Meet King Calaway: Country Music’s Manufactured Boy Band
Looking for yet another reason to be embarrassed as a country music fan? Well here comes King Calaway. Who or what is “King Calloway” you ask? Never heard of them? That’s okay, nobody has. Up until a couple of days ago, there was absolutely no information about this project entered into the public record whatsoever. But according to a now well-circulated press release, we know they’re a six-member “country” music group who despite big promises about their “incredible individual talent” and “amazing group chemistry,” have absolutely no touring or performing experience together whatsoever, and appear to have never even played a live gig in front of an actual crowd.
Okay, but what does King Calaway actually sound like? Are they any good? That’s a very good question. Unfortunately though, the world has yet to hear a single lick of music from this band. There are no videos on YouTube of King Calaway. There’s no music via streaming networks to search for. There’s no acoustic demo to get a taste of what they’re all about. There’s not even grainy cell phone footage from some private gig they played a few months back. There’s absolutely nothing tangible behind King Calaway at the moment aside from a press release and a batch of promotional photos.
Yet despite this complete lack of experience or tangible sound, King Calaway has landed opportunities many country performers work years at to still not be afforded. The group has just signed a major label deal with Nashville’s Broken Bow Records on their Stoney Creek imprint. And get this, they will be hopscotching hundreds of more worthy entertainers in a few weeks to make their live debut in no other than the hallowed circle at the Grand Ole Opry.
Understand, this is new territory for country music. In the pop world perhaps, test tube boy bands are birthed onto the scene on a regular basis. But country music isn’t K-pop. Even bands that are just as much constructs of Music Row boardrooms and mediation sessions such as Lady Antebellum still have a history of playing shows around Nashville and showing some sort of rapport with crowds and reception with a fan base before pen hit paper on a major label contract, and most certainly before they were invited to play the Opry.
Even Kane Brown, who might be the least-qualified and experienced “country” music star ever to be accepted into the mainstream and put on an arena tour, he had built some sort of name for himself over an extended period by posting cover tunes on social media, and playing local shows to build interest in his career before the major labels came calling. At the time of posting, King Calaway has four posts on Instagram total, and less than 200 followers on Twitter.
So what does King Calaway have? Well for one, they have Robert Deaton. Who is is Robert Deaton you ask? He’s the Executive Producer of the CMAs, meaning the guy who presided over the 30% ratings drop for the CMA Awards in 2018, as well as a 25% drop in the CMA Fest broadcast. He’s also the guy who gets to decide which artists perform on these annual television events, which gives him incredible power in the industry. Oh, and he happens to be the father of one of King Calaway’s primary members, Chris Deaton. But I’m sure this has nothing to do with a totally unproven band signing a major label deal and getting a Grand Ole Opry berth before they’ve even proven they can play an open mic. Yeah, nothing to see here folks.
Also pulling the strings behind King Calaway is laptop producer extraordinaire Ross Copperman, known for such atrocities as Keith Urban’s song “Female,” and Dierks Bentley’s Black album. Put him right up there with Shane McAnally and busbee as one of the worst offenders in modern country. You don’t have to peer into a crystal ball to know that King Calaway’s first single—whatever it happens to be—will be a #1 on radio. It’s preordained, and baked into the process. At this point, the music is irrelevant. King Calaway looks great in promo photos and girls want to screw them. The music is simply an excuse to get you to pay attention.
Diving into the respective careers of the individuals involved in King Calaway, you don’t find much beyond the embellished promotional copy, though they all do have some experience in the music business, however fleeting and moderately successful it might be. Simon Dumas and Jordan Harvey are from the UK. Chad Michael Jervis attended the Berkleee College of Music. Austin Luther has performed on cruise ships. Caleb Miller claims to have been working as a session guitarist at the age of 13. Three of them are the primary singers and frontmen of the band. They’re all musicians. They describe their sound as “…a layered vocal sound that nods to the band’s influences, including the Eagles, Keith Urban, and Ed Sheeran,” and “…a band that both embraces its country roots and reaches far beyond them.”
Hey, King Calaway may be awesome when we finally get to hear music from them, which will happen January 25th when a preliminary EP is released from the band. At that point, it will be our jobs as objective country listeners to judge the music based on its own merit. But King Calaway has already started off on the mother of all wrong feet, and so demonstrably so that they deserve criticism preceding any musical concerns.
This is not the way you launch a country band—hopscotching much more deserving performers for an Opry opportunity, and leveraging familial connections to open doors. Go out there and cut your teeth, at least a little bit. It’s probably not even possible for King Calaway to be as bad as we’re imagining them to be at the moment, because at the moment you can’t imagine them sounding good at all. The marketing directors and image consultants did their worst on these hapless dudes, and it will weigh on their shoulders like a yoke moving forward.
Country music isn’t just about the music. It’s the stories behind the performers, the lives they’ve lived, the battles they’ve endured that make you believe it when they sing about heartbreak or hardship, or love. Of course each one of these guys has experienced adversity in their lives, because we all do. But until you’ve experience adversity in country music—until you’ve played to dozens of empty bar rooms and rubbed dirt in your road scars and been told “no” so many times you start to doubt yourself—you haven’t earned the right to play country music on the Grand Ole Opry or anywhere else. You’re simply the product of snazzy marketing and nepotism.
Welcome to country music, King Calaway.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:49 am
Hey, I just had a notion. For King Calamine Lotion
January 9, 2019 @ 10:51 am
Honey Bunches of NOPE. This is awful, but I guess par for the course.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:54 am
Maybe they’ll surprise us and be the next Midland or Alabama?? Don’t judge a book by it’s “hipster urban” cover.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:06 pm
Your optimistic outlook is admirable. But in our hearts, we all know they will likely produce the spiritual successor to AJ McClane’s “Back Porch Bottle Service”.
January 10, 2019 @ 6:11 am
Mama always said “Life is like a Single about to drop at Country Music Row, You Never Know What You Gonna Get…. A little traditional, maybe Hipster Urban, maybe bro country, or maybe some nice R & B vibes?”
