No, not all country radio stations suck. Some are downright badass. KOKE-FM out of Austin, TX is one of them. They’ve also put on a kickass festival now for five years where devotees to the KOKE world congregate.
If it wasn’t for “the slap,” the biggest story in all of entertainment last week would have been Eric Church choosing to cancel his sold-out show on Saturday, April 2nd at San Antonio’s AT&T Center so he could watch the Duke Blue Devils take on his North Carolina Tar Heels.
Hailey Whitters proves on ‘Raised’ that eulogizing small town middle America doesn’t have to be so trite. Whitters and her co-writers like Lori McKenna, Brandy Clark, and Nicolle Galyon know how to take the yearning we all feel for a sense of home…
The writing has been on the wall for a while, but over the weekend Shooter Jennings made it official: he’s stepping away from touring as a solo performer indefinitely to focus more on the production side of music where his career has been focused more and more.
In what is quickly becoming both one of the biggest and most important festivals in independent country and Americana in just its third year, Under The Big Sky Fest in Whitefish, Montana has announced its 2022 lineup for July 15-17, and once again it’s a doozy.
Hailey Whitters is a really important artist to this whole thing. With Americana-level writing chops and a traditional-leaning sound, yet mainstream-level appeal and acceptance, she’s vital to the effort to save country music. She illustrated this with her last album ‘The Dream.’
Floydfest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and just off the Blue Ridge Parkway has formally announced their 2022 lineup, and it’s a doozy. Not exclusively a country or roots festival, they consider themselves more a “world” festival, but they always include a healthy dose of cool country.
Whether it’s from nature or nurture, to people predisposed to moody dispositions, the music of H. Self is like medicine, either from the way embracing the emotional pain is a way to feel alive in a numbing world, or by offering camaraderie through the shared commiseration.
“This is the best festival I’ve ever been a part of,” Cody Jinks said as he took the stage Sunday night (9-19) in Pryor, Oklahoma. Not faint praise from Cody, who’s played some big fests over the years, including his own personally curated one. And the praise was deserved.
Well well well. Fiddler Kyle Nix who released his debut solo album “Lightning on the Mountain and Other Short Stories” in 2020 amid the Turnpike Troubadours indefinite hiatus has been stepping up his live game recently with his band he’s christened The 38’s.
It’s a rite of passage for any artist or band. And no matter how bygone the honor and opportunity might feel to some, to any act in the country and roots realm with any notion of history, it’s a bucket list item they will cherish and remember forever.
It’s been a while since we loaded up the playlist with new selections, and there have been a ton of superb new songs released over the last few weeks. This results in a massive update of some excellent new tracks that deserve to be on your radar, so look alive.
Kip Moore has always been a wild one in mainstream country. It’s certainly hard to fault him for who he’s chosen to open on his upcoming 20-city “The How High Tour,” looking well beyond the stable of uninspiring mainstream up-and-comers.
“Set In Stone” feels like a really solid and inspired mid career selection from Tritt, well-produced by Cobb, with some great instrumental performances, and no signs of rust or heavy wear from the time away. Undoubtedly though, this is a Boomer record, and in more ways than one.
American Aquarium and frontman BJ Barham have never been true country. But now they’re not just dipping their toes in the country water, their taking a full on plunge into the genre with the surprise release of a slew of country music covers.
It could have been a disaster, or it could have not happened at all. When Mile 0 Fest rescheduled their 2021 festival from late January to late April, a lot of dominoes had to fall their way for them to pull it off. It was a risk. But they pulled it off with flying colors.
Live music is back folks, so don’t be the loser sitting on your couch watching Law & Order reruns and turning in early when your favorite band comes rolling through town, especially if it’s American Aquarium, and especially with the openers they’re bringing out with them.
An Album of the Year winner doesn’t just have to be the best title of a given year. It has to be the best effort of an artist’s career. It has to be a career record where there’s confidence we’ll all be listening to it for years to come, and the title will act like a catalyst to catapult said artist into a new stratosphere.
Shooter Jennings has signed on with the Concord Label Group as a staff producer who will work closely with Concord’s Chief Label Executive Tom Whalley as a creative executive to develop the current roster, and identify new talent. Concord owns numerous imprints important to the country and roots realm.
2020 has been a bad year for many things, but a good year for country music albums. Accordingly, the nominees for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year have been expanded to an unprecedented 12 entries to represent the best releases the year has to offer.
At no point did the CMA Awards say, and most certainly didn’t decree anything to the artists performing on the evening. In fact the statement wasn’t even directed toward performers at all, but at the potential audience. It was simply a piece of promotional copy intended to get people to tune into their event.
BJ Barham of the North Carolina-based band American Aquarium has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Reservoir and One Riot. The deal includes the entire American Aquarium catalog, along with BJ Barham’s solo efforts. “BJ Barham is the quintessential country songwriter,” says One Riot.
Sure, Shooter Jennings as a record producer is nothing new. What has changed now is being a producer now feels like the primary focus, or at least an equal effort for the second generation performer. And most importantly, that’s where Shooter’s passion is.
As we get to the halfway pole in the musical year, it’s time to look back and asses the best albums that have been released in 2020 so far. At the moment, we are very top loaded with stellar releases, with many albums already feeling like strong contenders for Album of the Year.