Say what you want about Kacey Musgraves, but you have to give the young songstress credit for speaking her mind. In a recent Q&A with GQ Magazine, the Texas-born songwriter had some spicy things to say about a few of Nashville’s current infatuations. When GQ asked her what musical trend needed to die out immediately, Kacey responded, “Anyone singing about trucks, in any form, in any song, anywhere.”
Good music is entertaining. Great music changes lives. And on the front lines of life altering music experiences are the one man bands. Courageous, pioneering, persevering through obscurity and misunderstanding, one man bands might make up a majority of the music world’s boldness and creativity per capita. Here’s 16 of them from a wide swath of the roots world.
Sex has been used to sell music almost since music became a commercial enterprise. From the shaking of Elvis’s hips, to Madonna’s “Sex” book, to Miley Cyrus doing all manner of gratuitous things with a foam finger. but in truth there’s plenty of positive female role models. From huge, internationally-known pop stars, to promising up-and-coming artists, positive female role models in music are out there.
There’s nothing I value more than a mainstream country music record that bucks all trends and is truly worth your ear. Enter Charlie Worsham and his debut album Rubberband that is being lauded by many critics and fans alike as a breath of fresh air for the mainstream radio dial. Rubberband is a very fun album that sucks you right in, but Charlie Worsham is no Kellie Pickler….
Its the day after MTV put on its annual Video Music Awards, and the internet is buzzing with Miley Cyrus talk after the former child star put on a raunchy, sexually-explicit performance as part of the VMA show. While parent advocacy groups are up in arms, pop country hopeful Michael Jackson Montgomery is hoping to capitalize off of all the renewed Miley Cyrus attention.
This news of Linda Ronstadt losing her voice due to Parkinson’s Disease seems like an especially sinister storyline. What a cruel machination of mother nature to rob a woman of her one defining gift while she still has life and clear cognitive factories to contemplate her fate. This isn’t any voice, or any woman.
Larry & His Flask is an interesting music specimen. The biggest advice I could give to an underground roots band right now would be, “Get away from underground roots if you want to grow,” and Larry & His Flask’s success is the perfect example why. Their 2011 stint on the Warped Tour and taking the time to do things right on the business side….
Over the last few years, country fans have come to expect a mixed bag from Hank3, whose veered more towards punk and heavy metal as time has gone on. His first two albums became staples of the early 2000’s neo-traditionalist movement, while 2006’s “Straight to Hell” was the beginning of a much harder sound. Hank3 is calling his upcoming album “Brothers of the 4×4” a traditional country record.
Tomorrow night (Friday 8/23), up-and-coming country music star Sturgill Simpson will be making his debut on the hallowed Grand Ole Opry stage. Introducing him will be Marty Stuart. Sturgill’s Opry debut will have great personal significance. To explain, here is Sturgill Simpson on his Opry debut, in his own words.
Over the last few days, rumors have been swirling that Randy Travis has contracted pneumonia while in a Dallas-area rehab facility, recovering from a recent stroke he had while being treated for a heart condition. The primary source of that information appears to be fellow traditional country music star and Randy Travis friend Sammy Kershaw.
Everywhere in the independent music world you’re seeing songwriters who have struggled for years finally starting to get singed to record labels and releasing career-caliber albums. Whereas other sectors of the music industry seem to be gripped by the fear that digitization and streaming may ultimately doom the business of music, talented songwriters are benefiting from the search for the next writer to break out.
I don’t know if it’s a bigger commentary on the state of social networking, or the serious depravity of truly meaningful modern songs that the most talked-about country music composition in the last week has been a version of Dolly Parton’s legacy recording “Jolene” put on a record player at a slower speed setting than normal, making it sound like it is sung by a man, and striking a deep 70’s era half-time groove.
I actually come from the camp that believes that if Mumford & Sons weren’t so popular, more core roots fans would respect them. But it is really hip to hate and undervalue Mumford right now. Let’s hope that the current backlash doesn’t hurt every band with a banjo, because there’s many great string bands out there that and mix high energy and heartfelt songs into the string band concept.
I know very little about Valerie June, and aspire to keep it that way. A natural mystery swirls around this woman similarly to the tresses emanating from her topside like a living, organic crown. Valerie June seems more apparition than woman—vanishing and appearing in the most random moments like a mythical character born in the mind of an early European troubadour….
For the first time in the last half decade, the Grand Ole Opry is poised to induct a traditionally-leaning country music act into its distinct and coveted roster of permanent members. Opry member Marty Stuart surprised Old Crow Medicine Show on the Opry stage tonight (8-16) with an invitation to join the storied institution during Old Crow’s scheduled performance.
The Environmental Protection Agency has just given an increasingly-rare form of American musician known as the steel guitar player the ominous distinction of being an endangered species. The EPA defines an endangered species as “one facing a very high risk of extinction.” The ruling comes as the number of steel guitar players continues to decline to alarmingly low levels.
Fans of Outlaw country music are about to get a big wish granted, as plans have been announced to form an Outlaw Country Music Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame will be located in Lynchburg, TN, with Jack Daniels coming on as a primary sponsor. A space for the upcoming Hall of Fame has been acquired in Lynchburg and an architect is currently working on design plans.
George’s 16 Biggest Hits album was certified platinum yesterday, meaning it has now sold 1 million copies according to the RIAA. This comes 15 years after the album was initially released, and 11 years after the album was first certified gold for selling 500,000 copies. But George Jones’s postmortem sales success was not all due to older country music consumers.
Every day that goes by, the internet devolves more and more into a cesspool of spurious information filtered through various website’s political agendas and their insatiable appetite for traffic to where now any kernel of truth, knowledge, or wisdom is whittled down to an almost imperceptible spec buried beneath layers and layers of pop science, slanted viewpoints, and political/cultural snark.
Once again a member of the Texas music scene has delivered a song that gives voice and reason to how the rest of us feel. Wade Bowen’s “Trucks” aims its big, diamond-plated bumper at the incessant references to tailgates and four wheel drives in modern pop country songs and slams on the gas.
Tompall Glaser, one of country music’s original Outlaws, is dead at 79 after fighting a prolonged illness according to his family. He died at his home in Nashville. Tompall got his start in country music with his two brothers Chuck and Jim in Tompall & The Glaser Brothers who were members of the Grand Ole Opry. The family band released 10 albums and had 9 charting singles before breaking up in 1975.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the LIVE blog for the 2013 broadcast of CMA’s Fan Fest, dubbed over the last few years as “Country’s Night to Rock.” Since our live blogs for mainstream country’s big awards shows have been so successful over the years, and because we had many requests to also create a platform for commiseration, it was decided we’ll give it a shot for this event too.
Unless you’re a dedicated listener of Top 40 pop music, you’ve probably found yourself at one point or another complaining about the current state of mainstream music and how it’s too simplistic and unoriginal. Well you might be surprised to find out that this is more than just an opinion. There’s actually scientific evidence to back your hypothesis up.
“Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement’s Home Movies” was made in 2005 to document Jack’s life, and the wild environment swirling around his legendary home studio, the “Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa.” It is about capturing the spirit of the man—the whimsy that he approached the creative process with.
