This is one of those affairs where a band stands in front of cued up microphones, and splits themselves open with rusty, serrated knives, pouring their blood and guts out for you—oversharing about broken dreams, personal problems, harrowing tales, and poor decisions.
If Morgan Wallen was a young male suitor in pursuit of your sister or daughter, he would be one of those beaus where it is undeniable they are trouble, with not just red flags flying right out in the open, but a rap sheet to back up these presuppositions. This is Morgan Wallen’s career and music in a nutshell.
It’s one of those rare occasions where an EP goes from from less than ideal, to just about perfect from the way it encapsulates a moment or a mood that may be diluted in a longer work. It’s a little gem of traditional country music, and a proper tribute to a dear loved one.
In the bleak midwinter, at a time when death and despair are hanging thick in the air, madness seems to be all around, and the Yuletide mood has all but worn off, perhaps it’s as good of a time as any aside from All Hallow’s Eve to delve into the dark, unsettled side of country music.
Aaron Watson is enigmatic in the way that you won’t find someone more fiercely dedicated to the independent approach to country music in all of its facets, but who will also still release songs that feel like they’re prattling for commercial acceptance …
Turning the stereotype that country music can only come from the Southern United States squarely on its head, The Divorcees have been eastern Canada’s favorite honky tonk band for going on 15 years now, and promise to continue to hold that distinction with the drop of their latest record ‘Drop of Blood.’
The 70-minute film ‘Nothing Stays The Same: The Story of the Saxon Pub’ might be about a specific venue in Austin. But even if you’ve never been to Austin, the film offers a great encapsulation of why it’s so critical to preserve these performance spaces.
The Dimestore Cowboys out of Johnson City, Tennessee have that blue-collar, local honky tonk feel to them, imbuing the band with the authenticity that results in international appeal for those who know what country music is supposed to sound like, and be about.
If you take your country music traditional, but still want some drive and hooks to get the heart pumping and have a good time to—and especially if like it when your country comes with a Western and cowboy flavor—Chancey Williams is serving up just what you want straight out of Wyoming.
Just go ahead and add James Steinle’s new album ‘Cold German Mornings’ into the canon of cool Austin, TX projects that are indicative of the city’s creativity. It’s a concept record that may set its foundations in country, but is too ambitious to fool around with confining itself to any given genre
Taking some of the most arcane and overlooked entries into the North American songbook, penning songs inspired by such compositions, and singing them with such passion and conviction that the appeal for them far surpasses the otherwise niche audience for such music, Colter Wall is the 2020 SCM Artist of the Year.
Completely stupid, and perfectly irreverent for the Holiday season, it’s not being hyperbolic to say say this could be one of those compositions that catches fire somehow and accidentally becomes a Christmas classic. All we needed was a proper studio version of it, which we now have.
Hailing from Castlewood, VA in the heart of Appalachia, the five-piece 49 Winchester serves it up greasy, whether it’s Southern fried rock, honky tonk country, sentimental moments tickling the fringes of Americana, or a version of soul that takes all of those influences and stews them.
You can try to imbibe your recordings with the influence of country royalty, or you can just invite them into the studio to record with you, which is what Amber Digby does on this new record, cutting duets with the likes of Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, the late great Johnny Bush, and Vince Gill among others.
In this new album, Sturgill Simpson isn’t just fulfilling a promise to fans to cut a bluegrass record, he’s finding and settling into the next phase of his career, which is as a full-blown bluegrass musician. Simpson saved his most personal songs for ‘Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 2 (The Cowboy Arms Sessions).’
Though it may be daunting to navigate with so many releases, Saving Country Music is here for you, and with so many releases, 2020 is also the first year you can compile a full-fledged Christmas playlist entirely of newly-released songs from the country world.
We’ve run down the Album of the Year Nominees for 2020, as well as the Song of the Year nominees, and an Essential Albums list is also coming together. But since the mainstream of country isn’t always well-represented on these lists, let’s look back on some of those best albums.
Perfectly inappropriate for the holiday season, this three-piece band wastes their otherwise great musical talent on bull$hit country songs about how disgusting the human body is, and a singlewide full of sisterwives turning the tables on their suitor. It’s immature, ridiculous, and extremely entertaining.
A Saving Country Music ‘Song of the Year’ nominee is not just your favorite ditty that gets stuck in your head. These are songs that have the power to change hearts and change lives, open you up new ideas or ways of thinking, or unlock memories or emotions you haven’t felt in years.
Divorce and country music go together like peanut butter and jelly. The “Big D” is as fundamental to country music as steel guitar. And Kentucky songwriter Brit Taylor is here to speak about her own experiences with irreconcilable differences in her debut album called “Real Me.”
Adding to his arsenal of studio projects, Cody Jinks unleashes his first proper concert album called Red Rocks Live, recorded professionally at the legendary venue of the same name situated between the painted boulders of picturesque Colorado. A sweeping work of 23 songs…
2020 has been a bad year for many things, but a good year for country music albums. Accordingly, the nominees for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year have been expanded to an unprecedented 12 entries to represent the best releases the year has to offer.
Zach Bryan is just touched in a way where poetic recitation or interpretation of events either real life or imaginative is so natural to him, the words flow like water, and order themselves in ways that are both intuitive and inviting to the audience. His effortlessness at writing songs is the envy of all writers.
Rodeo professionals and country songwriters have always enjoyed a close kinship, even if riding a bull or roping a calf, and crafting the perfect country song may not seem like similar skill sets, or two sides of the same coin. Two-time AQHA World Champion Roper Paul Bogart knows this all too well.