“Arcadia” might not be the best album to introduce your friends to the power of bluegrass, but it might be the ideal specimen to introduce them to the beauty of it.
We didn’t really know what to expect from the Grand Ole Opry’s 100th Anniversary celebration on NBC Wednesday night (3-19). We hoped it would be a cavalcade of actual country stars singing actual country music.
Collectively, the current members of Alison Krauss and Union Station have 70 Grammy nominations between them. Both their upcoming tour starting in April, as well as Arcadia will be highly anticipated.
It’s that time of year again to consider who might be considered as the newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. A secret committee commissioned by the CMA (Country Music Association) is going over their final ballots.
Look Up is not a bad album at all. There’s not a single song or moment on it that will feel offensive to a country fan’s ears. But when you prop Sir Ringo Starr in front of a camera, perch a cowboy hat on top of his head…
There are many music festivals these days, but there’s only one Telluride Bluegrass Festival. As one of the oldest and most prestigious music gatherings in the world, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience each year.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the legendary pairing of Alison Krauss and Union Station will be officially reuniting in 2025 for a massive nationwide tour. In total, the pairing will perform some 70+ tour dates.
Recently, Billboard published a list of what they believe are the “100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time.” As always with these lists, it has stimulated lots of conversation, and some controversy.
When Ringo Starr recently announced that he was releasing a country album, some rolled their eyes. But it happens to be Ringo’s relationship with country goes much deeper than some might expect.
A few days ago, Billboard decided to broach the subject of who should be considered “The Real Queen of the Grammys”? Adele, Taylor Swift, or Beyoncé? But they failed to regard the Grammy record of Alison Krauss.
You don’t make it 50 years unless you’re doing something right. 30 years ago the Telluride Bluegrass Festival was already considered legendary from the careers launched, the friendships forged.
Willie Nelson may have turned 90 last month, but he remains one of the most active and prolific artists in country music.
Melonie Cannon owes a special debut of gratitude to Vern Gosdin. She’s gives Vern credit for believing in her as a singer even before her own father did. Gosdin took Melonie under her wing when she was a teenager, and got her father to pay attention to her as a serious country vocalist.
There are bigger festivals, and maybe in someone’s opinion, better festivals. But few festivals in the roots space are as prestigious as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in beautiful Telluride, Colorado. Celebrating its 50th year in 2023 of hosting bluegrass and bluegrass-adjacent music in the beautiful mountains…
How much does the listening public care about a batch of ol’ stuffy bluegrass cover songs? Apparently quite a bit when they’re coming from Billy Strings. His recent collaboration with his dad Terry Barber has brought in career-record numbers for the bluegrass phenom, and put him at or near the top of charts.
Sensing a change of pace was needed, Dailey & Vincent decided to cut loose and record a country album this time. Granted, when they say “country,” don’t think of straight traditional country, or the 90s country sound that’s all the rage, and most certainly not the more contemporary country you may hear on the radio.
Beginning in the 00’s, songwriting in country music began to change, and by the early 2010’s, the population of country music songwriters had contracted by as much as 90% by some estimates, as the royalties that helped sustain these writers also began to dry up.
Well ladies and gentlemen, all the down time of the quarantine is catching up with us with an extra busy final portion of 2021 when it comes to the release of new albums. So to help you stay on top of it all, find this handy dandy guide to the albums you should be on top of.
The two originally met and collaborated at a 2004 Lead Belly tribute concert at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singing the Lead Belly song “Black Girl.” They struck up a friendship over their mutual love for Ralph Stanley, and the rest was history.
Sierra Hull leads the 2021 nominations for the International Bluegrass Music Awards with 5, tying her with the retiring Doyle Lawson who picks up 5 himself, while Balsam Range, Justin Moses, and Billy Strings also pick up multiple big nominations, and Molly Tuttle comes in with 2.
The news spread quickly, and put country music right in the middle of the political imbroglio. However, reports by Rolling Stone and other outlets that the awarding of the medal was a quote “reaction” to the impeachment are false. Instead, it was a preplanned ceremony orchestrated in advance.
Like so many modern day true country fans, Tony Rice held a pretty outspoken distaste for what country music had become, and wasn’t afraid to speak about it publicly. “There’s still a lot of good music out there that John and Jane Doe will never hear.”
From the hills and hollers of Kentucky as a strict traditionalist, to some of the most enterprising and innovative interpretations of the bluegrass form, from beside artists as far ranging as Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice was American string music incarnate.
The impact and reception for the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack was so significant, it’s very fair to characterize it as one of the most important albums in country music history, and it was most certainly one of the most significant releases of the last 20 years.