It’s not just that it isn’t country. It’s that it’s just not good. If this is who you want to integrate country music with, and use to highlight the genre’s Black roots, you will do significantly more harm than good in that pursuit.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country is the bold exploration of the vast outer regions of what is possible in country music, while still lovingly delivering all the twang you could ever want.
If you’re a traditional bluegrass fan, is it a sad development that the Millennial Queen of Bluegrass has gone pop? Yes, it is. Is it as bad as you feared when she first announced it? No, it’s not.
It was three performers with six first names, and Braxton Keith with his Rollie Fingers mustache capped it all off making a strong case for why he’s the next hot thing in country music.
Tyler Hatley and Justin Clyde Williams along with Matt Parks have mustered up a really good introduction into their songwriting universe in North Carolina. It’s one you find compelling, and want to experience in-person.
With ‘Dollar A Day,’ the grandiose promises Crockett is prone to slipping into are fulfilled. With 15 tracks, a variety in sound, and a grand scope, it’s everything what you want an album to be, from Charley Crockett or anyone else.
“We’re Only Human” captures an acclaimed songwriter evolving with his music, and challenging an audience to evolve with him.
Together they offer up a straightforward bluegrass album under the duo name Pitney Meyer that warms your cockles, and does for bluegrass what Mo Pitney did for traditional country previously: make you hopeful for the future.
Listening through Rhinestone Requiem, the boldness of its audio flavors, and the passion brought to the songwriting, it gives you a sense that Sunny Sweeney is just now hitting her peak.
There’s something about hearing Whitey Morgan’s music that makes you feel 100 feet tall and bulletproof. It’s everything that makes up Outlaw country concentrated into its most pure form.
“Snipe Hunter” by Tyler Childers is nowhere near as good as some of the hyperbolic proclamations being bandied about profess, and it’s not even close to the colossal letdown that others are alleging.
While other top level names in independent country continue to present you with polarizing twists and confounding turns, the consistency of Cody Jinks is incredibly comforting.
By utilizing jazz cords, surf tones, and making unintuitive turns, Chasen Wayne takes country music and the intrepid listener into uncharted territory, though with plenty of familiar sounds and guideposts.
“The Mirror” is a Trisha Yearwood album. It’s an album that feels inspired, passionate, and purposeful. It’s the best album Trisha Yearwood could make in this season of her career.
River Jam is a great opportunity to scope out and enjoy some of the most promising up-and-coming and established songwriting talent in Texas. In the aftermath of the flooding, it became an impromptu benefit.
The Band Perry, eat your heart out. If there’s any band that can best all comers with with their constant “reinventions,” dramatically over-promising and spectacularly under-delivering, it’s the Zac Brown Band.
It doesn’t even feel apt to characterize Tami Neilson as a “musician” in the conventional sense. She’s a force of nature, a Category 5 Typhoon blowing in from the archipelago, a volcanic eruption of power and talent.
When the news came down that Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton would be releasing a song together, it was hard to not get a little excited, irrespective of your level of excitement for either of these artists.
Neighborly. If you had to describe the 32nd annual Master Musicians Festival with only one word, that’d be it. Because that’s exactly what it felt like. It’s a family-friendly event that’s not yet been exploited.
‘Ain’t Rocked in a While’ is a loud, rambunctious, greasy, uninhibited affair that puts songwriting second to finding a groove and laying down in it. It’s garage rock deep fried in a vat of ’70s sweat.
Releasing ‘Little Crosses’ in the dead of summer is smart timing for Stamm and Co. This is a summer album full of serious heartland rock, songs that stoke sentimental memories, and a little bit of recklessness.
Those who take the time to dig for the best in music are handsomely rewarded via the experience of this album, and before the rest of the world and the music business get their opportunity to get their greasy mandibles on it.
What about the toe tappers, the booty shakers, and the boot scooters? That’s what the best SINGLE distinction is for. They can be great “songs” too. But these are the tracks that get stuck in your head.
It’s never been easy to pigeon-hole Parker McCollum, or summarize his music career or sound in a concise sentence. He’s a Texas artist with mainstream impact. He’s an independent-minded performer with commercial impact.