50 Years Ago: In Protest, Traditional Country Entertainers Form “ACE”
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Protesting the direction of country music is just about as old as country music itself. As long as there have been radio stations playing it, and record companies making it, fans and performers have been fighting over country music.
Will Hoge Interview – An American(a) Story
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With all the hullabaloo surrounding recent radio executive comments about the importance of radio in validating a country artist’s career, Will Hoge stands as a shining star example about how you can carve out a career in music doing it independently. Despite a year-and-a-half stint with Atlantic Records, Hoge has developed a significant following of fans and produced ten albums over the last two decades.
Songwriter Offers Perfect Lampooning of Bad Country
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What’s so great about “Yo Bro” is that it’s deftly inclusive of both of the audio plagues country music finds itself suffering from at this very moment. As Bro-Country is trending downward, but still trying to hold on in its last dying gasps, and Metro-Politan is attempting to rise up and take its place, “You Bro” straddles the line between the two, offering an illustration of the absurdity of these “country” styles.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Drummer Bob Burns Dies in Car Crash
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Bob Burns, the original drummer and founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, passed away after a car crash late Friday night (4-3) in Bartow County, Georgia. Burns was driving home after a gig and slipped off the road on a tight turn and hit a tree just before midnight. Bob Burns helped form Lynyrd Skynyrd with Gary Rossington and Larry Junstrom in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964 when he was just 14-years-old.
Hank Williams Biopic “I Saw The Light” Sells Worldwide Rights
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The biopic chronicling the short but legendary life of Hillbilly Shakespeare Hank Williams has its distributor, and it is one of the titans of the film industry. Sony Classics has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to I Saw The Light, a movie based on the Hank Williams biography by Colin Escott, and written and directed by Marc Abraham.
Album Review – Sarah Gayle Meech’s “Tennessee Love Song”
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Haunting stages at The Bluegrass Inn or Robert’s Western World on any given night is the ravenesque Sarah Gayle Meech. This isn’t the overnight sensation approach to making it in the music business. This isn’t about moving to town and pitching your songs to superstars in buildings out on Music Row. Sarah Gayle Meech’s approach is one that’s cousin to the blue collars she sings for every night.
CMT Slashes Key Writing Staff, Adds Billy Ray Cyrus Impersonating Elvis
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Starring none other than the country music punch line himself, Billy Ray Cyrus, CMT’s latest epiphany for solving their ratings and revenue tailspin is to cast Billy Ray as an Elvis impersonator named Vernon Brown, who appropriately, was a previous country music one hit wonder who then becomes the minister of a church outside of Nashville.
Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” Rides Controversy to #1
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No matter anything else, Little Big Town and their label knew the song would stir the pot, and that’s exactly what it did, and so much so that it has seen a dramatic resurgence across the board on all of country music’s measurables, including radio play, which was supposed to be the bastion of anti “Girl Crush” conservative misunderstanding in the first place.
Song Review – Tyler Farr’s “A Guy Walks Into A Bar”
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Last time I was paying attention to Tyler Farr, he was touching off a firestorm for singing about parking his truck in his ex’s yard and whipping beer cans at her window. Then Colt Ford and the cast of Duck Dynasty showed up in the video, machine gunning out rolls of toilet paper at this poor chick’s abode just because she finally figured out Tyler Farr had a big bag of nothing and gave him the boot.
Wade Bowen & Randy Rogers Score Big with “Standards”
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Not your run-of-the-mill country protest song, “Standards” makes use of sharp wit and country stylings to land a poignant and cutting point about the plight many musicians face when they interface with the music industry. Though protest songs droning on and on about how Nashville is no longer country are just as cliché as the songs they’re criticizing, “Standards” has an appeal beyond…
Details Clarified in The Midnite Jamboree Suspension
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On Monday, fans of of the 68-year-old radio show The Midnite Jamboree were disappointed to learn that the radio program broadcast Saturday nights at midnight on WSM had been suspended due to financial concerns, and was in jeopardy of going away. The owner of the Midnite Jamboree and the Ernest Tubb Record Shops in Nashville named David McCormick could no longer support the show’s production.
The Raelyn Nelson Band Seek Revenge in New “Brother” Song
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Raelyn Nelson and the Raelyn Nelson Band are just too much damn fun. The granddaughter of Willie is like a modern day country music Punky Brewster with a sound and energy reminiscent of the nascent 90’s country punk scene when things were just a little more unhinged and energetic, yet still rooted in the country music spirit more so than what most of what modern country offers today.
Why Let Pop Steal Listeners, When Country Can Be Pop Too?
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Top 40 pop radio has always been about taking the biggest songs from the respective genres and featuring them in one place. That’s pop radio’s job; that’s its niche in the marketplace. Now country is showing the early signs of coveting that position for itself. Mainstream country radio stretched its belly with Bro-Country, and now that it’s in serious decline, it’s looking for the next fix to filly its over-portioned appetite.