Life can be a pill. Music helps. If you’re looking for that one album that can allow you to lose yourself in Appalachian music bliss driven home by some of the most soulful lyrics around, 49 Winchester and ‘Leavin’ This Holler’ is beckoning.
Out of the wreckage of the American experience comes the pointed, propulsive, sometimes polarizing, and at other times gentle and ruminative musings of B.J. Barham and his long-running band of alt-county misfit toys.
In a world of criminally underrated artists, high crimes and midemeanors should be levied against a host of white collar criminals in the music industry for overlooking the work of Jeff Crosby all of these years.
Whether the world is ready for them or not, the Alabama-bred roots music collective known as the Red Clay Strays are here, and surging in a way that is reminiscent of the meteoric rise of other independent-minded performers.
Charley Crockett’s career has been marked by releases of original albums, and albums of cover songs. But as he underscores on ‘Visions of Dallas,’ he’s perhaps at his best when you get a mix of both.
Get ready to have your country music heart revitalized, your fear for the future of country music squashed, and your prospects for country music bolstered by the bold flavors involved in Matt Castillo’s new album.
On “Borned In Ya,” Melissa Carper leans into her strengths even more by worrying less about genre, and more about era, while emphasizing what is quietly brilliant about her approach to songwriting.
Signs point to her being the second coming of Taylor Swift, but your ears pick up on the country sounds and the bursts of sincerity. She’s traditional country and pop country at the same time.
From this attendee’s perspective, it was the most fulfilling musical moments experienced since the return of the Turnpike Troubadours at Cain’s Ballroom in 2022. This was even after I was hunted down by security.
It really is hard to come back to reality after spending three days in picturesque Whitefish, Montana, taking in the music of some of our generation’s very top talents courtesy of the Under The Big Sky Festival.
Sierra Ferrell made a grand entrance to the Under The Big Sky Festival in Montana on horseback. Shortly after, she would top her own memorable moment by performing with Billy Strings on “The Bells of Every Chapel.”
As much as the new name and the new album open a new season for Sturgill, it’s also perhaps the most Sturgill Simpson thing he has ever done. It’s country, but expanded, enlightened, and uninhibited.
This is the kind of traditional country music that immediately sits right with you, that reminds you of the greatness that country music used to be, and that sets you at ease knowing this timeless sound hasn’t been lost.
When you have Sturgill Simpson, Billy Strings, and Megan Moroney releasing highly anticipated albums on the same week, as well as William Michael Morgan making a return, and Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen…
It’s not Beyoncé, but Shaboozey who has seeded the song of the summer with “A Bar (Tipsy),” and released the album that has shown the resonance and stickiness “Cowboy Carter” failed to.
In one song after another, and in one verse after another, Jesse Welles stuns with his cutting criticism interwoven with sarcasm addressing today’s current events. Welles loads up and unleashes.
This is a quieter and more melancholy album, perhaps less country than previous works, and captures a maturing young man whose thoughts and problems have moved on from young adult concerns to bigger and more daunting questions.
Once again showcasing her superior songwriting skills matched with the unparalleled power and control of her voice, ‘Here I Am’ evokes goosepumps, and at times stuns with the compelling and involved nature of the writing.
For the nonprofit and mostly volunteer-driven SFF Presents, the encroachment and dominance of musical juggernaut Live Nation is not just a hypothetical. The organization is on the front lines of supporting music on a local level.
In 2024, the Jackalope Jamboree (June 27-29) still had some of the topmost names in independent country like Charley Crockett, Kaitlin Butts, and Silverada. It had legends of Red Dirt like Jason Boland, and The Randy Rogers Band.
Uninterested in taking a conventional approach to making an album, rising country star Kaitlin Butts finds inspiration in the original Rodgers and Hammerstein stage production about her native state of Oklahoma.
Seven minutes after their new self-titled album hit streaming services at midnight Eastern, 9:00 p.m. Pacific, the greatest live country band in the world took the stage at the Jackalope Jamboree in Pendleton, Oregon.
Mike and the Moonpies? Silverada? The only names you really need to know are Mike Harmeier, Omar Oyoque, Catlin Rutherford, Zachary Moulton, and Taylor Englert. If they’re involved, it’s probably tits.
It’s not just some of the staggering one-liners McKeon delivers. It’s how he embeds them within stories, settings, and characters that really sell those lines as prophetic, and make you heed them, not just hear them.