The incredible accolades and numbers just keep racking up for Texas country music artist Cody Johnson. After hitting #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart with his recent album Ain’t Nothin To It, he rolled into Houston’s NRG Stadium on Friday night (3-15) for a performance on the star-shaped stage for a crowd of 73,009.
A “moment” is something that used to happen more often in music, when an artist would take the stage in front of a national audience, or have a big showing at an awards show, and completely stun audiences across traditional divides of taste and culture, capturing the zeitgeist in a way that permeated the populace […]
If you missed Chris Stapleton and his All-American Roadshow Tour in 2017 or 2018, you have another chance next year with reams of new tour dates just released. 44 total dates are now included on Stapleton’s tour itinerary, and they include a cool new mix of openers.
The long wait for fans of the Randy Rogers Band is about to be over. The Texas country band’s much talked-about eighth record produced by Dave Cobb will finally see the light of when ‘Hellbent’ makes its way to stores. “We’re in it for the long haul,” Randy Rogers says.
It’s both weird that fellow Texans and country legends Willie Nelson and George Strait have never collaborated together or even performed side by side in their illustrious careers, and yet it also makes perfect sense. But it was bound to happen eventually that the two would sing together.
Starting on November 4th, Kevin Welch has been #1 on the Music Row Songwriter Chart, and will likely be at or near the top of the chart for a while as “Millionaire” continues to climb. And that’s not the only accolade for the tune. The song is up for Best Country Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards.
Here we are with a nice, tidy little bow wrapped around 2018, with the barrage of end-of-year lists finally published and in the past, the confetti from New Year’s celebrations all swept up, and the promise of an exciting new year of country music on the way. But how good or bad really was country music in 2018?
An artist like Ashley McBryde doesn’t need radio. It’s radio that needs an artist like Ashley McBryde. Radio shouldn’t play McBryde just because she’s a woman. They should play her because she’s real. Ultimately, “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” may fail at radio. But Ashley McBryde is going somewhere regardless.
The nominees for the 2019 Grammy Awards were announced Friday morning (12-7), and some of the things we anticipated happening have happened. But the biggest takeaway, and surprisingly so, is Brandi Carlile earning six total nominations, including all-genre nominations for Album, Song, and Record of the Year.
When the Pistol Annies sent the first single from their new record Interstate Gospel to radio, it came with a letter from the chairman and CEO of Sony Music Nashville, Randy Goodman. In that letter, Mr. Goodman made a personal plea to radio programmers to give preferred treatment to the Pistol Annies in their playlists.
The brand new, $540 million-dollar arena started in November 2017 is said to have a seating capacity of 14,000, and though the area will be used for sporting events and other functions, Matt Homan, president and general manager of the venue, called it the “first concert announcement at Dickie’s Arena.”
What Chris Stapleton will mean to country music in the grand scheme will be determined in the years to come, not just as history comes to a broad-minded conclusion upon his contributions, but what his next move will be. Because country music won’t be saved at some magical moment you can then circle on a calendar.
Kacey Musgraves didn’t fail because country radio ignored her. She succeeded because she ignored country radio. This is the lesson of Kacey Musgraves, ‘Golden Hour,’ and the 2018 CMA Awards. Of course country radio sucks, and is inequitable when it comes to women. But what are you going to do about it?
It was a good night for Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood, and Keith Urban, who all picked up significant trophies. But the ratings for the 52nd Annual CMA Awards took a nosedive in the overnight numbers, dropping over 1/3rd from the previous year among key audience numbers, and falling to the lowest head count […]
Everything you need to know about the 2018 CMA Awards, including the performers, collaborations, songs, tributes, presenters, nominees with predictions, early winners, and what to watch for. All the information about the 52nd Annual CMA Awards in one place.
William Michael Morgan has sent us selling our stock, and then buying it all back again just in a matter of a couple of weeks. The first taste from his upcoming and unannounced sophomore record was a song called “Tonight Girl.” And then here comes “Brokenhearted.”
In the most recent tabulation for Billboard’s Hot Tours list compiled via Boxscore numbers, Chris Stapleton’s current All-American Road Show tour with Marty Stuart and Brent Cobb came out on top, beating out massive artists such as Ed Sheeran, Britney Spears, and U2.
Paramount Network’s original series ‘Yellowstone’ starring Kevin Costner has lots of folks talking with its rough and tumble drama, and panoramic vistas shot on location in the American West. But one interesting wrinkle for fans of independent country music has been the inclusion of multiple artists.
Fans of the Texas Music Southern Rock band Whiskey Myers had fair warning they would be featured prominently in the most recent episode of the Paramount Network’s original series Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner, but nobody had an idea it would result in such an incredible boost in exposure and sales for the band.
The biggest adversity to independent music is success. Nobody knows this better than Chris Stapleton. After he was fully embraced by the mainstream industry and was winning awards left and right, folks began vilifying him as a sellout and for not being as country as advertised. But Marty Stuart doesn’t see it that way.
This is all especially concerning since Country Music USA is the basis of the new Ken Burns film on country music, which will reach a much wider audience than this final chapter, and like all Ken Burns films, be referenced by many generations to come as a master work of country music history.
The Willie Nelson camp has released the particulars for the 33rd Annual Farm Aid benefit concert, this year taking place September 22nd in Connecticut at the Xfinity Arena in Hartford. This will be the first time the longest-running concert for a cause in America will be held in Connecticut, which is home to 6,000 farms.
There’s no mistaking Josh Ward as anything but country. We’re not talking about close approximations or the blending of styles in some way. When you think traditional country in the style of classic George Strait, this is Josh Ward. It’s steel guitar, it’s fiddle, it’s twangy lead guitar overlapping lyrics of heartache, sin, and redemption.
The CMT Awards transpired Wednesday night, June 6th at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. Did you notice? Most likely not. Did you tune in and follow along? Even more unlikely. But this isn’t just about ratings. This is about the overall impact of the awards, or the lack thereof.