Unlike a Song of the Year, the Single of the Year is supposed to be a jam or a ditty that gets stuck in your head. It just happens to be that the Turnpike Troubadours version of this type of song still comes with an emotional component.
For many other artists, Billboards & Brake Lights would be like a Greatest Hits compilation of all of their quality songs. You hear a song like “Superman” and wonder how someone else hadn’t written this song before.
The only way the original roots of American country music have been able to endure in popular culture throughout all of these years is by finding willing hosts that allow the music to exist in their hearts.
Every year there’s that handful of artists that you discover and it’s hard to comprehend how you got along without them previously. In 2023, there seems to be even more of these artists than normal.
The band’s new album Wandering Star comes at a time when so much is happening in country music independent of the mainstream, it’s hard to even keep up, and a band like Flatland Cavalry can almost get overlooked.
Many Willie songs were sung, some legendary collaborations ensued, Miranda Lambert’s fringe was longer than Snoop Dogg’s spliff, and pound for pound, it was more entertaining than any country music awards show.
For one weekend last February, Billy Strings took over Music City with a trifecta of sold-out concerts. It wasn’t the first two shows at the expansive Bridgestone Arena, but the third at the intimate Mother Church…
Like a steel train locomotive with three helper engines pinned and hauling 38 box cars chock full of 100% prime Angus American-made twang, Robert Henry and the Repeaters come barreling into your country music heart.
Saving Country Music spends the vast majority of the time focusing on artists and bands that get overlooked and under-appreciated in popular country music. But that doesn’t mean that mainstream country is entirely terrible.
A Song of the Year nominee needs to be something that can change a life, change someone’s perspective, or change the world we live in. Yes, this is all quite a tall order, but this is where a good song can take you.
With an uncommon thoughtfulness and an ear for composition, the classically-trained Jason Hawk Harris takes the concept of country music and sees how far he can expand it with his new album “Thin Places.”
Often picking the Song of the Year frustrates folks who just want to hear songs that are enjoyable and also happen to be well-written. That’s what a Saving Country Music Single of the Year is for.
‘Tis the season to go through all the albums released in country music this year, and attempt to asses what we think will withstand the test of time and ultimately define 2023. This isn’t about turning art into competition…
Jaime Wyatt is the kickass Outlaw lady of Americana who once robbed her drug dealer and did hard time in the California penitentiary before using country music to turn her life around and tell her story.
The Low Water Bridge Band embodies the very kind of roots-based sound and insistence on quality songwriting that has spearheaded the country music insurgency bursting out from country music’s mother land.
To call The Wilder Blue a “group” that makes “music” just feels a little … inadequate. It doesn’t properly articulate the experience of seeing these guys perform. Even labeling them a “supergroup” still feels inferior…
Wyatt Flores has everything many of the other guy don’t, which is a refined ear, a more polished sound, and an actual production sense, while still delivering those cutting lines.
s it possible for a performance to feel unquestionably iconic and memorable, and still cringey at the same time? Because that’s how one may feel about Dolly Parton on Thanksgiving, 2023.
Prepare yourself for one of the most interesting, omnivorous, and immersive experiences that you can discover in music that still claims an allegiance to “country.” It’s Daniel Donato’s “Reflector.”
There are songwriters. Then there is that most exclusive pantheon of songwriters who graduate to imparting new perspectives on life otherwise inaccessible, and opening up entirely new avenues of thought in the audience.
As the name implies, the new movie has a major musical component, pairing it perfectly with a soundtrack that could have implications well beyond the film, and expose an audience to important music and performers.
A native Texan with Choctaw-Apache heritage who draws inspiration from the land and the songwriters who came before him, Vincent Neil Emerson has many feeling that magic that only the best of music can impart.
It may not be the music that most defines your life, but it’s music you don’t mind moving in and out of it. It’s Chris Stapleton, which means always on brand, always enjoyable, even if rarely exceptional.
Cody doubles down on his country roots, strengthens his commitment to quality songs, and even refines his sound with surprising sparsity and depth to the point where you’re nearly stunned at some of the results.