EMERGENCY Adds to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Current Playlist (#156)
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Nobody panic. But we have a situation where it’s necessary to interrupt the regularly scheduled programming and the typical rhythms of Saving Country Music to offer an EMERGENCY update to the Top 25 Playlist.
Sturgill Simpson Tests Positive for the Coronavirus
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Sturgill Simpson is the latest artist from the country/roots realm to test positive for COVID-19. The songwriter, performer, and producer said in a statement on Saturday (4/11) that he had been suffering from chest pains, fever, and pre-stroke blood pressure levels when his wife took him to a local hospital ER.
T. Graham Brown, Trace Adkins, Jason Crabb on The Grand Ole Opry
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Celebrating Easter early, and once again offering one of the few live entertainment options amid the Coronavirus shutdown, traditional country artist T. Graham Brown, Grand Ole Opry member Trace Adkins, and Southern Gospel singer Jason Crabb will all hold forth from the Grand Ole Opry house.
Album Review – Sam Hunt’s “Southside”
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If true country music is dead, then Sam Hunt’s DNA is all over the crime scene. As the man who single-handedly eroded more barriers between popular music genres than anyone else in the modern era, it is he who you can point the ugly finger of blame towards for the fact that most all modern music sounds the same.
Joe Diffie Sees Career Best Chart Performance After Passing
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Country music seems to have been hit disproportionately hard when it comes to deaths and illnesses due to COVID-19, with the passing of Joe Diffie being one of the first big losses in music entertainment early in the pandemic. But if there was any silver lining, it’s that fans are purchasing, downloading, and streaming their music.
Tyler Childers Full Band Concert from Pickathon Set to Stream
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The Tyler Childers set was captured on Pickathon’s legendary Woods Stage in the tall Douglas Fir forest that surrounds the festival grounds the weekend he released his latest album ‘Country Squire.’ Yours truly was standing stage side for the set, and can attest to its quality. Admission is free, but the concert is a MusiCares fundraiser.
Album Review – Logan Ledger (Self-Titled)
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“Vintage” is the only way to fairly catalog this self-titled release, with the influences of classic country, traditional pop, mod, and even a little early psychedelia appearing throughout these eleven tracks. If you’re thinking country, think more of Jim Reeves or early George Jones, and less Waylon Jennings. Think The Byrds meet Nashville.
John Prine, a Jukebox, & The Perfect Country & Western Song
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We all know what the perfect country & western song is, because David Allan Coe told us. He also told us why it was the perfect country & western song, and who wrote it. That would be the great Steve Goodman, and the song of course is “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” But John Prine was a silent partner.
John Prine Leaves Us With The Wisdom from Another World (RIP)
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We were lucky that we had John Prine as long as we did—on loan from the cosmos. But life on this cold ball of rock was always too ordered and normal for John. So now he’s moved on to where light and love comprise the ground and sky, to spin his little stories that might seem silly or even inane if written on paper, but rang profound in our hearts and souls.
These Kane Brown & Florida Georgia Line Songs Have The Same Chorus
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And we’re not talking close approximations here that come up commonly in music. Whether it’s the latest symptom of the sameness permeating much of mainstream country at the moment, or a straight up ripoff is a matter for audio experts and the courts. But the similarities are patently obvious.
Album Review – Lauren Mascitti’s “God Made A Woman”
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“God Made A Woman” is a great specimen of true country music in both the stories and sounds, and offers a strong counterargument to the prevailing wisdom that such a thing can’t be relevant in these times, while introducing a songwriter and singer we’ll hopefully be hearing much more from in the future.
Loretta Lynn Covers Patsy Cline Ahead Of New Book
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A brand new book from Loretta Lynn is on the way called ‘Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust,’ and ahead of the new memoir Loretta has released a new rendition of her covering Patsy Cline’s iconic “I Fall to Pieces.” Though you have a few options for books on the life of Loretta Lynn, this one focuses specifically on the friendship between Loretta and Patsy.
How Music & The Rolling Stones Helped Save Toronto After SARS
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At the moment, it may be hard to imagine a world after the Coronavirus mass quarantine. Undoubtedly, there will be a new normal once we emerge from it. We just don’t know what that new normal will look like, and what role live music will play in it. But there is a little precedent that could help shed some light on the matter.