when his life hit the skids like it’s done for so many of country’s legacy songwriters and Hugh Prestwood faced an uncertain future, the music community stepped up in a heartening way.
As we look back on 2023 and before we look forward to 2024, it’s important we take the time to pay tribute to the important individuals in country and roots music who left us over the last year.
When American music legend Jimmy Buffett passed away on September 1st, it became patently evident to all of us just how important this man and his music had been to popular music irrespective of genre.
Jimmy Buffett may have died one of music’s few billionaires from the empire he built off the success of his song “Margaritaville.” But it was another song where it all began for Buffett as a songwriter and performer.
Jimmy Buffet wasn’t just a musician. He was the embodiment of resetting your mood, of centering the right priorities in life, and of making sure you don’t waste your time on Earth by making sure you budget time for wasting.
He’s no Russian oligarch, mind you. But when it comes to aquatic motorcraft, nobody in country music or much of anywhere else has ol’ Alan Jackson beat. And no, we’re not just talking about the sheer size or glitz factor.
Over the Christmas/New Year holiday, Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof” set a rather landmark achievement by becoming the first radio single in country music history to spend 10 weeks at #1—a record that despite the song’s country lyricism as a heartbreak drinking song, can only be regarded as dubious.
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.
Beginning in the 00’s, songwriting in country music began to change, and by the early 2010’s, the population of country music songwriters had contracted by as much as 90% by some estimates, as the royalties that helped sustain these writers also began to dry up.
Legendary songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker passed away on October 23rd, 2020 due to throat Cancer, but never got a proper send off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event sold out within minutes of being announced, but if you’re a die hard Jerry Jeff fan and still want to participate, you can.
A once-in-a-lifetime event happened on January 12th, 2019 when a wide-ranging assemblage of talent from country music and beyond came together at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to pay tribute to Willie Nelson. Called ‘Willie: Life and Songs of an American Outlaw,’ it’s being released on CD and DVD.
Though we’ll never forget, it will be impossible to not remember all those good times Jerry Jeff afforded us, and feel a rush of incredible sadness proportionate to the impact Jerry Jeff Walker had on music, and people, and places, which was infinite.
No matter how many years you have to count back to when Kenny Chesney was the top male performer in modern country, he is still the man at the top of the heap when it comes to touring. Aside from Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney is only the guy who can consistently fill stadiums with his huge fan base known as “No Shoes Nation.”
The original Willis Alan Ramsey album released in 1972 is the stuff of legend. Considered one of the very foundations of the Austin music scene that was just starting to emerge as a point of national interest at the time, the enigmatic songwriter recorded 11 original songs for Leon Russell’s Shelter label, and they would go on to be covered…
The historic building standing at 152 Nassau Street in downtown Atlanta that was days from demolition has received a stay of execution from an Atlanta judge. Considered the true birthplace of country music for the time in 1923 when recording engineer and producer Ralph Peer captured Fiddlin’ John Carson in the space.
Worried preservationists can parrot their concerns all day, but the King of the Parrotheads may be the only one left who has the audience and authority to step in and help preserve this historic landmark by bringing attention to the significance of the building sitting at 152 Nassau Street in Atlanta, and saving this important piece of country music history.
If Kenny Chesney hadn’t spent the last 20-something years of his career beating down the country music listening public with his barrage of island and beach songs, we probably would be talking about how his latest record ‘Songs For The Saints’ is a striking piece of conceptualized album making/
When you think of music towns and songwriting havens, your head naturally gravitates toward Nashville and Austin, Bakersfield and L.A. and such. You rarely think of Key West in Florida as a musical destination for songwriting or anything else musical, unless you have a Parrothead sticker on the back of your SUV.
At this point, Toby Keith is a relic. What talent he had was questionable to begin with, and he hasn’t ever really evolved for there. Time has passed Toby Keith by, and he doesn’t have the fluidity or desire to change with the times, or the quality it takes to be considered classic. But this album is far from the problem.
72 hours have passed since Toby Keith delivered a drunken performance at the Klipsch Music Center just outside of Indianapolis on Saturday Night, and angry fans, some of which spent upwards of $300 for tickets, have still yet to receive any apologies or explanation. Though the complicit country music media has completely avoided this story, many major local news outlets in Indianapolis and elsewhere.
The question about David Allan Coe has never been if he’s a badass, but if he’s a little too badass. Some of his stories are hard to believe. Others are even harder to validate. And others are hard to herald because of the malevolent nature of the occurrences or outcomes. David Allan Coe is a living dichotomy. He’s a scary, weird, train wreck of a man; but an American treasure, and a country music legend.
Jake Owen, my man. You know I love you for calling out country that’s all about “fuckin’ cups and Bacardi and stuff like that” and giving my man Tony Martinez a big break on your “Days of Gold” tour. But “Beachin'”? Really? What’s going on here folks is now that Kenny Chesney has been put out to pasture by the country music powers that be, somebody has to step up and fill the void.
Tompall Glaser, who passed away in August, is considered one of the original country music Outlaws, and was one of the most influential men in Nashville in the mid 70’s both as an artist and studio owner. But little is known about this man that brought Music Row to its knees and helped usher in a new era of creative control and sonic innovation for country music. That’s all about to change.
Back in the mid 70’s-the first time country music was saved- The Outlaws of country like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings found a home and harbor from Nashville’s ill ways in the Austin, TX singer-songwriter scene. People like Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphy, Townes Van Zandt, and Ray Wylie Hubbard had made Austin a […]