60 Years Ago: Roger Miller Records Iconic Song, Wins SIX Grammys
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Few songs immediately transport you to a different time and place like this one. You can just imagine yourself out on Route 66 in the 1950’s, neon signs buzzing in the background, and not a care in the world.
Zac Brown Band Covers Jason Isbell’s “Dress Blues” on College Gameday
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As the college football consciousness of the country zoomed in on Arlington, TX and the first official National Championship game ever played at the collegiate level Monday night, Zac Brown Band was tapped as the entertainment for ESPN’s College Gameday presentation leading up to the big game. Zac Brown Band played Jason Isbell’s much-appreciated but fairly obscure song for fallen soldiers.
Song Review – Zac Brown Band’s “Homegrown”
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What gives Zac Brown Band a lot more creative latitude with their music is the fact that they’re honest about not really being country. We’re all music fans first, and then our loyalties split down the lines of various genres. If only more artists were honest about their intentions, it would give us the opportunity to enjoy the music more. Zac Brown Band is a Southern rock band…
Wade Bowen & Randy Rogers to Release “Hold My Beer”
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That’s right, the long-running legendary Texas country tour, and the long-anticipated album complimenting the collaboration is finally happening. Hold My Beer, a studio record featuring A-list Texas country talent Randy Rogers of The Randy Rogers Band and Wade Bowen trading licks back and forth will finally be released.
NASH Icon Signs Ronnie Dunn / Makes Big Network Move
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NASH Icon is ramping up for a big 2015, making some significant moves on Monday (1-12) to start the year where 2014 ended: stirring conversation about where country music is headed and potentially stimulating a format split that would see more older country music return to the airwaves en masse. The long rumored signing of Ronnie Dunn to the label has been officially announced.
ACM’s Present a Sausage Fest for 2015 New Artist Award
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The increasingly irrelevant Academy of Country Music Awards, or ACM’s, released their annual earache of ignoble pseudo-country performers known as the semi-final “New Artist” nominees this Monday, that spellbind any beholder with an even elementary understanding of the definitions of “New” and “Artist” as to how such names were populated.
Travis Tritt’s New Verse to “Country Ain’t Country” Criticizes CMT
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Many already regarded the Travis Tritt song “Country Ain’t Country” from his 2002 album Strong Enough as a slightly-veiled protest song preaching against the changes in the country genre, even though the actual lines of the song deal much more with wider reaching cultural and geographical issues. But apparently there’s an original verse that doesn’t appear in the recorded version that overtly criticized CMT.
Hillbilly Casino’s Geoff Firebaugh Talks Live Album & Lower Broadway
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One of the last remaining bands that still holds onto that spirit that revitalized Lower Broadway and still plays there on a regular basis is Hillbilly Casino. Nearing their 10-year anniversary, the band that can regularly be seen playing Layla’s Bluegrass Inn has released a live album recorded at the Exit Inn called “Live in the USA.” I spoke to the Hillbilly Casino bass player Geoff Firebaugh about the album and Lower Broadway.
Garth Brooks Falls in Tulsa, Again on Stage Conveyor Belts
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Luke Bryan, you officially have a rival for the clumsiest entertainer in country music. When we first heard of the return of Garth Brooks, we all wondered if he would ring up the score on the younger Bro-Country pups, but we didn’t know it would be from how many times he’s waxed on stage. Garth experienced a pretty serious fall during his Saturday, January 10th show.
Viral Mashup Exposes Silent Majority of Disgruntled Country Fans
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On Wednesday morning (1-7) when Saving Country Music received an unsolicited email from a “Sir Mashalot” touting a video that had been uploaded to YouTube back on November 4th of 2014, who knew that it would become the first country music viral sensation of the young, fertile year. Subsequently the video has gone über viral, racking up nearly 2.2 million views at the time of this post.
Song Review – Reba McEntire’s “Going Out Like That”
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“Going Out Like That” is not just another single. It symbolizes the very first song from the NASH Icon enterprise pairing Big Machine Records with Cumulus Media in an effort to revitalize overlooked legacy artists, and the first single from Reba McEntire in nearly four years. As the precursor to a planned 2015 album release, the single also may give us a glimpse into what we can expect from a revamped Reba.
Odie Blackmon Talks Teaching George Jones College Course
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Around the passing of The Possum in 2013, I remember the news of his widow Nancy setting up an endowment and scholarship fund for MTSU in the name of George Jones. What I didn’t know, and what has gone somewhat under-reported, is that the passing of George and the endowment encouraged the faculty of MTSU to enter a class on the life of George Jones into the school’s curriculum.
Party Down South’s Deadbeat Dad Josh Murray in Jail for Child Support
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So much for the lovable, huggable character that is portrayed on CMT’s flagship reality show Party Down South. Saving Country music is able to report that the large, Louise, Mississippi native famous for getting naked at a moment’s notice on the show is currently incarcerated in the Humphreys County, Mississippi jail for back owed child support to the tune of $14,000.