Bloodshot Records has just announced that Justin Townes Earle will be releasing his 4th LP Album on March, 27th, 2012, and it is a mouthful, called Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. Earle told Billboard he wanted his next album to have a Memphis vibe. This album will hypothetically be one Justin Townes Earle recorded while sober.
Michigan songbird Rachel Brooke has a new project on the way that can now be pre-ordered called Late Night Lover. It is a 7″ vinyl release that will only be sold in a limited-edition 500 numbered quantity accompanied by a digital download card. Late Night Lover features just Rachel and her guitar.
When you’re compiling your list of most-anticipated albums for 2012, you’ve got another one to add to the top of the heap. Ray Wylie Hubbard has announced he’s got a new one ready for 2012 called Grifter’s Hymnal, and he’s got an interesting cast of characters helping him, including Ringo Starr, long-time drummer Rick Richards, George Reiff, and his son Lucas Hubbard.
In a very alarming story, fiddle phenom Ruby Jane and her mom JoBelle Smith were carjacked and held at gunpoint in Houston Thursday night (12-8-11) around midnight after a show at Dosey Doe. The man fled in their 2004 Chevy Trail Blazer, with all of Ruby Jane’s music gear. Below please find a list of the stolen instruments to be on the lookout for.
Saving Country Music is very sad to report that Bee Spears, the perennial bassist for Willie Nelson, who played in Willie Nelson’s “Family Band” for 40 years, died on Thursday, 12/8/2011 after falling outside of his home in Nashville and being exposed to the elements overnight.
In yet another crazy twist in the unraveling story of country star Mindy McCready, she has now been accused of kidnapping the reigning American Idol champion with a similar-sounding last name. McCreery was last seen lip syncing at a parade in Nashville, when right after his performance, witnesses say he was lured into an unmarked white cargo van…
After a court win on Wednesday that allowed McGraw to be able to record new music and pursue another label, Curb has apparently capitulated their previous stance that the music on his album Emotional Traffic is not “topical,” and has decided to finally give the album a release date of January 17th, 2012.
Whatever Curb’s motivations or plans, it looks like the tide has turned for Tim McGraw. However the battle is far from over, and fans should not be happy about the single release, they should be wary of its motivations. Mike Curb is shrewd if he is anything, and no doubt this move was pre-calculated to coincide with the court order.
Over the weekend the .357 String Band said farewell in the form of a pair of shows in their home state of Wisconsin. Regardless of how obscure they were, along with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, Flatt & Scruggs, and a few others, the .357 String Band was one of the greatest, most groundbreaking, and influential bluegrass bands of all time.
Muddy Roots isn’t just a festival my friends. No. It’s an act of solidarity. It is a force of the collective Will of real roots fans united from disparate backgrounds, coming together to say “We are here, and things can work differently.” The Muddy Roots Festival isn’t just a big party, it is principles and philosophies in action; it just happens to be one hell of a good time as well.
I am very excited to announce a unique partnership between Saving Country Music, Hillgrass Bluebilly Records & Entertainment, and Muddy Roots Music (The Muddy Roots Festivals) to bring together the 5th Annual XSXSW showcase, aka XSXSW 5, as part of the annual mid-March gathering of the tribes in Austin, TX known as South By Southwest.
According to the Surgeon General’s office, an extensive study by the Centers for Disease Control has determined that country rap is a Class 1 cause of obesity, especially in adult white males. Apparently the data from the study is so conclusive and alarming, the Surgeon General is considering pursuing heath warnings on country rap albums.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s .357 String Band, one of the stalwarts and one of the first full-time bands in the underground country movement, has decided to call it quits. Their high-octane “streetgrass” approach to traditional bluegrass music made them one of the top-tier live and recorded acts in all of underground country, and afforded them a big following in Europe as well.
Jason Isbell, former member of The Drive By Truckers and current solo artist had his van, trailer, and all contents stolen in Dallas, TX on Saturday afternoon. Jason and his band, The 400 Unit, were in Dallas Friday night, playing the city’s legendary Granada Theater on lower Greenville in support of his latest album Here We Rest.
It has become evident over the past few months that Muddy Roots is the answer that many artists and fans have been waiting a long time for. Now Muddy Roots has announced that they are expanding to Europe, with a full-fledged two day festival June 9-10 at the “Steakhouse Saloon” compound in Belgium this upcoming summer.
Late last week it was announced that dozens of local DJ’s from the US’s largest radio station operator Clear Channel were being cut all across the country. The cuts are to regional markets, that cover more rural, outlying communities, or the country, where much of country music’s traditional demographics live.
The Last Ride, a movie depicting the last days of Hank Williams, has finally been released to the public. On Friday (10-21-11), it debuted in 7 cities in the South, including 4 in Arkansas, where both director Harry Thomason and star Harry Thomas (Elliot from ET), who plays Hank Williams, are from. It will see a wide release in January of 2012.
Two of country music’s most famous sons have apparently buried the hatchet on a long, 6 year feud that in many ways was one-sided, and was fueled by misunderstanding. “Got an amazing care package from Hank III with all 3 new records on vinyl & CD + a sweet rebel flag lighter,” Shooter fired off on his Twitter Feed over the weekend.
On February 13, 2002, Waylon Jennings, one of the great country music Outlaws, passed away due to complications from diabetes. Now a Phoenix-based organization along with the Waylon Jennings Estate, have partnered to set up The Waylon Fund to support state-of-the-art investigations into the genetic and genomic origins of diabetes.
Ahead of the release of their new album Damaged Goods, Reno, NV’s Hellbound Glory has released a new song from it called “You Better Hope You Die Young”. The song can be heard in it’s entirety here. Damaged Goods will be out November 15th on Rusty Knuckles, and 500 copies will also be available in a limited-edition vinyl LP with a digital download card.
Pop country group Rascal Flatts, the top-selling country group of the last decade, best known for their pallid and catchy tunes, prickly hair, and overt use of the pitch-correcting program Auto-tune in both the recorded and live formats, is now a member of the most sacred of all country music institutions, The Grand Ole Opry.
Dale Watson has a brand new album coming out on October 11th, and like the name implies, it was recorded in the historic Sun Studios. Dale pairs up with drummer Mike Bernal and Chris Crepps on upright bass to imbibe his 14 original tracks with the classic Johnny Cash vibe that was originally captured at Sun in the mid-1950’s by Johnny and his “Tennessee Two”.
Saving Country Music’s 2010 Album of the Year winner Hellbound Glory has finally set a release date for their much-anticipated third record. Damaged Goods will be out November 15th on Rusty Knuckles, and 500 copies will also be available in a limited-edition vinyl LP with a digital download card. The album will be available on Amazon and iTunes, and CD purchase from the band on the road.
In about a week, Hank Williams III will be releasing an unprecedented 4 albums via his own label, and then heading out on tour. Ahead of this, I talked with the head hellbilly himself about the new albums, the legacy of fatherhood in the Hank Williams lineage, his role as a founding father of the country music underground, Shooter Jennings and his XXX movement, and how he feels about the unfinished songs of Hank Williams.