Nick Shoulders is a modern musical marvel. he’s created an appetite for otherwise arcane modes of country music. There is no competition, comparable, or peer to Nick Shoulders. He’s a subgenre all unto himself.
You pipe up the new Tyler Childers album Rustin’ In The Rain and the tandem twangy guitar sounds introducing the title track immediately hit your ears, and all of a sudden everything seems a little more right in the world.
Ashley McBryde’s strong suit is taking snapshots from the everyday lives of average working people, and gracing them with unadorned, plainspoken, but deeply potent songwriting poetry.
This is the sound of tattooed scars, cauterized wounds, and calloused hands. This is the sound of folks with sinewy muscles and bulging veins earned not from pumping iron, but from forging steel and beating back rust.
Old Crow Medicine Show is at its best when they embrace the wild assed hillbilly street performer persona. Crow has always put the “show” into their version of throwback country.
Just as fulfilling as discovering a brand new artist and watching them rise to fame, it’s similarly rewarding to stumble upon a local band whose music has national implications and is better than all those major radio acts.
Zach Bryan deftly and poignantly encapsulates the sincerest feelings of people that they can’t begin to express themselves. When they listen to his songs, it’s like staring straight into their very souls.
The story of the Turnpike Troubadours is one of a victory, where the better angels of a bunch of friends from Tahlequah, Oklahoma refused to allow some moments of weakness and the outside noise to tear asunder something…
Bingham’s still out there packing venues and headlining festivals as one of the premier acts in the independent country scene. That’s why it’s pretty disappointing that “Watch Out For The Wolf” is so low effort.
While living through the musical moments of our era, it can be hard to quantify them in real time. You really have to zoom out, look at the bigger picture, and realize just how far we have come in country music.
Whether you love Oliver Anthony or think he’s a fudge rounder, he’s definitely sparked off a ton of national interest in earnest songwriters who can stand in front of a microphone with just an acoustic guitar.
They don’t really fit into any scene distinctly. But instead of grousing about it, they’ve decided to get good enough to start their own. If they keep releasing albums like ‘Wild Man,’ they very well just might.
This EP establishes that Hank Williams IV is not just a lark. No matter where he fits in the Hank Williams legacy, Ricky Fitzgerald fits somewhere, and that helps ensure the future of that legacy.
Enter Oliver Anthony, and the super-viral recording of his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Undoubtedly, it is quite a remarkable song and performance. He’s a songwriter from Farmville, VA…
The purpose of this album is to dive head first into Eady’s Mississippi roots in a way that takes shape as serious grooves and shack shakers designed to get the soul singing and the limbs twitching.
There is one thing that is inarguable about William Beckmann. The South Texas native has a voice that is begging to be heard by the masses. He’s one of those artists where you don’t wonder “if,” but “when” he’ll blow up.
It’s the wide array of influences that the Turnpike Troubadours bring to bear in their music that makes their songs feel both wholly unique and keenly familiar, often conferring a warm feeling even upon the very first listen.
Cue up this fine specimen of authentic country music that will steal you away to a sublime place where all is right in the world like only the best of country music can do. Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is the best of country music.
Listening to Kyle Keller’s new album ‘The Great American Highway,’ you get the sense that Roger Miller and Tom T. Hall would approve of the songs from this Gainesville, Florida native, even if nobody else does.
Produced by Wes Sharon who is responsible for a lot of those great old Turnpike Troubadours albums, the instrumentation of ‘After The Flood Vol. 1’ is spicy, diverse, and entertaining.
“There are the songs of Lori McKenna, and then there are the songs of everyone else in country music. Lori McKenna songs should constitute their own subgenre in the way she’s so deftly captures feelings and sentiments…”
The quality of talent was never the concern about FairWell Fest, and the weekend was one killer set after another. The concern was always about a big out-of-town promoter coming into local-oriented Central Oregon and taking over.
“City of Gold is a Western bluegrass album that is unafraid of broaching the subjects that are actually relevant to many bluegrass fans of today while stretching the sonic limits of the genre ever so slightly in spots.
John Prine’s son Tommy first tested out the hypothesis of pedigree in music with the song “Ships in the Harbor,” which fared so spectacularly well from a songwriting standpoint, it was named SCM’s 2022 Song of the Year.