The highly-anticipated follow up to Jason Isbell’s critically-acclaimed 2013 album Southeastern will be called “Something More Than Free.” The album will be released through Thirty Tigers, and Isbell’s own Southeastern Records. Like his last album, the effort was produced by vaunted producer Dave Cobb.
There’s just a cool factor about Dwight that appears will never wear off, regardless if the hips don’t shake and the knees don’t knock as much as they used to, or even if he’s the perfect specimen for male pattern baldness under the low brim of that cowboy hat. He’s still Dwight, and that caramel voice and cutting yodel will never be deprecated.
Well so much for entertaining the idea in your country music brain that if Miranda Lambert had her way, she’d go all “Gunpowder & Lead” on the purveyors of Bro-Country for their sexist and objectifying behavior if she wasn’t such a classy chic who would rather let her music do the talking. Miranda removed any and all doubt about how she feels about Bro-Country, at least in what she’s willing to portray to the public.
The Louisiana Hayride is on its way back, and in a big way. Arguably the 2nd most influential music program in country music history, only rivaled in stature by The Grand Ole Opry, it’s been an effort that has lasted over 20 years and seen a major renovation of the radio program’s original home of The Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport that has put organizers on the brink of bringing the show back.
In a move that is so patently and unflinchingly Garth, the recently-unretired superstar says he might lip sync at Sunday night’s 50th Anniversary ACM Awards show in Dallas at Cowboys (AT&T) Stadium. There’s so many different ways this missive from Mr. Brooks can be taken. So Garth Brooks is a lip syncer?
I can remember it almost like it was yesterday. Granger Smith released a hilarious song and video under his pseudonym Earl Dibbles Jr. called “Country Boy Song,” and we were all falling over each other and high-fiving at how it was the perfect illustration of just what a scourge laundry list country songs had become. This was the early in the summer of 2012. The term “Bro-Country” was over a year from being coined.
Over the last few years, David Letterman and The Late Show have become tireless supporters of many of the older country artists and up-and-comers that mainstream country so unfortunately pays little to no attention to. To giving artists like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Dale Watson, and Sturgill Simpson their first network debut, to being one of the few shows regularly willing to book Willie Nelson and other legends…
On Saturday, April 11th, “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck” singer Kip Moore played The Complex at Valdosta State University in Georgia to what by all accounts was a satisfied and appreciative crowd. After the show, some Kip Moore fans gathered at a local bar called the Ashley Street Station where Kip Moore had an agreement to make an appearance at the official afterparty proceeding the concert.
May the ghost of the great Sam Cooke kick Thomas Rhett’s ass eternally for ripping off the iconic rhythm and cadence from the classic American standard “Chain Gang” in such an open and arrogant manner that even a villainous bystander like Vanilla Ice would give this the hairy eyeball. “Evolution” in today’s country music is simply a code word for filching something from another genre.
It happened again, and thanks to over 500,000+ shares on Facebook (and counting), many Willie Nelson fans believe the legendary country singer died on Saturday, April 11th in Maui, and one dubious website is reaping the financial rewards. A site called msmbc.co—purposely titled to be easily confused with msnbc.com—initially posted a fake death story involving Willie Nelson on February 21st, 2015.
The fan was eventually acknowledged by Aldean, but it was with a simple, “No,” as he pointed the assailant out to security. The beer chunker was eventually apprehended and escorted to authorities. Later in the show, Aldean said to the crowd, “It took everything I had not to go kick that guy’s teeth in,” but apparently Aldean has decided to not press charges, and he was not significantly injured in the incident.
Despite the actual sentencing of Chris Ferrell in the 2nd Degree Murder of country artist Wayne Mills being delayed now until April 24th, the bulk of the sentencing proceedings occurred as scheduled while many members of Wayne’s immediate and extended family, as well as numerous friends and fans of the country artist watched on.
