It doesn’t get more Texan than Gruene Hall or Gary P. Nunn, unless you combine the two, which is what happened when the venerable songwriter stopped by one of his favorite Texas haunts on Saturday, December 3rd celebrate 71 years alive and breathing on this mortal coil.
Well-known, and well-loved throughout the Austin music scene and beyond, the death of Chris Porter sent shockwaves throughout the independent roots music community, and now that same community is coming together to raise funds for the posthumous release of Chris Porter’s final record.
Granger Smith, also known as Earl Dibbles Jr., suffered a tragic stage fall Friday evening (12-2) at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, N.J. while standing on a stage monitor during the mostly acoustic performance. Smith suffered two broken ribs and a collapsed lung in the incident, but miraculously got back up stage after the fall to finish the concert.
Once again Slim Cessna’s Auto Club have turned in an effort that touches parts of the musical palette you never knew existed, challenges the listener with adroit lyricism and structure, and offers a musical experience so unusual that it’s hauntingly riveting and hypnotic.
Dolly Parton’s made for TV movies continue to be ratings hogs. Her latest installment, Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love won Wednesday night’s (11-30) ratings for NBC, beating out the vaunted FOX music series Empire by nearly 3 1/2 million viewers, and winning the night overall.
What in God’s creation makes one think that Charlie Daniels fans are going to want to watch a performance by Luke Bryan, or Travis Tritt fans are going to appreciate Kid Rock’s shtick? Or vice versa? Sure, the big names help put butts in seats, but it also helps turn others away. No self-respecting traditional country fan is going to stomach a Luke Bryan performance.
It was the recent events on Dolly Parton’s doorstep in Sevier Country that brought the story of the fragility of life, and the importance of taking care of each other at the core of ‘Circle of Love’ to the forefront, and once again proved that Dolly Parton is nothing shy of a divine figure of the Southern American experience.
Unfortunately, the actions of Luke Bryan have sullied Charlie Daniels’ 2016 Volunteer Jam after numerous videos and eyewitness accounts of Luke Bryan stopping down one of his songs to accost a front row fan and punching him in the face have surfaced.
Barry Zito has released an acoustic version of a song called “Secret to Life” that is supposedly going to be the first song released on an upcoming album of his. Not many know that when Barry Zito’s massive contract ended and his pitching production began to taper off again, he decided to re-up with the Oakland A’s and actually pitched for Nashville’s AAA club called the Sounds.
“It has frustrated me for years … that for every pop performance or R&B performance or any other type of genre performance that you have on the CMA Awards, that takes time away from somebody who is a country music artist, doing country music songs, releasing country music singles to radio, selling country music under that moniker.”
There is nothing like a Chris Knight album and a Chris Knight song. The consummate songwriter’s songwriter, Chris Knight is one of the most revered in the craft, and all you have to do is look at the list of artists who’ve covered his songs over the years, from Randy Travis to Lee Ann Womack.
he Grammy Awards have selected 25 songs to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in their latest class, and this year’s inductees are offered with a heavy heart since it includes selections from many notable artists who have passed away in 2016, including Prince’s “Sign ‘O’ The Times,” David Bowie’s “Changes,” and Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee.”
Over 100 structures have been destroyed, and over 1,400 residents have been evacuated from downtown Gattlinburg and surrounding areas in eastern Tennessee as massive wildfires threaten the area, including Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain resort Dollywood in nearby Pigeon Forge. A small fire started on Chimney Top Mountain quickly grew…
Recycled clothing fashionista and country music neotraditionalist Nikki Lane has a new record coming out February 17th, 2017 called ‘Highway Queen,’ and when it hits the streets she will be heading out on tour with some other cool names on her way to a performance at Southern California’s Stagecoach Festival.
In the country music department, the amount of emphasis on Christmas releases in 2016 has been nothing short of astounding, and maybe even historic. And I’m not just talking about “Rascal Flatts Sing The Chipmunks” or whatever crap that’s out there. Even independent artists and country legends have showered the country music listening public…
It’s always worth a chuckle when you hear someone say that country music must “evolve” to stay relevant, or hear an artist bellyache about how constricting country music is to their creativity. And then you put on a record like this and hear just how much a true artist can do with a simple message and melody, and three chords and the truth.
Not all music awards have to go to the worst artists of an industry like we’re used to, or be ushered in with “high school pageantry” (to quote Sturgill Simpson). For 15 years now, the Independent Music Awards have labored to highlight the artists that slip through the cracks in all the major genres of music.
Folks were left wondering what the fate of the 46,000 square foot, multi-story facility would be after the manager of the museum and a close financial partner to George Jones’ widow Nancy Jones plead guilty to fraud charges in October. On Wednesday, November 23rd, it was announced that the George Jones Museum has been sold to a Nashville-based investment group.
Over the last decade and beyond, it has not been humanly possible to book more godawful performers for the centerpiece of the NFL’s Thanksgiving schedule than what we’ve seen take center field during the halftime of the Dallas Cowboys’ football game. It’s like they purposely conduct a study to find who is the most dreadful performer of the day.
It should be no huge surprise that Travis Tritt’s ‘A Man and His Guitar’ is worth its muster. He’s been doing these acoustic shows for many years, and even at other shows involving the full band he’ll make sure to take some time in the set to do a few songs by himself. If anything, one may wonder why it’s taken so long for a release such as this to surface.
Americana music isn’t just for Americans, and even though this may confuse an already much-argued etymology for one of America’s (and the world’s) most fastest-growing genres, significant efforts continue to be undertaken to make the Americana movement transatlantic and international.
If Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie are remembered for nothing else in music, perhaps they’ll be notable as the sires of the musical progeny Amy Nelson and Cathy Guthrie, known collectively as Folk Uke. A unique project to say the least, you might be surprised to hear that the 2nd generation musicians have been making music together for nearly 20 years now.
Whether one may ultimately settle upon ‘The Weight of These Wings’ with a more positive or negative take, what is next to indisputable is that it is a significant release. ‘The Weight of These Wing’s is the symbolic entry of Miranda Lambert—the biggest female country star for the last six or so years—into the Americana/independent/east Nashville mindset
Al Batten, master banjo player and bandleader of the beloved North Carolina-based bluegrass band Al Batten and the Bluegrass Reunion, died on Sunday, 11-20 after a long illness. First formed in February of 1972 with David Turnage, Al Batten and the Bluegrass Reunion have been a staple of bluegrass in their home of Selma, North Carolina and beyond for nearly 45 years.
