A joke is a joke, and not meant to be taken seriously. And one would hope that we’re finally moving past the era when a predatory media isn’t preoccupied with taking opportunistic pull quotes out-of-context.
Luke Bryan made an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in an episode published on Wednesday (10-23), and participated in a little revisionist history about his career and how it careened into Bro-Country.
10 years ago today on May 13th, 2014, Sturgill Simpson released what many people consider his magnum opus, and perhaps one of the most important records in the long history of country music.
Rapper T-Pain recently made some statements that have the music world in a stir. T-Pain claims he’s helped to write some country songs in the past, but left his name out of the credits due to racism.
What can I say. After nearly 16 years, some 8,200 published articles, I’m humbled and overjoyed to have been graced with this incredible honor. I thought this day would never come. But it’s a testament to hard work.
You’ve got to love when an actual music critic does their actual job. It’s so extremely rare in music these days aside from places like Saving Country Music. 99% of the time, seldom is heard a discouraging word…
Breaking the moratorium on posts about the controversy surrounding Jason Aldean’s new song and video, “Try That in a Small Town” to dispel some misinformation that Saving Country Music has intimate knowledge of.
Of course around these parts, this is just regular Monday morning conversation. But if you think that dedicated country music fans are repulsed by much of the stuff that transpires in the mainstream of country, think about how you might feel if you’re repulsed by country already.
As the concert ended, the friends of Cory Barron couldn’t find him. They searched the entire ballpark, hung around to see if he would show up, called friends to confirm he didn’t leave with someone else, with no clue of where he’d disappeared to. By Saturday morning, a missing persons report was filed.
Susan Lucci is the name people love to cite when it comes to someone who’s accrued a long string of nominations for a certain award without ever actually winning it. But legendary country music steel guitarist Paul Franklin actually has Susan Lucci beat, and by more than a decade.
Congratulations CMA Awards, you had an opportunity to save your relevance. And instead, just like much of the press, you have ignored the biggest cultural phenomenon in country music in 2022. But the CMA nominations aren’t all bad. Lainey Wilson leads all nominees with six.
On Wednesday, August 31st, 2022, Florida Georgia Line played its final show as a duo at the Minnesota State Fair. “This is our last official concert as Florida Georgia Line… let’s see what we got left in the tank,” Tyler Hubbard said at the start of the performance, goading the crowd. It’s been a long, slow, painful death.
It’s a cool program the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion has put together, with local bands opening for big-named acts all summer. But apparently when the team for Maren Morris caught wind that there would be a local act playing on the Hazy Little Stage, they cited a “no local openers” clause.
Garth Brooks is the latest high-profile country star to purchase property in Nashville’s Lower Broadway entertainment district with the intent of putting up a new multi-story bar and restaurant. Acquiring the three-story, 40,000 square foot property at 411 Broadway…
This extensive “Mix It Up With Florida Georgia Line” exhibit that the Hall of Fame recently opened on February 6th really is an unfortunate, and frankly shortsighted move by the museum, overlooking the widely-polarizing nature of the Bro-Country duo.
‘Tis the season to set ’em up, and tee off on the worst “country” songs released in the last calendar year, and boy, were there some doozies in 2021. It still feels like country music in the mainstream continues to improve. But that doesn’t mean some stinkers still don’t slip in.
Texas-based country performer Paul Cauthen is supposedly putting this country music trend of telling people how country you are on blast in his new song “Country As *uck.” But like certain other parody songs, it’s guilty of the same crime it’s supposedly criticizing.
Boy, we thought we’d rounded the corner on terrible Trace Adkins songs just like we’d squashed the pandemic with vaccines, only to have this vomitous monstrosity foisted upon us like a new, virulent COVID strain especially adept at circumventing immunization.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic will not have a hard and fast end date. It’s not just the risk to the public, but the potential concern for a public relations issue surrounding the polarizing subject of COVID-19 that has the prospects for live music later in 2021 still looking like a mixed bag.
The accolades keep pouring in for Tyler Childers and his 2017 album Purgatory. The latest distinction is the album itself officially being Certified Gold by the RIAA for selling 500,000 copies in physical sales and streaming equivalents. It is the first independently-released title to achieve this distinction in over 18 years.
Due to COVID-19, and then the protests and riots, the Saving Country Music snark machine has been pretty much powered down and collecting dust for the better part of 2020. But there has been as few instances of country music malfeasance so egregious, it would be unconscionable to not address.
Remember, it’s just the ACM Awards. Less prestigious than the CMAs, and more susceptible to bloc voting and other dubious practices than most any other awards apparatus in country music and beyond, think of it more as a performative infomercial for the mainstream of country music.
There is plenty that could render “Build Me A Daddy” much more cheesy than meaningful—the heartstring pulling story of a son losing his father, and oh, let’s make the father a soldier, so we weasel that flag-waving element in there too. But making a highly sentimental subject work is the mark of good songwriters.
“I’m trying to make Luke Bryan money singing Chris Knight-caliber songs,” Parker McCollum says. Parker says he’s taking his cues from folks like Chris Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves who’ve found huge reception for their music despite a cold shoulder from country radio.