Cindy Walker was one of the most important and prolific songwriters in country music history, penning some 500 recorded songs, and some 400 of them charting in the Top 40.
This time around, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives offer a take on ’60’s instrumental surf and Ennio Morricone Western soundtrack inspired sounds. The result is often breathtaking to behold.
It’s been proven time and time again in country music that pedigree can be a real thing. That’s most certainly the case when it comes to the House of Scruggs.
For years now the indomitable Marty Stuart has been teasing us mercilessly about a surf guitar album or some sort of instrumental work that he’s had in the can, but divulging only scant details.
Unadulterated, and absent of ego, Caleb Klauder and Reed Willms offer an interpretation of country music that is as close to the pure essence of the art form as can be found in the age of smart phones and Artificial Intelligence.
Bob Wills and Western Swing were just as much jazz as they were country, and the same goes for Sweet Meg and ‘Bluer Than Blue.’ It’s boldly and steadfastly traveling back to the ’20s-’40s period, and reviving the era in sound.
Hannah Juanita’s “Tennessee Songbird” allows you to fall in love with country music all over again. It’s like a love letter to country music. Press play, and let the waves of classic country twang and goodness wash over you
For nine years, “Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights” organized by Nashville musicians Brendan Malone and Kevin Martin of The Cowpokes has been the small local gathering with massive international impact on country music.
On “Borned In Ya,” Melissa Carper leans into her strengths even more by worrying less about genre, and more about era, while emphasizing what is quietly brilliant about her approach to songwriting.
Carefully curated like MerleFest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, it features an eclectic lineup each year. It’s not unusual to find legends and veterans of the traditional bluegrass scene, the jamgrass scene, and younger acts.
Yes, yes, and yes. Finally we have a Swamp Dogg album that fits in the country music world. It’s bluegrass. It’s “blackgrass” if you will. And it’s also decidedly a Swamp Dogg album, which means it’s all served with offbeat weirdness.
“People call me retro or throwback, and I’ve been OK with that,” Carper says. “But, I feel like I’m still creating something new. I’m taking styles and blending things in a way that maybe hasn’t been done before.”
“Trail of Flowers” will find the West Virginia songwriter and superlative live performer taking listeners on a fantastic journey through the familiar and surreal as she takes Appalachian music and instills it with a thrust of mirth and mystery.
Many can mimic old sounding country songs. But to do something that will withstand the test of time just like those old songs did, you need the talent and acuity that Brennen Leigh brings to the table.
There’s nobody out there pushing the creativity of country music to the edges of human consciousness like Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are doing here, even among the gaggle of young bucks fresh and hungry to make their mark.
Now it’s time to stop beating around the bush, and cut right down to the nitty gritty of By God country music. Brennen Leigh’s hauled off and written and recorded a full blown honky tonk album.
Picking up where Marty’s last album Way Out West released in 2017 left off, Altitude will explore the foray of The Byrd’s into country music through their album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It was during Marty’s Stuart’s stint supporting surviving Byrds members and co-founders.
Full of original classic country songs that sound like they’re recorded 60 years too late (in the best of ways), it is a breath of fresh air compared to many of today’s modern country monstrosities, and a worthy introduction to an artist we hope to hear much more from in years to come.
The original impetus for Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music was to give a permanent home to the some 20,000 country music artifacts Marty Stuart has assembled over his career. If the show comes into full production, it will dovetail into what Marty Stuart is doing in his hometown.
For now the second time in a row and in as many years, Melissa Carper and her cohorts have crafted an exquisite work of audio goodness that mesmerizes with its wayback sound and style, stealing you to a simpler era in music when everything made more sense, and the foundations of music were set.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.
An important subset of the country/roots revolution we’re currently enjoying is women who are fearlessly hearkening back to the very earliest times of American music before it was all corrupted by fads and financial incentives. This is where Sierra Ferrell has found fertile ground, and so has Melissa Carper.
Maybe you’re not intimately familiar with the name, but you’re most definitely familiar with the licks he played, and the songs that he helped turn into country hits and standards over decades. One of the most prolific and respected session guitarists in country music history, Ray Edenton, has died.
What makes ‘Obsessed With The West’ not just another Western Swing record is how Brennen Leigh is able to emphasize the playfulness that this approach to country music allows through its bouncy rhythm, and the boundless possibilities of chords and lyricism.