Album Review – Ken Pomeroy’s “Cruel Joke”

Both Ken Pomeroy and her new album “Cruel Joke” are quickly being offered up by the initiated whenever names are requested for the best new music discoveries.
Both Ken Pomeroy and her new album “Cruel Joke” are quickly being offered up by the initiated whenever names are requested for the best new music discoveries.
Oh bless this guy’s heart. He thinks it’s still 1990 and you can release a country record without any snap tracks, trap beats, tractor rapping, Auto-tune, or other wiggety wah wah and still get people to go wild over it.
‘The Time of Your Life’ is unabashedly Kat as she overshares about her struggles with impulse control, failed love interests, and her utter inability to be anything but herself. There’s a folk hero appeal to her.
It’s hard to not fall for the emotion on the track, which is respectful of the original piano-based arrangement, but also brings in the familiar tones of Mickey Raphael’s harmonica, and Willie’s guitar Trigger.
Everywhere you turn these days, it seems there’s a new country traditionalist crooning out killer music you can immediately warm up to, and with a cut to their jib that assures you this isn’t some interloper.
Some albums you simply enjoy. Then other albums you listen to, and you feel like you’re living inside of them, and they live inside of you. You carry their sentiment and melodies with you throughout the day.
Any serious fan of 1970’s country music worth their salt will know the name, the hits, and doesn’t need to be sold on the importance of Johnny Rodriguez. Six #1 songs, fourteen Top 5’s, twenty Top 10’s…
This album is very moody and brooding, but this also what makes the listening experience so enveloping and intoxicating. Kristina Murray’s music and story prey on your musical empathy, and suck you in.
Few if any songwriters exhibit the fearlessness towards the art form that country music’s Caitlin Cannon does. Unfiltered, and in certain cases, uninhibited, she’s willing to go to the places that all of our minds do.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the 2025 ACM Awards LIVE Blog! As the event transpires, we’ll be following along in real time, razzing on folks for poor performances and life choices, and giving credit where it is due.
It’s ten kick ass, easy-to-love country songs that sound just like country music always has, and always should. But if you want to delve a little bit deeper, you’ll also discover its quiet genius.
Congratulations Eric Church fans, this is what you waited four years for—seven new songs and a Tom Waits cover spectacularly overproduced by Jay Joyce. “Evangeline vs. The Machine” is right…
Would we only get a wine and roses portrayal of the Opry, especially through the modern era? Or would it be willing to present the accurate history, warts and all? Luckily, the latter is the case.
Combining adept flat-picking with top-caliber songwriting and a voice perfectly tooled for bluegrass, Mason Via brings an accessibility and immediacy to the bluegrass discipline.
Why in the world is Willie Nelson still recording and performing music at the age of 91? Or even more perplexing, how is he even still alive, especially after the life he’s lived? The question and the answer are probably one in the same.
The best live country band in the world stopped into Austin’s Radio East on Friday night (4-25) on their current “Unlit Matches” tour to regale fans in the town the band originates from.
Chaparelle is endearing if nothing else, and quickly infectious, appealing to your classic country inclinations, but also tickling some guilty pleasures. Ultimately, it’s hard to not approve.
Pug Johnson explores the regional dialects of Texas and their intertwined nature, resulting in tasty and sometimes unexpected moments that has many buzzing about their next favorite artist.
When you think of Luckenbach, TX, you think of Jerry Jeff Walker’s Viva Terlingua! You think of Willie and Waylon and the boys. Bluegrass isn’t what immediately comes to mind. But for the fourth year.
No record label. No publicist. No big time producer. No problem. They’re still kicking out killer country music. Country Honk might have one the most generic names in the country universe, but you can’t say it’s not accurate.
When word leaked out that Ernest had been spotted in downtown Nashville recently with Snoop Dogg shooting a video, you expected the worst. But as bad as this could have been, it doesn’t sound bad at all.
As the rest of country music seems to be following Jon Pardi’s lead, Jon Pardi himself seems to be staying static, if not heading in the other direction ever so slightly.
This time around, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives offer a take on ’60’s instrumental surf and Ennio Morricone Western soundtrack inspired sounds. The result is often breathtaking to behold.
What the Turnpike Troubadours have proven over time is that good songs endure, and better songs grow even better over time. There’s no mistaking it. The Turnpike Troubadours are now legends.