Album Review – Josh Ward’s “Same Ol’ Cowboy, Different Rodeo”
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It’s fiddle. It’s steel guitar. It’s songs about raising hell. It’s sentimental songs about the most important things in life. Everybody’s all behind Zach Top, but Josh’s been doing 90s traditional country since the ’90s.
George Strait, Charley Pride, Vince Gill & Alan Jackson to Perform at 50th CMA Awards
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Well now, perhaps there is a reason for old school traditional country fans to tune into the CMA Awards in 2016. Celebrating their 50th Anniversary, the Country Music Association has promised to honor country music’s past in the presentation, and they have put their money where their mouth is.
Zane Williams Is “Bringin’ Country Back” on New Album
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Zane Williams is a smart one, and like many others are recognizing, he understands that the new trend in country music, is actual country music. And this has been exemplified in the Texas scene as much as anywhere. Zane Williams senses that people want by God country music again, and that’s exactly what he delivers on the aptly titled ‘Bringin’ Country Back.’
Mickey Gilley Releases First New Album in 20 Years – “Kickin’ It Down The Road”
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Country music crooner, piano player, and brand mogul Mickey Gilley has released his first studio record in some 20 years called ‘Kickin’ It Down The Road.’ Only available through his website at the moment, it features 10 songs, including the title track written by Byron Hill, Mike Kenny and Michael Cosner.
George Jones Investor & Museum Manager Pleads Guilty to Fraud
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The manager of the George Jones Museum in Nashville, and a major investor and partner of George Jones’ widow Nancy Jones, is headed to prison for two years and owes nearly $1 million in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of bank fraud. Kirk West, also known as Kirk Leipzig, lied about his income…
When The Unthinkable Happens To a Touring Band
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We love our favorite touring bands in their beat up Ford Econolines, hand-me-down Dodge Sprinters, and decommissioned rattletrap fleet vans ambling down the road. Because when they come to our town, they bring the joy of music with them, and when they leave they carry a sense of freedom that can only be delivered by the open road…
Album Review – “Country Songs” by Karen Jonas
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It’s within the anticipation her first record inspired that the sophomore effort ‘Country Songs’ from Karen Jonas comes spilling out of her songwriting pen just as fervent and hungry as her first effort, yet with more refined and deliberate results due to the wisdom won through the experience of her debut.
4 Texas Songwriters Come Together for Can’t Miss ‘Hard Candy Christmas’ Tour
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Any of these songwriters would be worth braving a cold winter’s night to see individually, but luckily they have made it easy on us all by banding together and announcing the Hard Candy Christmas Tour scheduled to transpire in December through Texas and the Midwest. If you’ve always wanted to see one or all of them, this would be your opportunity.
Lady Gaga’s “A-YO” Is NOT a Country Song
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Saying that a massive pop star has just released a “country” song has become the Rickroll of 2016. Enterprising entertainers looking to troll popular media and the gullible Millenial journalists who enable them have made this an enterprising endeavor for not just a few pop stars this year.
Tracy Byrd Returns After 10 Years with “All American Texan” (review)
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If I were Tracy Byrd, I wouldn’t have released an album in the last decade either. What would have been the point, just to have it summarily ignored by an industry obsessed with youth and debauchery as some of the best country music voices of our time get shoved out to pasture?
A Music Fan Explains Why Bob Dylan Doesn’t Deserve The Nobel Prize in Literature
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Giving the Nobel Prize in Literature to a musician is no different than giving an actor a Grammy or a musician an Oscar or a pop star a CMA Award. Or I don’t know, maybe electing a reality TV star President. And as is being reported, Dylan has yet to acknowledge the accolade, and isn’t even returning the Nobel committee’s phone calls.
Interesting Contributors in Miranda Lambert’s “Weight of These Wings” Track List
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Miranda Lambert isn’t releasing one, but two albums November 18th when her double record ‘The Weight of These Wings’ hits stores. With all that material she was sure to solicit help with songwriting. And as we attempt to read the tea leaves of what we might expect from the new record, the names in the songwriting credits are making the prospects more interesting.
After Historic Sales Week, Americana Positioned to Become Major Rival to Mainstream Country
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One of the reasons we feel so surprised at Americana’s success and so many have been so slow to recognize it is because it has been a slow and steady process. Because of Americana’s model of sustainability, the revolution has been plodding, yet purposeful. And now it’s success is palpable, and measurable by industry-standard metrics.