When rounding out the list of the greatest country music singers of our era, you better make sure Josh Turner is at or near the top of your survey or you’re rendering the entire exercise irrelevant and ill-informed.
Taken as a whole, F-1 Trillion is much more of a contemporary version of pop country than it is anything else, with committee-written songs, little heart, substance, or soul. But this album is supposed to be fun, and Post Malone succeeds.
It was a mixture of surprise, astonishment, and supreme happiness when someone reached out and said that Tony Martinez was finally releasing his debut album. Truth be told, Tony should probably be dead.
Ever since the release of Jamey Johnson’s last original album—2010’s The Guitar Song—fans have been eagerly awaiting new music from the 2-time CMA award-winning songwriter. It’s finally here.
Country music. No qualifiers, no hyphenated terms, no squinting to make an “Americana” act appear to be country just because they have a steel guitar in the band. With “A Country Song,” there are no hijinks, and no crazy tangents.
For the first time in three years, Sturgill Simpson took the stage to perform a full set of music. And for the first time in an even longer period he took the stage with guitarist Laur Joamets, Kevin Black on bass, and Miles Miller on drums.
Even stone sober, Billy Strings and his band can take your mind places otherwise inaccessible under normal circumstances, opening up portals of enjoyment and understanding that is nothing short of life-altering.
It was 25 years ago on August 5th 1999 when young Nashville Lower Broadway performer, Jesse Lee Jones, finalized one of his most important decisions, to buy Roberts Western World from its founder, Robert Moore.
Simply the title of this album feels ambitious. But not even this prepares you for what you’ll experience if you approach this album with an open mind, and as a linear work. Karen Jonas has released an exemplar take on the American concept record.
With his new six-song EP Tenkiller, Lance Roark steps out of the shadows of being a Turnpike Troubadours beneficiary. He also breaks out of the singer/songwriter shell to turn in a full-tilt Red Dirt rock experience
Childers taking the stage wasn’t the start of an amazing day of fellowship across cultures and geography, it was just the culmination of it. Blackfeet drummers and dancers blessed the event in the mid afternoon.
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.