Pedal steel guitar playing legend Robby Turner has been hospitalized after a serious automobile accident on Tuesday morning (12-31-19). Known for being the pedal steel player behind The Highwaymen and Waylon Jennings in the latter half of Waylon’s career, as well as playing on records from Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton.
A website whose beat is country music really doesn’t have any business broaching a discussion on this song. Not that it’s completely out-of-bounds or objectionably opportunistic to do so. It’s just that despite the characterization of some, this song really doesn’t have anything to do with country music.
Grammy-nominated country music songwriter and performer Brent Cobb will be touring extensively once again in 2020, and he’ll start by stripping it all down and performing his much-beloved songs in seated, intimate venues this winter in a tour being called, “A Night of Fine Acoustic Country Music with Brent Cobb.”
It’s time. In fact, it’s well past time. And the people calling the shots shouldn’t make the same mistake they did with Chris Stapleton’s rendition of “Tennessee Whiskey.” We’re talking of course about Morgan Wallen’s cover of Jason Isbell’s song “Cover Me Up.” It’s time to release it as a proper radio single.
The SteelDrivers have about all you need from music: The drive and instrumentation of bluegrass, the grit of country, the energy of rock, the soul of the South, the songwriting of Americana, and four Grammy noms and a win that prove they do it all better than most. They’re the best elements of American roots music wrapped into one.
Chris Stapleton has just announced a slew of new tour dates on the 2020 leg of his ongoing All-American Road Show Tour, along with the openers for each date. Though this isn’t the big dump of dates we’re used to seeing from Stapleton, presales and tickets for these select dates are coming up shortly, so folks should be aware.
Compiling both sales and streaming data over the last ten years, Chris Stapleton’s “Traveller” not only comes out on top, it does so even though its closest competitors had a head start. “Traveller” wasn’t released until halfway into the decade on May 5th, 2015, and unlike its Bro-Country counterparts, received only sporadic radio play.
Actual country music is actually starting to emerge as a serious trend in mainstream country today, but we still need to see more widespread adoption before we declare ourselves in the midst of another neotraditionalist resurgence. Instead, the new trend that has begun to emerge is being described as “Boyfriend Country.”
Luke Combs is not the William Faulkner of country music. He’s the Grisham, or the Clancy. Ripe for mass consumption, easy to get into, riveting in moments, it’s a much more healthier alternative to a People Magazine or some trashy romance novel for a long flight, but it’s not exactly material for the Pulitzer Prize.
Getting to see Chris Stapleton, Willie Nelson, or Jamey Johnson individually is probably worth your country music time. Put them all together on one bill and it’s a no brainer if you’re within driving distance or otherwise. Throw in upsurging country-soul queen Yola from the U.K. whose having a breakout year in 2019, and it’s a bill for the ages.
Eric Church’s latest album Desperate Man will win the CMA Album of the Year in 2019, beating out Thomas Rhett’s Center Point Road, Dan + Shay’s self-titled release, Girl by Maren Morris, and Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty. This is the bold prediction Saving Country Music is putting out there right here and now.
Carrie Underwood will win the 2019 CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year when it is handed out on November 13th, 2019. Mark it down. She will beat out Chris Stapleton, Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, and Eric Church for the top prize of the night. This isn’t necessarily an endorsement, nor is it any kind of rebuke. It’s simply a prediction.
Man, the Academy of Country Music sure knows how to soft pedal the excitement behind some of their awards. Recently they’ve been unveiling their ‘Decade’ awards, stringing them out over months instead of having an event to announce them, surprising artists backstage at gigs and shoving an award in their face as a few flashbulbs go off.
If you’re a country music fan and are disappointed that your favorite artist didn’t get enough screen time in the Ken Burns film on country music, well guess what, your favorite genre did, and by the most revered documentary filmmaker of our time, and before rock n’ roll, pop, the blues, soul music, or hip-hop.
Though Chris Stapleton started on the mainstream side of music as a songwriter specifically, his output has significantly slowed over the last few years. However this might be changing. Over this summer during his All-American Roadshow Tour, Stapleton has been featuring a couple of new songs.
“Yellowstone” provided a ton of music and artists for fans of the show to explore, especially throughout the country and roots realm, and especially artists that the mainstream often ignores. And the success of the show has also resulted in deserved attention for the songs and artists featured.
After growing frustrated by having to cater his songs to what country radio would play, Kendell Marvel launched a solo career. Now he’s looking to take his solo career a step further by partnering with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys as both producer and label owner to release “Solid Gold Sounds.”
You now can argue that one of the biggest songs in country music in the last decade was originally written and released nearly 40 years ago, and this time around, wasn’t even released as a single. Of course we’re talking about “Tennessee Whiskey,” and the soulful version of the song released by Chris Stapleton.
The Paramount Western series Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner doesn’t just make for compelling television, it also works as a great discovery mechanism for good country and roots music that much of the rest of popular culture ignores. Season 2 of the series that started in June has been no different.
The numbers are in at the midway pole of 2019, and “King” George Strait has the best selling album in all of country music so far this calendar year. ‘Honky Tonk Time Machine’ has moved more copies than any other offering, speaking to the honky tonk resurgence country music has been experiencing across the board.
Massive country stars making charitable donations are nothing new. In fact it can feel like a daily occurrence as they work to polish up their public personas while also making their accountants smile with tax deductible write-offs. But it’s very rare that a country artist makes a donation without some big check exchanging hands at a public ceremony.
20 years ago this month, Marty Stuart released his conceptualized 20-song magnum opus The Pilgrim as his final album on a contract with MCA Nashville. A commercial flop that rendered no radio singles, it nonetheless went onto become one of the most revered releases in the Marty Stuart collection.
Adopting the sounds and modes of pop and hip-hop might make country music cool to some, but the genre’s most existential threat is not dying because nobody wants to listen to it, it’s going extinct as an art form because nobody can distinguishing it from anything else.
“The Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy” has been made widely available, and gives country listeners an opportunity to hear Stapleton backed by some steel guitar again, and more Western-style music than the country soul of much of his original material. It’s part of the upcoming ‘Toy Story 4’ movie.