However they got here, Folk Soul Revival has both feet in by god country music now, with the soul components indicative of Southern rock most certainly palpable, and a revival of the country music spirit at the heart of this work.
What has happened to American country music? How did we get here? What diabolically bad state of disrepair has befallen the country genre where someone would even be forced to interface with a song like Kane Brown’s “Weekend” as a country music fan or critic?
It seems like just a few short years ago we were thinking about William Clark Green as the “Next Big Thing.” Now all the young frat bros in Lubbock have moved on to Koe Wetzel, and William Clark Green has graduated to headliner status. His new album ‘Hebert Island’ finds the songwriter settling into his established career.
Let’s be honest, pairing up Robbie Fulks with the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis and having Fulks write songs from her perspective seems like such a strange concept for an album, it’s hard to conceive of releasing such as thing beyond maybe some quirky passion project with a pressing of 250 units for Record Store Day.
How to resolve adding a little bit of enthusiasm to the music, but still adhering to Jason Eady’s acoustic-only proclamation was a tough riddle to solve. But adding a couple of hot shot bluegrass ringers was the exact injection Jason Eady’s music needed to not just coast, but soar, and the results speak for themselves.
If you want to listen to a fine example of a record and an artist who embodies this Texas spirit in sound, song, and substance, Drew Moreland and his self-titled debut with his backing band The Neon Hustle is a great place to start. The solo-penned nine songs announce the up-and-comer as someone worth paying attention to.
As the first song off the just-announced fourth studio album Hard Times and White Lines, “Honky Tonk Hell” finds Whitey Morgan and the 78’s singing about what they know best. Slow and plodding like a drunk whose trying to amble off a bar stool towards the set of swinging doors, but is stuck perpetually ordering one more round…
One may ask why a journalist based in Austin, Texas would trek some 2000 miles to attend a music festival just outside of Portland, Oregon with all the more convenient options the “Live Music Capital of the World” can offer. But those people have probably never been to Pickathon before. Trumped only in stature for […]
If you don’t like Scott Southworth, then you don’t like country music. And if you want to know what I mean when I say “country music,” listen to Scott Southworth and that should clue you in. You may have never heard of him. He’s not on mainstream country radio or CMT. That’s how you know he’s good.
If Kenny Chesney hadn’t spent the last 20-something years of his career beating down the country music listening public with his barrage of island and beach songs, we probably would be talking about how his latest record ‘Songs For The Saints’ is a striking piece of conceptualized album making/
The Whitewater Amphitheater in beautiful New Braunfels, TX was treated to a show by Canadian country artist Corb Lund, second generation country artist Shooter Jennings, and top shelf Texas and Red Dirt country headliners The Turnpike Troubadours on Saturday, July 28th. Despite the oppressive Texas heat, the venue was filled to capacity, and fans were […]
True country fans don’t need to be told that trying to hold onto the roots of the music has been a war of attrition over the last 20 years or so. As more legends and oldtimers pass away or get put out to pasture each season, you search for stability and glimmers of promise as the heap of shoes to fill of the artists gone by grows.
AHI’s In Our Time is the album you never knew you wanted, but once you listen, you feel you absolutely needed. The underlying messages of uplifting perseverance, the poetry set in fiercely personal narratives, and a genuine soulful voice and perspective is all so powerfully compelling…
The Mason Ramsey EP is three classic Hank Williams songs done in tasty renditions that are respectful to the original compositions and Ramsey’s original appeal, with three non sequitur Bro Country orphans rescued from a Music Row dumpster by a night janitor and included under the misguided notion of commercial appeal.
Saving Country Music’s reigning Album of the Year winner Tyler Childers stopped by the historic John T. Floore’s Country Store on Saturday, July 21st in Helotes, Texas to entertain a packed audience amid his current North American tour. Tyler has seen swelling crowds coast to coast…
Mother of five Lori McKenna from Stoughton, Massachusetts is saving country music. You no longer have any legitimate license to say, “Oh, I’ve heard the name. Isn’t she a songwriter or something?” and consider yourself and enlightened music fan. Brushing Lori McKenna off is brushing off one of the greatest living songwriters of our generation.
Nearly everything about “Better Boat” is right. The songwriters Travis Meadows and Liz Rose are right. The entirety of the instrumentation being performed by Mac McAnally on an acoustic guitar is right. Kenny choosing songwriter Mindy Smith to perform the song with instead of some pop star is right.
Hot damn. I don’t know who the hell Cliff Westfall is or where he’s been hiding out for so many years, but he just released a hot shit country record that will whip the pants off of most others released this year and many from years prior, and get you making room on your list of favorite artists.
“Desperate Man” is a song you give a weird look the first time, tolerate the 2nd, and can’t stop listening to after the 3rd. Shake your little fists at the music industry all you want, but the way of things is for the pure, unadulterated songwriters to revel in obscurity for most of their careers, while the adored superstars rake in all the fame and cash.
Nobody’s talking about it, but Jon Pardi is quickly developing into a serious modern country star. It’s for these reasons that Capitol Nashville has decided to release a 5th single from the record, which is a feat and a victory for any album in itself. A 5th single means a label perceives continued strength from a title and an artist.
Playing original songs directly inspired by the classic recordings of country music with a little Western Swing, jazz, and rockabilly mixed in, Blue Yonder has become a beloved local fixture, with music worthy of consideration from an international audience. Their new album Rough and Ready Heart includes 12 originals….
The last time we were talking about Cody Jinks in concert, he was getting carted off stage in an ambulance for what ultimately was determined to be a bad bout of vertigo. This weekend (July 6th & 7th), the only hint of issue for Cody Jinks while performing at the Whitewater Amphitheater was perhaps the dark sunglasses he was sporting.
‘Ramble’ is just how damn enjoyable it is to listen to. So many songwriters these days get too swept up in one-upping the competition with their compositions. This approach has resulted in some great songs, but we sometimes forget that music is there to be heard and enjoyed. A record like ‘Ramble’ reminds you of that.
You complain that the songs from today’s top country stars are no good and they should start cutting songs that are halfway decent like the ones your favorite independent and underground artists play … until they attempt to do that very thing, and come across like total dork asses.