Once again the public is being asked to weigh the character of Zach Bryan after an online imbroglio. And once again, the scenario feels like a big nothing burger, blown out of proportion.
Joe Ely’s wife and manager Sharon Ely explains has been suffering from some serious health issues lately as he prepared to release a new album titled “Love and Freedom.”
In a moment in popular music when everyone wants to declare themselves country, here’s a musician who’s more country than he is anything else, but due to his respect for country is actually speaking the truth.
Folks attending Bruce’s show Thursday night, February 16th at the new Moody Center in Austin, TX got a special treat when not one, but two American music legends took the stage. George Strait came out to give The Boss a warn Texas introduction.
It’s as if a hole was ripped open in the space-time continuum, and out walked some bygone baby-faced character from an era 60 years earlier than the present, serenading our famished ears with classic country songs so fetching in tones…
The fundamental reason “Am I the Only One” is resonating so widely is because it’s tapping into an unfulfilled and voraciously hungry desire for counterpoints in popular American culture. In a very granular and passionate manner, Aaron Lewis captures this fomenting frustration.
The intimacy of Bruce Springsteen’s earlier “West” records is replaced by a truly cinematic scope, because things are still possible here. Pedal steel and throaty, tremolo guitars paint pastoral soundscapes interwoven with sweeping strings and orchestral horns; more Countrypolitan than country. Glen Campbell, not Gram Parsons.
Ahead of the release of a new album entitled Western Stars on June 14th, Bruce Springsteen has made available the song “Hello Sunshine.” Despite the sunny disposition of the title, it is a moody, introspective, and dare you say country-sounding tune that is enjoyable on its own, and gets you excited.
New religious freedom laws in North Carolina and Mississippi, and pending legislation in Tennessee, has the South and the United States in an uproar over religious and civil liberties in an already contentious political season. And all of a sudden, music, and country music specifically, is getting caught in the crossfire.
Lucinda Williams isn’t slowing down anytime soon. After releasing a double album in September of 2014 called Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, and walking away with the Americana Music Awards’ Album of the Year, the legendary alt-country Americana songwriter has been back at work and is ready to release a new record called ‘Ghosts of Highway 20.’
In the windup to Sunday night’s Grammy Awards presentation, Bob Dylan was the honoree at a Friday evening event (2-6) naming him the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year. During Dylan’s 30-minute acceptance speech, he laid out much praise for his fellow songwriters, while unceremoniously lashing out at others, including Tom T. Hall and Merle Haggard. Merle has since responded.
This isn’t some beer league bar band made up of 2nd shifters from the machinist union out on a Friday night to give the jukebox a spell, this is Whitey Morgan & the 78’s dammit—the most wild-eyed honky tonk hard-stomping band ever to put their boots through a bass drum head. And to have a high quality rig on site recording it all in their home confines of The Machine Shop of Flint, Michigan…
Fans of the hard driving, honky tonkin’ throwback country band of the new generation known as Whitey Morgan & the 78’s have been waiting a very long time to hear something new since the release of their self-titled Bloodshot Records debut in 2010, and the floodgates are about to open, beginning with the long-awaited release of “Born, Raised & LIVE from Flint.”
Rejoice Southern rock fans. If you’re looking for a refill of your favorite poison, Atlanta, Georgia’s formidable Southern rock outfit Blackberry Smoke has just announced they have a brand new album on the way called “Holding All The Roses.” “I think that this record does a really good job of conveying what we do and what we’re about,” says singer, frontman, and songwriter Charlie Starr.
A troubadour in every sense of the word, Otis Gibbs is an artist who can inspire even the most timid among us to shush a burly bar troll talking over one of his performances. This is music to lean in and listen to. This is music to get lost in as the lives of characters you’ve never heard of before become as intimate and familiar as family in the span of four minutes.
Every day tens of thousands of people put on the police uniform and put their lives on the line to protect and serve the citizens of the United States. But others step over bounds, grow power hungry in their positions, and some communities have dealt with corruption and brutality in policing for decades to where over the years it has become an eternal theme in American music.
You won’t see Reno, Nevada’s Hellbound Glory at the top of anyone’s ‘Best Of’ lists this year, unless it relates to touring or live performances. Leroy Virgil & the boys didn’t leave much time for recording and releasing albums in 2013; they were too busy ripping off one of the toughest, busiest, and arguably the most notable touring schedules in 2013 from an independent country act.
Next Tuesday, the ‘Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams’ will be released to the public. Completely putting aside the ethics questions for the project itself, I have drafted a list of 10 simple questions about the specifics of the Lost Notebooks that I think country music consumers have a right to be answered before they decide to purchase it.
Country music might ignore Record Store Day (RSD) this Saturday (April 16th), the worldwide event that has become an international holiday for audiofiles, but Saving Country Music won’t. Neither will Bloodshot Records, who has a number of releases and events planned for the day meant to prop up the ailing mom and pop record store.
On March 27th, 2011, Hellbound Glory made a tour stop at Will’s Pub in Orlando, FL. Down a man on the tour to begin with, then down their bass player a few nights before, with their fill-in steel player filling in on bass the day after getting beat up by a bunch of bikers, the remaining members rallied, reached down deep, and pulled out a remarkable, rememberable performance as a power trio that will forever be known as “The Concert in the Cracker Swamp”.
The Ryman is what lower Broadway revolves around, and it is easy to think that however it goes, so goes lower Broadway. When The Ryman was virtually shuttered in 1974 and The Grand Ole Opry moved to the Opry House, that is when the seeds of the lower Broadway decline were sowed.
Just a few quick things: Drive By Truckers on Austin City Limits: In an attempt to conceal the fact that they have completely sold out and abandoned their roots of supporting local Texas music and other great independent country artists, Austin City Limits upon occasion will still put on a decent act, and this Saturday […]