2025 Super Bowl, Grammy Awards Lock Out Country Performances
93 Comments
Similar to many recent Super Bowl halftime performances, the Grammy Awards were primarily dominated by lip-synced performances and choreographic dancing without a live instrument to be seen on stage.
Tami Neilson Looks to Knock Socks Off with “SASSAFRASS!”
48 Comments
Tami Neilson is a full tilt badass monster of music, and I will puff my chest out and challenge any man, woman, or beast who dares questions the full-throated pronouncement that she is the one of the best living singers in all of roots music and beyond. Now she is back with a new selection of songs compiled under the name “SASSAFRASS!”
Song Review – Kacey Musgraves’ Disco-Infused “High Horse”
164 Comments
“High Horse” is what all the talk about Musgraves challenging the borders of the genre, and being inspired by the Bee Gees was leading to. It’s disco country if you will, and Kacey and her proponents in the media want you to know this is Musgraves asserting her creative freedom, and being unwilling to be hemmed in.
Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle Team Up for “LSD Tour”
46 Comments
For those fans of classic Bakersfield-style country, excellent songwriting from alt-country Gods, and unnatural illicit psychedelic substances, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, and Steve Earle have banded together in a slightly-unintuitive, but nonetheless seductive lineup, and branded it the “LSD Tour.”
Miranda Lambert Readies New Single “Keeper of the Flame”
24 Comments
Miranda Lambert will release her latest single, and the 4th from her current album The Weight of These Wings when “Keeper of the Flame” gets shipped to radio April 11th. Likely targeted for a single from the album originally, it first appeared a few weeks ahead of The Weight of These Wings as a teaser track.
Cody Jinks Planning “Loud and Heavy” Festival in August
11 Comments
Country revivalist Cody Jinks and his management are planning to launch a new festival this August that will be curated by Jinks himself. The news comes out of the announcement earlier this week that the management and booking apparatus behind Cody Jinks, Whitey Morgan, Ward Davis, and Sunny Sweeney is being revamped.
Keith Urban Defaces Iconic Merle Haggard Riff In “Coming Home” (A Rant)
377 Comments
WARNING: LANGUAGE – Somehow, inexplicably, Keith Urban has figured out how to take the most iconic guitar riff in the entire 70+ year history of country music, and make it sound like the last dying gasps of a faulty smoke detector smacked repeatedly with a sledge hammer, and slowly drowning it in a bucket of 7-year-old used motor oil.
Newport Folk Festival’s 2018 Lineup Will Be One for the Ages
24 Comments
Want to see Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, Colter Wall, and Jason Isbell all on the same bill? Perhaps add Charlie Parr, Courtney Barnett, and JD McPherson on top of that? Well you’ll get your chance this summer at one of America’s longest-running live institutions, The Newport Folk Festival this summer.
Sturgill Simpson Named Kentucky Colonel, Honored by Kentucky Legislature
16 Comments
Sturgill Simpson is now officially a Kentucky Colonel after being honored on Tuesday (3-20) in the Kentucky capital of Frankfort by both the House and Senate of the Kentucky legislature for being a “Man of the people,” and for his accomplishments in music and beyond.
Saving Country Music’s Biggest Takeaways from SXSW 2018
31 Comments
The original concept of South By Southwest was not to be a funnel for corporate brand recognition through music, or as a springboard for superstars to increase their street cred on social media. It was a place for artists and industry to come together in the discovery process so worthy talent could find support for their music.
Newest Additions to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Current Playlist (#17)
16 Comments
Fresh horses have just been added to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Current Playlist, hoping to do battle with Spotify’s ridiculous portrayal of country music on their mainstream playlists bought and sold via the streaming version of payola.
Chris Stapleton’s Radio #1 for “Broken Halos” is a Big Deal
36 Comments
Chris Stapleton’s #1 for his current single “Broken Halos” is an achievement that was thought to be impossible even a couple of years ago when Stapleton was dominating everything else in the genre. This is yet another accomplishment for Stapleton, and another accomplishment in the effort to restore balance to country music.
The Mother of Outlaw Music, Hazel Smith, Has Died
20 Comments
There were many performing artists, side players, roadies and managers that played a major part in the country music insurgency in the 70’s that came to be known as “Outlaw,” but only one can rightfully claim they coined the phrase, or saw the revolution happen from its early incarnation to its Platinum-selling peak.