Album Review – George Strait’s “Cowboys and Dreamers”
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George Strait did his duty, to God, to country, to family, and to country music. He owes us nothing more. Anything else is gravy. Yet he still takes moments to contribute like he does on “Cowboys and Dreamers.”
Album Review – Carolina Still’s “The Color of Rust”
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Carolina Still puts out a great-sounding, patient, and professional album through Rusty Knuckles Records called The Color of Rust, spiking old music with a new energy. Self proclaimed “old-time moonshier stomp,” they bring the primal enjoyment a jug-like band can evoke, without any of the grab ass garbage that can come from half efforts.
Avett Brothers Helped Spark Roots Revival with “Emotionalism”
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If you would’ve told The Avett Brothers back in 2007 when they released their album Emotionalism that in five years, the best-selling album in all of music would be from a roots band playing acoustic instruments and featuring emotional, singer/songwriter material, they’d probably call you crazy. But that is the power one album can have to launch a formidable music career…
Garth Brooks Tried to Turn Down Hall of Fame Induction
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Garth Brooks was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2012. As is to be expected, Brooks was humble in his acceptance. But what went unreported at the time is that Garth actually attempted to turn his induction down, feeling that there were others that were more worthy than him.
Review – Hank3 & David Allan Coe “The Outlaw Ways”
The long-rumored, long-anticipated Hank Williams III and David Allan Coe collaboration was a long time in the making and even longer coming. But it’s here, and though some may have been wishing for a few songs or even an entire album, clocking in at over 7 minutes, “The Outlaw Ways” will satiate your Hank3/David Allan Coe collaboration jones just fine.
7 Songwriters That Will Change Your Life
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There are songwriters, and then there are songwriters; those folks that so effortlessly set words to the moods and moments of life and that can make you weep like a baby or wildly happy to be alive. These songwriters are there for us, creating a soundtrack for our most enduring memories, making the most of the life experience by enhancing it with music.
Adam Matta Exemplifies Creative Cross-Genre Collaboration
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Every time the topic of country rap is broached, accusations fly that people who oppose the emerging sub-genre are simply opposed to country music evolving. But country rap would be bad even if the verses were sung instead of rapped. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to mix elements of American roots music with elements of hip-hop. Enter Adam Matta, an extraordinary and gifted old-school beat boxer.
Saving Country Music’s Worst Country Songs of All Time
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We all know them and we all hate them, those ubiquitous and ridiculous pop country songs that make us hang our heads in shame, embarrassed to call ourselves country fans, constantly making us having to explain that no, we don’t listen to that type of country. They pursue us doggedly, on the radio, over the speakers at the grocery store, blaring from a car full of high school kids at a red light.
Album Review – The Dinosaur Truckers
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Can four dudes from Germany make American roots music and still be authentic? Do they have the ear, the personal history, the DNA, the dirt under their fingernails to do what American-based string bands do, or will they be forever relegated to being once removed from the American musical experience? If The Dinosaur Truckers and their new self-titled LP are any indication, the answer would be “Ja! Natürlich!”
Jason Boland & The Stragglers “Dark & Dirty Mile”
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If Red Dirt spans a wide sonic palette that ranges from hard country to straight rock n’ roll—with alt-country, country rock, Southern rock, and even some country pop thrown in between—then Jason Boland is the hard-edged bookened defining Red Dirt’s country border. In other words, it is pretty difficult to be more country than Jason Boland and the Stragglers.
‘The Last Ride’ Hank Williams Film to be Released June 6th
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The Last Ride, a movie depicting the final days of Hank Williams, will finally be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 6th through Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Starring Henry Thomas (the kid from ET), Kaley Cuoco (Big Bang Theory), Jesse James, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Fred Tolobowsky, The Last Ride follows the last 72 hours of Hank’s life.
2013 Americana Music Awards Nominees Announced
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The Americana Music Awards just announced their 2013 nominees. On September 18th, the awards will once again be held at the prestigious Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and once again the nominations show a very narrow focus on the dramatically broadening world of Americana music. Aside from the Instrumentalists, only 11 names of artists or groups compile the entire field of 2013 Americana nominees.
Natalie Maines and “Mother” Become A Flashpoint
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So Natalie Maines has a new record out called Mother, and what you think about it probably has more to do with if you listen to Fox News or NPR than an actual investigation and assessment of the tunes. Yes, she is that Dixie Chick; the one actually responsible for uttering the now notorious line about George W. Bush that stimulated the greatest black balling in the history of country music.