No, Tom Petty Did Not Hate Country Music
53 Comments
You almost hate to even broach this subject from fear of giving it too much oxygen. But no, Tom Petty did not hate country music. He loved country music. Tom Petty was a roots rocker from Florida influenced by country.
Brantley Gilbert’s “Country Must Be Country Wide”
165 Comments
So. The official country music douche Brantley Gilbert has himself a #1 song in the form of “Country Must Be Country Wide.” Our enemy has a new face friends and neighbors, and that face has a penciled-on beard and hoop earrings. Gilbert, his rising fame, and this song’s success are due in large part to the blurring of genre lines between popular music.
Nominees for 2011 SCM Album of the Year
115 Comments
There is nothing I take more seriously than naming what I think is the best album of any calendar year. The Album of the Year offers a guidepost for future generations to find the best music that was forgotten by the mainstream, while at the same time being a current ambassador to the mainstream to illustrate what great music they are overlooking.
Curb’s Bogus “Topical” Charge Against Tim McGraw
15 Comments
On Tuesday, Tim McGraw will be in a Tennessee courtroom as part of the opening salvo in his bid to leave his contract with Curb Records. I’m no Perry Mason, but I thought I would offer the Tim McGraw defense team a little pro bono research work on how Curb Records itself has set a legal precedence that disproves it’s own case.
Film Review – Charlie Louvin ‘Still Rattlin’ The Devil’s Cage’
9 Comments
The greatest element of this film is that it captures with great wisdom that Charlie Louvin’s life was a victory. The epitaph that it conveys with a bold starkness is simply “He won.” The moral of the story is that victory is within anyone’s reach. That is the everlasting message to go with Charlie Louvin’s everlasting influence on American music.
Album Review – Willy Tea Taylor’s “4 Strings”
13 Comments
If you’re a tragic, tragic audiofile like myself, then you understand just what a blessing it is when out of the blue you discover an artist that really speaks to you, and it opens a brand new vein of music for you to enjoy for years to come. This is the experience most people come away with when hearing Willy Tea Taylor for the first time.
Scotty McCreery’s Lip Sync ‘Clear As Day’ at Macy’s Parade
37 Comments
You know, it’s not very becoming to gloat. But sometimes you just can’t help it, like after you’ve been attacked by a mob of very angry (and curiously, very Asian) Scotty McCreery fans who told me that their beloved American Idol alum Scotty would NEVER lip sync, as I asserted he did on The CMA Awards a couple of weeks back.
Muddy Roots Festival 2012 Initial Lineup
44 Comments
Muddy Roots isn’t just a festival my friends. No. It’s an act of solidarity. It is a force of the collective Will of real roots fans united from disparate backgrounds, coming together to say “We are here, and things can work differently.” The Muddy Roots Festival isn’t just a big party, it is principles and philosophies in action; it just happens to be one hell of a good time as well.
Muddy Roots + Hillgrass Bluebilly + SCM = XSXSW 5
14 Comments
I am very excited to announce a unique partnership between Saving Country Music, Hillgrass Bluebilly Records & Entertainment, and Muddy Roots Music (The Muddy Roots Festivals) to bring together the 5th Annual XSXSW showcase, aka XSXSW 5, as part of the annual mid-March gathering of the tribes in Austin, TX known as South By Southwest.
Surgeon General: Country Rap a Cause of Obesity
12 Comments
According to the Surgeon General’s office, an extensive study by the Centers for Disease Control has determined that country rap is a Class 1 cause of obesity, especially in adult white males. Apparently the data from the study is so conclusive and alarming, the Surgeon General is considering pursuing heath warnings on country rap albums.
.357 String Band is Breaking Up
50 Comments
Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s .357 String Band, one of the stalwarts and one of the first full-time bands in the underground country movement, has decided to call it quits. Their high-octane “streetgrass” approach to traditional bluegrass music made them one of the top-tier live and recorded acts in all of underground country, and afforded them a big following in Europe as well.
The Kickstarter Dilemma: Parody & Ethics
15 Comments
Only 44% of campaigns are being funded, and some folks are setting them up almost as a lark, like throwing a hook into the water just to see if it bites, diluting attention and sometimes money from other projects with a more purposeful aim. I’ve put a list together of some questions I think people should ask before starting a Kickstarter campaign.
Everlast & The Chemistry of Country & Hip Hop
31 Comments
Since country is such a traditional art form, as soon as you interject a hip-hop element into the music (rapping, drum loops, samples, whatever) it ceases to be country, and instantly becomes hip-hop. He wouldn’t think once about calling his songs country. In other words, there is no country rap. There’s country, and there’s hip hop.