The hard-driving, Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band The SteelDrivers have a new permanent lead singer and guitar player. Kelvin Damrell, who is native of Berea, Kentucky, and grew up in a family of bluegrass Gospel singers, has been named as the replacement in a spot previously held by some very big names, including Chris Stapleton, Adam […]
Justin Timberlake’s long-anticipated original song with Chris Stapleton will be arriving Thursday (1-25), and it will be called “Say Something.” It has also been announced that he will be performing with country legend Emmylou Harris at Sunday’s 60th Annual Grammy Awards. The details:
It’s hard enough to have an album go platinum these days. Even when you’re a superstar with smash hits and spend a million+ on an advertising campaign. Now take into consideration not just forgoing all of those pre-release formalities, but starting off your release cycle by outright giving your record away to your fans.
On Tuesday, January 16th, The Americana Music Association launched its brand new charting system with the help of technology company CDX. The new system will more easily and more accurately report the activity on Americana’s radio stations and shows across the Americana reporting network.
Radio sure as hell won’t play him, but recognizing the greater cultural impact Chris Stapleton has accrued in the last couple of years, SNL has invited him back for a 2nd performance. But that’s not all Stapleton has going for him in early 2018 …
Yeah, everybody just chill the hell out for just a second. This is only one song from a release that could have a dozen or more tracks. And Justin Timberlake is a pop star, so of course he’s going to release the most pop-sounding, commercially-viable song from the record first.
Kentucky has always been the fertile crescent of country music. It just happens to be that lately it has kicked its output into overdrive, and more than any other state at the moment, it’s Kentucky’s sons and daughters fueling the country music insurgency turning the mainstream on its head.
After over two years of rumor and anticipation, Justin Timberlake has finally dropped the first solid information about his upcoming new album, along with substantial hints at the sonic direction it might take. One thing we know for sure now, Memphis will factor in heavily to the new music according to a minute-long teaser.
Yes, this topic again. And if you don’t like reading about it, tough titty. Perhaps if mainstream country radio put out a modicum of effort to even try to hide the fact they’re outright excluding certain artists from radio play strictly due to their gender, we could shut the hell up about all of this.
Country music will not be saved by just one soul, even though this is a thought process many fans and much of the media tend to buy into, often putting an unfair burden on the careers and purpose of certain artists, and placing them at odds with what they should be focused on, which is the creative process.
Well now. The rumor mill has gone from billowing steam to boiling over with uncorroborated information about new music from Justin Timberlake, with potential heavy ramifications in the country realm as Saving Country Music has been reporting on for some time.
When it comes to country music albums, it is Chris Stapleton, and everyone else. And it’s not even close. After the release of Stapleton’s latest record, ‘From A Room: Vol. 2,’ Chris Stapleton holds three of the top four spots on the country albums charts. ‘From A Room: Vol. 2’ easily comes in at #1 in country, as well as #2 all genre.
There was a time in 2015 when it wasn’t a question of “if,” but “when” Justin Timberlake would release a country or country-influenced record, and this information was all but confirmed by none other than Timberlake’s long-time producer Timbaland. Now we have a little bit clearer picture of why there may have been a delay.
You get what you expect from this record, which is good, and bad. If it feels like we were just here a few months ago, it’s because we were. You could call Chris Stapleton’s latest release, and his second one in 2017 “From A Room: Vol. 2,” or perhaps you could call it “Traveller #3.”
As we near the end of the year, it’s time to start thinking about the Song of the Year and Album of the Year candidates, and to start sifting back thought this year’s playlists and reviews to see what resonated the most, and what we might have missed. But there are still new songs and new albums being released as well.
The nominations for the 2018 Grammy Awards were announced Tuesday morning (11-28), and among the most nominated names are multiple traditional country and roots music favorites, including Chris Stapleton who comes in with three nominations, tied with award show favorites Little Big Town for the most nominations in country.
Sturgill Simpson and his busking set outside of the CMA Awards will be forever etched into not just the memory of the 51st Annual CMA Awards, it will be ensconced into the annals of country music history as one of the greatest moments of protest against the country music command and control structure of all time.
Carly Pearce gives one true hope for the future of women on country radio as her debut single “Every Little Thing” hits #1 on the radio charts this week. And the success Aaron Watson continues to have with his song “Outta Style” doesn’t stop, which was unthinkable from a truly independent artist in previous years.
So Murray shows up to the concert, heads to the box office, buys every ticket remaining for the show, and hands them out to everyone who is standing in line. A long-standing staunch supporter of music, Bill Murray has been caught red handed going nuts at Chris Stapleton concerts and other live events.
The Turnpike Troubadours will finally get their own appearance on Austin City Limits. The revered, longest-running music television program taped live at Austin’s Moody Theater has chosen the Oklahoma-based band for the final episode of ACL’s 43rd Season.
From the very beginning with the title track’s twin fiddle intro, until the very end with Lee Ann covering the Jack Clement-penned “Someone I Used to Know,” There’s More Where That Came From is a hands down, knockout, hardcore traditional country record full of heartbreak, cheating, fiddle and steel guitar.
The 2017 CMA Awards could have been a disaster, and for a host of reasons. It was obvious heading into the presentation that forces from outside the genre, fueled by political fervor and fanned by bias media, were hellbent on attempting to make the presentation a political spectacle. But the upper lip stiffened.
As the CMA Awards were transpiring Wednesday (11-8) night inside the Bridgestone Arena, Sturgill Simpson decided to take his guitar, his Grammy for Album of the Year from 2016, and do a busking set in front of the arena as local journalist Adam Gold broadcast the whole thing via Facebook Live.
Over the last year or so, Sturgill Simpson has certainly earned that distinction of a “badass” as he’s gone from an independent underdog to receiving some of the top recognition in the entire music industry, and stood up to the Music Row establishment in both words and deeds.