Andy Vaughan & The Driveline Are ‘Searching for the Song’

Reviews 8 Comments

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There’s so much music these days vying for everyone’s attention, it is almost imperative that you employ some sort of “bit” to get noticed: a distinctive singing style, a blending of genres, humor, irony, etc. How about just sincerity in craft, and good songwriting? Why can’t that get noticed too? After all, in music these days, that’s pretty rare itself, and those attributes are what Andy Vaughan puts into play in Searching For The Song.

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Some Respect for Randy Travis at a Tough Time

Random Notes 37 Comments

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Alright, so we’ve all now had our yucks over this story of a naked Randy Travis being arrested, and I am certainly not above guilt, but I am seeing some fairly alarming rhetoric surrounding this story that I feel is unhealthy to the country music environment. The details of the story may be funny, but the incident is not. Celebrity or no, Randy Travis is a human being who is clearly going through a moment of crisis in his life.

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Expert: Erratic Randy Travis Could Be Caused By Paulie Walnuts Wings

News 18 Comments

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What is the cause of all of Randy’s recent erratic behavior? One expert says it can be linked to the silver wings that have recently sprouted from the side of Randy’s head. “Paulie Walnuts syndrome is what some like to call it, named after the famous Sopranos TV character known for being especially ruthless and having ‘silver wings’ in his hair.”

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The Cure for Music Myopia – Pickathon 2012 Recap

Reviews 8 Comments

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The thing I am most thankful for when it comes to Pickathon is that in this age of music and cultural mypoia, where technology and media that intuitively should give us access and awareness to so much more seem to instead be fueling the narrowing of the music reality tunnel, Pickathon works to erode music myopia by filtering off the cream of many different scenes and styles of music and offering them all in one place.

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Curb Could Use McGraw Lawsuit as Wormhole to Big Machine Secrets

News 3 Comments

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But more than just shedding light on Big Machine’s relationship with Tim McGraw, the documents and interviews Curb Records is requesting could also unlock reams of Big Machine business secrets that could give Curb new strategic advantage over the much-younger Big Machine who is steadily gaining market share from Music Row’s old guard.

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Album Review – Shovels & Rope “O’ Be Joyful”

Reviews 19 Comments

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Shovels & Rope are The Civil Wars for the rest of us. Not pretty, not polished, no Johnny Depp look-alikes here. Just two oddball musicians smashed together in a strange, yet weirdly-intuitive pairing to make music like we like it: raw, untethered, and rabidly infested with emotion. The chemistry of Shovels & Rope is what makes them shine.

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Ke$ha Will Be A Force In Country Music (& work w/ Hellbound Glory?)

Random Notes 70 Comments

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Hellbound Glory just finished up a big 6-week tour, and behind them they left a trail of rumors that a future album might have a contribution from electro pop star Ke$ha. Pop stars positioning themselves for a country move by claiming they’ve always been into the music is nothing new. The difference with Ke$ha though is her references to her country roots and influences are actually true.

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Recap – Farmageddon Music Festival 2012

Reviews 27 Comments

Callamity Cubes

So first of all, for all of you that couldn’t make it to the Farmageddon Fest, I’m sorry. Don’t worry though, since it went so well you will probably have another chance to catch it next year. But to give you an idea of what the music festival was like, this is the story of my experience down on “The Farm.” All I can say is, it was the best four days of my life.

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Album Review – Old Crow Medicine Show “Carry Me Back”

Reviews 26 Comments

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Following Old Crow Medicine Show over the years has been a journey. If you were anything like me, when you first heard their 2004 album O.C.M.S it sounded like music you’d been waiting your whole life for. Then somewhere along the line sentiments began to sour a bit. That leads us to their latest album Carry Me Back. This is the boys returning to their roots of being a roots band.

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Review – Bucky Covington & Shooter Jennings “Drinking Side of Country”

Down with Pop Country 122 Comments

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This is a classic materialistic, chauvinistic, image driven song and video with positively no soul, relatively no story, and absolutely no attention paid to message or artistic appeal. It’s fluff. The only difference between this song and one from Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, or Brantley Gilbert is … well … nothing.

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Album Review – Sara Watkins “Sun Midnight Sun”

Reviews 6 Comments

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I come to the Sara Watkins world admittedly from the outside looking in. I wasn’t along for the ride when her previous band Nickel Creek blew up and made stars of its principals, principally mandolin maestro Chris Thile who now heads The Punch Brothers. Since Nickel Creek split into forks, some folks have been laying their silver down on which player will outmatch the other.