But all I know is that my mama invited them nice fellas of that there new country boy band, The King Calaways, to stay at our house until they got back on theirs feet. They had a GUITAR. Some of the most beautiful music I ever did hear. But then I turned off my George Strait vinyl, and actually listened to the King Calaways… and they weren’t very good. My dearest friend Lieutenant Dan jumped off our fishing boat after hearing their debut single.
And that’s all I got to say about that.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:51 am
A band composed entirely of hobbits? A provocative concept.
January 9, 2019 @ 4:04 pm
Funny kitty!
January 9, 2019 @ 10:59 am
This isn’t the first. Look up “South 65” from the late 1990’s.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:05 am
Prediction: There’s no way this is going to pan out.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:27 am
I think there’s no way it doesn’t pan out. I think this band will be massive. Robert Deaton and Ross Copperman will open every door for these guys. They will get the iHeartMeida “on the verge” treatment for their first single. They will get headliner slots at festivals. If you can get a major label deal and an Opry appearance without playing a single gig together, think of the possibilities. Granted, I hope I’m wrong. Hopefully the gullible American public see right through this and don’t support it. But this band is nothing more than eye candy for young girls, and that’s usually hard to trump.
January 9, 2019 @ 2:41 pm
I just have a hard time believing the the Supreme Arbiter of country radio Bobby Bones is going to go for it, considering how hard he’s campaigned to get women played. I also think it will be tough for them to appeal to the largest group of country listeners, middle-America working class people who just want to turn their brains off to some Luke Bryan, are going to buy into an actual country boy band. It least Kane Brown fits in with the bro-country crowd.
January 11, 2019 @ 5:57 pm
Are you kidding me? Bobby Bones is going to be all over this like white on rice.
January 11, 2019 @ 10:17 pm
Nah, Bobby ain’t that much of a tool.
January 29, 2019 @ 1:40 pm
Looks like you are wrong since they were just on Bobby Bones show yesterday. I can’t believe how hateful people are. Not only to this band, but also several other people named in this article. If you don’t like them…don’t listen. It’s as simple as that.
January 10, 2019 @ 5:40 am
They won’t. The brainless female fans who choose their music based on how cute they think they are, will support them like they do Kane Brown or Dustin Lynch, and the brainless male fans will follow their lead. And do their hair the same way. *shudder*
January 28, 2019 @ 7:16 am
They were just on Bobby Bones this morning. i had never heard of them. Pulled them up on Google. WOW, just WOW!. Playing the OPRY and have just released their first song. Goes to show–it’s who you know!!!!!!
May 28, 2019 @ 4:51 pm
I admit I was skeptical. They just headlined in my hometown. Played all their music along with some eagles and Earl Thomas Conley. They crown never sat down. Their unplugged version of Seven Bridges Road was epic. I’m a fan.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:13 am
Forget about being embarrassed as a country fan……this makes me embarrassed to be a human being.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:21 am
Super lame. Much like with our country, these big wigs in the music industry think our music belongs to everybody. It doesn’t. We have to reclaim and re-establish who we are.
January 9, 2019 @ 3:16 pm
Who is this “WE” that needs to reclaim and re-establish themselves,White Art Collective? And what do you mean by “OUR” music? If your username is an allusion to the right wing/white nationalist/white supremacist affiliated website of the same name, I think I have an idea.
January 9, 2019 @ 4:03 pm
Yup, that’s us: The one and only organization explicitly fighting to preserve and make art of European descent anew. To answer your question: White folk. American Country music is the folk music of rural, White America, the same as rap music is to blacks. Country music belongs to us, and we’ve allowed globalists to culturally appropriate it and dilute it for too long. If we want to Make Country Music Great Again, we’re going to have to reconnect with our White identity, because that’s what made it great to begin with. It is an expression of the soul of our people.
It’s unfortunate that you’ve bought into Communist talking points, but the fact of the matter is that all peoples are tribalistic. It’s a natural fact, and it’s perfectly healthy.
January 9, 2019 @ 4:52 pm
Really disappointed to see a comment like this here. But as opposed to deleting it, I would like to point out to you and everyone else that even though country music is and always has been a predominately white art form, African Americans contributed to its formation significantly, and in its very early stages. How much was that contribution? As a percentage, it was probably somewhere near 15% to 20% give or take. But without that contribution, the music could sound very different. It is a real shame that some revisionists have decided to portray country music recently as significantly black, or solely a black art form recently under a misguided notion of sticking it to racism, when in fact this revisionism often helps create racism. But we can’t swing the other way and discount or overlook the African American influences in the music.
And yes, we’re all tribalistic to some extent, but there’s nothing healthy about that. We can advocate for true country music and preserving its roots while also respecting artists who happen to be African American if they help in that cause, which they often do, and arguably more than white performers per capita. I wrote an article about this a while back (https://savingcountrymusic.com/african-americans-helping-to-keep-country-roots-music-alive/)
Who gives a shit what color a performer is? Is their music any good? Is it true country? Dividing music down racial lines is not helpful to anything. Of course country music is more white, and hip-hop more African American. But EVERYONE should have the right to make whatever music they want, as long as they have true passion in their heart, and respect for the art form.
Strange this comment would come up now, because I’m working on an article that dives deep into this topic which I hope to post soon.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:40 pm
Trigger,
It’s not 15%. It’s probably 1%, but nonetheless, I’ll take Charley Pride and Stoney Edwards 8 days a week. “Two Dollar Toy” is killer.
I’m not a proponent of racism; I think it’s dumb, but I can certainly understand where these folks are coming from. We’re constantly being told by everyone that white is bad; well, this is the result. And Trainwreck92 is so blinded by leftist ideology, that he’s like a talking doll. Pull the string, and out comes, “Nazi” “Nazi” “Nazi”.
I mean, read a freakin history book, for crying out loud. You don’t even know what a Nazi is.
I hope I’ve stated my opinion in a way that you won’t delete.
