“As I see it, country music has appealed to millions for many years. We can stand on our own and don’t need pop artists on our awards shows,” Tritt said in a series of tweets on November 3rd. “I love honest to God country music and feel the need to stand up for it at all costs. We don’t need pop or rap artists to validate us.”
‘Heart of a Flatland Boy’ is refreshingly raw and energetic, with tightly-wound songs all written or co-written by Dylan, and a straightforward but effective production approach, blurring the lines between country and heartland rock in both the sound and themes, and painting a mental picture of places and people that are filled with a meaningfulness…
I told you booking Beyoncé was a bad idea CMA’s. Now you’re a racist reprobate in the eyes of the politically-charged Millennial entertainment media and sycophantical pop diva worshipers who will nail people to crosses to prove the depth of their fanaticism, and so is all of country music and its bumpkin fans.
It was a historic night for the CMA Awards as they celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a cavalcade of stars both new and old Wednesday evening (11-2), but not even a last-minute addition of pop superstar Beyonce, or an appearance by Taylor Swift handing out the evening’s Entertainer of the Year award could salvage ratings for the show.
There may be no better example of how the mainstream country music industry has completely bought into the shifting of the paradigm to more traditional and more substantive music than the signing of the band Midland to Big Machine Records. It’s this pretty strange development that speaks to just how deeply rooted this movement has entrenched itself into the industry now.
Welcome baseball fans to the Saving Country Music LIVE blog for the 50th Annual CMA Awards! For those few who aren’t watching the Chicago Cubs face the Cleveland Indians in one of the most anticipated Game 7 World Series matchups in the last century—or perhaps are looking for a way to either keep up with the CMA’s without watching.
All of a sudden what felt like a massive event a few weeks ago now feels deflating, while there is a very real concern that low ratings will be translated by the CMA’s as a sign that nobody wants to see the older performers they booked. Ironically, the Beyonce announcement will seal the deal for many older country fans to change the dial.
Everything you need to know about the 2016, 50th Annual CMA Awards, including the reasons to watch, a breakdown of the presenters, a list of the performers, all the nominees, and the early winners. For their 50th Annual presentation, the CMA’s have invited an unprecedented amount of legendary country performers to participate.
Not known by every country, blues, and Americana fan, but cherished deeply by the ones who did, songwriter and performer Bap Kennedy took his cross-Atlantic enthusiasm for roots music and became one of the most well-respected musicians and songwriters by his peers ranging from Nashville to Belfast during his nearly 40-year career.
Miranda Lambert has won a record-setting six straight CMA Female Vocalist of the Year awards. But there may not be a seventh. When it comes to awards and recognition, nobody has been as heavily decorated as Miranda Lambert in recent memory, male or female. But it has been time for a breather, and Miranda Lambert’s last year has been a pretty quiet one, at least from a musical standpoint.
For years Travis Tritt has been touring the country playing acoustic shows, and the naked context of his music has done nothing but elevate his legacy in the minds of those who’ve attended. Nothing against seeing Tritt with his band, but it takes something special in an artist to take the stage with nothing more than a stool, a guitar, and a water bottle, and entertain a large crowd.
Meghan claims that in 2010 at the beginning of Steel Magnolia, a “very powerful man in the music business” reached under her skirt and groped her, and then tried to pick her up by her butt while numerous other important people in the music industry watched. The context of the revelation from Meghan Linsey was the release of Donald Trump’s off-camera comments.
Putman had a prolific songwriting career, including writing such songs as “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and “My Elusive Dreams” by Tammy Wynette, “Dumb Blonde” by Dolly Parton, T.G. Sheppard’s “Do You Want To Go To Heaven,” and a dozen other successful charting singles. But two songs would go on to define Curly Putman’s contributions.
Memory is the human mechanism that helps us learn and grow, while also being a rich place of positive emotions through recollection. But for many, the mental scars they hold are their greatest burdens, and only through sheer willpower can they hope to break the cycle of bad choices that many times span generations.
Neotraditionalism has given way to plain old traditionalism as a trend in country music, Hank Williams III is nowhere to be found, and many of those fans from the 90’s and early 00’s now have kids and mortgages and can’t make it out to every show. But “The Train” rolls on just like he has for over 20 years now.
From the beginning, there has always been a dark, Gothic side to American country and roots music. From murder ballads to ghost stories, to tales of struggle and lunacy, Gothic country never gets its due credit, nor do the dozens of artists and bands who keep these traditions alive with new music bathed in the darkness and depression…
We’re living in historic times in country music, when the resurgence of more traditional, and more substantive music is taking hold like never before, and receiving more recognition for the industry than any period in recent memory. And it’s hard to not look at Sturgill Simpson and give him at least part of the blame.
Steve Goodman. Even if you haven’t heard the name, you’ve most certainly heard the music. And if you’ve ever heard David Allan Coe’s country music classic “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” you know that Steve Goodman (with an assist from John Prine) is the writer of this “perfect country and Western song.”
The amount of older talent announced on the presentation so far is quite unprecedented. According to Saving Country Music’s calculations, of the announced performers so far, 16 performers who could be considered either country legends or artists whose careers started before or during the “Class of ’89.”
When Saving Country Music started in 2009, the biggest artist in country music was Taylor Swift. Now, it’s arguably Chris Stapleton. Independent artists are finding support like never before, allowing them to be able to completely sidestep the pitfalls of the mainstream industry and still have sustainable, and in many cases, very successful careers.
Reviews and opinions on the Netflix original series The Ranch starring Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Debra Winger, and Sam Elliot continue to be mixed, but the country music tie-ins—whether in the soundtrack, the set, or the dialogue—continue to make it a point of intrigue for many country fans.
Brett Young and his rising single “Sleep Without You” is just the latest in a line of preordained male country debut singles looking to launch yet another heartthrob music franchise with lots of sizzle and extremely little substance. “Sleep Without You” isn’t the premise of a country song, it’s the whining of a P-whipped moron missing his snuggle buddy.
Maybe you came for the speed, but you stayed for the songs. It’s hard to believe that the bluegrass-esque band from Duluth, MN has been around for going on 14 years, but in that time Trampled By Turtles amassed a strong fan base in Minnesota and beyond, and released eight records, including their latest ‘Wild Animals’ from 2014.
When Blackberry Smoke’s album ‘Holding All The Roses’ went #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart in February 2015, it was the first time an independently-released country album had climbed to the top of the country charts in the modern era. And now Blackberry Smoke has done it again.
