Alan Jackson, Sturgill Simpson to Headline 2025 Two Step Inn Fest
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lan Jackson, Sturgill Simpson, Miranda Lambert, and what’s left of Lynyrd Skynyrd will be the headliners of the 3rd annual Two Step Inn Festival. They will join 30+ other artists across three stages.
Urban Pioneers are a Blast From the Past with New Album “Vehicle In Transit”
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This isn’t any slick and polished nouveau bluegrass with lilting runs and brazen compositional poise, this is Stringbean and Grandpa Jones slapping away at strings while sucking on corn pipes trying to entertain folks on back porches and beyond. Unpretentious and fun, and fairly authentic to the Appalachian traditions, The Urban Pioneers will make you chuckle and strut, and see the timeless value in the old traditions of primitive country.
Song Review – Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Stone Blind Horses”
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This song is so good—whether it’s the album version, just Hubbard with his guitar, or with a four-piece band like he played it on Conan—at first I truly believed it had to be a cover of a hit from a previous era that had been forgotten about. The song feels so classic, yet remains fiercely original, it’s a wonder how it was never written before.
Song Review – Cam’s “Burning House”
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There’s no typo here. I didn’t forget the last name, or the second half of the first. Believe it or not, there really is a new female country artist condensedly known as “Cam,” and she’s creating quite a buzz around her new song, and her newish style that has some wondering if she will be the one to solve the problem of women with substance finding success in country music.
Darius Rucker Calls Out “Let’s Take Country Music Back” Blogs
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Beyond what Darius Rucker is saying, it’s unfortunate that it’s coming from him specifically—someone who has worked in multiple genres, and someone who I would have assumed is a little more informed on these subjects, and would be a little more salient with his points. And let’s just all appreciate that Rucker is a country music carpetbagger himself.
What’s Next? Country and Folk Songs That Mention The Confederacy?
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The Civil Ware happened, and the South lost. Atrocities occurred on both sides of the battlefield. Atlanta was burned to the ground, and simply from an economic standpoint, one can make the case the South has still yet to recover from the defeat. But it happened, and how are we to learn from the lessons of The Civil War, especially the South’s misnomers on equality, if we eradicate any notions of the Confederacy’s existence?
Sturgill Simpson Signs Publishing Deal
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Announced Tuesday (6-23), Downtown Music Publishing has signed Sturgill Simpson to a worldwide publishing deal, according to Downtown’s Senior Vice President of Creative Services Jedd Katrancha. It not only includes any music Sturgill Simpson may release in the future, but also his back catalog of songs from his Thirty Tigers releases.
The 10 Summer Music Festival Archetypes
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As the summer festival season heats up, and especially with so many corporate festivals these days mixing together genres and people of different interests, I thought it would be interesting to extrapolate on some of the people you might expect to see (or hope you don’t) as you try to get the most from your summer festival experience.
Album Review – Kacey Musgraves’ “Pageant Material”
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Regardless of how you feel about Kacey Musgraves, her music, her politics, or the ideologies she espouses, she symbolizes nothing short of a victory in the effort to save country music. To have a major label artist release an album like Pageant Material, full of traditional country leanings and songwriter-based material, is a sizable leap forward for the genre.
Rape Reported at Brad Paisley Concert in California
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The summer is heating up, and so are the disturbing stories surrounding the behavior at mainstream country music concerts. In 2014, concert conduct became a big concern as statistics and specific stories flooded in as the summer rolled on, and 2015 is shaping up to be just as concerning, if not more. A suspect from Nevada County, California has been arrested in connection with a rape at a Brad Paisley concert.
Why Kelsea Ballerini’s #1 for “Love Me Like You Mean It” is a Shallow Victory
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Is this really the substantive victory we were looking for that would symbolize inroads into the sausage fest at the top of the country music charts? Unfortunately the story about the “Love Me Like You Mean It” #1 is more about radio politics, a specific and calculated push by connected people, and frankly, a pop song on country radio. Though the diversity is welcomed, the result is circumspect.
Vintage Album Review – Randy Howard’s “All-American Redneck”
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Randy Howard was killed on June 9th, 2015 in his log cabin home in Lynchburg, TN in a shootout with bounty hunters. They were serving a bench warrant stemming from a DUI Howard had been charged with that was likely going to be dismissed after the blood test came back proving he was below the legal limit. Randy Howard is gone but his music lives on for eternity, especially “All-American Redneck.”
Taylor Swift Announced As New Face of $10 Bill After Solving Mother of All 1st World Problems
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After solving the mother of all First World problems, the United States Treasury has announced that pop superstar Taylor Swift will be the new face of the $10 bill. What cataclysmic upheaval did Taylor Swift stave off to be bestowed such distinctions? . . . The contentious and complex issue of whether music artists would be paid during a preliminary, 3-month trial period as part of Apple Music’s new streaming service.