Telluride Bluegrass 2025: Musical Bliss at 8,700 Feet
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Telluride Bluegrass doesn’t just entertain revelers on a local or regional level. It works as an incubator for talent, a launching pad for stars, and the implications of what transpires both on and off the stage is often momentous.
Ronnie Dunn Says, “If You’re Gonna Be Heard, You Have to Get on the Radio”
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Speaking about his recent signing with Big Machine’s NASH Icon record label, which was set up to create radio support for artists left behind by mainstream country’s current obsession with youth, the once CMA Entertainer of the Year recipient said, “If you’re gonna be heard, you have to get on the radio. The internet alone is not gonna do it.”
Willie Nelson to be Honored in Star-Packed Washington Concert
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Willie Nelson is set to be honored by The Library of Congress and the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song on Wednesday, November 18th at Constitution Hall in Washington. The concert will be recorded and broadcast nationwide through PBS on Friday, January 16th, 2016. “It is an honor to be the next recipient of the Gershwin Prize. I appreciate it greatly,” Nelson says.
Kane Brown: Market Manipulations & The Manufacturing of an Organic Star
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If you haven’t heard of Kane Brown, you’re about to, whether you like it or not. You can pride yourself in being one of those country music fans impervious to the buzz machine the industry uses to attempt to reel you in. But Kane Brown is coming, and he will be ubiquitous . . . unless his entire career implodes on itself.
Back To The Future: 1985 and the Year Country Music Died
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So what’s to learn from hitching a ride in Marty McFly’s time machine and traveling back to 1985? That the problems country music is facing today are virtually the same ones that were being faced 30 years ago. It’s all cyclical, as canonized in the old Gospel tune enshrined in the architecture of the Country Music Hall of Fame asking the question, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?”
Maddie & Tae’s “Shut Up and Fish” Is Kind of a Stupid Song That Says a Lot
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Maddie & Tae have become the perfect foil to today’s male country stars. They’re like the Minnie Pearl of country music’s Millennial generation. Staunch traditionalists are never going to give Maddie & Tae a serious chance, but that doesn’t mean their music (and “Shut Up and Fish”) doesn’t symbolize a wholesale reversal of course for what we’re used to the mainstream serving.
The Surprising #1 Albums That Trumped Toby Keith in 2015
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“18,700”: This is the number of albums Toby Keith sold upon the debut of his new record 35 MPH Town, and it got me to thinking, which artists and bands have beat that number in a year of unprecedented ascent in independent country music? 2015 is the year it became common to see one of your favorite independent acts and aging legends compete at the top of the album charts.
The Lesson of Taylor Swift’s Success: “Choose a Lane.”
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A new feature recently posted in GQ goes much farther in describing the conflict between Swift and Big Machine. This wasn’t a simple exchange between Swift and Borchetta. There was an outright intervention going on, with numerous high-level executives doing what they could to assuage Swift into not going pop 100%.
Album Review – The Supersuckers “Holdin’ The Bag”
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Going back to what the Supersuckers do best, which is come out kicking with a shit eating grin, and then hitting you in between the eyes with something meaningful when you least expect it, this raucous group sets you right about what is real and raw about country punk roots. In a rather pedestrian year for music that has included some high-profile letdowns, Holdin’ The Bag holds up to the legacy they started nearly 20 years ago.
Hank Williams “I Saw The Light” Biopic Premiers in Nashville – Complete Report
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On Saturday evening (10-17), the highly-anticipated, yet much-maligned movie covering the life of Hank Williams called ‘I Saw The Light’ made its big star-studded Nashville debut at the Belcourt Theater just south of the city’s Music Row district. After the red carpet ceremony and screening of the film at the Belcourt, festivities moved to Acme Feed & Seed on lower Broadway for an afterparty.
Album Review – Toby Keith’s “35 MPH Town”
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At this point, Toby Keith is a relic. What talent he had was questionable to begin with, and he hasn’t ever really evolved for there. Time has passed Toby Keith by, and he doesn’t have the fluidity or desire to change with the times, or the quality it takes to be considered classic. But this album is far from the problem.
Traditionalist Reality Star Jake Worthington Releases New EP (review)
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Like so many of these contestants, not much has come of Jake Worthington in regards to industry success after his finale appearance in May of 2014, but he has just released a new EP. Settling somewhere between John Anderson and George Strait, this five-song offering is a straight-laced true country testament from start to finish that leaves little to no doubt where the heart of the young Jake Worthington lies.
Album Review – Electric Rag Band’s “My Side”
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How cool is it to have a father and a son in the same band? There’s a beer league factor to the Electric Rag Band, and not in a bad way. They make music when they can, how they can, and for the right reasons. And they’ve been doing it for quite a while now. Formed in 1994, their new record My Side accounts for their sixth release.