In ‘Tropicana,’ the cunning use of subgenre dialects and instrumental modes, and the fearlessness he brings to writing silly melodies and singing his guts out to them is a version of genius you just can’t help but appreciate.
On the side of a hill at a state park in Bell County, Kentucky rests the Laurel Cove Amphitheater. Appearing like something taken from a scene of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel…
Hailey Whitters makes for one of the most navigable bridges between the independent and mainstream, and the classic and contemporary. She offers something entertaining and enlightening to just about everyone.
Similar to all the Bro-Country songs that name drop “Cash” and “Hank” yet take no the teachings or sonic inspirations from these titans, this Laci Kaye Booth song is more insult than tribute.
As we reach the halfway pole of the musical year, it’s time to reflect back on the best albums that have been released so far. There are some great projects that you should make sure don’t slip under your radar.
It’s often the greatest songs that are not written for an audience, but for the artist themselves to process through their emotions. But the rest of us can listen in, and often use great songs to help us process through grief of our own.
“Son of the San Lorenzo” feels like Jesse Daniel’s most complete, involved, and thoughtful work overall, and adds to a growing catalog of high caliber country.
If you’re looking for the real deal in Texas honky tonk music straight from the most iconic dance halls in the state, Weldon Henson is your man, and “Stone Gold Country Gold” is your album.
Country traditionalist Big City Brian Wright isn’t the first to record a country trucker album, and he won’t be the last. But he is the first to take a country trucker album, and make it fly.
Their music feels like it springs from a sepia photograph capturing a moment of the past in the era of homesteads, lace, and corduroy, with sister harmonies awaking something both archaic and timeless in listeners.
DelFest, held on Memorial day weekend each year in Cumberland, Maryland at the Allegheny County Fairgrounds is now in its 16th year and going strong.
Through the six episodes, Tom Segura portrays dark characters in “unthinkable situations and fantasies.” One such character is a “global country music superstar” who kidnaps his own fans named Rex Henley.
“I’m The Problem” sounds like 37 slightly different versions of the same song over and over. resulting in a grayish goulash of a mono-genre sound for many of these tracks.
Even if you weren’t a fan of country and Western music previously, after a spin through “Tales Of The Dark West,” you’ll be wearing out your friends and family about its beauty. Like the feminine version of Colter Wall.
In the coming weeks, the country music candidates for what will be considered the 2025 “Song of the Summer” will start to align, and Lainey Wilson has offered up a new single that certainly could find itself in contention.
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.