January 9, 2019 @ 9:23 pm
I disagree with KHOC’s figure of 1% influence by African Americans, though the actual percent is hard to quantify. (I’m not accusing KHOC of any sort of prejudice–it’s that the number depends on how you quantify the contribution of African Americans.) The farther back you go, the more evident the influence is. In the 20’s-30’s, numerous white country musicians referred to the blues in many of their songs. The influence gets more diffuse through the 40’s, but without the original contribution of field hollers, spirituals, etc., white country would have remained a mix of 19th century parlor music and Irish / Scottish ballads long into the 20th century. If you look at the significant country / Americana musicians in the last 20 years, the Irish / Appalachian influence is probably closer to 15%, with the African-American contribution (via blues and rock) making up most of the remaining 85% (e.g. Ray Wylie Hubbard’s acknowledged debt to Muddy Waters).
January 9, 2019 @ 4:53 pm
Rufus “TeeTot” Payne might have something to say about this, as might countless other black blues singers, folk singers and jazz artists that were emulated by Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Carl Perkins, etc. But go ahead with your revisionist history of alternate facts.
January 9, 2019 @ 4:57 pm
That’s what I figured. Fuck off, you goddamned Nazi wannabe.
January 9, 2019 @ 7:44 pm
@King Honky, I called a proponent of right-wing white nationalism whose website links (on their “Allies” page) to explicitly white supremacist, pro-fascist, and anti-semitic websites, a wannabe Nazi. I grew up in an area where people were more often than not, casually racist against people of color, but I never thought of them as Nazis, just ignorant dicks. I know damn well what a (wannabe) Nazi is, and buddy, White Art Collective fits the bill.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:21 pm
So now the white nationalists are claiming “cultural appropriation” just like the SJW’s? Holy. Shit. They’ve all become each other and they’re all too stupid to know it.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:11 pm
“White Art Collective” get a fucking hobby
January 9, 2019 @ 7:06 pm
This is obviously a planted comment. A very skillful straw man attack on traditional values via race baiting. Bring them in with an appeal to conservative views of country music and the desire to get back to the roots, get 11 likes, and then bait and switch with an obvious pandering to fringe groups on the right.
The fact that these comments haven’t been deleted already is flabbergasting to me. Shit gets deleted off this sight because it’s of a religious nature or because pussies in the comment section whine, but ignorant, obviously race baiting comments are allowed to get attention? That makes a lot of sense…????
January 9, 2019 @ 7:24 pm
Huh? How were traditional values attacked?
Oh wait…..You mean a planted comment by a lefty, pretending to be an Alt-righty?
Am I right?
If that’s what you meant, then I disagree. I think the dude is a genuine white prider.
January 9, 2019 @ 7:49 pm
@honky, yeah I posted that before I went to the website. The best thing would be to delete these comments so that stupid website doesn’t get attention.
But…..it could still be a planted website being used as a lightning rod to identify that sector.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:03 pm
Deleting bad ideas doesn’t make them go away. Challenging them and defeating them is what makes them go away, which I’m happy to see the majority of the commenters of this site doing. I think a lot of important things were exposed here, and deleting those comments would destroy an important illustration. The link to their website has been disabled.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:26 pm
Of course deleting doesn’t make it go away, but when you’re dealing with ignorant irrational people, then you’re not gonna convert them. And based on the context of these comments it won’t be very difficult for readers to divine the appropriate search words to google in order to see this closeted afrophile’s website.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:36 pm
Also, it’s very possible that the someone behind these comments could be a someone who is trying to discredit SCM. It doesn’t matter if the bigoted views are rebutted by commenters. The very fact someone of WAC’s ilk would feel comfortable posting these views here is ammo enough for lefty douches to say
“See, the alt-righters really do identify with Saving Country Music!”
January 9, 2019 @ 11:01 pm
I appreciate the concern Seth, and thought deeply about how to handle this comment.
January 9, 2019 @ 7:27 pm
Interesting how that works, huh?
January 9, 2019 @ 7:44 pm
@honky, yeah I posted that before I went to the website. The best thing would be to delete these comments so that stupid website doesn’t get attention.
But…..it could still be a planted website being used as a lightning rod to identify that sector.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:33 am
Trigg,
It’s much easier to execute a strategy with a bunch of nobody who knows nothing. they will do as they are told. They will be a pop group pretending to be country.
June 10, 2019 @ 10:27 pm
“A bunch of nobodies who know nothing” when you preform as a drummer for multiple famous ppl then you can call them nobodies
June 11, 2019 @ 4:55 pm
Good to know. Thanks for your clarification!
January 9, 2019 @ 11:35 am
Trigger you’re a stone cold hater. You’re obviously just jealous and are using your blog to tear down the greatest talents Nashville has seen in a generation. Slay Kings!!
January 9, 2019 @ 2:32 pm
XD
Almost there. Use “ur” instead of “you’re” and it’d be perfect. LOL
January 9, 2019 @ 3:17 pm
Dammit. So close. I was really trying to nail the role of ‘delusional fangirl slash street team’er’.
January 9, 2019 @ 3:46 pm
You need more run-on sentences, bad grammar, and misspelled words. Otherwise we know you’re kidding 😉
January 9, 2019 @ 4:15 pm
He also needs more CAPS
January 9, 2019 @ 11:44 am
Why are they all wearing topcoats in the middle of the desert?
January 9, 2019 @ 12:48 pm
because they are shooting a picture with a fake background and they don’t even know what will be the background. Else, they are competing with FGL for worst outfit. lol
June 10, 2019 @ 10:29 pm
It was cold…
January 9, 2019 @ 11:46 am
I am getting flashbacks of the Midland write-ups!
They turned out alright though.
I’ve actually grown to like them quite a bit.
