Now The Band Perry is lying about things that they don’t even need to lie about. And now their using their complicit friends in country music’s fawning media to rewrite history. And for the life of me, I have no idea why. They’re tilting at windmills instead of letting their music speak for itself.
If anyone could get away with walking right up to a happily married woman, planting one right on her lips right in front of her husband, and all the associated parties would walk away with a humors story to tell instead of an account of a fist fight, it would be Willie Nelson. And that’s exactly what happened a while back.
Things could be worse in your life. You could be in the Josh Abbott Band at the moment, which means you’ve probably experienced some massive calamity recently. Despite their continued success as one of the very top acts in Texas country, they’ve gone through a string of unfortunate incidents over the last week or so.
From the beginning, the Hastings model was set up to focus on rural communities. The first Hastings opened in 1968 in Amarillo, TX, and along with Tower Records, Hastings became one of the very first chains to sell books right beside music.
The next trend in country may not be defined by a style or a sound, but who is involved in it. But if collaborations will be the next big trend, how about putting out just a little bit of effort to make sure that the great talent that is going unrecognized in country music itself gets some love?
Saving Country Music headquarters received a call Tuesday afternoon (7-19), and was informed that Wade Bowen and Granger Smith had just engaged in a good, healthy phone conversation, and that Wade Bowen wanted to clear the air on the matter. Here’s the transcript.
So are we all supposed to be hating on Taylor Swift again? Is that what the summer of 2016 protocol calls for? Because God forbid that I’m out of fashion here. I mean when I was railing on Taylor Swift for saddling up with Max Martin on 1989 to manufacture derivative pop songs, I was chastised at large because didn’t I know that she stood up to Spotify and Apple?
“I thought Tom Hiddleston did a superb job. I thought he captured the physical resemblance, the mannerisms,” Jett Williams says. “But I would have liked to see a lot more focus on the music, and why did he write those songs? … They did not ask anyone in the family anything.
The comment from Granger Smith came in a recent interview involving multiple reporters that was posted on The Boot Wednesday (7-13). Granger’s words were smoldering for numerous days until it spilled over Saturday, with Texas artist Wade Bowen and others taking exception to Granger’s comments publicly.
Instead of having joggers running through parks listening to Spotify playlists, they’re not chasing down pocket monsters with their smartphones. Instead of consumers keeping up with their favorite bands and artists on social media, they’re engaging in Pokemon business in a virtual world.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a better example of the wisdom and glow of womanhood than in a song by Jamie Lin Wilson. Whatever it is that possesses certain people to be able to encapsulate those most potent of sentiments and emotions of life into song in a way that renders itself as timeless, Jamie Lin has it.
The song turned out to be Chesnutt’s final #1 in his career, but for a man who was mostly known for traditional country, it was a controversial decision to say the least. Chesnutt’s country version of the song alienated some of his most loyal fans. But it turns out the song was controversial with Mark Chesnutt as well, and with one of his musical heroes, George Jones.
The Country Music Association sent out the initial ballots for the 50th Annual CMA Awards on July 5th, and with them came a new system that hopes to stop some of the campaigning for artists to win certain awards. It’s called “Nominee Showcase,” and gives voters a centralized location to find verified and fairly-presented stats on all the nominees.
You’ll be hard pressed to find another country album for the rest of 2016 as heavily anticipated by fans in the know as Cody Jinks’ I’m Not The Devil. Due out August 12th, the reigning Saving Country Music Song of the Year winner feels poised for a breakout with this one, and the snippets released from the record so far have folks salivating for the whole thing.
The thing about music legends is they are legends for us all, and unite individuals with songs that speak to the universal struggles and shared joys that all Americans and humans experience. Politics should never should be foisted upon them so that music can remain a respite from political spats, and a place where people of all political ideologies are welcome.
Watson’s comments illustrate that the issues facing today’s country music don’t just boil down to preferences in style. Country music used to be more about conveying something of substance to the audience—a moment that gives you perspective, or makes you take stock in life.
Last week the big issue was YouTube, and the ridiculously small amount of revenue that creators make for their works. This week the big issue is a new Justice Department ruling that has the potential to turn the long-standing methods of writing songs, licensing them for use, and paying the songwriters for their efforts completely upside down.
It was late Saturday night, early Sunday morning, roughly midnight Central time, and a press release was sent out across the wires from the Kenny Chesney camp. It seemed like a very strange time to send out a press release, but Kenny Chesney’s peeps had a story they wanted to get out to the public, or more specifically, a story they wanted to be out ahead of.
“I remember we were doing our first tour, somewhere probably like a Red Roof Inn or Howard Johnson’s,” Sturgill explains. “I almost killed myself getting out of the shower to write it down. It was right before we were going to check out and leave. And I had to literally like jump out of the shower and I slipped.”
If you didn’t know any better, you would say that The Damn Quails were cursed. They couldn’t have found a warmer reception for their debut record Down The Hatch in 2011, and out of nowhere a new, promising band in Texas/Red Dirt music scene was launched. But almost as soon as The Damn Quails started to soar, debilitating problems beset the band.
Every year we mark the passing of music legends in country music and beyond, but 2016 has been an especially dark year for the passing of music greats. From Prince and David Bowie in the pop and rock world, to Merle Haggard and Guy Clark in country, to the dozens of others who may have not been as well-known, but still had a great impact on American music.
Now ‘Nashville’ has moved to CMT, where it will play second fiddle to a sitcom starring Billy Ray Cyrus as an Elvis impersonator, 16 airings of Smokey and the Bandit per year, and some reality show hosted by wrestling washup Steve Austin. And it only costs the City of Nashville and Tennessee government $11 million dollars in grease money to make it happen.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the 2016 ANTI-CMT Awards LIVE blog. After taking a year off due to an open boycott of CMT, Saving Country Music has returned to offer spirited dissent, snarky commentary, and borderline inappropriate sarcasm amount the CMT Awards festivities, as well as hopefully give credit to the few, if any, bright spots during the presentation.
I’m speaking of Thomas Rhett’s “Vacation,” with its diabolically ridiculous baggage of 14 songwriters, and viral video featuring pubescent girls singing about drinking “cold ones.” “Vacation” is nothing more than two previous songs mashed together.