Numerous upcoming performances by Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member Bobby Bare are being rescheduled for the fall, but rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. According to Bobby Bare’s management, the shows will hopefully be rescheduled for the fall.
The release of the Rodeo Houston main stage lineup is always a highly-anticipated event in Texas and beyond, and this year Oklahoma’s Turnpike Troubadours have earned an opportunity to play on arguably the biggest stage in Texas, and native Texan Kacey Musgraves has been selected to open the rodeo in 2019.
Grand Ole Opry members and Nashville’s official house band Old Crow Medicine Show just finished up ringing in the New Year with a 2-night residency at the Ryman Auditorium in Music City, and now apparently will be going on an extended break.
Jason Isbell is one of numerous performers for the event, all of whom are from Alabama. Also scheduled to perform are St. Paul & The Broken Bones, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Commodores, Moon Taxi, and multiple local bands yet to be named on a 2nd stage.
Last Saturday (12-22), as many people were hanging out with family and preparing for the Christmas holiday, Tyler Childers was at the Roy F. Collier Community Center in Inez, Kentucky in a Carhartt coat and toboggan to personally deliver 500 cases of water for residents of Martin County.
Mile 0 Fest taking part in Key West, Florida January 29th to February 2nd has just released it’s final lineup, expanding to a total of 68 names. With the expanded names, and with most performers playing multiple shows across the island, this will bring the sum total of performances to well over 100.
Late 90’s-early 2000’s country star Mark Wills will be the 193rd member of the Grand Ole Opry. This was the news coming out of the Opry Friday Night (12-21) when Vince Gill invited Wills to join the historic country music institution near the end of the evening’s presentation.
Country Music legend and Hall of Famer Alan Jackson recently announced the first round of tour dates for his upcoming 2019 arena tour to the excitement of many. And now three other names have been added to select stops which you may have not heard before, but you should be paying attention to.
The Tumbleweed Music Festival set to take place just outside of Kansas City May 30th through June 1st has just announced their full lineup for 2019, and this year’s installment will have a strong Southern rock flavor to it. A strong contention of women will also be on the lineup.
Tyler Childers is currently one of the top artists from the wave of Kentucky musicians making a positive difference in country music. And just like many of the artists from one of the most impoverished and forgotten regions of the United States, he’s using of his good fortune in the music business to give back.
The future looks bright for Texas music, and that’s partly due to the promising prospects of groups like Flatland Cavalry. Led by singer and songwriter Cleto Cordero, the Lubbock-based band gives your ears something to feast on when you’ve worn out your Turnpike Troubadours records for the moment.
“ ‘Organic’ is a good word,” Gary Allan says. “I feel like somebody needs to stick out and turn this thing back toward something more organic. Country music used to be the most organic stuff out there, and now it’s become super pop-influenced. We used to influence pop. Now I feel like we’re being influenced by pop.”
As we get near the end of the year and the amount of new releases begins to slow down, it allows us to look forward at what might be ahead for 2019. One artist and album that is already emerging to be on the lookout for is Charles Wesley Godwin’s ‘Seneca’ that is due to be released on February 15th, 2019.
If you didn’t have a physical copy, or perhaps matured during the streaming era of music, then you’ve possibly never experienced what is considered one of the greatest works in country music history—‘Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music’ by Ray Charles.
Yes, Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson will tour in 2019, and we’ve now got the dates to prove it. After announcing a few dates earlier this week, he let some more loose on Thursday (12-13), with more to come soon. Starting on January 25th, he’ll be heading out on an arena tour that will see him hit multiple stops.
Once again speaking to the commercial prowess of hard pounding country music honky tonker Cody Jinks, the Ft. Worth native recently did something usually reserved for only the top echelon of mainstream country musicians—he topped the Billboard Country Boxscore chart for top grossing tour revenue.
Tyler Childers has a new haircut (high and tight), and a bunch of new tour dates he’s just released for 2019. Most important to note is that the new headlining dates will sell out, and probably immediately. Tyler Childers has sold out basically every show he’s played in the latter half of 2018.
George Strait has an album of new music on the way for the first time in four years, and it will be called Honky Tonk Time Machine. This was the country legend’s pronouncement from the stage of the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas this weekend as he played a round of residency shows.
Some benefit concerts are humbled to have whomever they can get to grace their stage and contribute their talents to the cause. When it comes to the over 30-year-old Tibet House US Benefit Concert held annually in New York City, it’s a humbling experience for the artists asked to play due to the prestige of the opportunity.
The nominees for the 2019 Grammy Awards were announced Friday morning (12-7), and some of the things we anticipated happening have happened. But the biggest takeaway, and surprisingly so, is Brandi Carlile earning six total nominations, including all-genre nominations for Album, Song, and Record of the Year.
If you love to get your Everly Brothers vibe on, there’s just about no better modern alternative than brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey, known collectively as The Cactus Blossoms. These Minneapolis-based blood brothers have announced they have a new album on the way called ‘Easy Way.’
Fans of Hank Williams III were sent into a tizzy on Wednesday (12-5) after a couple of Instagram posts from the 3rd generation performer emerged unexpectedly after a 2 1/2-year hiatus on the format. Unfortunately though, this is not a missive coming from Hank3, it’s a spoof.
It’s not a good time to be throwing a country music megafest, or making your plans around one, at least not for some promoters and festival goers. With Live Nation continuing to monopolize the live music space, and so many major tours and festivals filling up the map and calendar, it has become time for a market correction.
The latest round of additions to the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist start with a superb new song from Ward Davis off his new ‘Asunder’ EP. If you’ve ever been through a tough divorce, or even if you haven’t, “Good and Drunk” hits you right where it hurts in the best way.