20 Years Ago: Dwight Yoakam & Guitarist Pete Anderson Split
44 Comments
As Dwight Yoakam’s lead guitar player, bandleader, and producer, Pete was fundamental to forging the revitalized Bakersfield Sound that put a neotraditionalist like Yoakam at the top of country starting in the mid ’80s.
2012 Song of the Year – Billy Don Burns’ “Stranger”
15 Comments
This song is about losing yourself, which we’ve all done, and will all do again, and how we all start off life with a firm grasp on who we are that life does its level best to wrestle away from us. But inside “Stranger” there is also a glimmer of hope in how the realization of one’s self can stimulate renewal. And above all of that, the beauty of “Stranger” is its fierce simplicity–the attribute of all excellent country songs.
Archive of the Death of Hank Williams
24 Comments
It was 60 years ago today that the legendary Hank Williams passed away in the back seat of his powder blue Cadillac in Oak Hill, West Virginia en route to a performance in Charleston, W. Va. Hank died of heart failure thought to be brought on by the combination of alcohol, pills, and morphine administered for an ailing back, but the death continues to be shrouded in some mystery to this day.
Taylor Swift Delivers Off-Key Performance on New Year’s Eve
101 Comments
On New Years Eve, Taylor Swift was one of the exclusive, marquee performers for ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest. And for a performer who has a history of off-key performances, Taylor delivered what might have been her worst live performance since her now notorious duet with Stevie Nicks at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Saving Country Music’s Best Live Performances of 2012
18 Comments
Where 2011 felt like a high water mark year for live performances and an average year for recorded projects, 2012 feels vice versa. When I look back on 2011, it seemed like there were moments I experienced that I will never top the rest of my life. 2012 is the year that some albums and songs were released that may never be topped. Still there were a quite a few memorable performances worth noting.
Album Review – Iris Dement’s “Sing The Delta”
10 Comments
When you reflect back on many of the country music greats, they were people who seemed to be birthed right out of the country itself. Iris Dement is one of those artists, a genuine product of America’s rural textures, and a country music great despite the 16-year hiatus between albums of original material maybe causing a momentarily lapse in memory of her brilliance.
Sturgill Simpson Retools for 2013 (& Live Review)
10 Comments
About this time last year, I was telling everybody that 2012 was going to be the year of Kentucky-born and Nashville-based singer / songwriter Sturgill Simpson. “Mark my words,” I said. He had a brand new, professionally-made album in the can featuring recently-minted Country Hall of Famer Hargus “Pig” Robbins amongst other notable contributors.
Tompall Glaser’s “Hillbilly Central” (a pictorial history)
44 Comments
The year was 1974, and a two-story stucco office building / studio located two blocks from Nashville’s infamous Music Row at 916 19th Avenue South got christened “Hillbilly Central” by a New York-based music writer. Hillbilly Central was the brain child of Tompall Glaser, a member of the Glaser Brothers, who took the the money he earned from some success in the country music business to revolutionize it.
How Nashville Surprisingly Tackled The Talent Glut in 2012
17 Comments
One of the most remarkable music events of 2012 must be how Nashville and some of its biggest, most bloated and notorious corporate citizens did the inexplicable: they began to tackle the issue of the massive talent glut in American roots music. All of a sudden the big boys in the media business are playing a part in re-populating the country and roots music farm system that for years has been anemic and ignored.
Video Review – Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”
62 Comments
You can’t have wild, short-term dance club success and keep your reputation as an artist of substance at the same time. Taylor Swift must choose. And with “I Knew You Were Trouble”, Taylor chooses poorly. Her “trouble” is not an antagonist cast in the role of a video, or a previous lover who jilted her. It is the denizens of the pop industry who would sell her long-term substance for their short-term success.
Album Review – The Give ‘Em Hell Boys’ “Barn Burner”
5 Comments
The Give ‘Em Hell Boys are a get your elbows swinging and your knees knocking “okay let’s go!” good time fun-loving country band. Barn Burner is a wild-assed frolic through country and bluegrass laced with punk undertones, with moments of great playing and songwriting, and a fun time throughout. This is a silly, fun-loving band that never takes themselves too seriously.
Jason Aldean & Luke Bryan Get Matching Product Tattoos
83 Comments
If you had any doubt in your mind–if the positively awful, both misogynistic and metrosexually-stimulated songs from Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan hadn’t clued you in already–then this should leave no doubt in your mind that these two knuckleheads don’t just fit the term “douchebag,” they define it. The tattoo design is for a company that they both share an endorsement deal with.
Album Review – American Aquarium’s “Burn.Flicker.Die.”
17 Comments
These songs are tributes to American decay, depravity, excess, and unfairness, with starkly honest lyrics not dulled one bit by subtly, or sullied by the need for explanation or imagination. Burn. Flicker. Die is not an artistic interpretation of American Aquarium’s struggles, it is a Polaroid. You’re supposed to listen to songs, and feel music. With American Aquarium, you do both.