It very well could have just been a one-off engagement, and no more. But as a fan, you hold out hope. It’s never over until it’s over. The fact that Charlie is still around, and we know he has at least some capacity still to play and sing, perhaps there may be a little more of it in the future.
The new award will give one more opportunity for Americana artists (and some country artists by proxy) to be nominated and win in what has become one of the most crowded categories in all of the Grammy Awards. But the problem remains that anything can be called Americana.
Part of both the insurgent country music movement, and the groundswell of Kentucky songwriters reshaping the modern country landscape, Kelsey Waldon from Monkey’s Eyebrow, KY is getting ready to release her latest record called ‘No Regular Dog.’
There are run-of-the-mill tribute albums, and then there’s this tribute album due out August 5th called ‘Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute to John Anderson.’ What makes it remarkable is that a rather incredible list of contributors are coming together.
If you were looking or hoping for someone who could help carry the Prine me and legacy into the future for further generations, you just may be in luck. Though it’s all still in it’s nascent stages, John Prine’s youngest son Tommy Prine has decided to enter the family business.
The last time Arlo McKinley released a record, the darn thing hauled off and won Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year. All the more reason to not temper excitement that he’s just announced his second album on John Prine’s Oh Boy Records.
One of the great things about The Wooks is you could pick them up and drop them smack dab in the middle of a bluegrass festival, or a punk club in Brooklyn, or a honky tonk in Texas, or a hipster bar in Berkeley, and they would immediately become a favorite band.
It seems these days that life pinballs back and forth from one disaster to another. You almost have to be reminded that on December 10th, a cluster of tornadoes ravaged Western Kentucky and the surrounding areas and states, leaving a large swath of destruction.
The tornadoes that ravaged large swaths of Western Kentucky on December 10th struck at the very heart of country music’s heartland, and what’s become the launching point for the current country music revolution led very much by artists from Kentucky.
Listen ladies and gentlemen, it’s not just a hypothetical that when a song gets featured on Paramount’s Yellowstone series it’s a big deal. What’s going on at the moment is a musical phenomenon helping to support independent country music.
Steve Poltz has morphed into an bonafide underground folk hero. His songs work like kids songs for adults, similar to the songwriting legacy of John Prine. Poltz’s storytelling skills in the live setting rival or surpass the very titans of the craft such as Todd Snider.
Embracing and the cliché nature of what is otherwise an excellent country song, switching out some honky tonk piano at the start and then revisiting the fiddle start off later in the song allows Tyler Childers to smear his own DNA on the track, while still being respectful to the original composition.
Singer, performer, guitarist, and songwriter Nanci Griffith who was known for her foundational influence on Texas music, and for contributing greatly to the Americana community in Nashville passed away on Friday, August 13th at the age of 68.
“This is big,” she said to her fans. “Now is the time to grow and expand. I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Oh Boy Records to release ‘American Siren.’ I’m honored that I get to be part of John Prine’s legacy. And I am thrilled to tell you that you, my fans, were an integral part of this.”
“What is country music?!” This is what thousands of country music fans screamed at their televisions on Tuesday, June 8th when they were taken by surprise to see one of the questions on the TV game show dealt with one of the most iconic songs in country history.
Before the pandemic, whenever an important artist in country and roots music passed away, it was customary for folks to gather in a remembrance in Nashville. For obvious reasons, that couldn’t happen in a timely fashion for John Prine, who died on April 7th, 2020.
So often when an artist or band announces or releases an album with a star producer assisting them, it’s the star producer whose name preempts the actual artists themselves in headlines and promotional copy. That’s never happened with the projects the Grammy-winning David Ferguson has produced.
Releasing it solely on YouTube, and addressing it simply as an “Outlaw Classic Country Cover, Played and Sang in real time no editing,” his slowed-down and echo-rich version of the country classic clocks in at almost 7 minutes, and is being lapped up by thirsty and grateful Hank3 fans.
Sturgill Simpson in conjunction with Oh Boy Records has released a rendition of the classic John Prine song “Paradise.” The song will appear on the John Prine tribute album ‘Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows Vol. 2,’ but there is a deeper story behind how the track came about.
Many know the “perfect Country & Western song” is “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” performed by David Allan Coe, and written by Steve Goodman. Or at least, that’s how David Allan Coe and Steve Goodman presented it. But what many don’t know is that John Prine was a co-writer of the song.
Leave behind all of that defanged country, moldy folk, reconstituted indie rock, derivative roots pop, and pallid white boy soul they try to peddle these days as “Americana,” and pin your ears to what this virtually unknown mother from middle America is doing, because it’s leagues better than most.
ohn Prine was the big winner posthumously from the 2021 Grammy Awards and the Premier Ceremony that takes place before the proper telecast. Taking home two Grammy Awards, both for his final recorded song, “I Remember Everything,” he became the most awarded artist from the roots.
After five decades of paying dues and all that hard work paying off, John Prine chose to treat himself to his dream car—a Porsche 911 Turbo in 2019. It wasn’t a brand new model mind you. It was a 2008. But it was said to be in mint condition, with barely any miles on it.
The majority of the high-profile bellyaching about the Grammys is coming from self-absorbed millionaire entertainers whose livelihoods and legacies are secured. It’s selfish and shortsighted of them to criticize an organization that gives the majority of its awards to deserving artists.