Bill Murray has recently been putting together quite a side career that involves appearing in the most random places to support cool country and roots artists. Murray did this in May when he showed up to the dive bar Filthy McNasty’s in Ft. Worth to take in the music of some local songwriters while in town for a golf tournament.
About the only thing hotter than John Prine in Americana music at the moment is the is the foreign country destination festival, so why not combine the two. And if you have a boatload of money, and/or a boat or plane to get your ass to the Dominican Republic, then you too can be part of John Prine’s inaugural “All The Best Festival.”
The CMT Awards transpired Wednesday night, June 6th at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. Did you notice? Most likely not. Did you tune in and follow along? Even more unlikely. But this isn’t just about ratings. This is about the overall impact of the awards, or the lack thereof.
These six songs are admittedly sad bastard fare if there ever was any, but that’s the way it goes when you’re looking for songs that don’t just entertain, but fulfill, or illuminate something important in life most catchy tunes fall short of.
As we move past the musical halfway pole for 2018, it’s time once again to look back in the rear-view mirror and see what has wowed us the most so far. Along with some excellent albums that will go on to be considered for some of the best all year, the spring of 2018 has also revealed itself as one of the busiest release periods for in years.
The Americana Music Association has announced their nominees for the 2018 Americana Music Awards. In a ceremony held at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Tuesday afternoon (5/15), nominees in six categories were announced, with five total nominations going to Jason Isbell, and three going to both Brandi Carlile and Margo Price.
Prine has completely shattered all sales expectations, and has put together the best debut sales week by an independent artist in the country space in the modern era. This is also by far the best chart performance for John Prine in his career. He just had his best sales week since Nielsen Music began tracking and verifying sales starting in 1991.
Blackberry Smoke is once again #1 in country, at least when you consider pure album sales. Their most recent album Find A Light released on April 6th sold more cohesive records last week than any other country release according to the Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart. They also charted in Rock and Americana.
Life is a strange thing. Most of John Prine’s songs are about that very topic. It’s been a weird, winding road for the legendary songwriter following the winding narratives of often weird songs from open mics in Chicago in the late 60’s, to now being considered one of the current living patron saints of Americana music.
When you think of the modern country music landscape, you think of a clear delineation line between the independent and mainstream. However the songwriting credits for Miranda Lambert are the one clear exception. Looking through her list of collaborators, it’s pretty incredible.
It’s not often that 71-year-old songwriters enjoy a massive resurgence in their careers, but that is exactly what is going on with John Prine. With so many other legacy songwriters vacating the mortal coil over the last few years, Prine is one of the final living links to a time in music when songwriters were revered universally throughout music.
In the last few days Sturgill’s festival schedule has come more into focus as many of music’s major gatherings announce their lineups now that the Holidays are in the rear view and folks are mapping out their 2018. These may be your only opportunities to see Sturgill in 2018 if you’re so inclined, so start planning now.
The 16th Annual Americana Music Awards will transpire on Wednesday, September 13th at the Mother Church of Country Music, The Ryman Auditorium, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Central as part of the week-long AmericanaFest in Nashville, and they have just announced the performers for the presentation, and how folks can tune in.
After a recent trip to Japan to play a festival in Niigata, Sturgill contracted a good ol’ fashioned case of “bubble guts.” Then his keyboard player Bobby Emmett sprung a leak when he broke some keys on the very first song of the Little Rock set and then cut his hand on them. But the show must go on, and the result was a bloody mess.
Sturgill Simpson was selling out 2,500-capacity venues on consecutive nights before the Grammy noise, and he’s choosing to use the aftermath to play the Grianán Theater in Letterkenney, Ireland, capacity 383. These shows seem to be more for Sturgill than the audience or his pocketbook.
Give Zac Brown credit. He listened to his fans, as opposed to speaking down to them about how music needs to evolve, or some other line of flawed reasoning where he could justify his actions to himself if nobody else. It’s hard to describe Zac Brown Band’s ‘Welcome Home’ as anything but what it is, which is a complete about-face.
The Americana Music Association announced the nominees for their 2017 awards on Tuesday afternoon (5-9) via a live press conference from the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Ford Theater. Along with announcing the nominees, the presentation included performances from multiple Americana artists.
It’s not very common that you can preface a 70-year-old folk country songwriter that never had a big hit and the 14-year-olds in your family have probably never heard of as a “hot commodity,” but that’s exactly what John Prine feels like these days. “Beyond Words” is a songbook combined with a photo anthology in big, coffee-table form.
Not just a regular text-intensive literary work with recollections from the past, Beyond Words includes over 100 photographs from Prine’s own personal collection, sketches of handwritten lyrics showing how some of his most memorable songs evolved, notes on the songs and pictures from John, and lyrics and guitar chords from over 60 John Prine classics.
An all-star cast will come together to celebrate the life and music of country music icon and Hall of Famer Don Williams in a new tribute album with the proceeds going to a good cause. ‘Gentle Giants: The Songs of Don Williams’ will be released on May 26th via Slate Creek Records.
One of the reasons we feel so surprised at Americana’s success and so many have been so slow to recognize it is because it has been a slow and steady process. Because of Americana’s model of sustainability, the revolution has been plodding, yet purposeful. And now it’s success is palpable, and measurable by industry-standard metrics.
The ripe age of 70 is one hell of a time to experience a resurgence of interest in your music career, and that’s exactly what’s happening for country songwriting legend John Prine. Celebrating his seventh decade on planet Earth on Monday (8-10), Tuesday found confirmation that his most recent album ‘For Better, Or Worse’ has come in at #2…
“I remember we were doing our first tour, somewhere probably like a Red Roof Inn or Howard Johnson’s,” Sturgill explains. “I almost killed myself getting out of the shower to write it down. It was right before we were going to check out and leave. And I had to literally like jump out of the shower and I slipped.”
Forget all the sappy relationship stuff, and how it happened and where it might lead. Miranda Lambert ditching Blake Shelton and ending up with Anderson East might be the perfect illustration of the drastic role reversal 2015 has ushered in throughout the greater country music realm, and how 2016 could be poised to completely turn everything upside down.