Release Radar & Most Anticipated Albums for 2nd Half of 2025
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No rest for independent country music fans in the second half of 2025. Some excellent country music projects will be coming at you, and this is your updating guide too get you through it all.
Album Review – Charlie Parr’s “Stumpjumper”
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Amidst the graveyards of American dreams is where you’ll find the grey, bent, and wiry folklore rhythm master known as Charlie Parr nosing around, looking for his next discovery. With a resonator on his knee, and a tapping foot you could calibrate a Swiss timepiece to, Mr. Parr bends his back to looking for the perfect rhythm or melody for a mood like an archeologist looks for a lost civilization’s prized possession.
Song Review – Caitlyn Smith’s (& Meghan Trainor’s) “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”
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It’s not a lack of talent that Nashville suffers from. It’s figuring out how to shuffle the best talent to the front. Like another notable songwriter, Chris Stapleton—who paid his fair share of dues writing for others when he had a voice and a message that could resonate much deeper than what was rising in the mainstream, Caitlyn Smith is a relevant and powerful voice ready and warmed up in the batter’s box.
Jon Pardi’s “B-Sides” Are Better Than Most Mainstream Artists’ A-List Material
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From the “If 90% of mainstream country music sucks, then 10% of it must be good” file, songwriter and performer Jon Pardi has just released an EP called The B-Sides 2011-2014 through Capitol Nashville, and it’s not a bad listen at all. Billed as a tide over for fans until a new album is ready to go, the release includes what was left when the final track listing was accumulated for his January 2014 debut.
Kacey Musgraves’ “Pageant Material” Already Presenting Similar Challenges to Previous Efforts
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Despite your desire to see Musgraves become that artist that can deliver a more traditional sound and intelligent scope to country, desire doesn’t always match execution. Criticism for Musgraves as a “boring” live performer is pretty common. And similar to Same Trailer, Different Park, the roll out of the new album so far has been less than smooth.
Why Luke Bryan’s “Kick The Dust Up” Is More Than Just A Bad Song
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So this is it. Right here, right now. Is Bro-Country going to be vanquished, or is it going to be given new life? Who holds the keys to country music? Is it radio programmers, the country music listening public, including many of Luke Bryan’s own fans, or is it Dallas Davidson and the purveyors of formulaic songwriting?
Bobby Bones Show Emergency EAS Signal Results in $1 Million Fine
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Today, the FCC has fined Bobby Bones’ parent company iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) $1 million for the inappropriate and unauthorized use of the EAS tones. The company has admitted its culpability and has also agreed to institute a three-year compliance and reporting plan and eliminate EAS tones from its production libraries.
Pop Country Lyrics Score at a 3rd Grade Level According to New Study
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We hypothesize often that the lyrics of popular country songs and other popular hits are slowly becoming more simplified and dumbed down, but now there is a study that puts data behind this hypothesis. Andrew Powell-Morse of Seat Smart recently took 225 different songs compiled in 4 separate genre datasets from 2005 to 2014, and analyzed them according to Readability Score.
Album Review – Whitey Morgan & the 78’s “Sonic Ranch”
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Like rolling Buick sedans off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan one after another, day after day, year after year, not stopping to take breaks or reveling in little victories, but winning fans over one at a time, night after night, tour after tour in America’s derelict honky tonks until the word of mouth grew into a rumble, the crowds went from nearly empty to nut to butt, Whitey Morgan is now like a locomotive.
Clay Walker is “Pissed Off” About Rock Artists Playing Country
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“I can’t stand to see outdated rock-and-rollers coming in to play country music. That really pissed me off,” Clay Walker told The Modesto Bee recently. “We have great singers, great country musicians. There’s no reason we have to dilute it by letting people in the format that don’t have any business being in the format.”
Sam Hunt Wants to Bring a “House Party” to Country Music
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Sam Hunt’s “House Party” is cultural appropriation for commercial enterprise of the highest order. It isn’t enough that mainstream country music is raping its own culture, now it’s got to ooze its filthy mandibles into a different sector of society and make a mockery of someone else’s too. Safe white America’s appetite for subjugating other people’s art forms in its insatiable consumerism binge is as embarrassing as it is destructive.
“Me Oh My” From The Honeycutters Sees Songwriter Amanda Platt Step Into the Spotlight
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It’s not that The Honeycutters’ previous projects undercut Platt’s abilities by any stretch, but Me Oh My is the 14-song testament that you sense could be the centerpiece of her career when it’s all said and done. And though you might think of Amanda Platt as a songwriter first and then a singer, when she does give herself a chance to step out, she shows herself more than just capable.
7th Annual Reckless Kelly Celebrity Softball Jam Boasts Impressive Lineup
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‘Tis the season in Texas to get out and enjoy the outdoors before the swelter of summer starts in earnest, and to support many of the charitable events that mix music with sports. For seven years, Reckless Kelly has been throwing celebrity softball tournaments to help raise funds to support youth sports programs in Central Texas, and all told the Reckless Kelly Softball Jam has raised over $300,000 since its inception.