The Biggest Takeaways from SXSW 2025
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You don’t enjoy SXSW—the annual musical gathering in Austin, Texas every mid March. You endure it. You survive it. Here are Saving Country Music’s biggest takeaways from SXSW 2025.
At 72, Ray Wylie Hubbard Makes His Grand Ole Opry Debut
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There are few moments that are more significant in the lives and careers of country and roots musicians than making their debut appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Often it’s artists in their 20s and 30s who are the ones who get that special opportunity, but at 72, Ray Wylie Hubbard finally got his turn.
Yes, George Strait Is Receiving a Songwriter Award. And He Deserves It
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You won’t find many country music fans who have a discouraging word to share about “King” George Strait. But the one point of contention some have brought up in rebuttal of Strait’s greatness over the years has been that he doesn’t write his own songs. This opinion deserves a little context of course.
Album Review – Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis, “Beautiful Lie”
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How hard could songwriting really be? You learned a few chords on the guitar in college, and if you had some more free time you could probably gnaw on rhyming a few lines of verse … or so you tell yourself. Then you hear an album like ‘Beautiful Lie’ from the First Couple of Texas Country, and it’s so enriching, you’re immediately demoralized.
Dear Ben Haggard, Please Record an Original Album
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What I’m getting at here is that I don’t think I just speak for myself when I say I wouldn’t be opposed to hearing you take a stab at releasing an original album of some sort. I’m talking about something beyond what you’ve already been doing on the stage. Get Dave Cobb involved as a producer, or perhaps your buddy Sturgill Simpson.
Chris Knight Announces First Album in 7 Years, “Almost Daylight”
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There is daylight at the end of the long tunnel that has been the dearth of new music from one of country music’s most revered songwriters. Chris Knight can stand toe to toe with just about any of the songwriting stalwarts of the era, but it’s been seven years since he last hunkered down in the studio and given us something new.
Album Review- Joseph Huber’s “Moondog”
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Emerging from the ashes of one of country music’s most legendary underground outfits in the .357 String Band, and sprouting up from beneath the obscurity blanketing the truly independent musician, Joseph Huber has become to many like a Townes Van Zandt of our time, terribly under-the-radar, refreshingly untainted by the trend chasing….
Russell Smith of The Amazing Rhythm Aces Has Died
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Solo country music artist, #1 hit songwriter for multiple performers, and the singer and frontman for the Amazing Rhythm Aces, Russell Smith has passed away. The 70-year-old died on Friday, July 12th after a prolonged battle with Cancer. Smith was also the songwriter behind big country music hits, as well as a solo performer.
Scott Borchetta Downplays Success of Luke Combs & Kane Brown
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The Country Music Antichrist Scott Borchetta is hellbent on world domination ladies and gentlemen, and in the process expect him to pull country music in the pop direction more than ever before. In an interview, he downplayed Luke Combs and Kane Brown, while touting Thomas Rhett as the only true 20-something headliner.
50th Anniversary of Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee” to be Recognized
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On October 10th, 1969, Merle Haggard and his famous backing band The Strangers rolled into Muskogee, Oklahoma to play the Muskogee Civic Center for a packed house. Just two weeks previous, on September 25th, Haggard had officially released the song “Okie From Muskogee” as a single.
What Happened To Tyler Mahan Coe of “Cocaine & Rhinestones”?
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This is not the Tyler Mahan Coe I started following and conversing with in 2012, who impressed me with his temperament and intelligence, who I knew once he found his place in the music world would contribute something brilliant, which he has. This isn’t even the Tyler Mahan Coe who released those 14 amazing Cocaine & Rhinestones episodes.
Willie Nelson Announces Plans for 2019 Farm Aid
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Willie Nelson and the usual suspects, along with some fresh talent will once again reunite for the plight of the American farmer as part of the 2019 installment of Farm Aid, which this year will focus its attention on the land of dairy. The location was chosen specifically due to the crisis affecting many of America’s dairy farmers.
“Nashville Drummer” Added to Endangered Species List
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On Tuesday evening (7-9), a Nashville drummer known by music conservationists in the area as “Drummer #036” was leaving a recording session on 16th Avenue in Nashville’s Music Row district when he was struck by a vehicle. Crossing the street at a pedestrian intersection at about 9:30 p.m., he was startled and froze in a […]