What Cole Chaney does through ‘In The Shadow of the Mountain’ and its grunge influence is carve out a niche all his own, outside of the shadow of the mountainous careers of fellow Kentuckians like Sturgill, Childers, and Stapleton.
It’s official. Independent country and roots music has a new killer festival on the calendar. It’s called the Unbroken Circle Music Festival, and it happened September 4-6 on the banks of the Ohio River.
The Tyler Childers-led Healing Appalachia festival has just announced their full lineup for 2025, and it’s a doozy. Fellow Kentucky stalwart Chris Stapleton would be co-headlining the event with Childers.
Country music doesn’t belong to the suits in Nashville. It belongs to YOU, the actual fans of country, and we’re taking it back one song at a time. You can find many of those songs here.
Whether you love Oliver Anthony or think he’s a fudge rounder, he’s definitely sparked off a ton of national interest in earnest songwriters who can stand in front of a microphone with just an acoustic guitar.
Friday night (4-7), 49 Winchester rolled into Pittsburgh, a.k.a the Paris of Appalachia, and played the newly renovated Thunderbird Cafe on a hot sell-out streak. After warming up the crowd with the road weary anthem “All I Need” and a soaring rendition of “Second Chance,” the crowd really got rocking…
Born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia, at just 19 years old he’s getting ready to release his debut album Dark Black Coal via Thirty Tigers. Just over two years ago Logan was featured in a now viral video singing his song “Dark Black Coal” for Radio West Virginia and the comparisons to Tyler Childers poured in.
Flatland Cavalry have their work cut out for them in the coming weeks and months. They’ve already been announced as one of the big beneficiaries of the massive stadium tour Luke Combs is throwing this year. But they won’t be sitting on their laurels in between.
The Railbird Festival has been around for a few years now, mixing Kentucky horse racing culture and the state’s favorite spirit of bourbon with a diverse musical experience. But in 2023, Railbird is leaning more into the independent country side of music and their Kentucky roots.
After two years away due to COVID-19, the annual Healing Appalachia concert event is returning September 23rd and 24th to Lewisburg, WV, with Tyler Childers once again headlining the event that looks to raise funds and raise awareness about the opioid crisis gripping Appalachia, and so many parts of the US.
Over the last few years, we all haven’t been able to stop harping on all the great country music talent coming out of the greater Appalachian region, from Kentucky, to West Virginia, to the Commonwealth, to south and eastern Ohio. One festival has its finger squarely on the pulse.
It seems these days that life pinballs back and forth from one disaster to another. You almost have to be reminded that on December 10th, a cluster of tornadoes ravaged Western Kentucky and the surrounding areas and states, leaving a large swath of destruction.
The tornadoes that ravaged large swaths of Western Kentucky on December 10th struck at the very heart of country music’s heartland, and what’s become the launching point for the current country music revolution led very much by artists from Kentucky.
The places a song can take you, the realizations a song can impart, this is the reason we cherish music so much, and we cherish songs specifically as the kernel root of all musical experiences that we remember forever. These are the best country and roots songs of 2021 so far.
As we near the halfway pole in the musical year, it’s time to suss out the best albums that have been released in 2021 so far. There’s already some very strong contenders for Album of the Year, and the first albums highlighted should be considered early candidates for Album of the Year.
As we head into the Memorial Day weekend when many will be letting loose, taking it easy, and remembering our fallen heroes, what better time to juice up the Top 25 playlist, especially with the round of great new songs that have just come down the pike.
Where many have dipped their toes into the Kentucky experience with their music, Cole Chaney wades in up to the neck, hollering and wailing about coal mines, flooding catastrophes, dreams cauterized in their infancy due to fleeting opportunities, and other conflagrations…