January 9, 2019 @ 12:06 pm
I’m seeing a lot of comparisons to Midland, but as a high-profile Midland skeptic, at least they did play a dozen or so gigs around the Austin area before claiming they were an authentic Austin honky-tonk band, and they also released an EP to establish their sound. Imagine Midland without ANY of that groundwork and preparation. THAT is King Calaway.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:51 am
I can’t wait to hear their cover of ‘Back Door Bottle Service’ which is the greatest country song since Johnny Cash walked the line. 😉
January 9, 2019 @ 7:46 pm
Yep, that’s what that song needs.
Six part harmony.
January 10, 2019 @ 7:30 am
Move over Statler Brothers. You phoned it in at 2/3 capacity for 50 years. You should have taken your name from a set of golf clubs instead of a box of tissues.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:52 am
More like “King Calamity.”
January 9, 2019 @ 12:17 pm
They could have called them Spice Girls but I think that name was already taken.
January 9, 2019 @ 12:42 pm
King Crapanyway. Trashville’s latest attempt to pander to their chosen demographic of young female listeners. It will no doubt be a cheap r&b derivative with lots of autotune, hip -hop beats, snap tracking , and a decided lack of guitar twang, steel, banjo, fiddle or for that matter actual instruments. The vocals will no doubt have urban enunciation and likely some lame attempts at rapping. I’m sure there will be exclusive VIP fan club packages for their upcoming slew of pre sold out arena shows. And just like Lame Clown, we’ll see an army of braindead, loyal zombie bots descending into the comments section to disrupt, using poor grammar, run-on sentences with no punctuation and a general lack of logic or clear point. We will no doubt here the same trite cliche arguments: country music must evolve, yall are haters, yer jealous, too old, etc. Have I covered it?
January 10, 2019 @ 10:07 pm
“Lame Clown”, I’m dying over here!!! I’ve called Luke Bryan “Puke Cryin’ ” for ages, but this made me chuckle.
January 9, 2019 @ 12:53 pm
Oh…how cute. Forget FGL, Dan & his Shay or Kane Brown. Here are King whatsthename.
I can’t wait for the duet with country queen Bebe Rexha…
Was 3 of Hearts (a teen-girl trio) signed to RCA Nashville & pushed by a teen magazine not a manufactured act? Can’t remember.
January 9, 2019 @ 1:18 pm
The only two kings needed in country music are George Strait and Randall King.
January 9, 2019 @ 1:32 pm
Look at their fucking clothes. Oh my god.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:52 pm
Who dresses these people anyway?
January 10, 2019 @ 10:14 am
My first thought, too. They need to fire their stylist. All their coats are the same length — about 6 inches too long! One looks like he’s wearing a bathrobe.
First rule of boy bands is each one has to represent a certain unique style – the bad boy, the prep, the heartthrob, the sporty one, whatever. These dudes look like clones wearing bad clothes.
January 9, 2019 @ 1:54 pm
They look like the Second Coming of NSYNC. Thank you, NEXT.
January 9, 2019 @ 2:55 pm
The worst part has to be the upcoming Opry appearance. That is a travesty. Can the Opry be saved or is it too far gone?
6 no-talent millennials dressed like McLemore’s Thrift Shop. I hope that they fail miserably but I’m sure that’s a long shot with the big guns they have in their corner.
January 9, 2019 @ 3:42 pm
never mind how many GREAT talents there are out there in the hinterlands trying to muster some attention and a following through honest gifts , hard work and touring , never mind how many GREAT country songwriters are completely ignored , how many gifted veteran players are never heard on record , never mind that this assembly line product has NO touring or recording experience ……how a bout all of the GREAT voices ignored over the years on the fake network talent shows ?
no ….I’m not suggesting for a second those talent show folks should be ‘ next -in-lines ‘ …it goes without saying that in a just world that honour would go to the aforementioned authentic writers/performers slugging it out in the trenches for years and years …. but down the list just below those folks oughta be the unique and gifted voices exploited on the contests for several months and discarded like candy bar wrappers . not some lottery-winning Spice Boy fake band assembled for 12 year old girls to drool over . Jesus what a precedent-setting MESS these Borchettas have made of the business . there is NO concern or consideration given to ‘ REAL’ in pop genres whatsoever , it seems .
look …..anybody with one ear could throw together a batch of wannabes , sink megabucks into grooming , fashion , touring and …hell …maybe even a guitar lesson . anybody with deep pockets could do this and we could have these fake acts oozing out of every musical orifice pointed in our direction 24/7 . the question is not why it can happen …the question is , more correctly , why isn’t it happening more often . the answer , I believe , is that it most certainly is happening more often . and with a little luck , this ridiculously out-of-balance juggernaut will implode under the weight of these fake acts , fake management , fake labels ,agents and FAKE FUCKING SONGS .
January 9, 2019 @ 3:57 pm
Get the fork and turn it over…………….Nashville has finally killed county as most would know it. But we are lucky to have ourselves alive to take the word to the world that wants to listen……Country is alive and well just don’t listen to the fucking radio and you will find it.
January 9, 2019 @ 4:06 pm
Actually, I’m looking forward to this. Perhaps not in the intended way, but this will be highly entertaining. And the only thing that would make it better is if someone is taking a LOT of behind the scenes footage. I’d love to see these guys audition, the marketing strategy meetings, the wardrobe discussions, the haircut direction conversations. Seriously, that, some beer, some popcorn…what more could you possibly need out of life.
January 9, 2019 @ 5:08 pm
I will admit I’m old and not up on the latest fashions but what are the two guys on the left wearing? It looks like short pants over regular pants or leggings.
Oh and the whole Grand Old Opry appearance shows once again that the legend of the Opry is gone and as far as I’m concerned, it can fold up and disappear.
January 9, 2019 @ 5:31 pm
Great I get to witness the phenomenon of The Monkees all over again. The target audience is clear, pre-teen and early teen girls.
January 10, 2019 @ 10:27 am
If these guys are the Monkees then I’ll take it. Mike Nesmith is very talented and his First National stuff is quite good. Even had a full-time steel.
January 10, 2019 @ 5:49 pm
Yes, Nesmith is a talented musician and producer, and the others did eventually learn to play their own instruments. Plus the band gave John Stewart some well-deserved exposure and royalties.
