Winners Revealed at the 2025 Americana Music Awards
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Once again the wild and disparate misfit toys that get cobbled together under the designation of “Americana” did their best to make themselves presentable, hitched a ride downtown, and took over the Mother Church.
The Cure for Music Myopia – Pickathon 2012 Recap
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The thing I am most thankful for when it comes to Pickathon is that in this age of music and cultural mypoia, where technology and media that intuitively should give us access and awareness to so much more seem to instead be fueling the narrowing of the music reality tunnel, Pickathon works to erode music myopia by filtering off the cream of many different scenes and styles of music and offering them all in one place.
Curb Could Use McGraw Lawsuit as Wormhole to Big Machine Secrets
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But more than just shedding light on Big Machine’s relationship with Tim McGraw, the documents and interviews Curb Records is requesting could also unlock reams of Big Machine business secrets that could give Curb new strategic advantage over the much-younger Big Machine who is steadily gaining market share from Music Row’s old guard.
Hank Williams III Raises $18,000 for Happy Tails Humane
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On Friday August 3rd Hank3 played his 4th Happy Tails concert benefit at the Marathon Music Works in Nashville, a newer venue who donated the space for the event. Dubbed “One Big Wag,” Hank3 and his fans raised a whopping $18,000 for Happy Tails, the most money Hank3 has pulled in for a Happy Tails event so far.
Album Review – Shovels & Rope “O’ Be Joyful”
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Shovels & Rope are The Civil Wars for the rest of us. Not pretty, not polished, no Johnny Depp look-alikes here. Just two oddball musicians smashed together in a strange, yet weirdly-intuitive pairing to make music like we like it: raw, untethered, and rabidly infested with emotion. The chemistry of Shovels & Rope is what makes them shine.
Ke$ha Will Be A Force In Country Music (& work w/ Hellbound Glory?)
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Hellbound Glory just finished up a big 6-week tour, and behind them they left a trail of rumors that a future album might have a contribution from electro pop star Ke$ha. Pop stars positioning themselves for a country move by claiming they’ve always been into the music is nothing new. The difference with Ke$ha though is her references to her country roots and influences are actually true.
Recap – Farmageddon Music Festival 2012
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So first of all, for all of you that couldn’t make it to the Farmageddon Fest, I’m sorry. Don’t worry though, since it went so well you will probably have another chance to catch it next year. But to give you an idea of what the music festival was like, this is the story of my experience down on “The Farm.” All I can say is, it was the best four days of my life.
Album Review – Old Crow Medicine Show “Carry Me Back”
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Following Old Crow Medicine Show over the years has been a journey. If you were anything like me, when you first heard their 2004 album O.C.M.S it sounded like music you’d been waiting your whole life for. Then somewhere along the line sentiments began to sour a bit. That leads us to their latest album Carry Me Back. This is the boys returning to their roots of being a roots band.
Review – Bucky Covington & Shooter Jennings “Drinking Side of Country”
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This is a classic materialistic, chauvinistic, image driven song and video with positively no soul, relatively no story, and absolutely no attention paid to message or artistic appeal. It’s fluff. The only difference between this song and one from Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, or Brantley Gilbert is … well … nothing.
Album Review – Sara Watkins “Sun Midnight Sun”
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I come to the Sara Watkins world admittedly from the outside looking in. I wasn’t along for the ride when her previous band Nickel Creek blew up and made stars of its principals, principally mandolin maestro Chris Thile who now heads The Punch Brothers. Since Nickel Creek split into forks, some folks have been laying their silver down on which player will outmatch the other.
Anderson Family Bluegrass Is Inspiring Beyond Music
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“People first, then music” is the mantra on this site, and it is such a blessing when you discover people who are just as inspiring as the music they make. Such is the case with the Anderson Family Bluegrass Band from Grass Valley, CA. The music is excellent, but this is just the excuse to get you to pay attention to the profound warmth and by-gone family strength the Anderson Family conveys.
Really Shooter Jennings? Bucky Covington?
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, your hero, the lord of underground roots, the savior of independent music, Shooter Jennings, is releasing a duet single and video with the most pop-ity pop of pop country uber doches, the “Nickelback of Country Music”, American Idol’s Bucky Covington. The song is called “Drinking Side of Country” and all indications is that it will suck hard enough to send a golf ball through a garden hose.
Viacom: Purveyors of Cultural Filth
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I’ve often wondered, why is it always the music channels that get hijacked from their original formats to become the preeminent purveyors of cultural filth? They start off by showing music videos, and somehow that organically translates to showing realty TV that displays the most vile of stereotypes. Every time the story is the same, whether it is MTV, CMT, VH1 or BET.