Cross Canadian Ragweed Adds New Show, Hints More Could Come
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The sold out Boys From Oklahoma reunion shows in early April will not be your only opportunity to see the reunited legendary Red Dirt band. Cross Canadian Ragweed has just announced another stadium date.
Dale Watson Discusses “The Sun Sessions” & Gene Kurtz
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Dale Watson’s gray hair may be filling in nicely, but he’s not slowing down. On the heels of The Sun Sessions, he is releasing a video for each individual song. He’ll also be doing an exclusive tour with his “Texas Two” lineup in Europe. But at the moment he is also mourning the loss of his long-time bass player Gene Kurtz, who passed away over the weekend.
Hank Williams ‘The Last Ride’ Movie Finally Sees Release
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The Last Ride, a movie depicting the last days of Hank Williams, has finally been released to the public. On Friday (10-21-11), it debuted in 7 cities in the South, including 4 in Arkansas, where both director Harry Thomason and star Harry Thomas (Elliot from ET), who plays Hank Williams, are from. It will see a wide release in January of 2012.
Hank Williams III & Shooter Jennings Bury The Hatchet
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Two of country music’s most famous sons have apparently buried the hatchet on a long, 6 year feud that in many ways was one-sided, and was fueled by misunderstanding. “Got an amazing care package from Hank III with all 3 new records on vinyl & CD + a sweet rebel flag lighter,” Shooter fired off on his Twitter Feed over the weekend.
Toby Keith’s “Red Solo Cup”: Bad is the New Good
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Remember the viral song “Friday” by Rebecca Black? When that song blew up, some were saying this symbolized a historic shift in the good music/bad music paradigm, where the song wasn’t popular despite being bad, it was popular because it was bad. we might have the first song taking this paradigm-shifting concept and applying it to a song.
From Homeless to Hank3: The Story of Ray Lawrence Jr.
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The first song on the “Ray Lawrence Jr.” track from Hank3’s Ghost to a Ghost is “When You Lose All You Have.” They say to write it, you have to live it, and Ray wrote the song while living in a Phoenix homeless shelter. A truck driver and a divorcee, Ray had reached the end of his rope in 2008, and penned the song as a self-portrait.
Caleb Klauder Just Wants To Play Music
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Caleb’s name deserves equal billing beside the other top shelf independent roots artists from across the country. And though you may have not heard of Caleb until recently, or just right now, the 40-year-old with flecks of gray hair sticking out from under his trucker hat has been touring and making music for 20 years now. It just has not always been music that bears his name.
Yelawolf Has No Place In Country and Roots Music
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Here at Saving Country Music, we have put ourselves squarely on the front lines of opposing the infiltration of hip hop into the country genre, or possibly, the takeover of country by hip-hop, that seems to be pervading the current mainstream country music landscape. Unlike many others that flee from this fight, I am willing to take the charges of racism and closed-mindedness…
Album Review – Dale Watson “The Sun Sessions”
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I’m not sure many other artists, even the ones that are big Johnny Cash fans, would be up for pulling this project off with this adeptness. It would almost take a small team of musical historians, creative writers, and musicians to evoke what Dale Watson does in a seemingly effortless manner simply from his fandom, understanding, and deep appreciation for The Man in Black.
Is ‘Country’ an Embarrassing Term for Top Tier Talent?
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Now that mainstream country music has been seen as just another version of pop music by so many people for so long, my concern is that talented musicians are being turned off by the mere mention of the term ‘country’, seeing it as a genre without gravitas, obsessed with money and image, making it even more likely for the one-in-a-million music talent to stay away.
Sheryl Crow’s Rendition of Hank Williams’ “Angel Mine”
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember Hank Williams ever recording any drunken sea shantys. I can’t remember any Ol’ Hank songs featuring trumpets, or classically-styled lilting mandolin parts either. And I guess the Hank song that is built around incongruent, sloppily-overdubbed harmonies is on that $70 box set I could never get the scratch to buy.
The Boomswagglers Blow People Away with New Lineup
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Listen to me and listen good. This new Boomswagglers lineup, with Steven Bracamontez on guitar, and Natalie McDougall on drums has it. And when I say ‘it’, I’m not just saying it’s good, I mean it has that undefinable thing that when you watch it live, it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, the kind of ‘it’ that overrides appeal based simply on taste.
Album Review – Scott H. Biram’s “Bad Ingredients”
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When it comes to one man bands, Scott H. Biram is the franchise. He is the top of the heap, the one that inspired so many others. He’s tussled with semi trucks and spilled his guts out on the highway just like he’s spilled his guts out on countless stages all across the Western world until he earned that glorious ‘H’ in the middle of his name.