Kathy Mattea Invited to be Next Grand Ole Opry Member
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“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and thank you!” was Mattea’s response after fellow West Virginian Charlie McCoy posed the question. McCoy came out on stage while Mattea was singing her iconic “18 Wheels and A Dozen Roses.”
The Music That Paved The Way For Mumford & Sons
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Many of the bold changes in the direction of popular music begin with artists that are too fey, too polarizing to become popular themselves. So it takes others who understand how to soften music with sensibilities to make it accessible to the masses, and hopefully, if time is on their side, transect the popularity timeline, resulting in superstardom.
Song Review – Jason Aldean’s “The Only Way I Know”
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I know a lot of folks are going to roll up on this review hoping to see a crime scene unfold, hoping that I show no mercy and draw blood on this embarrassment of American country music. But the truth is, I don’t have much to say about it. I’ve got no dry powder here. What could be said that hasn’t been said many times before to the point of being redundant, or that isn’t obvious to the clear-minded listener?
Mindy McCready, And The Broken Promise of the Cult of Celebrity
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Instilled in all of us at birth is the idea that becoming a celebrity is the apex of the human experience. We feed this philosophy to our children. We perpetuate it through media. We’ve made it a vital building block of our economy. It is enshrined and institutionalized in our educational system in the form of popularity contests. Yet nowhere is the philosophy of wealth and celebrity being broken promises given equal time.
Review – Amber Digby’s “The World You’re Living In”
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Amber Digby’s gift is being able to hand select classic country songs from the past that never became full-on classics, but should have. And then with her band Midnight Flyer, Amber makes these songs classics by the power of her pure country voice. It’s part album making, part archeology dig, and then she adds a few newer offerings and self-penned songs to the mix for good measure.
Papa Joe’s, Dorsett 221 Truck Stop, & The Snake Farm
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Interstate 35 runs like a zipper down the gut of Texas, and acts like an unofficial border where the American South meets the West. The highway is also a musical corridor, being the main conduit in and out of Austin, TX, aka the “Live Music Capitol of the World.” Up and down that ribbon of I-35 are places that have been regaled in song by the musicians who’ve passed by them or had memorable experiences there.
The Highballers – “Soft Music and Hard Liquor”
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A good song can drown all other concerns, and The Highballers deliver one after another on this somewhat quirky but really enjoyable anf fun album. Originating from the unlikely country music locale of Washington DC, The Higballers revive the classic country rock feel in songs that display wit, humor, and at times, heartfelt storytelling, backed by some great country licks and adept composition.
Radio Ready Country Hits from Independent Artists
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Every day hundreds of people wake up, put their pants on, and head to Music Row in Nashville to try to find “the next one.” They cull through reams of new material being produced by big songwriting operations, when right under their noses are battle tested songs with proven appeal waiting to be cherry picked from the independent and underground music world. Here are just a few.
T Shirts You Will Never See in Country Music
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Since music no longer holds any intrinsic value to the American consumer and they’d rather steal a song than have it be sold to them for less than a pack of gum, merch, MERCH is where all the money is now. Major labels manufacture merch in the textile industry’s version of puppy mills somewhere in southeast Asia. Here’s some country music T Shirts you won’t see for sale anytime soon.
Heartworn Highways Revisited – Answers from the Filmmakers
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On Sunday (2-10-13) the original filmmakers of the legendary Outlaw country documentary Heartworn Highways participated in an online chat where they answered questions from fans of the cult film originally released in 1981. Editor Phillip Schopper and producer Graham Leader answered fan’s questions and let some interesting tidbits fly, including that a sequel of the film is currently in the works.
Jamey Johnson in Contract Dispute– “I Don’t Get Paid.”
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“Financially speaking, they treat me worse than they ever did the Dixie Chicks,” Johnson explained to Rolling Stone. “I feel pretty used by the music industry, in that my contracts are written in such a way that I don’t get paid.” Johnson is signed with Mercury Records Nashville. The label picked up his album That Lonesome Song in 2008 and signed him to a multi-record deal.
Saving Country Music 2013 Grammy Awards LIVE Blog
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So here we go once again folks! To attempt to alleviate some of the anger, disgust, dejection, and frustration with the current state of music, we join here to report, commiserate, and poke fun of The Grammy Awards, the participants, the winners, and the performers, and pontificate on their impact. The way this works is this page will be updated regularly as the telecast transpires, so get your mouse finger ready to hit refresh often.
They Said Waylon Jennings Wasn’t Country Too (Outlaw History)
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No other genre of American music has an ongoing debate about what it is and what it isn’t like country does, because no other genre has such long-established ties to tradition that so many fans and artists feel must be respected. In their time, artists we consider the very definition of country were accused of being pop, artists like Patsy Cline, and yes, even the great Waylon Jennings.