omething most country music fans and fans of the Hall of Fame band Alabama though would never happen in our lifetimes transpired Saturday night, August 23rd in Alabama.
It’s a bit ironic that it’s a band from Alabama that most famously explained the importance of the fiddle to music from Texas, but few if anyone will complain how they did it, and 40 years ago today.
As we look back on 2022 and before we look forward to 2023, it’s important we take the time to pay tribute to the important individuals in country music who left us over the last year, and who left a mark on the country and roots music world that will never fade. 2022 saw some absolute titans of the music leave us.
The country music community is mourning the loss of a titan, and a terribly influential member of its community as it has been confirmed that Jeff Cook, original founding member of famed Country Music Hall of Fame band Alabama, has died at the age of 73. The guitarist and fiddler died Monday, November 7th.
On Monday, September 12th, 70-year-old Country Music Hall of Famer Teddy Gentry of the country and Southern rock band Alabama was arrested in Cherokee, County, Alabama, forced into an orange jumpsuit, subjected to a mugshot, and incarcerated behind bars.
“The Pickup Man” Joe Diffie has died due to complications from the Coronavirus. After announcing on Friday, March 27th that he had contracted COVID-19 and was receiving treatment for the illness, his publicist and family have confirmed that he passed away on Sunday, March 29th. He was 61-years-old.
You won’t find the 1982 film ‘Six Pack’ archived in the Smithsonian or in the short list of Oscar-awarded efforts. But for thousands, maybe millions of Americans who grew up in the 80’s, ‘Six Pack’ looms quite large in their little cultural ethos. It’s where they learned to cuss. It’s where they learned about love.
It’s kind of curious that the Country Music Mother Church hasn’t become a conveyor belt for live records like some other important venues in country music have. Now after Jason Isbell released a Live from the Ryman album in 2018, others are getting in on the action, including Old Crow Medicine Show and Brothers Osborne.
The Tumbleweed Music Festival set to take place just outside of Kansas City May 30th through June 1st has just announced their daily lineups for 2019, and the festival will have a slightly different complexion from previous years by putting all the performers on one main stage.
Jason Aldean will receive the Dick Award for the Decade from the ACMs come April—“Dick” being for Dick Clark, who this decade award was just renamed after, and who luckily is dead so he doesn’t have to see his name besmirched by being associated with the likes of Jason Aldean.
Beloved and influential country music songwriter Phil Thomas passed away Saturday, January 5th. With prominent songs recorded by artists such as Johnny Paycheck, George Strait, Randy Travis, Alabama, Barbara Mandrell, and more, his fingerprints are all over the sound and style of country from the late 70’s into the early 2000’s.
The Tumbleweed Music Festival set to take place just outside of Kansas City May 30th through June 1st has just announced their full lineup for 2019, and this year’s installment will have a strong Southern rock flavor to it. A strong contention of women will also be on the lineup.
The Tumbleweed Music Festival set to take place just outside of Kansas City May 30th through June 1st has just announced their initial lineup of headliners, and it appears the 2019 installment will have a strong Southern rock flavor to it. If nothing else, the 2019 Tumbleweed Music Festivasl will be LOUD.
In the mid 80’s, it was Randy Travis and his neotraditional sound that led country music out of the great abyss of the earlier decade and returned country to its rightful place as a powerful voice for rural people in popular culture. With over 20 million records sold and his recent induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame…
Well now, perhaps there is a reason for old school traditional country fans to tune into the CMA Awards in 2016. Celebrating their 50th Anniversary, the Country Music Association has promised to honor country music’s past in the presentation, and they have put their money where their mouth is.
Hypothetically, whether a given song is released to mainstream country radio as a single or not shouldn’t affect the listener’s judgement upon the song itself. And in many cases, it doesn’t. A song is a song, and it should be considered on its own merits. There are exceptions however, like when a song is exceptionally bad, like many of the country radio singles over the years from Luke Bryan.
And so continued on the unrelenting march of terrible songs in 2015. This year included some especially diabolical turns that puts the last 12 months in contention for the worst run for songs in country music history. Of course the usual suspects appear on the rap sheet like Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, and Sam Hunt. But 2015 ushered in the worst year for watching previously heralded artists turning their coats from blue to red.
The stereotypical observation about the classic side of the country music divide is that classic fans only like music because it’s old and sounds old, and only hate the new music of today because it sounds new. But the truth of the matter is country music’s past has plenty of bad music, eras marked by disappointment and poor trends, and songs and artists that time has not been very kind to.
Granted, it is a different day in the music business, and independent country bands are appearing on the country album charts more and more often. But still, to behold the steady rise of the Turnpike Troubadours from a bar band from Oklahoma to the top of the country music charts without ever having to reshape their sound or sign their life away to a major label is an incredible feat.
From the “We Will Rock You” intro, to the obnoxious overdriven arena rock guitar, to the awkwardly and uncharacteristically non-synchronous performances by Alabama founding members Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry, and Jeff Cook, “Southern Drawl” isn’t just bad, it’s something that makes you wish you could go back and completely erase it from your country music consciousness.
“What will NASH Icon be, and will it make a significant improvement to country radio?” This has been the question on the mind of many country music fans ever since NASH Icon was announced. Now that there are actually radio stations broadcasting the new NASH Icon format, we can listen in and hear just exactly what NASH Icon is.
On November 12th, artists from across the country and Southern rock world will be coming together to pay tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd in a unique way. Not your typical tribute concert, and not your typical tribute album, One More For The Fans! — Celebrating The Songs & Music of Lynyrd Skynyrd will be a combination of both ideas taking place on the stage of the famed Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
With 34 CMA Awards, over 20 Grammys, and and some 80 million records sold between the two, they both have seen their share of overwhelming commercial success, public notoriety, and peer recognition. But over the last few years the writing has been on the wall that their time has come, and their days of widespread radio play and big awards are over. And so what did these two men do?
High Cotton: A Tribute To Alabama gets right what so many cover and tribute albums get wrong, including its 2013 counterpart Alabama & Friends. A good tribute album doesn’t just pay tribute to the band or artist. It should be a 50/50 proposition, with the contributing artists also benefiting from the name recognition the tributee affords.