A new country music documentary is on the way, courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and executive producer Jessi Colter. Delving deep into the Outlaw era of country music like never before, They Called Us Outlaws will be a six-part series spanning 12 total hours.
The Nashville Songwriters Association, or NSAI will be holding their annual Nashville Songwriter Awards on September 20th at the Ryman Auditorium, and the big name that will be making a big splash for the event will be Garth Brooks, who will receive the organization’s Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement.
Capturing Kristofferson at the height of his powers and fame, his live band for the show included absolute legends of their field. It’s basically Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Hits recorded live, and during his heyday, with the most legendary lineup of his band.
Call him one of the overlords of country trucker songs, but don’t call him a one hit wonder. His name was William Dale Fries Jr., but the world knew him as C.W. McCall, and knew of him through his iconic country trucker epic “Convoy.”
The Royal Hounds are one of the bands who still embody that original Lower Broadway revivalist attitude. Playing standing residencies at Layla’s every Sunday night, and Robert’s Western World on Tuesdays, they’re rockabilly, they’re country, they’re wild and funny.
Willie Nelson gives a lot of credit to his success to the fact that he’s been able to keep the same people around him for so long. The very first part of that family was Paul English. Paul’s skills as a manager made him a mainstay in Willie’s band all the way until he passed away.
When Childers rolled up to the Under The Big Sky Fest in Whitefish, Montana Sunday night (7-19) to play his first show in some 16 months, it wasn’t to warm the stage up for the big mainstream band that had blown in from Nashville in the Brothers Osborne, it was vice versa.
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.
At 84-years-old and having suffered health issues recently, it’s hard to blame Kris Kristofferson for wanting to hang it up. His service to art, film, music, and America as an Army Ranger and helicopter pilot is unparalleled and unprecedented, and it’s about time he decided to take it easy.
84-year old country and songwriting legend, actor, veteran, and Country Music Hall of Famer Kris Kristofferson has officially retired from performing. The decision was made in 2020, but was previously unannounced, and comes as the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to most touring over the past year.
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.
Charley Pride will be the 2020 recipient of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award handed out by the Country Music Association. To be awarded during the 54th Annual CMA Awards set to transpire on Wednesday, November 11th from Nashville and broadcast on ABC.
You may ask yourself why we need even more new versions of old country classics. The answer is that Josh Turner is singing them. From well-known standards to some deeper album cuts, Turner is ready to grace them with his signature bass tone, and will be joined by Randy Travis for his first studio work since 2013.
With the recent death of John Prine at the hands of COVID-19, the question has been posed by many about the legendary songwriter’s prospects of ever being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s an interesting discussion point for sure, and one with a few important qualifiers.
If you thought the story of country music songwriting legend Kris Kristofferson blowing off his own tribute at the 2019 CMA Awards to perform a scheduled show in Davenport, Iowa was a cool story and a sign of the Hall of Famer’s class and character, well the he might have done himself one better a few days before.
That’s right. The 83-year-old is blowing off the 2019 CMA’s and won’t be in attendance to receive is CMA Lifetime Achievement trophy. Instead of walking out on the stage at the Bridgestone Arena, Kris Kristofferson has elected to honor his contract to play the Adler Theater and Apartment Complex that night in beautiful downtown Davenport, Iowa.
When the Ken Burns documentary was first announced a few years ago, the hope was the film could act like a big reset button on the status of country music, and give a boost to many of the songs and artists abandoned by radio in the present day. It has been a big boon in sales and streams for many of the classic country artists featured.
Undoubtedly, you could not tell the story of country music in the late 60’s and early 70’s without broaching the political upheaval and countercultural revolution roiling American society at the time. But the time spent on stories that were only proxies to country music bogged this episode down in stretches.
Songwriter and Texas music wildman Jack Ingram has a new album on the way called ‘Ridin’ High … Again.’ It will be Ingram’s tenth studio record overall, and was recorded at Austin, TX’s iconic Arlyn Studios in just two days in what Ingram describes as one “forty-eight hour party.”
Blackbird Presents is at it again planning another huge tribute for a country legend, and this one might be the biggest of them all. Often working with Willie Nelson via tributes to others, as well as his multi-city “Outlaw Fest” tours each summer, now Blackbird Presents is putting together a tribute for Willie himself.
There have been many true country music “Outlaws” over the years, and many more that claim to be. But there can be only one original Outlaw, and that is Bobby Bare. Without Bobby Bare, there may be no Waylon Jennings. When Bare discovered Waylon in Phoenix, AZ in 1964, Waylon was still very much a regional act.
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.
So many of country music’s legendary artists also spent time earlier in their lives serving the country in one capacity or another. And on Veteran’s Day as we pay tribute to ALL the men and women who served in the military and put themselves in harm’s way, let’s have some fun by looking back to see how many of these country legends we can pick out by their pictures.
Though nothing to cheer about itself, according to doctor’s for the songwriter, the misdiagnosis, and all the drugs Kristofferson was taking to stave off his memory loss were actually making his condition worse, creating a downward spiral. It is believed that Kristofferson contracted Lyme Disease in Vermont when he was filming the 2006 movie “Disappearances.”