January 10, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
It was the least Nesmith could do after Stewart wrote Daydream Believer for the Monkees 😉
I’ve forgotten how many great songs the Monkees had from some of the greatest songwriters of that time – Neil Diamond, Carole King.
Stewart and Stevie Nicks singing together was magic. RIP.
January 9, 2019 @ 5:54 pm
These comments blaming this trite band on “fan girls” are tired. It’s a band made up of men promoted and created by other men in a music genre almost completely (and unfortunately) dominated by men. But yeah, blame teenage girls because why not?
January 9, 2019 @ 6:50 pm
If you look at the awards show and concert audiences for these young mostly-male ‘country ‘ acts , they are overwhelmingly made up of young and middle-aged females . You don’t need to be a demographics expert to determine that THIS is the target market . Its the same market pop music targets . And why wouldn’t it be ?….the music is progressively more similar . From a business standpoint ….sure ….target the market most likely to support this product . However , and as many of us have argued here for a long long time , if you offer something more substantive in terms of talent , vision , and uniqueness it would not be surprising to see as supportive an audience for THAT approach as for the ‘ lowest common denominator ‘ approach , ‘musically ‘ speaking .
January 9, 2019 @ 6:58 pm
That’s true for MOST awards shows or concerts, so why blame women just for the music you don’t like? It’s still a bunch of over-privileged under-talented men pulling the strings in Nashville.
January 9, 2019 @ 7:12 pm
I wouldn’t say women are the problem. Female tweens are the problem. The “over-privileged under-talented men pulling the strings in Nashville” only think about profits. The obvious market for this group is adolescent chicks with daddy’s wallet in tow.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:06 pm
What are you talking about Seth of Lampasas? I wasn’t aware that all the mostly working class people who listen to country have “daddy’s money in tow.” Look I get that everyone loves to hate on teenage girls, but stop pretending no other demographic has any agency in this industry. You can whine about “boy bands” and Taylor Swift ruining country music all you want, but none of that will change the fact that country music sucks because Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, and 10 bros named Brett are all belting out the same neverending cycle of misogynistic lyrics and uninspiring music.
January 10, 2019 @ 3:52 am
Female tweens are also a significant audience for female pop stars. The lack of women in country airplay and the prevalence of untalented males isn’t the fault of the audience but of how musicians are marketed. The old Nashville system sought to build stars with long-term appeal, which required music that could endure. The present system commoditizes short term stardom. To continue the Twinkie metaphor, empty calorie foods are more profitable because you never get enough. They create the illusion of satisfaction and at the same time the desire for yet another unfulfilling snack.
January 10, 2019 @ 6:10 pm
There’s no such thing as working class teenage girls lol
Also, I’m talking about this band specifically, which is where my comment was directed. Female tweens are the reason this group exists. Period. Get over it.
January 10, 2019 @ 6:12 pm
There’s no such thing as working class teenage girls lol
Also, I’m talking about this band specifically, which is where my comment was directed. Female tweens are the reason this group exists. Period. Get over it.
January 10, 2019 @ 7:08 pm
Wait so teenage girls aren’t ever part of working class families and then don’t ever have working class jobs?
But they’re the ones in Nashville boardrooms shoving artless music down everyone’s throats?
Do you even know what a teenage girl is? Cause what you’re describing are rich men.
January 10, 2019 @ 7:48 pm
It’s illegal for tweens to work and what does class have to do with this anyway? We’re trying talking about stupid little girls who like boys who sing like girls.
Pop country isn’t shoved down anyone’s throat. King Calaway is the latest packaged commodity that music row is offering for sale to the ignorant kids, in this case female kids, who pester their parents for money to buy these hacks’ merch and music. Music Row doesn’t offer anything that won’t have money thrown at it by milk-brained masses who lap it up.
Brain-dead female tweens are the reason a “Nashville boardroom” produced the most likely “artless music of this milk toast band.” Get over it.
January 10, 2019 @ 11:24 pm
Ummm we’re arguing about the definition of working class because you brought it up. We were talking about teenagers, who do work, and also children have an economic class, because their families do and they exist in society.
Your demeaning comments towards girls shows how sexist and angry you are. Just because tween girls like something doesnt make it automatically bad. This band’s problem isn’t that it’s aimed at young girls, it’s the way that it’s been created and promulgated. And the bigger problem is you, and people like you, who think it’s ok to tear down young girls and perpetuate stereotypes that they’re “braindead” and “stupid.”
I’m truly sorry you harbor so much anger for 11-year-old girls. Also, you’ve ended every one of your comments at me with “get over it” so I think I’ll pass on your music recommendations.
January 10, 2019 @ 7:50 pm
A good artist for “working class teenage girls” would be someone like Kelsey Waldon or Sarah Jane Scouten.
January 11, 2019 @ 7:14 am
You’re the one who mentioned the working class first and now you’re obviously giving up on your stupid crusade for brain-dead tweens because you know it’s pointless, so you’ve reduced your argument to baseless accusations when you don’t even know me. Did I say all female tweens are brain-dead? No. I said this band is being marketed to brain-dead female tweens. I don’t use generalizations like you do, because you’re ignorant. I dont give a shit if the truth hurts. Get over it.
January 11, 2019 @ 11:45 am
I kept on with the working class thing because you claimed girls aren’t part of the working class, which was a mind-boggling ignorant thing to say.
I didn’t know I was on a crusade for tween girls, but now that I do, I’m not giving it up.
My point is that things that tween girls like, or in this case are just purported to like, are often criticized in a way that demeans tween girls and calls them stupid.
This is not true to the same extent for things of equally low quality that attract other demographics. For example, the transformers movie series is awful but people didn’t criticize tween boys en masse or conclude that they’re stupid.
If you don’t want to be called sexist, then don’t say sexist things.
January 11, 2019 @ 4:31 pm
We’re not talking about transformers and I couldn’t care less if you think I’m sexist. Tweens don’t work so they’re not in a class yet. Not that hard to understand.
