Album Review – Jesse Lovelock and the Velvet Voices
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Those who take the time to dig for the best in music are handsomely rewarded via the experience of this album, and before the rest of the world and the music business get their opportunity to get their greasy mandibles on it.
UK’s Classic Rock Mag Launching New Country Magazine
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If you’ve been wishing for a print magazine that would cover cool up-and-coming country artists right beside the big names, and not just focus on the here and now but take the time to look back on the past greats of the genre, well you may just have received your wish. The inaugural issue of “Country Music Magazine presented by Classic Rock” is being released September 11th.
Possessed by Paul James to Release “Nights When I’m Lonely”
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Texas singer/songwriter, one man band, multi-instrumentalist, Teacher of the Year, and dedicated husband and father Possessed by Paul James has announced that he will be releasing his next album Nights When I’m Lonely on October 29th through Hillgrass Bluebilly Records. The follow up to his 2010 Independent Music Award-winning Feed The Family features 13 brand new original tracks recorded in Austin, TX.
Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind Of Night” (A Rant)
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Luke Bryan’s music has the nutritional value of notebook paper, and is the clinical result of when an entertainer spreads his arms wide in a submissive pose and relents his entire will to the country music industrial complex, saying “Do your worst.” Luke Bryan has no soul. He is more machine than man. He has the integrity of a Guatemalan mule bridge with a squadron of M1 tanks trying to cross it.
The Overlords of Country Trucker Songs
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A big battle ground in country music right now is the presence of so many songs about trucks. Though this recent popularity trend seems especially sinister in its simplistic, incessant nature, it is not necessarily unprecedented in country. From the early 60’s into the mid 70’s, songs about semi-trucks and truck drivers were all the rage, with big names like Merle Haggard, Del Reeves, and Buck Owens getting in on the action.
Sheryl Crow: “Country Is More Pop Than Pop Was When I Came Up”
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“The country format is more pop than pop was when I came up two decades ago,” Sheryl explained to Reuters late last week when being interviewed about her new album, illustrating the degree of country’s move to pop in recent years. Of course Sheryl isn’t saying anything that some country fans haven’t been clamoring about for years, but Crow’s perspective and honesty speaks to the degree of change in country.
Robbie Fulks is Back with Stunning “Gone Away Backward”
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With a gift for poetry like Townes Van Zandt, and a penchant for the whimsical, progressive approach to bluegrass akin to John Hartford, Robbie Fulks releases a stunningly entertaining, brilliantly-balanced, deep, yet instantly-engaging comeback album called Gone Away Backward through longtime associates Bloodshot Records.
Wynonna Judd Needs A Hand With National Anthem
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Yes, we’ve seen this before, when Luke Bryan wrote some National Anthem notes on his hand at the 2012 MLB All-Star Game. Well it appears that this has now become a thing—either writing the notes to the Star Spangled Banner on your hand, or hiring people who inconceivably can’t remember the words to the most well-known song after “Happy Birthday” to sing it to massive crowds, at important events, during significant times.
Country Band The Kentucky Struts Disrupt Tennis Tournament
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This weekend the eyes of the tennis world will be focused on the second round of the US Open in New York City, but a couple of weeks ago at the Western & Southern Open, Saving Country Music -approved country band The Kentucky Struts caused quite a ruckus during a tennis match pitting #2 in the world Rafael Nadal from Spain against Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic.
Austin Lucas Discusses “Stay Reckless”
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The dream of most every musician who has severed all ties to the civilian day job world and made that scarey plunge of becoming a professional artist is to eventually be discovered by someone who can help them make their dream into at least a stable, sustainable reality. The fairy-tale story of some unsigned, but unquestionably deserving artist getting discovered at a random show rarely comes true, but it did for Austin Lucas.
Kacey Musgraves Is Tired of Affliction T-Shirts & Truck Songs
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Say what you want about Kacey Musgraves, but you have to give the young songstress credit for speaking her mind. In a recent Q&A with GQ Magazine, the Texas-born songwriter had some spicy things to say about a few of Nashville’s current infatuations. When GQ asked her what musical trend needed to die out immediately, Kacey responded, “Anyone singing about trucks, in any form, in any song, anywhere.”
16 Essential One Man Bands of the Roots World
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Good music is entertaining. Great music changes lives. And on the front lines of life altering music experiences are the one man bands. Courageous, pioneering, persevering through obscurity and misunderstanding, one man bands might make up a majority of the music world’s boldness and creativity per capita. Here’s 16 of them from a wide swath of the roots world.
8 Positive Female Role Models in Music
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Sex has been used to sell music almost since music became a commercial enterprise. From the shaking of Elvis’s hips, to Madonna’s “Sex” book, to Miley Cyrus doing all manner of gratuitous things with a foam finger. but in truth there’s plenty of positive female role models. From huge, internationally-known pop stars, to promising up-and-coming artists, positive female role models in music are out there.