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.
Alan Jackson isn’t one to pull punches, or to not say what’s on his mind when somebody asks him. His Hall of Fame career has been marked by taking hard stances for the cause of real country music. Alan Jackson was recently interviewed as part of a GQ feature, and had some interesting things to say about Chris Stapleton.
Once again as spring nears, it becomes time for the annual exercise to ponder who perhaps the CMA will deem worthy for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. About this time the secret CMA-approved committee is going over their final ballots and whittling down the precious names to the few who will make it.
“Just book more women! Why is this so hard?” This is often the simplified answer to the complex question of how to deal with the lack of equilibrium between the sexes being represented on the lineups of music festivals and other events throughout the music world.
So here we are once again staring at a list of the nominees for the ACM Awards, with few surprises, lots of predictable stuff, and finding ourselves full of self-reflection on if we should even care about the annual country music gala that is most susceptible to bloc voting and horse trading.
Most major labels treat artist’s careers like bottle rockets. Either they blast off, or you get a dud and throw it out, and reach for another one. And there’s no in between. There’s no career development, no strategy beyond radio. Luckily for Scotty, some folks doing it for the love finally showed up.
So we finally received the info on Kacey Musgraves’ new album ‘Golden Hour.’ But where is a single from the new Kacey Musgraves album for country radio? “Space Cowboy” would be a great country radio single. The song has already received over 500,000 spins on Spotify. The television performance now gives it an extra boost.
Dale Watson was the face of the music scene, and not just in country and roots. Whenever there was a charity function involving music, a car dealership opening, or just about anything having to do with the city, Dale Watson seemed to be there. He was Austin’s music’s mascot.