Brain dead female tweens are the reason this band exists. That’s a fact. If that gets your panties in a bunch, that’s your problem. Go educate those brain-dead girls about good music, and then we won’t have a reason to make fun of their shitty taste in music.
“This is not true to the same extent for things of equally low quality that attract other demographics.”
Are you kidding me? People of all types get made fun of for stupid shit they like. But right now we’re talking about King Calaway. Entitled airheads like you are the reason there’s so much idiotic rhetoric out there.
Kids of all genders, races, and backgrounds like stupid shit that can be made fun of. In this case we’re making fun of brain-dead tweens and the brain-dead industries they perpetuate.
January 11, 2019 @ 9:30 pm
“Brain dead” seems a little harsh here Seth. There’s nothing wrong with pre-teen and young teen girls liking cute guys in boy bands. The problem is putting boy bands on country radio where they don’t belong. Ultimately it begets unnecessary cultural conflict.
January 12, 2019 @ 8:35 am
I concede brain-dead is harsh, but I’m not so sure I agree that it’s a sum positive for young girls to be interested in bands like this. I’m not a culture warrior, but I do think boy bands and other pop creatures of similar types tend to dumb down youth culture.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:51 pm
A clear target of these bands are teenage girls of course because, you know, boy bands. But I agree that mainly young women solely for the pop country garbage coming out these days is tired. It’s crap taste around the board that’s contributing to this issue.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:14 pm
Blaming the success of certain acts on “fan girls” may be tired, but it doesn’t make it untrue. It is unquestionable that young women are the target demographic for a band like King Calaway. Are men responsible for the existence of this act? Of course. But if the issue of the lack of women on radio is ever going to be solved, it’s first going to have to start with an honest assessment of the problem in all of its facets, including the fact that many major male country acts are attempting to appeal to young women specifically, siphoning off female listeners who otherwise might find appeal in women artists.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:27 pm
Hi Trigger, thanks for responding. To me this still doesnt add up. Pop music has male artists who focus on appealing to young women, but still has hugely successful female artists that lead the genre. Country should be able to do that as well. I guess it would just be nice if mainstream country music responded to what listeners wanted, instead of telling listeners what they want.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:43 pm
Look we all know this is going to be horrible but can we stop acting like this is the end of the world? This is probably going to be a mediocre boy band and nothing else. There are much worse things that have been released under the guise of “country” already and I’m skeptical a bunch of sheltered pretty boys are going to create anything worse that the bile that is already out there. Plus, Flatland Calvary exists. Artists like Cody Jinks, Dillon Carmichael, Ashley Mcbryde and plently of other actual country acts still exist and will still exist and continue doing actual country music, regardless of the latest laughing stick from Music Row. I’m not saying not to criticize them (because they clearly need a lashing or two) but I ain’t gonna say they are the worst thing in humanity at this moment. lol
January 9, 2019 @ 6:47 pm
*than the bile
*laughing stock
Crap, forgive the stupid typos. I hope I got my point across, at the very least.
January 9, 2019 @ 7:32 pm
Listen up, grasshoppers. A while back, there was a great article in a cooking magazine written by the industrial chemist who perfected the recipe for the Twinkie. His job was to make it as sweet and as close to having no actual mass as possible. So he calculated the ratio of flour and egg whites (iirc, = mass) in precise increments and baked scores of examples illustrating those increments. Some Twinkies didn’t have enough flour and collapsed. Others had too much and cost too much in flour. Right at the edge between them he found the smallest workable ratio and thus the exact and replicable recipe for the Twinkie that enabled its company to come as close to selling, at a truly industrial scale, a sweet that was as close to nothing as possible.
That is what King Calaway is.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:49 pm
hmmm …….. an ” exact and replicable recipe ” .
Yeah ….I’d say that pretty-much sums up what’s going on alright Cornman…..
January 9, 2019 @ 7:34 pm
And by the way, King Calaway’s outfits are straight off the collection of Pitti Uomo 95.
January 9, 2019 @ 8:59 pm
……..so the guy 4th from left is NOT a cowboy wearing white Keds with his pajamas ?? you mean cowboys SHOULDN’T wear Keds with pajamas ? ..or they shouldn’t wear PAJAMAS ?
I thought they were all wearing their dads’ suit jackets until they earned enough money to buy clothes in their own size. Isn’t that why FGL wears those jeans with the holes in them and their mothers’ hats ?
I think if a cowboy wants to wear his pajamas to work and his horse doesn’t mind then we shouldn’t care either .
January 9, 2019 @ 10:25 pm
Can’t wait to check out their synchronized clogging choreography.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:50 pm
just saw lanco in person for the 1st (and last) time after winning tix to a local show. How much worse can king calaway be than these five aimless un-country dudes?
January 10, 2019 @ 12:18 am
Oh, come on. I bet one of ’em can pick a guitar Chet Atkins, one of ’em can saw a fiddle like Bob Wills and one of ’em can….
Oh, who am I kidding? It’ll be tripe.
January 10, 2019 @ 1:14 am
That “debut at The Opry” thing was my Stab. Me. In. The. Liver. moment.
January 10, 2019 @ 2:11 am
“Country music isn’t K-pop.” ‘Nuff said.
January 10, 2019 @ 5:03 am
“It’s the stories behind the performers, the lives they’ve lived, the battles they’ve endured that make you believe it when they sing about heartbreak or hardship, or love.”
Is this written to be ironic, or is it just ironic? It’s interesting to me that there is possibly no genre of music in which there is a bigger gap between the singer of the song and the writer of the song than in country music. No other genre I know of, except “dance music,” has people who only write songs but never perform. The biggest act in country music today, Chris Stapleton, spent most of his career writing songs that others performed. My point is that who cares about someone’s life or battles if they are singing songs that are actually about someone else’s life or battles. Sure, this is not true of all artists and some of the biggest are as known for their songwriting as they are their performing (e.g., Sturgill, Tyler, Jason, etc) but far more country artists are singing words someone else wrote for them (I’m looking at you GARTH!!!).
