Here at Saving Country Music, we are committed to equal time and opportunity for all perspectives and opinions on country music. Recently we published an article reporting on how Kane Brown has posted a derogatory meme on Twitter after not being nominated for even a single CMA Awards yet again, and eventually deleted his Twitter account.
If you’re married fast to the notion that country music can’t evolve while remaining tethered to it’s roots, then you better not go near Jason Hawk Harris’s Bloodshot Records debut Love & the Dark and risk having your little theory thrown back in your face. Fueled by the challenge, and armed with his classical training as a musician…
Beyond being a valuable film companion, through the work the Ken Burns team did putting together this film, they were also able to assemble all the most important information on country music, present it in story form, align it with an incredible amount of archival pictures, and put together what very well may be the definitive country music history book.
“What is this?!? Taylor Swift ain’t country, and the Dixie Chicks are commies!” Yeah yeah. Roll off it. We can be adults here and discuss a Taylor Swift song if it’s deemed interesting or necessary. And in the case of “Soon You’ll Get Better,” there are a few interesting country music tie-in’s worth discussing.
Croy and the Boys are the true sound of Austin, TX paid forward over the decades, with the permanent stench of the honky tonks soiling their pearl snap shirts, and the 10,000 hours spent twirling the shit kickers of central Texas around dance floors logged and certified, thank you very much.
It’s been just over three years since Craig Morgan released any new music, and just over three years since his son, 19-year-old Jerry Greer, went missing on Kentucky Lake near the Kentucky and Tennessee border on a Sunday afternoon. The teen had been tubing on the lake with friends, and after hitting a big wave, failed to surface.
Drawing from both the bleeding edge of authenticity that has made the performers of Kentucky like Tyler Childers and others define the current country music insurgency, and the spellbinding songwriting magic of Oklahoma’s preeminent writers like Evan Felker, John Moreland, & John Fullbright, Zach Bryan stuns in one song after another in ‘DeAnn.’
The first single from Ashley’s upcoming second major label release is everything you want from an Ashley McBryde song. It’s edgy and gritty, but still country in the way the words and melody tell a true story we all can relate to, and deftly employ the double entendre to give it that classic country feel.
Vince Gill and ‘Okie’ come completely out of left field in both the power and scope this project contains. His faith is at the forefront, his concern about the tempest-tossed nature of today’s societal upheaval is sincere, and his wisdom is sharp and biting in a record that speaks to our time poignantly and surprisingly free of judgement.
The effort to save country music must be a pragmatic one. Classic country like the stuff Midland is peddling has become a hot commodity in the mainstream and beyond in the last couple of years, and don’t question for a second that Midland and their big radio singles haven’t been a catalyst for this positive development.
From numerous underlying familial issues and the death of loved ones, to odes of heartbreak and misfortune, ‘Songs From The Exile’ is like a document dump from Dalton Domino’s suppressed memory cache of the highest order. Dalton isn’t just facing down the demons staring him down everyday, he’s on a quest to delve into the deepest recesses…
It’s the voice of Tanya Tucker that compels the country listener to seek her records out. It’s always been a mixture of worn leather and honky tonk smoke, even at a tender age. Some may call it husky, including those who mean that in a demeaning manner. But it’s hard not to fall prey to the “lived it” notions the tone of Tanya Tucker conveys, and how it cracks in all the right places to punctuate emotions in the most important moments.
Tracy Lawrence may not have a shot at radio anymore, but he’s certainly been a beneficiary of the resurgence of interest in 90’s country lately, of which he played a pretty major role. Tracy Lawrence promised back in April that ‘Made in America’ would be “very country,” and he doesn’t disappoint in the 12 tracks of the new record.
The commonality of criticizing country radio within the ranks of country music’s classic and independent fans is pretty severe, and for good reason. Generally speaking, country radio is a blob of nationalized playlists and unimaginative music, and no curation by the DJs on the ground in local markets. But this doesn’t mean all radio is bad.
It’s a new era in mainstream country music. Artists like Riley Green, and songs like “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” featuring ample steel guitar and twang aren’t being shied away from. They’re being favored as the hot commodity of the moment amid the dying embers of Bro Country. You can thank performers like Chris Stapleton, Jon Pardi, and Luke Combs for opening up this opportunity.
Chuck Hawthorne writes songs for you to lose yourself in, with lush characters you feel like you’ve known your whole life, dropped into scenes you can see and smell and touch, with all the little artifacts of life and references in the writing at or near perfect. From the best years for vintage motorcycles to the sacred rites of Native American traditions…
Country music doesn’t deserve Robbie Fulks, and Robbie Fulks doesn’t deserve the perilous and unjust trappings of country music. This guy should be designing jet engines or transplanting hearts or something. Yet here he is spinning hillbilly tales for penny fractions on Spotify, though we’re not complaining.
What happens at Pickathon doesn’t stay at Pickathon. It reverberates throughout the music world, from the music and moments that spread word-of-mouth to help launch music careers. This was underscored and bolded in 2019 at the beautiful Pendarvis Farm just outside of Portland.
If this all had played out like it should have, The Moonpies would have mashed down on the accelerator with a new record and released something with even more hard charging honky tonk country songs to fuel new their intense live shows. And so what do they do? They fly to London to record an album at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony.
Tyler Childers is the greatest artist in country music at the moment, mainstream or independent, on the radio off, major label or otherwise. And soon, if there is any justice in this ragged old life, the rest of the world will know this to be true as well. Tyler’s new album ‘Country Squire’ should be a breakthrough achievement.
Eric Church will always pull polarized viewpoints from country fans, if not for his bad attitude in past eras, then from his propensity to veer into the rock space, or most recently, a patently false and pathetic clickbait cover from Rolling Stone characterizing him as an anti-gun Bernie Sanders supporter, unnecessarily roiling his fan base. […]
Just like we’ve seen from many mainstream country performers recently, from Blake Shelton, to Reba McEntire, to Jon Pardi, to Randy Houser, making your album more country is the hot thing at the moment. Of course this is all relative since the baseline from where many of these performers started at was not very country at all.
If you’re anything like me, you live for those country music moments when you make a big discovery of a new artist you know is going to be entertaining you for years to come, even if big radio and the mainstream of country won’t give them the time of day. Now your radar needs to be firmly affixed upon Vincent Neil Emerson.
An album like Western Gold by Gethen Jenkins is important because it doesn’t just announce your next favorite album, it announces your next favorite artist. Gethen Jenkins is not exactly new to the scene. He’s played some 1,000 shows, including opening for the likes of Whitey Morgan, Dale Watson, Billy Joe Shaver, and others. But Western Gold is the moment where he brands his stamp on the traditional country and Outlaw music movement.