20 Years Ago Today: Bluegrass Loses Its King
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Bill Monroe will forever be the Father of Bluegrass. But it was Jimmy Martin, who studied under Monroe, who was able to rear back and declare himself “The King of Bluegrass.”
Muddy Roots Festival Readies 2015 Installment with Legendary Country Lineup
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The Muddy Roots Festival is gearing up for its 5th annual event in the rolling hills just outside of Cookeville, TN, about an hour or so from Nashville to the east for the upcoming Labor Day weekend, and boasts an impressive lineup of many country and bluegrass legends, including Del McCoury, Bobby Bare, Ricky Skaggs, Ralph Stanley, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Peter Rowan, and an impressive under card of insurgent roots artists…
Maddie & Tae Slam The Use of Electronic Drums, Admit to Using Media Trainer Previously
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Well well well. The story of country upstart duo Maddie & Tae only continues to get more juicy and intriguing, and only continues to turn more and more towards a positive one for folks concerned about the lack of roots and female representation in the country genre.
Thomas Rhett’s “Vacation” — aka Adolescent Girls in Bikinis Singing About Drinking Beer
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WARNING : LANGUAGE — What is “Vacation?” It’s the taking of two separate compositions: War’s “Low Rider,” and Jason Derulo’s “Wiggle,” smashing them together like your 4-year-old would two pats of Play-Doh, having Thomas Rhett white-boy rap imbecilic lyrics over it through an Auto-Tuner for a few minutes, and then spitting out the result on some douchebag producer’s Mac.
An Open Letter to “Austin City Limits”: In Consideration of Ray Wylie Hubbard
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I know you probably receive dozens of these types of letters, and they all make strong cases for who the author wishes you select for the next season. But in the case of Ray Wylie Hubbard, I really think it would not only mean a tremendous amount to Ray, but it would mean a tremendous amount to Austin City Limits to finally and formally recognize one of Austin’s most important performers, and help preserve his place in Austin music.
Album Review – Whitney Rose’s “Heartbreaker of the Year”
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I don’t know what they’re lacing the Canadian municipal water supplies with these days that allows the great frozen north to churn out authentic country and roots artists worthy of ears in bumper crop fashion, but they better import some of that concoction down here to the States post haste because Canada is kicking our ass in cool new country artists per capita.
Maddie & Tae’s “Start Here” is a Start on the Right Track for Mainstream Country
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“People forget how great country music is, and we haven’t,” Maddie Marlow was recently quoted as saying. “It’s nice knowing we’re putting the banjo, the fiddle, the steel and the mandolin back out front.” And that’s what they do in their debut full-length album “Start Here,” though you probably won’t catch many Waylon fans bobbing their heads along.
A Visit to the Grave of Waylon Jennings
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With the Hall of Fame-caliber legacy Waylon Jennings left behind, with all the noise still made about him by traditional and Outlaw performers and their fans, and even by modern-day mainstream performers looking to lend a bit of country cred to their otherwise flimsy country music resumes, you would think the final resting place of Waylon would be a bigger deal.
Texas Country’s Prodigal Son Pat Green Returns “Home”
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Without anyone left to please but himself, Pat Green is free to exorcise his demons, get some stuff off his chest, make the album he wants to, and hopefully reconnect with those grassroots in Texas country that once helped carry him to the top, and he once turned his back on. To some his name will continue to be mud, but that doesn’t mean his musical output will be.
Live Review – Dwight Yoakam at the Britt Pavilion
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A blanket of thick smoke had settled down in the valleys of Southern Oregon as it tends to do seasonally when the region burns in annual wildfires that have become especially ravaging over the last few years. But that didn’t hold back the crush of eager patrons flocking to the legendary Britt Pavilion in the picturesque town of Jacksonville, Oregon to take in a performance by legendary country music artist Dwight Yoakam.
Album Review – Kip Moore’s “Wild Ones”
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Though it would be unfair to lump Kip Moore in with the inner sanctum of the Bro-Country sect, the biggest song of his career so far has been the decidedly Bro mega hit “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck.” Kip was already veering somewhat in the direction of the style we see reveal itself in full force on Wild Ones before the release, so we can’t be wholeheartedly surprised by the overall style of this album.
Study: Pop Fans the Most Closed-Minded of All Genres, Don’t Reciprocate Love for Country
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McMaster University, a research university in Ontario, Canada, recently partnered with phone manufacturer Nokia to study the listening habits of music fans in their new Digital Music Lab. The massive project is researching around 20 million song downloads to attempt to study how we listen to music. As researchers cull through the crush of data, they have been releasing certain findings…
Kinky Friedman to Release New Album “The Loneliest Man I Ever Met” – First in 40 Years
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A Jewish-American, Kinky was a seminal part of the Austin, TX music scene in the 70’s when Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and songwriters like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Ray Wylie Hubbard helped revolutionize country music with their independent spirit and progressive approach. Kinky was one of the hucksters of the movement.