In the end I have a high level of confidence that King Calaway will suck hard. I also have a high level of confidence they will sell a boatload of albums and tickets to their shows, which is a tragedy. There are lots of reasons to criticize them, but the idea that popular country artists are drawing on some large reservoir of life experience to write songs that reflect their lives is not true.
January 10, 2019 @ 10:07 am
I think you’re conflating the aberration that is today’s popular country music with what country music has always been, and is supposed to be. To take your example of Chris Stapleton, here’s a guy who was raised in a very poor part of Kentucky’s coal region who spent the better part of a decade cutting his teeth playing a a bluegrass band and a Southern rock outfit, honing his craft before he got his shot, and now does sing songs of which the majority of he wrote. But even someone like Luke Bryan, he didn’t come up as a preordained performer because his father was in the business, he was a songwriter when he moved to Nashville, and if you want to read a tragic story, read Luke Bryan’s. Nobody’s had more death in his family in country music than that guy.
Of course today’s popular country music presents a facade of reality, but at least an effort was expended to have these artists pay dues and prove themselves on stages before they got a major label deal and an Opry debut. This King Calaway is truly unprecedented.
January 10, 2019 @ 10:20 am
Very few of the stars of yesteryear wrote their own songs–with a few exceptions, the singer / songwriter is a fairly recent phenomenon. Think of traditional country singers as actors; they take the story that someone else wrote and create a believable performance, as though it were their story. And even when the singer is the writer, the story is often fictional, as with the numerous murder ballads (to the best of my knowledge, Spade Cooley never performed a murder ballad). Singers use their own life experiences, as Trigger says, to create believable stories, but that doesn’t mean the songs are autobiographical in a literal way.
January 10, 2019 @ 12:27 pm
”Very few of the stars of yesteryear wrote their own songs–with a few exceptions, the singer / songwriter is a fairly recent phenomenon.”
The difference being that they knew enough NOT to write their own because labels had GREAT professional writers doing that all day long . Today , up and coming artists are expected to write their material , amateur-ish as it usually is , as labels get a cut of THAT revenue also . The songs are almost always inferior ( bro stuff ) and throwaway with very short shelf lives .
Where are the Dean Dillons , the Overstreets, the Prestwoods when you really need them ??
January 10, 2019 @ 4:00 pm
The traditional singers also gave credit to their writers. My favorite: “Help Me Hank, I’m Fallin'” by Johnny Paycheck. It wasn’t unusual for a singer to cut an entire album of songs by their favorite writer.
January 10, 2019 @ 6:04 am
That awkward moment when you realize you have Opry tickets for March 1st…..
January 10, 2019 @ 6:47 am
The Partridge Family.
January 10, 2019 @ 8:08 am
I am signed to Nashville Entertainment Weekly Records and we have been cutting our teeth at The Tin Roof, Belcourt Taps, Even now been destroyed Bobby’s Idle hour.(or soon to be) . I hate this we are from Michigan and gig all the way to and back from Nashville. My label embraces our hard work. We want a major deal but I like being where we are at. I follow the examples of Taylor walking away from RCA, Toby walking away from Mercury, it’s because of this pre made music row pop bullshit.I love music row but soon it’s gonna be all apartment complexes. Out of all the talented in Nashville, there’s like a handful of writers that write for everybody. I write my own stuff. AND THERES A PATTERN- EXAMPLE 3 NEW SONGS- Rodney Atkins- Caught up in the country, Luke Bryan- What makes you country, and now Chris Young- Raised on Country. Good Lord must have been discount night at a writers round table. And now this. THIS IS WHY MUSIC ROW is soon to be just an expensive neighborhood to live in and that’s it.’
January 10, 2019 @ 11:35 am
To survive , Nashville has had to embraced the ‘ lowest common denominator ‘ marketing mentality : Sell basic , overly-simplified , heard-it-all-before shit to a young demographic with little to no significant life experience and even less appreciation for great singers,players and writers.
This is NOT a demographic seeking to be enlightened , challenged , educated or even ,seemingly, entertained by music …..only pacified . And folks who DO want more from music have moved on to the countless options available to us beyond radio and mainstream award shows .
I’m not suggesting we give up on introducing the passive listeners to these better options …far from it . I AM saying , however that as long as Nashville can make money off of these passive , non-discerning award-show-listeners we should expect nothing more from it in terms of offering more substantive ‘product’ . If this Boy-Band-Country thing flies ( Rascal Flats , Little Big Town , Antebellum etc… )we should expect even more of it …just the way we got bro after bro after bro slopping trite , pointless product at the same passive demographic . If there’s money to be made in ANY business by targeting the unaware and unguarded , someone will find a way to do just that .
January 10, 2019 @ 12:45 pm
We may be seeing the beginning of a viable alternative publicity and distribution system.The fact that Golden Hour made so many top 10 lists while ignoring radio and most other mass marketing strategies, while hucksters like Kane Brown barely made one list (#40 out of 40 at Rolling Stone) is a good sign. There’ll probably always be passive audiences and the hype merchants who exploit them, but active listeners seeking quality are turning to blogs, websites, social media where they can interact with other listeners and critics. There are probably as many good country musicians today as ever; it’s just a matter of getting the word out.
My predictions for 2019:
* Quality country websites like SCM will become more prominent thanks to newsfeeds (which is how I found out about SCM). Trigger is doing the right thing by consistently and frequently creating engaging articles as the cornerstone.
* The Ken Burns series Country Music (out in the spring) will develop an appreciation of and demand for traditional country music from an audience that had not thought of itself as country fans.
* The vinyl renaissance will spread to country music as this new audience seeks out material long out of print and learns to appreciate the experience of holding a Merle Haggard album or a Hank Williams 78 in their hands and listening to music the way its original fans did.