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Anderson Family Bluegrass Is Inspiring Beyond Music

Reviews 8 Comments

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“People first, then music” is the mantra on this site, and it is such a blessing when you discover people who are just as inspiring as the music they make. Such is the case with the Anderson Family Bluegrass Band from Grass Valley, CA. The music is excellent, but this is just the excuse to get you to pay attention to the profound warmth and by-gone family strength the Anderson Family conveys.

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Really Shooter Jennings? Bucky Covington?

Random Notes

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That’s right ladies and gentlemen, your hero, the lord of underground roots, the savior of independent music, Shooter Jennings, is releasing a duet single and video with the most pop-ity pop of pop country uber doches, the “Nickelback of Country Music”, American Idol’s Bucky Covington. The song is called “Drinking Side of Country” and all indications is that it will suck hard enough to send a golf ball through a garden hose.

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Viacom: Purveyors of Cultural Filth

Random Notes 16 Comments

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I’ve often wondered, why is it always the music channels that get hijacked from their original formats to become the preeminent purveyors of cultural filth? They start off by showing music videos, and somehow that organically translates to showing realty TV that displays the most vile of stereotypes. Every time the story is the same, whether it is MTV, CMT, VH1 or BET.

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How Don Maddox Helped ‘Revolutionize’ American Music

Reviews 11 Comments

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It’s not too often that 90-year-old entertainers experience a resurgence in their careers, but that is exactly what Don Maddox of Maddox Brothers & Rose finds himself in the midst of. After 50 years of being hidden away in the town of Ashland, OR where he was known only as a cattle rancher, Don has the spotlight shining down on him once again.

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Review – Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires “There’s A Bomb in Gilead”

Reviews 10 Comments

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This is an explosively-energetic album with influences and styles pulling from a wide range of American music. Lee Bains is well-versed in Southern modes from both sides of the tracks, and shows tremendous versatility in being able to conjure up the smoky mood of a blues singer, and the sweaty twang of a Southern rocker in the space of a breath, with The Glory Fires right on his heels with their authentic interpretations.

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Hank Williams Jr.’s “Old School New Rules” = Rank Political Rancor

Reviews 90 Comments

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Old School, New Rules is a self-important, self-promoting, self-gratifying opus of an American doofus offering no real depth, wisdom, originality, or creative engagement. It is the Shock n’ Y’all of 2012; a political album that relies on the same old tired Hank Jr. modes, and marks a moment of egotistical grandstanding future generations will look back on with embarrassment.

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Kellie Pickler: “I Don’t Need To Be Manufactured”

News 25 Comments

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Think what you want about former American Idol contestant Kellie Picker’s latest album 100 Proof and its striking traditionalist approach, but what may be even more interesting and inspiring than the album itself is the story behind it. After recently parting with her label, Kellie’s narrative is becoming similar to the one of Waylon Jennings, the country music Outlaw that Kellie cites as a primary influence.

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Hank Williams Legacy Recordings Field Guide

Random Notes 5 Comments

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For years, the principals of the Hank Williams estate (Hank Jr. and Jett) were warring back and forth, and this kept the treasure trove of Hank Williams’ legacy recordings relegated to bootlegs and listening parties for the select few with access to the Acuff/Rose archive. But the last couple of years have seen a dizzying dump of previously-unheard material from country’s first superstar.

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Luke Bryan Reads National Anthem Words Off Hand at All Star Game

Down with Pop Country 50 Comments

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Pop country’s official pretty boy Luke Bryan got caught red handed Tuesday night (7-10-12) at the Major League All-Star Game gaining advantage from a substance applied on his hand like Gaylord Perry dressing a spitball. Yes, Luke Bryan couldn’t be bothered to actually memorize the words to our National Anthem.

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Wanda Jackson’s ‘Unfinished Business’ Produced by Townes Earle

News 15 Comments

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In an unexpected nugget of news that has my music pants going crazy, The Rolling Stone has just announced that Wanda Jackson will be releasing a new album entitled Unfinished Business on October 9th, and that the album’s producer will be none other than Saving Country Music’s 2011 Artist of the Year Justin Townes Earle.

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Album Review – Billy Don Burns “Nights When I’m Sober”

Reviews 15 Comments

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What elevates this album the most, the intangible of Nights When I’m Sober is the authenticity Billy Don Burns can approach these songs with. The battle will rage on forever about if songwriters and performers have to live what they sing and write about to be authentic, but with Billy Don, the point is moot.

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If Everything Is So Bad, Why Are Music Sales Increasing?

Reviews 15 Comments

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Oh how independent music nerds love to puff their chest out and pontificate about what’s wrong with the mainstream music industry, how it’s creatively bankrupt and was too slow to evolve to the onset of the digital format. What none of these nerds and experts seem to be willing to recognizing though is that over the last 18 months, music sales have increased. So what happened?

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