On July 26th, the always polarizing “new Outlaw” Eric Church will be releasing his latest album entitled Chief, which includes a song called “Country Music Jesus”. Saving Country Music has learned that the idea behind Eric Church’s “Country Music Jesus” very well might have come from none other than your humble, lovable Triggerman.
But as much as Eric Church is a problem, the bigger systemic problem throughout the country is the hip hop culture infecting small towns to the point where you can’t walk into a local IGA without stumbling over a bunch of corn fed boys with their straight brimmed hats on sideways and their pants around their ankles. For years popular culture and even politics has been preaching that people from the country are “backwoods” . . .
I really want to like Hayes Carll…People like to compare him to Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt and Tom Waits. But in the end, though he’s a good songwriter, he’s not a great one, and the overselling and mischaracterizing of his music has led to some unnecessary criticism, and a missing of the point that his music is fun, and meant to be enjoyed.
I feel the need to iterate to you some observations for last night’s 2011 Grammy Awards, if only to get them off my chest. This is not entirely going to be a bitch fest. Every year they air the Grammy’s, and every year people are left scratching their heads and feeling hopelessness for music, and so it was to be expected that this year would be no different…
This is not John Denver and Olivia Newton John ruffling feathers by winning country awards. This isn’t Garth Brooks flying over stadiums on wires. This isn’t Rascal Flatts rehashing classic rock songs, or even Taylor Swift playing with a fiddle player hidden in a dark corner. This is it. This is the bottom of the slippery slope. This is country music’s ‘rock’ bottom.
This Sunday at the Super Bowl, Carrie Underwood will very likely be lip-syncing the National Anthem, whether she wants to or not, and it is mostly the fault of the king of pop country, Garth Brooks. This story starts way back in 1993 at Super Bowl XXVIII in Pasadena, CA. In 1993, Garth Brooks was […]
I really cherish the few opportunities I have writing this thing to laugh a little, and today is one of those days. They say all good humor is rooted in truth, and what is more true than the joke that is actors and 80’s pop stars slipping on a pair of boots to “Go Country” […]
Last week the pop country world was rocked when the duo Brooks and Dunn announced they were breaking up. Though the duo has never had any particular reason to be in my crosshairs, information that came out in the various stories about the breakup painted a clear picture of the overly commercial approach that the […]
Recently, especially after the Newsweek article decrying pop country came out, I’ve seen an uptick in blogs and articles wondering if the pop influences in the genre have gone too far. We all know my opinion on the matter, but I have been encouraged in this uptick in commentary. Even if the majority of people […]
Country music is an interesting thing. More so than in any other genre of music, you can look back at it’s history and almost see a grand design; an underlying purpose to all of it’s ebbs and flows. Country music has created folk heroes and arch villains within it’s ranks of performers and business handlers. […]
Tonight (Sunday) the joke that is the Academy of Country Music awards will be going down in Las Vegas. Place your bets that this show will SUCK, and I guarantee it will pay off in spades. I was going to write at length of why the ACM’s are a sham of the highest order, but […]
So on Saturday night, I get a phone call from a friend who knows I like pop country about as much as getting a splintered board shoved up my ass, telling me that the perfume peddling Timberly McGraw is the host of Saturday Night Live. So I tune into the last half of the show […]
Hank III News: –There’s a great new interview with Hank III, probably one of the best I’ve ever read on americanroots.com. –There a contest to win an Epiphone guitar and other Hank III gear you can read about on the Hank III MySpace blog. –Please if anybody recorded the Hank III stuff on Fuel TV, […]
I’ve always said that Hank Williams III’s Straight to Hell was one of the most significant albums in country music history. But since no mainstream media outlets are willing to recognize this, I will, and to prove that this is not my biased opinion as a simple Hank III fan, I’m going to name off […]
I found this on Charlie G’s page. It’s about as poignant and true as it gets. Sure, these old farts are straining to harmonize and the whole thing seems a little contrived, but the verses are so true it hurts. Charlie G. pointed out in the comments of my last blog that the Grand Ole […]
Check This Out: I’m not lying when I tell you that without asking Mr. Google, I could not name you one song, not even one song by Kenny Chesney or Keith Urban. I just don’t pay attention to pop country. But the other day when I was sitting in Subway enjoying a scrumptious footlong for […]