* The cassette revival, which is now focused almost entirely on indie rock and rap for new releases, will allow unknown country artists an opportunity to release their own work in small quantities quickly and cheaply, until they catch on and are distributed on other media.
* Blogs, social media, YouTube, etc. will serve as discovery engines for both old and new country music. Some of the new stuff will eventually migrate to streaming, and (thanks to Taylor Swift), musicians and writers may actually make a little money there. Curated playlists will improve in quality and diversity to such an extent that radio will become completely unnecessary as a distribution channel.
January 10, 2019 @ 1:25 pm
Dammit, you’re going to make me optimistic!
January 10, 2019 @ 5:12 pm
Just judging by their clothes and hair, it honestly looks like Nashville’s attempt to spark pop-country interest in the UK. They look like a typical British boy band. Europe has a pretty large following of traditional country and Americana, but no one there likes pop-country.
January 10, 2019 @ 5:52 pm
I think the UK connection is on purpose, with two of the performers being from the UK, hoping to bridge the appeal for popular country across the pond, which is something the CMA (which Robert Deaton works for) has been laboring at for years similar to the NFL.
January 10, 2019 @ 5:59 pm
Personally, I’m expecting these guys to defy expectations. I’m expecting a group more in line with the Eagles as the press release says their sound is supposed to be like. I’m expecting harmonies reminiscent of Little Texas, and material that wouldn’t sound out of place on mainstream country radio in 1996.
Or, they could be right and we’d actually have our first country boy band since South 65 (mentioned previously here), only sounding more like a modern pop act rather than the Eagles.
January 10, 2019 @ 7:35 pm
The one guy has a video on Youtube here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZFO4lb6msE
Not bad but not great either.
January 10, 2019 @ 9:00 pm
I know one of these kids and he is a freaking incredible guitar player, and a great guy (and he has dressed a lot like this for as long as I’ve known him). I don’t disagree with the complaints of a totally manufactured band but sadly that seems to be the way of the music business anymore.
If I were struggling to make it in the business, I’d be pissed too. But despite all that, I’m pulling for them because I want my friend to succeed. Time will tell.
January 11, 2019 @ 7:07 am
Speaking of incredible guitar, the bits I’ve heard from Zeph O’Hora’s new record are absolutely stellar.
January 11, 2019 @ 9:04 am
Just what in the h-e-double fuck is this? The TV dinner equivalent to turkey and stuffing.
Nevermind, answered my own question.
January 17, 2019 @ 7:38 am
I don’t know much about country music but I’m friends of one of the guys in the band.
Was searching online for a bit of info about them and came across this.
Haven’t read much but the top few comments and it’s oretty harsh. Without giving them a chance.
Now I can’t comment on the band but for the one lad I know he’s a really talented musician.
His names Jordan Harvey (the red headed guy) and you’ll probably be pretty impressed with his individual talents.
Good guitarist, fucking amazing drummer and a fantastic vocalist.
He moved to Nashville from Edinburgh purely to try to make it in music.
Before that he spent years doing the pub scene in Edinburgh and made a pretty good name for himself.
Unfortunately the UK doesn’t have any interest in country music so it wasn’t really going to go anywhere for him.
You can’t knock a guy for moving to the states to try to make a career in music that he’s wanted since he was a kid.
He also featured on a UK tv talent show called “Let it Shine” after one of his pals put him forward.
His own stuff is on soundcloud and Spotify if you want to search him and his tv performances will be somewhere online.
January 19, 2019 @ 8:03 am
After hearing King Calaway live, I totally changed my opinion! This band will put country music in the mainstream, such as Garth Brooks did in the 90’s.
January 29, 2019 @ 7:29 pm
Stop all your snide remarks! Speaking as a 60 year old MiMi to three adorable grandchildren as well as a recent widow, I happened upon this talented group via Amazon music. I’m not even a lover of country music. The harmony and instrumental talents of these young men had me “rockin” to their beat! Now, once I find my magnifying glasses, I will download their short album to my favorites list. I would love to hear more! Best wishes on your success!
February 21, 2019 @ 2:50 pm
Whoever wrote this article had the good sense not to put their name on it. Now that the EP has been out a couple of weeks and receiving good reviews from the system and the customers it seems as though a “Part Two” is in order. A perfect example of judging a book by a cover. A long list could be provided of “flavors of the month” who are forgotten as soon as the music is unwrapped. Sure these guys better be able to play in public, because there are going to be a LOT of people who’ll want to hear them.
April 17, 2019 @ 7:22 am
I just listened to their first five, and they are fantastic. Period. Sorry you think that torment is a sine qua non of good music. Not
May 14, 2019 @ 11:07 pm
Just finished listening to them because my wife texted me a link for the “life for two” song. Must be good in her eyes and ears or she wouldn’t have had me listen to it. After all remember the TV series “The Monkees “? They were an arranged band and became a big hit when I was young. I’ll bet this band would sound even better in accapello.
May 25, 2019 @ 8:47 am
You are so rude. You hate on anyone you want too because you can’t deal with the fact you will never be anyone. Just because think talking shit about a band will do anything. You give no one a chance. So go deal with your failure of a life on making people feel bad about bands that you’ve never listened too.
June 20, 2019 @ 5:24 pm
Somebody is pushing these guys out there to have them on BB Show and now open for Rascall Flatts and the Opry, when nobody around Nashville even knows who they are. I feel bad for the struggling talent on Broadway with some really good country songs playing for tips, and that’s as far as they will ever get
June 30, 2019 @ 11:35 am
After living through so many changes in music the last 70 years, I believe we should give any people with talent a chance. If they want to try music, let them go for it. I’ve lived from Gene Autry to Jimi Hendrix, from Pasty Cline to Madonna. I didn’t especially like some of them but, some people did.
July 29, 2019 @ 10:51 am
What a snarky article. Having heard and met these musicians there is only one conclusion – -they are incredibly gifted singers. I hope therapy helps you deal with the inner demons that were exposed by this article.
January 25, 2024 @ 1:10 pm
Guess they didn’t pan out.