Kenny Chesney is now a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Announced Tuesday morning (3-25) from the Hall of Fame rotunda in Nashville, he is the 2025 inductee in the Modern Era category.
It’s often the most simple notions that resonate the deepest in country music. It’s how a song can embrace the cliché nature of country songs, yet still express a certain feeling in a new and unique way.
Cross Canadian Ragweed and Oasis have reunited, and Jamey Johnson has announced his first new original album in 14 years. In fact, Johnson hasn’t just promised a new album, but a series of them.
She’s Miranda Lambert. And the argument can be made that Postcards from Texas is the most Miranda Lambert album that she’s made in years, swear words and all. This is who she is.
George Strait’s new album “Cowboys and Dreamers” is out on Friday, September 6th. But fans of Strait and supporters of local independent record stores will have an opportunity to listen and purchase the album early.
George Strait has finally dropped the details and a debut song from his first album in five years, “Cowboys and Dreamers.” And as one of the premier living legends in country music, the album is certainly to be anticipated.
You don’t really need a conventional album review to help navigate you through or understand Ernest’s 26-song treatise, Nashville, Tennessee. What you need is a road map, a sherpa, someone to point your nose in the right direction.
Some have criticized George Strait over the years for not writing more of his own material. But there is nobody in country music who is more aware of how important his songwriters were to him than George Strait.
Over his 40 years in the trenches as a songwriter, player, and producer, Keith Gattis became a superstar in country music, if not to fans at large, then to his fellow performers, singers, songwriters, and musicians.
You may not hear “King” George Strait on the radio anymore, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t listening. On the contrary, with the way much of today’s mainstream country music leaves listeners flat, they’re turning to the back catalogs of country greats like George Strait to relive the music.
Chris Stapleton needs no stepping stone or discovery at this moment in his career, but we all know he will slay the National Anthem on Sunday, because this is what Chris Stapleton does. He’s such a good singer, it’s one of the reasons purists love to claim he isn’t country.
‘Tis the season to get titillated about all the potential new albums we may receive in 2023. Strait’s last installment Honky Tonk Time Machine came out in March of 2019, so he’s about due for a new one. Of course radio and awards mostly ignore Strait these days, but the last album still debuted at #1.
There is one thing that can’t be disputed about the song “Wagon Wheel.” It is unequivocally now one of the biggest songs in country music history. Darius Rucker and his label Capitol Records Nashville celebrated the song going Certified Diamond by the RIAA, meaning it has now racked up 10 million in sales.
George Strait doesn’t make many public appearances these days after officially retiring from the road. But he’ll be making a “special appearance” at the inaugural Legends of Music Row Festival set to transpire October 13-15 in Key West, Florida at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater.
As times goes on and today’s consumers continue to grow increasingly frustrated with the lack of creativity, roots, and soul in today’s music, expect to see the back catalogs of guys like George Strait and other older country acts continue to remain popular.
If you asked me point blank what the single most important moment in country music over the last ten years has been, without any hesitation, I would answer conclusively that it was Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake performing “Tennessee Whiskey” at the CMA Awards.
“It’s more radio-oriented,” Dillon says. “I hate to say it, but more one-hit wonder-ish kind of thing now, as opposed to back then when we strived to write great every time. I don’t think that holds true now. I think what holds true is radio candy, I call it. You can call it whatever you want…”
It’s not every day that new recordings are unearthed that feature Waylon Jennings, but that’s what the new album from Tommy Townsend called Southern Man to be released on April 29th boasts. Tommy Townsend is a Waylon Jennings understudy.
Blake Mevis was responsible in part not just for one Hall of Fame career being launched into the country music stratosphere, but two. As the guy who introduced country music legend and Hall of Famer George Strait to now Country Music Hall of Famer Dean Dillon.
Taken from a Westwood One radio broadcast with announcer and all, what makes this recording unique is it includes all kinds of stage banter, stories, and jokes from Randy, and it comes from a legendary spot in Gilley’s during a really important time in Randy’s career.
Hank Williams Jr. was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on November 21st, 2021, and unfortunately, if you weren’t there in person, you weren’t able to see it for yourself. We are able to part and piece together what Hank Jr. said in his acceptance speech though.
Where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and really, most all Halls of Fame throughout American culture get it much more right than the Country Music Hall of Fame is how they use their nomination and induction process as a way to promote their institutions and engage the public.
It’s been a very long time coming. But the Country Music Hall of Fame has finally announced when they will reveal the newest inductees. Though country fans got used to Hall of Fame inductees being announced in the spring most every year in recent memory, due to COVID-19…
Even in this confounding day and age in country music, it all still starts with a song. Not a beat, not a riff, but a song. Words, music, and melody. Story and inspiration. It’s what separates country music from certain other musical art forms, no matter how much it may get boiled down.