Fans who attended Cody Johnson’s show Saturday night, January 29th at the Appalachia Arena in Pikeville, Kentucky got a full show and then some. What could have been a catastrophe turned out to be one of the most memorable performances Cody Johnson has ever given.
While many clubs are still shuttered, and arena shows are still likely months away even as restrictions ease, the “Biggest Honky Tonk in the World” makes for about the perfect intermediary where they can offer safe and socially distanced shows, yet still accommodate big names.
Completely unexpected, but absolutely welcome, Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson is the beneficiary of a brand new documentary called Small Town Southern Man that has just been released via multiple streaming services (iTunes, Amazon Prime, etc.), and will receive a DVD release on June 28th.
You shouldn’t have to tell anybody how country you are. It should be patently obvious in the first few bars of a song that an artist or song is country. Unfortunately though, with the loss of country instrumentation, the pervasiveness of electronic beats, performers feel the need to explain how they’re country.
As an addendum to Saving Country Music’s Worst Songs list, 2015 necessitates we also single out some of the worst albums released in 2015. Take note that in most years, such a list is not necessary. Not that there aren’t bad albums, but even when you’re speaking about country music’s worst offenders, many actually release fairly decent songs on their albums. But 2015 was a different case.
Operating a site called “Saving Country Music” for the last eight years, I’ve learned the patient art of losing every single day with grace. It is the ever-present conceit of the living to believe that the present times are the worst there’s ever been, and country music is no exception. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that people weren’t yelling that the sky was falling when John Denver was winning the CMA Entertainer of the Year…
It’s so easy to get swept up in stereotyping mainstream country as being completely void of anything worth your time these days, but in truth there’s still a lot of great music in the popular music world, however a small percentage it might be of the total package. Saying the mainstream has nothing good to offer is narrowing your musical experience no different than saying that music is bad because it’s not popular.