Generic Media Puff Piece for a Musical Performer
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Though this feature-length article is found in a music publication, this really is more of a lifestyle piece meant to indulge the superiority complex of the interviewer, the interviewee, and the audience.
Will Country Music Ever Be Saved?
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Last weekend, former Drive By Trucker turned solo artist Jason Isbell, let fire a tweet that read in part, “I just don’t see how any genre of music needs “saving” or “reclaiming.” I don’t know if this tweet was meant for Saving Country Music or of it was just coincidental, but it raises a point that comes up often on a site named Saving Country Music, will country music ever be saved?
I Don’t Care What Carrie Underwood Thinks About Gay Marriage (a rant)
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Congratulations Carrie Underwood fans, haters, apologists, and detractors who’ve been swept up by this story, you’ve just been played by a sensationalizing British tabloid with an overt political agenda. Why was Carrie Underwood asked about gay marriage in the first place? Why should we even care what Carrie Underwood thinks about gay marriage or any other political wedge issue?
Album Review – Joseph Huber “Tongues of Fire”
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It is difficult to describe Tongues of Fire without comparing it to Joseph’s first solo album Bury Me Where I Fall which in contrast was very dark from deep and intelligent songwriting and eery chord structures. Tongues of Fire takes almost an exact opposite approach, with a lighter feel to virtually all these songs even when the lyrics deal with dark subject matter.
Earl Dibbles Jr. Strikes a Chord w/ ‘The Country Boy Song’
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Granger Smith channels all true country fans’ worst enemy in the character Earl Dibbles Jr. for the new video and song “The Country Boy Song”, exposing the moronic, stereotypical, rehashed, and creatively-vacant world of corporate country’s checklist culture. This is what country music needs. To fight fire with fire.
Scott Borchetta: The Rise of the Country Music Antichrist
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I first used the phrase “Country Music Antichrist” in reference to Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta about 2 1/2 years ago. I’d like to hold my chin high and say I was being prophetic, but in truth at the time I just thought it was a nasty way to label the guy primarily responsible for the rise of Taylor Swift. Little did I know Borchetta would become one of the most powerful men in all of music.
Review – Tom VandenAvond’s “Wreck Of A Fine Man”
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Tom VandenAvond is one of these wheel guys. They may not be the flashiest of artists, but when you sit back and study the music, you find these wheel guys are essential to it in so many ways; how everything seems to revolve around them. They are the trunk from which so much other music grows. Trace the veins of the music and you find that their songs and work create foundations and inspiration.
Waylon Jennings’ Birthday Present from Buddy Holly
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Buddy Holly’s father had kept the motorcycle until 1970, when he sold it to someone in Austin, TX. Then in 1979 for Waylon’s 42nd birthday, the two remaining Crickets Joe B. and J.I. tracked down the 1959 Ariel Cyclone, bought it back, and had it hand delivered to north Texas where Waylon found it sitting there in the middle of his hotel room after walking off stage that night.
Best Songs of 2012 So Far
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Some confusion always seems to dog my lists of top songs, because I’m not just looking for that catchy tune you can’t take off of repeat, I’m looking for the song that changes your world. For a song to qualify, it must be original, and barring exceptional circumstances, it must be composed by the performer. These are songs that take you somewhere.
Video Review – Caitlin Rose “Piledriver Waltz”
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I know I’m late to the party here, but dammit, this video is just so damn good I must expound on it. There’s so much genius in it in fact, I can’t help but think some of it is completely accidental. And the way it plays to both Caitlin Rose’s strengths and weaknesses is wickedly smart. Such depth and attention in music videos these days is too rare.
Saving Country Music Answers Its Critics
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There are many fair criticisms that I am susceptible to. However other criticisms, many based on assumptions, are completely unfounded. Yet to be fair to the folks that may be making these accusations, I understand that I and this website are polarizing entities and so this comes with the territory. So to answer some of these criticisms, I’ve put together some explanations of SCM’s most common criticisms.
Left Lane Cruiser & James Leg to Release “Painkillers”
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Take the insane punk blues of the two-piece Left Lane Cruiser, add the shirtless, sweat-drenched James Leg from the Black Diamond Heavies, and then put them in charge of reviving some of the most legendary songs in blues music, and you’ve got an album dangerous enough to require a prescription. Painkillers, the new cover album due out 6/26/12 on Alive Natural Sound Records.
Luke Bryan Loses “Male Video” Award for Having a Vagina
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It’s pretty simple,” explains CMT spokesperson Harold Frankenfurter. “You can’t have a ‘Male Video of the Year’ winner who is in fact of the opposite gender. We want to be very respectful of Luke Bryan’s sexual persuasion and life choices, but we do feel it is unfair to the other nominees to give him the award with ‘Male’ in the title when he is in fact a woman.”