Texas music artist Sam Riggs was kicked out of the Larry Joe Taylor Festival for lighting his guitar on fire and smashing it on stage on Wednesday night (4-26) of the annual music event. Furthermore, Saving Country Music has confirmed that the Sam Riggs camp was told expressly to not use fire on stage, and that they lied to stage managers.
Just making music that sounds “country” is not enough. Just because something is real country doesn’t mean it’s real good. As alluring as the steel guitar, the twang, the cut of the fiddle and the yodel in the voice is to traditional country fans, these things in themselves are not enough to keep the music alive forever.
The Sadies are the mod country band from Canada offering some of the most strikingly rich soundscapes in all of roots music. Justin Townes Earle is the second generation songwriter from alt-country royal blood who’s made a legacy all his own. And they have joined forces to tout new albums on a tour that started in California earlier this week.
As first reported by Saving Country Music in January, Steve Earle’s newest album will be called So You Wanna Be An Outlaw, and feature an appearance by Willie Nelson on the title track. The album is said to be unabashedly inspired by Waylon Jennings and the other original country music Outlaws.
See, don’t feel excluded. Being a Texas music fan can be embarrassing too. And after all the work people have done to plead with folks to not look at Larry Joe Taylor Fest as a drunken dudebro convention in a field no less. I don’t think Waylon done it this way. Or Sturgill.
The second song from Jason Isbell’s impending album ‘The Nashville Sound’ all but certifies what we had suspicions of before and what Isbell has been saying in the media previously, which is the June 16th release will be a much more rock ‘n roll affair than some of his recent efforts, and the title is more tongue-in-cheek
Stupid list thing going around the innernets these days asking music folks to list off then bands they’ve seen live, but one is a lie. As a similar exercise to get your country music brain muscles firing and to test your true acumen on the genre, let’s see if you can navigate this difficult intellectual exercise.
Are we just so happy to hear a mainstream record that doesn’t alienate us or let us down that we can construe a few good songs into a strong effort? Maybe that’s the case, but any work is only fair to judge beside its peers, and right now Paisley is one of the few setting the pace for decency in popular country music.
Uncaged, unhinged, and at times even inappropriate, Wrangled is Angaleena Presley making the record she wants to, be damned of the bridges left aflame and the apple carts upset. It is an unusual record, in both sound production and theme. But it also remains solidly country, Angaleena country, where no recess of the unsettled mind is off limits.
Whether you consider it country music getting more cool, or country music losing its historic hold on the squeaky-clean, family-friendly spot on the radio dial, popular country music songs now carry more references to drugs than the lyrics of any other major American genre, even more than rap.
American music radio as it is currently constructed will implode, and likely in the next 12 to 18 months. No amount of headlines and recent news should be needed to influence anyone’s opinion on that. If you’ve been paying attention to the quarterly numbers of America’s two largest radio station owners, you would know this already.
Canaan Smith, Cole Swindell, Chase Bryant, Chase Rice, Chris Lane, who are these clowns? It’s like one douchebag with many faces. Their songs, their styles, their personalities are indistinguishable and interchangeable. They might as well be the same person. Nashville’s overcrowded enough these days. Pick one of these guys and release all the music through them.
Old, forgotten memories get stirred to the forefront. Theories on life are recalled and reflected upon. And you don’t end up more happy like music is supposed to do, you end up a little sad and nostalgic, but in a way that’s strangely comforting in a manner simple happiness is incapable of delivering.
Songwriter and performer Dean Dillon has more skins on the wall than Kodiak Jack, and just his handlebar mustache is more manly than all the moronic Bro-Country songwriters on Music Row lumped together and tied in a bundle. Your favorite George Strait songs? There’s a good chance they were written by Dean Dillon.
You’re not quite sure exactly what message Angaleena Presley is trying to drive home when you first pull up the track. But things get turned up a big notch when Nashville resident and hip-hop artist Yelawolf, who is a well-known critic of arena rap and corporate country, goes careening into a tirade.
It’s not very common that you can preface a 70-year-old folk country songwriter that never had a big hit and the 14-year-olds in your family have probably never heard of as a “hot commodity,” but that’s exactly what John Prine feels like these days. “Beyond Words” is a songbook combined with a photo anthology in big, coffee-table form.
Willie Nelson played the second night of a two-night stint at the Whitewater Amphitheater just outside of New Braunfels, TX on Saturday night (4-22), and left many fans concerned after he had to leave the stage for an extended period, and also appeared disoriented at times during the set.
Saving Country Music’s official Top 25 Current Playlist has just been juiced with reinforcements and fresh horses to spirit listeners into the heart of spring with some of the best country music selections overlooked by most of popular media, but holding an appeal that is deemed worthy enough to be heard worldwide.
For decades Tammy Sullivan and her father Jerry played their unique blend of American roots music self-described as “bluegrass Gospel” at folk festivals, bluegrass gatherings, college campuses, at the Grand Ole Opry, and in front of congregations as the duo “Jerry and Tammy Sullivan.” Now she has been reunited with her father.
Jason Eady can do what they can do, but they can’t do what Jason Eady does, which is strip it all back and have the appeal for the music rest entirely on the written composition of a song. Even the most minimalist of performers have to rely a little bit on style, groove, or some sort of window dressing. But for Jason Eady, it’s like a type of Zen.
The 2nd Annual Tumbleweed Festival set to transpire on the Missouri River in Sugar Creek, MO on July 28th and 29th, 2017 has just added to their already-impressive lineup. And the festival is not done there. Soon they will announce a contest to fill a final after hours performance slot for the fans of emerging Outlaw country artists to vote on.
The truth is we have no idea why Bill O’Reilly was fired from the most prominent seat in cable news commentary. The allegations against him could all be false claims from money-grubbing hussies looking to take advantage of his celebrity. But in country music, the way women are looked upon, and the way they’re spoken to is spelled out right there in the songs.
These Shania Twain fake-out’s about how new music is on the way, or surprise appearances that never occur, and the farewell tours or appearances have been going on for well over a decade now have finally got her fan base fed up. But let’s not entirely lay these new music shell games at the feet of Shania Twain.
Make way you mamby pambys for the steel-jawed and fully-cocked musical madness coming at you like a face full of claws from the unhinged and wild-eyed “Dirty Ol’ One Man Band” known as Scott H. Biram. That grit in your eyes and those shotgun pellets you’re spitting out is how you know this is the real deal.
