The Biggest Takeaways from SXSW 2025

You don’t enjoy SXSW—the annual musical gathering in Austin, Texas every mid March. You endure it. You survive it. Here are Saving Country Music’s biggest takeaways from SXSW 2025.
You don’t enjoy SXSW—the annual musical gathering in Austin, Texas every mid March. You endure it. You survive it. Here are Saving Country Music’s biggest takeaways from SXSW 2025.
All the nominees for the 2024 Saving Country Music Album of the Year deserve nothing but praise for being catalysts for the country music revolution we’re currently enjoying. But only one can take the prize.
It’s time to engage in one of the most important exercises all year: determining who and what will be crowned the Album of the Year in 2024. The point of this exercise is not to devolve music into a competition.
Since the Grammy Awards are one of the few awards that weigh artistic merit over commercial success, it makes it a bit more important to pay attention to for fans and advocates of independent artists.
In 2024, the Jackalope Jamboree (June 27-29) still had some of the topmost names in independent country like Charley Crockett, Kaitlin Butts, and Silverada. It had legends of Red Dirt like Jason Boland, and The Randy Rogers Band.
As we reach the halfway pole of the musical year, it’s time to reflect back on the best albums that have been released so far. There are some great projects that you should make sure don’t slip under your radar.
Hearkening back to a time when country sounded country, and singers were required to come with a distinctive sound, Emily Nenni has released a fun, infectious, twangy, diverse, and career-defining album.
It’s an embarrassment of riches these days trying to keep up with all the best songs and albums. That is why this particular playlist update includes an unprecedented 11 new songs. Trying to fit them all into 25 slots is a challenge.
May 3rd is one of those Fridays when the album releases come so hard and heavy, you really need help to make sure you navigate yourself in the right direction, and don’t miss out on something that may speak to you.
Last Thursday through Saturday (Sept. 21-23) over 16,000 thousand people came together at the State Fair Grounds in beautiful Lewisburg, West Virginia to celebrate recovery, raise awareness and promote education…
The annual Healing Appalachia concert will be happening with Tyler Childers headlining the event. Basically anybody and everybody in the resurgent Appalachian songwriter scene will be there.
There is nothing more hip than complaining about what Lower Broadway has turned into over the last half decade or so. But the situation could be so much incredibly worse. It could be 6th Street in Austin, which is supposed to be the entertainment epicenter of the “Live Music Capital of the World.”
For two days before the awards show transpired, performances took place at the stately Guesthouse at Graceland in Memphis showcasing some of the greatest up-and-coming and independent talent from country, roots, and rockabilly—or “Ameripolitan” as we call it in this instance.
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.
It’s been a couple of years since the Dale Watson-founded Ameripolitan Awards and the corresponding weekend of events have occurred due to COVID-19. But 2023 promises to be a rousing comeback with a stellar lineup of musicians slated to perform February 17th to 19th in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.
Originally from California, Emily felt the calling towards old school country music so resolutely, she dropped everything and moved to Nashville where she didn’t know a soul. Gifted in singing and writing songs though, she fell in with the right crowd around Nashville’s true country institutions.
The final months of 2022 are here, and just like the first portion of the year, it is jam packed in an increasingly cluttered environment for new releases. Instead of being overwhelmed, use this guide to help you navigate through the crush of titles, with the first 20 albums listed considered some of the top releases.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.