Owning a #2 and a #7 record on the Billboard Country Albums chart, as well as a strong fan base in Texas that sold out an appearance at the vaunted Houston Rodeo, Cody Johnson doesn’t need to jump through the hoops that other developing artists are sometimes asked to, though some labels still tried as they pursued him.
Virtually everyone has been ignoring Caitlyn Smith’s record Starfire, and specifically her song “This Town Is Killing Me.” With almost no press, with absolutely no radio play, and very little attention via streaming playlists, “This Town Is Killing Me” has received well over 5 million plays on Spotify alone since its release.
Look, it’s not really the business of myself or anyone else to ask why you have chosen or been forced to virtually disappear from the public spotlight for going on almost 5 years now. But dammit, it just doesn’t feel right that we’re experiencing all of this success throughout independent country music now, and you’re not here.
Kane Brown and Luke Combs couldn’t be more different. But they are both a new style of country star who made their ascent into mainstream stardom 100% during the streaming era, and due to the streaming era specifically. Last week, both artists announced their own arena tours.
Over the last few years, there’s been two primary names that people in-the-know about the doings of true country music have been sliding Saving Country Music’s way and saying they’re ones to watch. The first name was Tyler Childers, and we all know how that turned out. The second is Logan Ledger.
By the bullet points on the resume, Burt Reynolds had little to do with country music. Not since Gram Parsons did a figure in American pop culture act like a bigger bridge to country music, and proved how it could be cool. For most famous humans, the myth precedes them. But with Burt Reynolds, the myth really was the man.
Nobody has benefited more from the momentum of Sturgill Simpson than fellow Kentucky songwriter turned burgeoning star Tyler Childers. But now Tyler is enjoying a momentum all his own, and if anything, is even further ahead than Sturgill was at this point in his career.
There’s nothing new about staring at the “New Artist” nominees for a country music industry awards show and being bewildered at the names you see. It’s an annual exercise. This year the names included in the CMA’s “New Artist of the Year” category were no different.
There is a strange project that is preparing to be released on September 7th by a pair of country music performers called The Stryker Brothers that has folks trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and who the hell is behind it all.
Now that the 2018 CMA Awards nominations have been announced, the people who care about the awards can pour over the lists and find things to complain about, while the people who complain about the awards can pour over the lists while professing to not care. This is the way of things, and what happens every year.
When we first got word of a new reality TV singing competition coming down the pike via the USA Network called “Real Country,” and that the judges were going to be none other than pop country pretty boy Jake Owen and the Queen of Crossover Shania Twain, it was worth a chuckle to say the least.
There most definitely have been greater offenders to the roots and the integrity of country music over the past few years than Dustin Lynch. But arguably nobody has been a greater disappointment than the Broken Bow artist from Tullahoma, Tennessee. With a promising start to his career, with his strong voice and propensity to sport […]
Recently Saving Country Music was asked to participate in the True Country Podcast, hosted by Texas musicians Justin Mason and Vic Andrews. After warning them I can talk their ear off on the topic of country music, the conversation stretched into two 30-minute podcasts, which can now be heard on their website, and via iTunes. […]
If you wanted to know just how committed he is to doing things his own way, how inspired he is by the oldtimers and Outlaws that came before him and the camaraderie they showed towards each other, well he’s about to tell you.
Game over. All efforts to stave off the irrelevancy of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in the face of installing a pop star in the history books as the owner of the most successful single in the genre’s history ultimately failed. This week, the song “Meant To Be” by pop star Bebe Rexha with Florida […]
They will tell you that women can’t make it in country music these days, and it’s certainly true that it appears to be more difficult than ever. And if you think it’s tough being a woman in country music, try being a woman in country music who is actually making country music, putting you in the most marginalized category of all.
Even Eric Church when he pasted an image of the cover on his Instagram account said, “Read the full interview (don’t be misled by the headline).” Soon vociferous defectors from Eric’s fan club known as the Church Choir were making a ruckus, as were many other country music fans who are calling for an Eric Church boycott.
Well well well. Apparently Sam Hunt is part human, and is prone to fail, at least partially. That’s the pronouncement many are making after his current single “Downtown’s Dead” stalled at country radio outside the Top 10, and has subsequently had the support behind it pulled by his label MCA Nashville.
Paramount Network’s original series ‘Yellowstone’ starring Kevin Costner has lots of folks talking with its rough and tumble drama, and panoramic vistas shot on location in the American West. But one interesting wrinkle for fans of independent country music has been the inclusion of multiple artists.
Some still consider Kacey Musgraves a performer prone to political activism due to some of the early songs in career such as the award-winning “Merry Go ‘Round” and “Follow Your Arrow.” But Musgraves these days is in a much more different place, despite how the media attempted to portray it.
In the late 80’s, there was a commercial for Pace Picante Sauce that featured a bunch of cowboys sitting around a campfire eating a chuck wagon dinner. When the cowboys ran out of Pace made in San Antonio (by folks who know what Picante sauce is supposed to taste like, the commercial proclaimed), the cook […]
Plain and simple, the trolling of music festivals on Twitter for not having 50/50 men vs. women on their lineups is very specifically hurting the cause to include more women on festival lineups. Expecting every festival to achieve 50/50 representation of women immediately is unreasonable to impossible in certain sectors of the music economy.
The biggest adversity to independent music is success. Nobody knows this better than Chris Stapleton. After he was fully embraced by the mainstream industry and was winning awards left and right, folks began vilifying him as a sellout and for not being as country as advertised. But Marty Stuart doesn’t see it that way.
When I started Saving Country Music 10 years ago, reviewing records was never part of the intention or the founding principles. In fact the first thing resembling a proper album review didn’t appear on the site until a year after its existence. It was at the request of readers that album reviews became an increasing part of the site’s coverage.