The big news in country music Tuesday (3-22) was that critically-acclaimed songwriter and performer Brandy Clark would be releasing her sophomore studio album ‘Big Day in a Small Town’ on June 10th. But one question some Brandy Clark fans are asking is why the album has been delayed. It was originally scheduled to be released on April 1st.
On Monday (3-21), the Norman, OK-based country rock band The Damn Quails took to Facebook to solicit the public for help finding their tour manager who went missing during their show in Houston Saturday night (3-19). At roughly 11:00 p.m., 39-year-old Colin Deyalsingh disappeared with no trace from the Firehouse Saloon in Houston, located at 5930 Southwest Fwy (Interstate 69) 77057
If traditional-sounding country is ever going to return to the mainstream, it’s going to take young artists signed to major labels with the courage to adhere to their values and not compromise their sound in the face of the pressures and obligations that mainstream outlets put on them. Others may open the doors, but it will be up to artists like William Michael Morgan to step through.
This isn’t just a problem for big mainstream bands playing massive venues anymore. As independent music continues to take over market share, and there continues to be a slow build of interest in more substantive music, this issue is starting to affect performers that a few years ago fans were used to seeing in dingy bars with 20 other people.
“Some people will say, and have said, that I’m trying to run from country, but I’m never going to make anything other than a country record. As soon as I open my mouth, it’s going to be a country song. . . but it doesn’t make the think pieces any less amusing.”
Loretta has been working on new music at Johnny Cash’s famous Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, TN over the past eight years, recording over 90 songs. She’s been collaborating with her daughter Patsy L. Russell and John Carter Cash as producers. Loretta signed a new deal with Sony’s Legacy imprint in late 2014 to begin releasing albums again after a long hiatus.
It took the death of four people and dozens of others injured after a drunken madman ran his car through a crowded downtown Austin street in 2014, as well as a completely clusterfucked permitting system by the City of Austin so mired in red tape it takes months of dedicated manpower to actually put on a show, but it appears that SXSW has finally reached a point where the annual event has stopped growing uncontrollably.
“Man, what a great writer,” Dave says about Brent. “His dad gave me his CD, but a lot of my family plays so I just thought ‘Well, it’s just another CD.’ My wife made me put his CD on in the car of songs he’d been writing. We were driving back to the airport from the funeral that time, and he just knocked me out. He’s like Don Williams. So deep. Such a deep, beautiful writer.”
Though Young was considered mostly a background member of the Outlaw movement for many years, his appearance on the legendary Outlaw documentary Heartworn Highways helped awaken the world to his talent. Though he still remained mostly known through the songs he wrote that others performed, Young had a strong solo career and released a total of 14 albums.
“He’s mad as hell. And there’s a bunch of hangers on and groupies and people like that all up and down the hall. It was a long hall and it was almost like a gunfight deal. He comes out of there and he’s got two bikers on each side, and he says, ‘Hoss, what do you want?’ And I says, ‘I’ll tell you what I want … If you don’t listen to these songs, at least listen to them, I’m going to whip your ass right here in front of God and everybody.”
It’s not the usual train of events for a multi Grammy-winning and double CMA-awarded major label country artist to play South by Southwest for the first time some three years after first attaining major success, but that’s what Kacey Musgraves is experiencing this week as she shimmies through traffic snarls like everyone else to make appearances during Austin’s biggest annual music gathering.
The changes to Instagram could adversely affect the music world significantly more than it will the rest of social media culture. Why? Because despite Instagram being an image-based format with no direct tie to music, music fans favor and use the social network in much greater numbers compared to the general population, and use it specifically to help support the music they love.
After selling out all of his tour dates in February, playing to packed rooms in Europe in March, selling out every one of his dates in April, and most all of his dates sold to capacity this summer, Chris Stapleton has added some new tour dates in May and September to help keep up with demand.
The “South” is the setting for the songs, and where the respective artists hail from, but “Family” is what makes this record universal for all listeners. And unlike many other concept records that may only have one or two songs that can be separated from the material, every song on “Southern Family” can exist independently, and many will go on to mark top-level career contributions to the artist’s musical canon.
The longest tenured member of Sturgill Simpson’s band has moved on. After a few weeks of chatter about how he may not be making Sturgill’s next tour, bass player Kevin Black officially announced Tuesday (3/15) that he will no longer be a part of Sturgill’s band moving forward.
New Theory: Many 3rd tier mainstream major label country stars are nothing more than musical dumping grounds for all the excess songwriting material left over at the tail end of a dying trend. That’s about the only explanation for the relentless onslaught of outdated and terrible material you’re exposed to on Randy Houser’s new album “Fired Up.”
Screw spending somewhere between $700 to upwards of four figures for some official SXSW badge or wristband just to get turned down at most of the shows you want to get into because you’re not on some VIP list. The smart and frugal SXSW goer knows that the free, all access day parties and unofficial showcases is where it’s at, and many of the events even provide free beer and food.
Hypothetically, whether a given song is released to mainstream country radio as a single or not shouldn’t affect the listener’s judgement upon the song itself. And in many cases, it doesn’t. A song is a song, and it should be considered on its own merits. There are exceptions however, like when a song is exceptionally bad, like many of the country radio singles over the years from Luke Bryan.
“It was my girlfriend’s birthday, and I had to borrow 40 bucks from a buddy to take her out to dinner,” Willy Taylor explains. “This car drove by and something flew off the roof and hit our van. It was dark, and I said, ‘Wow that sounded important’ because it was heavy and it came off the top of the car. It’s just a classic move. I’ve done it before, leaving stuff on top of the car.”
Roy Acuff may have been the model of good clean family fun and old-fashioned entertainment for the majority of his country music career, but at the beginning of his legendary, Hall of Fame-caliber run was an era of music that was quite the opposite of the accepted Acuff character, or the wholesome nature of his performance home of the family-friendly Grand Ole Opry.
On the heels of releasing a new record Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, Willie Nelson decided to release a new original song called “Still Not Dead Again Today,” lampooning his many, many death hoaxes. Included with the song is a video highlighting some of the information and images from many of the ridiculous hoaxes.
When “The Wayward Wind” took Billboard’s #1 spot, it remained there for eight weeks, which was a record at the time. It went on to sell over a million copies, and Gogi was voted as the most popular female vocalist by Billboard. Grant’s version of the song also returned to the Billboard 100 in 1961. The song was also a hit in the U.K.
Over the last few days, an especially effective fake news story about Metallica’s James Hetfield quitting the heavy metal band to make a country record called “Hetfield Road” has been making the rounds. Saving Country Music headquarters has been bombarded with emails about the article, and according to the stats, it’s been viewed over 223,000 times since being posted on March 8th.
The incredibly long drought for new music from one of the biggest names in Texas country is finally coming to a close. After releasing two records with Big Machine—the last being Big Dreams & High Hopes in 2009—Ingram pulled a disappearing act for the last seven years or so when it came to studio work, but will be returning in a big way this summer, and with a label known for letting artists do what they do best.
