Over the last 20 years, there are a few specific albums you can select out of the crowd and give credit for critically reshaping country music into what it is today, and specifically for re-instituting the roots of country.
Old Crow Medicine Show is at its best when they embrace the wild assed hillbilly street performer persona. Crow has always put the “show” into their version of throwback country.
“City of Gold is a Western bluegrass album that is unafraid of broaching the subjects that are actually relevant to many bluegrass fans of today while stretching the sonic limits of the genre ever so slightly in spots.
Looking to capitalize on the attention and momentum she’s captured in her Golden Highway era, Molly Tuttle recently ventured back in the studio, and recorded “City of Gold.”
It goes without saying that at this moment in history, everyone in America is incensed and sickened by the level of gun violence plaguing society, and specifically the prevalence of mass shootings, and especially school shootings.
There is one thing that can’t be disputed about the song “Wagon Wheel.” It is unequivocally now one of the biggest songs in country music history. Darius Rucker and his label Capitol Records Nashville celebrated the song going Certified Diamond by the RIAA, meaning it has now racked up 10 million in sales.
All this talk of the superpowers of Billy Strings lately, one can foolishly shoot their gaze over the other superpicker of our generation, who came up trading flatpicking licks with Billy, and competing for the IBMA’s Guitarist of the Year—and honor Molly beat out Billy for twice.
Christopher “Critter” Fuqua played his final show as a member of the iconic string band Old Crow Medicine Show at the band’s annual New Year’s Eve performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Tuesday night. The show was partly a celebration of Critter’s contributions to the band over the last 21-plus years as a founding member.
Over seven years of full-time labor on the part of numerous people, over 101 interviews conducted, countless hours of archival work digging up old photographs, audio, video, and other vintage material, and an elongated year-long promotional effort finally culminated in the broadcast of the debut episode for the Ken Burns Country Music epic.
Singer, songwriter, Warner Bros. Records signee, and critical favorite Charlie Worsham is the newest member of iconic string band and Grand Ole Opry members Old Crow Medicine Show. The Mississippi native officially joined the band before they embarked on their current summer tour in late May.
David Rawlings and long-time collaborator Gillian Welch have once again compiled a collection of songs together, this time called Poor David’s Almanack. It will be Rawlings and Welch’s 8th collaborative album since first meeting at the esteemed Berklee College of Music, and will be Rawlings’ 3rd solo release.
On paper, nothing about this album should work. You can’t take one guy, and one guy only, no overdubs or band, just acoustic instruments and a cued mic and call it good. Not to mention that this is an album entirely consisting of covers and traditionals. So yeah, this isn’t Billy Bragg or Charlie Parr. I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough to hold the listener’s ear for an entire album. Or is it?
Former Hootie & The Blowfish frontman and country music carpetbagger/interloper Darius Rucker says he deserves a Grammy nod for his #1 hit “Wagon Wheel,” or quote, “country music’s screwed.” Darius Rucker made the comments during an interview with sports personality Dan Patrick. Why exactly country music is “screwed” if the song is not nominated was not elaborated upon by Rucker.
I actually come from the camp that believes that if Mumford & Sons weren’t so popular, more core roots fans would respect them. But it is really hip to hate and undervalue Mumford right now. Let’s hope that the current backlash doesn’t hurt every band with a banjo, because there’s many great string bands out there that and mix high energy and heartfelt songs into the string band concept.
Many of the bold changes in the direction of popular music begin with artists that are too fey, too polarizing to become popular themselves. So it takes others who understand how to soften music with sensibilities to make it accessible to the masses, and hopefully, if time is on their side, transect the popularity timeline, resulting in superstardom.
Wagon Wheel” isn’t the “Free Bird” of our generation, it is our generation’s sonic equivalent of inserting a corkscrew into your earhole and giving it a nice good healthy turn. The song, initially stolen from a Bob Dylan demo by Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor with a “better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach, officially holds the title of the most ubiquitous song in the history of mankind that nobody’s heard.
This weekend, former guitarist for the Drive By Truckers and current solo artist Jason Isbell accused Dierks Bentley of ripping off his song “In A Razor Town”. This is only going to become more and more common, and much harder to sort out as every single pattern and possibility of notes and chords gets occupied by the unnecessary amount of songs, albums, and artists out there.
Justin Townes Earle has finished his 3rd full length album called Harlem River Blues, and it is due out September 14th on Bloodshot Records. It was recorded in late May, and according to JTE, “We got a little Rock n roll on this one folks,” as he wanted to re-create the “soulful sounds of Memphis, […]