A Sailor’s Guide to Earth will still be the top debut album for the week, and according to Sturgill, it doesn’t symbolize a complete shift in his music career henceforth, just a “pause” in his country output. Speaking to KCRW where Sturgill performed the new album in its entirety (see below), he told the crowd how his son had inspired the album.
After recently finishing up a tour in California, frontman Charlie Starr and the rest of the Blackberry Smoke band decided to fly back to Atlanta ahead of the tour bus. But bassist Richard Turner decided to enjoy the long bus ride back across the country, and along with the lighting guy Chris “Thumper” Hathaway and bus driver Harry Wing, they happened up a burning car upside down on Interstate 10.
After the deaths of David Bowie, Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Keith Emerson, producer George Martin, close Willie Nelson friend and country music icon Merle Haggard earlier in April, and now iconic music legend Prince, all precautions are being taken to make sure Willie Nelson stays alive no matter what the costs or resources necessary. This is the reassuring news coming from the United States government.
In 2014 when Saving Country Music received an unsolicited submission from an relatively unknown artist named Luke Bell, it felt like striking gold. It’s so rare, and so welcome and fulfilling when an artist that has been flying so criminally far under the radar shows up and it’s so immediately obvious their music is destined for bigger things.
And then here comes this foul-mouthed comedy country artist named Wheeler Walker Jr., and all of a sudden we have a new man taking the point at trashing pop country. None of Wheeler Walker Jr.’s songs are “country protest” songs like we hear dozens and dozens of other traditional country artists perform. It’s the attitude he’s taking that’s slowly making him into a pretty serious gadfly for pop country and its suitors.
Sturgill Simpson is poised to have the #1 album in all of music next week with his new release A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller could come in right behind him at #2. Nipping at their heels is the newest album from Santana released by Thirty Tigers called Santana IV, and Rihanna’s latest record Anti, supported by strong streaming numbers for the week.
Corporate sponsorship is the grease for the wheels that makes country music turn. What is new about corporate truck sponsors in country over the last couple of years is how deep they have embedded into the country music culture, to the point where now smaller, independent artists can be seen out there participating in helping to promote full sized trucks.
The lead single to Chase Rice’s new record is done, finished, finito, dead, and game over according to radio insiders. And the results do not paint a very pretty picture at all for the performer. After a big promotional push by Rice’s label Columbia Nashville, all that his song “Whisper” could muster on the radio charts was a whimper before limping off into the night virtually unnoticed.
Today most well-informed country fans know what a death sentence a Curb Records contract can be for an artist, at least for most of them. But in 1990 when Merle Haggard signed with the label, Curb was seen as one of the most trustworthy labels in town. They didn’t have to answer to higher ups in New York and Los Angeles, and could pass that freedom on to their artists.
With the recent overwhelming success of Chris Stapleton, it was only a matter of time before we began to see clones and copycatters crop up among the hungry masses seeking stardom. You didn’t have to squint to see the Stapleton influence in the long-haired and bearded Adam Wakefield when he chose the exact same rendition and style of Chris Stapleton’s take on “Tennessee Whiskey” for his audition on NBC’s The Voice.
Before string bands were a “thing” in popular culture, there was the Hackensaw Boys. Before The Avett Brothers were selling out arenas, before Mumford & Sons were becoming the biggest band in music in a given year, before everybody and their brother was growing a beard and wearing suspenders and playing in jug bands, the Hackensaw Boys were mixing bluegrass and old time music with a punk attitude.
A recent study by ICM Unlimited says that many of the people who purchase vinyl records actually have no intention of ever listening to them. Some of these consumers never use their turntables, and some don’t even have turntables at all. It’s more about simply owning the physical product, supporting their favorite artists, or perhaps even an element of fashion to own vinyl that’s driving the market.
Zac Brown is caught up in a drug scandal after numerous individuals were arrested at the Four Seasons hotel in Palm Beach, FL on Friday, April 8th. Just what Zac Brown’s involvement was in the situation is a matter of dispute between the Palm Beach police department, and celebrity news organization TMZ, which alleges Zac was given preferential treatment by the police.
The idea that country music is somehow a limited musical format is an illusion, and an excuse. Instrumentation is just the clothing; it’s what you say, and how you say it that counts. The only true restrictions a country music artist or any musician faces are those they put on themselves.
“Country Weekly” started in 1994 as a country music lifestyle magazine that ran interviews with stars and covered news from around the genre. In 2014, Cumulus purchased 50% of the magazine in a partnership with it’s owners American Media and eventually relaunched as “NASH Country Weekly.” And in typical corporate takeover fashion, Cumulus is now gutting the publication.
Though maybe not as recognizable of a name as many of the artists Gib shared lineups with, including Gene Parsons and Clarence White, his unique approach to music, influenced by his distinctly Cajun flavor and upbringing, made Guibeau seminal to the sound that would become West Coast country rock.
Iconic American songwriter Bob Dylan will be celebrating his 75th birthday on May 24th, and country and roots artist, including many songwriters who cite Dylan as a primary influence on their music, will be coming together to pay tribute to the man in numerous events across the country.
When LeAnn Rimes and Hank Williams III fought very public battles with the label, people chalked it up to a couple of artists with declining careers who couldn’t handle being professional. But after high profile and nasty exits by Hank Williams Jr. and then superstar Tim McGraw, the word was out on the streets about Curb Records’ unfair business practices.
Merle Haggard is gone, but he won’t be forgotten. A week after his death, word has come down that a motion picture about his life is in the works. GMH Productions has optioned a script about the life of Merle Haggard called “Done It All,” written by screenwriter Cliff Hollingsworth who is best known for writing the critically-acclaimed motion picture “Cinderella Man.”
Randy Houser may want to spend more time perfecting his faux hawk instead of speaking his mind after he put his foot in his mouth in a recent interview with radio.com (see below). The co-writer of “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” and the close friend of Bro-Country Godfather Dallas Davidson decided to go on the offensive against Bro-Country haters.
New religious freedom laws in North Carolina and Mississippi, and pending legislation in Tennessee, has the South and the United States in an uproar over religious and civil liberties in an already contentious political season. And all of a sudden, music, and country music specifically, is getting caught in the crossfire.
If you were worried what direction Dierks Bentley’s new Black album would take after hearing “Somewhere on a Beach,” all you had to do was wait. Dierks (or really, his label) sure don’t make it easy on his fans, but those who’ve stuck with Dierks through “Drunk on a Plane” and others know he’ll always come back around to releasing music that sets the bar for substance in the mainstream.
The final chapter has been written on the highly-anticipated and much maligned movie on the life of country music icon Hank Williams, at least until the DVD is released. “I Saw The Light”—starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank, written and directed by Marc Abraham, and based off of the Hank biography written by Colin Escott—is a commercial flop. This is on top of receiving terrible reviews…
As Robbie’s career arc has continued into his fifties, he’s favored more and more the bluegrass style of his Virginia and North Carolina roots compared to more traditional country and folk. Add on top of that his acute sense of dynamics and an unexpected adeptness at showmanship, and Robbie Fulks makes the case for himself as our generation’s John Hartford.
