Joshua Hedley’s just-released record Mr. Jukebox is just about the most accurate portrayal of the Countrypolitan era we’ve heard from a modern artist in quite some time. And though many traditional country fans are singing Hedley’s praises, some have been skeptical of just how sincere his reverence for the music can be.
I feel like Al Pacino in The Godfather III. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” I’ve moved on from the whole questioning of Midland’s media narrative thing, and numerous times. Ultimately, it’s all about the music, and Midland’s music is better than most anything else in the mainstream.
Why exactly was a UK-based publication asking a Canadian pop country star with permanent citizenship in Switzerland about the American President? It was in hopes she would be naive enough to answer in a way that would result in a scandalous uproar, and that’s exactly what has happened.
Carrie Underwood co-produced her entire new record out in September. This takes Carrie Underwood—a top tier country performer—into virtually uncharted territory in the mainstream, at least in the near term. This move by Carrie Underwood is incredibly audacious for country, mainstream or otherwise, from a man or a woman.
When the Miranda Lambert camp announced the next single they’d be sending to country radio was the mid-tempo “Keeper of the Flame,” it didn’t leap off the page as a smart pick for today’s radio landscape. But that probably wasn’t the most important consideration that worked itself into the calculus.
When we saw the expansive list of performances scheduled for the 2018 ACM Awards Sunday night (4-15) in Las Vegas, we knew something would need to be axed from the presentation to make room. During most every awards show in the modern era, performers and dignitaries of note who have passed away in the last year are honored.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the official 2018 ACM Awards LIVE blog. For those of you not familiar with this exercise, for the next three hours we will be ranting and raving, holding feet to the fire, showering others with praise who are worthy, and trying to make the excruciating practice of watching a country music show that much less painful.
All the information on the 53rd Annual ACM Awards in one place, including the presenters, the performers, the collaborations, the nominees, and other things to watch for. Will Chris Stapleton have another big night? What do traditional country fans have to look forward to (if anything)? And awards that have already been handed out.
“Just book more women! Why is this so hard?” This is the question many women artists and their fans ask when the lineups of certain festivals in country music and beyond are released, and there is a clear imbalance between the amount of male and female performers, or in certain circumstances, no women performers at all.
Brent Cobb’s latest album Providence Canyon is set to be released on May 11th though the Elektra imprint of his cousin Dave Cobb’s label, Low Country Sound. Dave Cobb also produced the effort named for a natural wonder in in Southwest Georgia. But it’s a man from Alabama who is the focus of the album’s […]
The news coming out of the Carrie Underwood camp is that she will be debuting a brand new single at the ACM Awards on Sunday (4-15), and regardless of how good or godawful the song is, I couldn’t be more happy, regardless of what the song turns out to be.
Many folks were caught off guard when the curious tour lineup of the Wet Cigarette of Music Kid Rock, Bro-Country Godfather Brantley Gilbert, and foul-mouthed comedic country artist Wheeler Walker Jr. was revealed last week, dubbed the “Red Blooded Rock N Roll Redneck Extravaganza Tour.”
Whether it was our vehement protestations, or simply patience revealing a more balanced perspective, the recent additions to the Randy Travis Spotify playlist have done a complete 180, and deserve recognition, if not outright praise.
Yeah, you’ve probably seen the video already, and probably a few times after it popped up in one or many of your social media feeds. But the ultimate lesson from the Wal-Mart yodeling boy is that America truly is starving for traditional country music.
There would be no mainstream country music career for Ashley McBryde if it weren’t for the help of Eric Church. Eric Church isn’t a guy you would expect to be a big champion of country music’s women on the surface. But quietly, Church has become a champion of many of country music’s most deserving women.
Just like the malaise we’re seeing in music and movies, attempting to reboot ‘American Idol’ is the sign of a lack of new ideas or originality. America has moved on from American Idol, and unless it’s willing to dramatically adapt to the times, it will be like an anchor on ABC and its cast.
Chris Stapleton’s #1 for his current single “Broken Halos” is an achievement that was thought to be impossible even a couple of years ago when Stapleton was dominating everything else in the genre. This is yet another accomplishment for Stapleton, and another accomplishment in the effort to restore balance to country music.
If Bebe Rexha herself is not claiming to be country, then why the hell has her song been #1 on the country charts for 15 weeks now, and just broke the Top 10 at country radio? Someone please send Bebe Rexha’s quote over to Billboard’s country chart manager Jim Asker and have him explain to us why this ruse continues.
Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, and Jason Isbell comprise the current Mt. Rushmore of independent country and roots music, and that is unquestionable, regardless of how you may feel about any one of them specifically, or even as a group. But what is the fourth mug we can put on top of that mountain?
“Countrypolitan” or “The Nashville Sound” are the terms used to describe the lush, orchestral approach to country music that took root in Nashville in the 60’s, which embellished the music with strings and chorus sections to make it appeal to a more distinguishing audience of the time. It was Music Row’s answer to the counterculture revolution.
The effrontery of whomever is really responsible for compiling these five songs together and presenting it as an expression of Randy’s tastes or desires is appalling. This is ridiculous, and everyone involved in the perpetration of this ruse must think we are all incredibly gullible, and should be called out publicly.
Bebe Rexha and her song “Meant to Be” with Florida Georgia Line has officially become to sum of all the fears for the encroachment of pop into country. Now spending its 14th week at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, “Meant To Be” officially becomes the biggest song for a woman in the 70 year history of the country genre.
The country music genre used to be full of people who were passionate about the art form. They found purpose behind bringing the music to people, and that is why they decided to become performers, songwriters, side players, DJs, managers, publicists, roadies, journalists, or whatever it took to push the music forward.
Political affiliations aside, Mike Huckabee may have been the most qualified individual in America for the position on the CMA Foundation he was appointed to. But none of this mattered to an expressly slim yet vociferous minority within the country music industry, and an especially politically-bias part of the country music press corps.