The sentencing in the 2nd Degree Murder trial of Chris Ferrell in the death of Wayne Mills has been delayed until April 24th, though the bulk of the sentencing hearing transpired as scheduled in the court of Steve Dozier in Nashville Friday (4-10) morning. Many of the members of Wayne’s extended family were in attendance for the sentencing, including Wayne’s young son Jack who had not been in the courtroom for the trial.
The calamitous and disturbing plan of the Academy of Country Music to pair up some of country music’s worst stars of today with country music heroes of the past just keeps getting worse. Though a few of the collaboration ideas seem kind of cool, some of them are downright sinister to the hearts of traditional country fans who revere the past greats, and revile the new artists who are stomping on the traditions of the genre.
Whether you have already purchased your tickets or are planning to soon, or you’re sitting back and laughing at the idea of a bunch of “Outlaws” setting sail in a luxury liner outbound for the Cayman Islands, don’t lie to yourself and say that this isn’t something that you wouldn’t love to participate in if you could swing it. Out at sea with some of your favorite country artists surrounded by the beauty of the Caribbean?
Country music traditionalist Alan Jackson is set to release his 15th studio album called Angels and Alcohol on Friday, July 17th—one of the first major country albums to take advantage of the the new Friday global release day. The album includes ten new tracks, seven of which Jackson wrote himself, and comes as Alan Jackson celebrates 25 years as a country music performer.
Some 70 years behind the times and yet still cooler than the rest of us, Pokey LaFarge is like the musical equivalent of the Austin Powers character brought out of cryogenic freeze to do battle with the forces of bad music by reminding the world of a time when popular songs still embodied taste, composition, and a timeless charisma instead of the diarrhetic pap dictated by the fickle tastes of 15-year-olds.
It appeared nearly preordained that The Civil Wars weren’t built to last for the long term when you really pondered how bright they burned each time they took the stage. Now Joy has released a new single called “Woman (Oh Mama)” ahead of a solo project named Venus, and as you may be able to surmise from the titles, it is a very woman-centric foray into the power of the female identity.
Joe’s comments come as similar sentiments have been offered up by other artists, but Joe also communicates the concern about where country music could be headed now that Bro-Country is getting close to the end of its life cycle. Since Bro-Country pushed away many of country music’s core constituents, and now Bro-Country isn’t even around to help fill the gap, it has put the industry on shaky footing.
Hazzard county’s sheriff and the haphazard foil for the Duke boys in the legendary television show The Dukes of Hazzard, has passed away. James Best, best known for his role as Roscoe P. Coltrane on the CBS television show from 1979 to 1985, but a lifelong actor and creative personality, died in Hickory, North Carolina at the age of 88 on Monday night (4-6) due to complications from pneumonia.
In the latest sign that a godless Apocalypse is nigh upon us and will reduce the entire effort of humankind from the beginning of time to an infinitesimal blip of virtual nothingness perpetuated in a faraway corner of the universe, Dwight Yoakam has agreed to pair up with country music sham artist Sam Hunt for a duet as part of an ACM Awards television special.
Singer and songwriter Sarah Potenza first entered my music consciousness in February 2014 at the Inaugural Ameripolitan Awards presented by Dale Watson. Here was this boisterous girl with big glasses paling around Elizabeth Cook, and posing for pictures with Whitey Morgan and his guitar player Joey Spina that I had never seen or heard of before.
With all the hullabaloo surrounding recent radio executive comments about the importance of radio in validating a country artist’s career, Will Hoge stands as a shining star example about how you can carve out a career in music doing it independently. Despite a year-and-a-half stint with Atlantic Records, Hoge has developed a significant following of fans and produced ten albums over the last two decades.
What’s so great about “Yo Bro” is that it’s deftly inclusive of both of the audio plagues country music finds itself suffering from at this very moment. As Bro-Country is trending downward, but still trying to hold on in its last dying gasps, and Metro-Politan is attempting to rise up and take its place, “You Bro” straddles the line between the two, offering an illustration of the absurdity of these “country” styles.
