Evan Felker was deemed too ill to perform. The cancellation comes after the band canceled their final appearances on the Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town “Bandwagon Tour.”
If Cody Johnson can top charts and find radio traction for a song like “On My Way To You” in two weeks, this is a very positive sign for Cody Johnson’s move to Nashville representation. It’s also a very positive sign for country music.
Some fans are growing more concerned about the health of Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson after ticket holders were notified his recently-canceled tour dates will not be rescheduled, and instead patrons are being offered refunds for the dates. But the country legend says he’s on the mend.
The Turnpike Troubadours will not be appearing on the final few dates of the current “Bandwagon Tour” opening for Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert as previously scheduled. The Oklahoma-based band was originally scheduled to appear as openers on 10 of the dates during the tour, but have canceled their final appearances.
The co-writer of “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Saturday Night Special,” and one of the seminal members of Lynyrd Skynyrd during their heyday has passed away. Ed King, the legendary guitarist who wrote the iconic “Sweet Home Alabama” guitar riff, passed away at his home in Nashville on Wednesday, August 22nd.
When we first got word of a new reality TV singing competition coming down the pike via the USA Network called “Real Country,” and that the judges were going to be none other than pop country pretty boy Jake Owen and the Queen of Crossover Shania Twain, it was worth a chuckle to say the least.
The uncertainty surrounding Loretta Lynn’s latest album is over, and so is the long wait for the country music legend’s return to the spotlight. “Wouldn’t It Be Great” was originally scheduled to be released on August 18th, 2017, but was delayed after Loretta Lynn suffered a mild stroke.
There most definitely have been greater offenders to the roots and the integrity of country music over the past few years than Dustin Lynch. But arguably nobody has been a greater disappointment than the Broken Bow artist from Tullahoma, Tennessee. With a promising start to his career, with his strong voice and propensity to sport […]
Well I’ll be damned, Cody Jinks and Co. pulled it off. You normally talk about learning curves when it comes to first year festivals. That’s not even part of the conversation when it comes to the inaugural Loud and Heavy Fest. It didn’t really feel like a festival ….
Not since the emergence of Sturgill Simpson have we seen an independent country artist explode in popularity the way we’re witnessing Tyler Childers do at the moment. As new tour dates continue to be added, many are selling out immediately, while other dates in other venues and markets are being added to meet demand.
“I am so proud of the record we have created, no matter how cliche that sounds,” Bagwell says. “I have put everything I have, and every dollar to my name creating this record for myself and my fans. I truly believe it is the best record I have ever released.”
However they got here, Folk Soul Revival has both feet in by god country music now, with the soul components indicative of Southern rock most certainly palpable, and a revival of the country music spirit at the heart of this work.
Amid Russian bot scandals, fake news issues, and privacy data controversies, for the first time since its inception, Facebook is suffering from slowing growth, and users spending less time on the format, including some deleting their accounts altogether. But most harmful to music are the recent updates to the Facebook algorithm.
This story has been updated. Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson has canceled his remaining August tour dates due to an undisclosed illness, affecting shows at the Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia for Thursday, August 16th, as well as Friday’s August 17th show at the the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, New […]
What has happened to American country music? How did we get here? What diabolically bad state of disrepair has befallen the country genre where someone would even be forced to interface with a song like Kane Brown’s “Weekend” as a country music fan or critic?
It seems like just a few short years ago we were thinking about William Clark Green as the “Next Big Thing.” Now all the young frat bros in Lubbock have moved on to Koe Wetzel, and William Clark Green has graduated to headliner status. His new album ‘Hebert Island’ finds the songwriter settling into his established career.
Country isn’t the only music community scratching its head while a fairly innocuous and forgettable pop song rewrites history by hitting record marks for its time at #1 on a genre specific chart, or a performer or group who doesn’t even seem to belong in the genre dominates that genre’s most important chart metrics.
Any proper country music fan should know and love the rock band Ween’s foray into country music in the mid 90’s called 1’2 Golden Country Greats.’ Recorded at Owen Bradley’s legendary Bradley’s Barn studio at his farm just outside of Nashville, the album featured a stable of notable Nashville musicians dubbed “The Shit Creek Boys.”
