The Outlaw Music Hall of Fame first announced in mid-August and scheduled to be open in the Spring of 2014 in Lynchburg, TN will unveil their inaugural class of inductees on Saturday, October 26th, during a 3-day, 38-hour event transpiring this upcoming weekend in Altamont, TN. The event will feature 30 bands, and will be broadcast through a pay-per-view channel with all the proceeds going to The Hall.
Raised on Waylon Jennings and riverside gold claims in the tiny, isolated community of Forks of Salmon, California, Sage Meadows eventually made her way north of the California border where her memories manifested into an authentic country music narrative that has named her to many as the “Emmylou Harris of Southern Oregon.”
Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton is good friends with rapper turned daytime stay-at-home personality Queen Latifah, and on a show set to air this Monday (10-21-13), the self-proclaimed “Queen of Dollywood” comes out and does a 90-second rap routine before her interview. Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah recently starred together in the 2012 musical movie Joyful Noise.
Gone are the days of the legendary duet pairings in country music like George and Tammy, Loretta and Conway, but the Austin country scene’s power couple of Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay have revitalized the country duet concept album in a smart, brilliant, hilarious, and sweet offering called Before The World Was Made.
Saving Country Music runs down the best country music songs from the Academy of Country Music’s reigning Entertainer of the Year, Luke Bryan. From Leesburg, GA, Bryan was signed to Capitol Records in 2007, and has released 3 EP’s, and four full-length albums, his latest being “Crash My Party” in August of 2013.
To All The Girls is Willie Nelson’s third album to come from his recent partnership with Sony’s Legacy Recordings, and the second to come out this year. The record features an ample 18 tracks, each constituting a duet with a female counterpart drawing from a wide swath of talent that includes both legacy names like Loretta Lynn and Emmylou Harris, and some new names like The Secret Sisters and Brandi Carlile.
On March 21st, Hellbound Glory descended up on the city of Memphis, Tennessee and the renown FexEx Forum in support of Kid Rock and the Rebel Soul tour. With much respect to the city’s musical heritage (and a visit the day before), the band laid into a blistering 30 minute set, putting into motion a series of events that only time a whiskey will ultimately divulge.
Justin Moore’s 2011 album Outlaws Like Me was declared the worst album ever by Saving Country Music up to that moment in time; a diagnosis I still stand behind with puffed chest. Despite a few moments of respite, Off The Beaten Path is like an expeditionary campaign to discover and exploit every single worn out modern lyrical trope of American country music, and to try and make some new ones.
It’s so easy to get swept up in stereotyping mainstream country as being completely void of anything worth your time these days, but in truth there’s still a lot of great music in the popular music world, however a small percentage it might be of the total package. Saying the mainstream has nothing good to offer is narrowing your musical experience no different than saying that music is bad because it’s not popular.
Yet another big name country star is speaking out about the current state of country music. This time it is RCA Records’ Jake Owen. “We need more of those kinds of songs in [country music]. “We need more songs than just songs about tailgates and fuckin’ cups and Bacardi and stuff like that. We need songs that get ourselves back to the format that made me love it.”
Once again the Europeans out class their cross Atlantic counterparts with the newly-launched Country Music Magazine from Team Rock—the same people who’ve brought the UK the long-running and widely-distributed Classic Rock Magazine. Despite the generic name, this magazine is anything but, with 132 extra wide glossy full-color pages, accompanied by a free, 15-track CD with music from Sturgill Simpson and Guy Clark.
Somewhat weird, certainly smart-assed, but seriously entertaining, The Defibulators from New York, New York have unleashed their latest album Debt’ll Get ‘Em, ripe for weird looks and rank misunderstanding, but filled with some really good times. The line between where the sarcasm ends and the seriousness begins with The Defibulators is hard to define, and they appear to like it that way.
A couple of days ago, The Stagecoach Festival out in California announced their 2014 lineup, capped by headliners Eric Church, Jason Aldean, and Luke Bryan. Since its inception 7 years ago, Stagecoach has been the California contingent to America’s big corporate country music festivals, but what makes Stagecoach different is that they actually include independent and up-and-coming artists as well.
Don’t be spooked too much by the Haight-Ashbury circa 1967 album cover on this record. There’s no acid trips or space jams inside, though in its own way the cover conveys the laid back mood that the music of High Life embodies, and the harkening back to the cowboy hippie vibe of Austin in the mid 70’s that this album evokes. What you do get with High Life is some damn fine Texas country.
Country star Randy Travis, who suffered a series of major health issues beginning in July, will finally be returning home to his ranch this weekend in Tioga, TX, just northwest of Dallas according to the singer’s representative. Travis was initially admitted to the hospital on July 7th, 2013 for viral cardiomyopathy, or a weakening of the heart muscle.
37 years ago, Austin City Limits was founded to be the visual accompaniment to a book called The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock by Texas author Jan Reed. The book set out to chronicle the formation of the Austin, TX music scene that transpired in the late 60’s and into the 70’s, along with its many artists and side characters.
Country Music Hall of Famer Ray Price is currently in the hospital battling Sepsis, a bacterial infection in his blood line. He is currently in a cardiac intensive care unit being treated by Dr. Red Duke. “Rays blood pressure dropped too low and his heart rate too high. We were in watchful crisis all night long and through out early morning hours before he stabilized,” Ray’s wife Janie Price told fans.
You talk to most any independent country, roots, or Americana artist, and to a man they will tell you their fortunes tend to be better in the European market. With so many European tours and the continued spread of American country music, it was only a matter of time before country began to rub off on the locals and American roots music spread like wildfire throughout the Old World.
Yes, Miley Cyrus. That sledge hammer-licking slut. Did you see her on the VMA’s with that foam finger? And then riding that big wrecking ball wearing nothing? Let’s all wag our fingers, shield the children from all the spectacle, position ourselves as self-righteous and above it all….and then watch her latest video 4 times in a row once the kiddos go to bed.
Whereas Lindi’s last album had a definitively dark, Gothic tinge, Tin Star is more of an equitable, neotraditional take, though the dark shades still tickle the edges and emerge from the shadows here and there. In fact Tin Star is downright boot stomping in places, traversing the carnivorous streets of Nashville defiantly, taking a trip down to Louisiana, finding inspiration in the tragic character of Frida Kahlo.
Tyler Farr’s “Redneck Crazy” isn’t for jilted male lovers looking for solace, it is for socially awkward, introverted, creepy-ass chronic masturbaters that hold a minor in megalomania. This song doesn’t need a rant, it needs a restraining order and ankle bracelet. True rednecks ride their problems out, rub their wounds in the dirt and move on, not whine about them like a panty waist…
The fate of the sideman in music is one of always playing second fiddle to the big star. But one of the things we love about the other players in a country band is they generally don’t care. Though many times they do an equal share, if not the majority of the heavy lifting for the music, they’re just fine blending into the background.
To have Alan Jackson—3-time CMA Entertainer of the Year winner, and a man that has sold more than 60 million records worldwide—release a straightforward, traditional bluegrass album with no caveats, no tangents, simply straight ahead acoustic instrumentation in a traditional style, is a feat and a victory all on its own. And the music ain’t too bad either.
Luke Bryan and his other bro-tastic pop country pseudo-rapping laundry list-espousing pretty boys may love to sing about big ol’ pickup trucks, but it has always been circumspect if they could even pilot one in a pinch. Luke Bryan’s ride ended up in the drink a few days ago. Luckily the matching henna tattoo he got with Jason Aldean did not get wet in the incident.
