Alright, we ran down the nominees for Album of the Year and Song of the Year. But it’s time to give a little love to the songs that simply get stuck in out heads and remind us of the sheer joy of music.
Crunching election data, a plan was hatched under the premise that if the institution of country music could be assuaged to become a political tool, it could help persuade the rural slice of the American electorate from red to blue.
For nine years, “Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights” organized by Nashville musicians Brendan Malone and Kevin Martin of The Cowpokes has been the small local gathering with massive international impact on country music.
Yes, yes, and yes. Finally we have a Swamp Dogg album that fits in the country music world. It’s bluegrass. It’s “blackgrass” if you will. And it’s also decidedly a Swamp Dogg album, which means it’s all served with offbeat weirdness.
Taking a quick detour from her towering albums of original songs, the “Pearl of Kentucky Country Music” Kelsey Waldon stops down to leave behind some signature versions of her most favored songs.
It’s an embarrassment of riches these days trying to keep up with all the best songs and albums. That is why this particular playlist update includes an unprecedented 11 new songs. Trying to fit them all into 25 slots is a challenge.
For 22 years now, the Americana community has been rising up to attempt to highlight the music and artists that are often overlooked or put out to pasture by the country music industry in Nashville.
On Thursday (8-24), the track list for Tyler Childers’ “Rustin’ In The Rain” was revealed on Spotify’s poorly-named but pretty good “Indigo” playlist. Childers says that the album is mostly love songs, with the deeper tie-in being the mules.
The latest album from Tyler Childers will arrive on on September 8th via Hickman Holler Records, distributed by RCA. Called ‘Rustin’ In The Rain,’ it was recorded in the home studio of Tyler’s pedal steel player.
I have been warning all the elitist think piece writers, academics, Twitter intellectuals, and even some artist who’ve been imploring country music artists to speak out politically to be careful what they wish for .
One of the reasons independent acts have been rising in popularity to rival and even surpass their mainstream counterparts in popularity is due in part to events like the Jackalope Jamboree.
Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion remains one of the most premier and exclusive events in the country and roots space every year, and a much healthier option to braving a day at SXSW in Austin, TX, which Luck acts as an alternative to. But even though the 2023 installment will be remembered for plenty of fond reasons…
Not all of us will end up making it to 90. But we’re all the beneficiaries of the fact that Willie Nelson (almost) has. On April 29th, Willie will officially turn 90 years old, and on that day and the next one, a massive cavalcade of stars will converge on the Hollywood Bowl in California.
Consisting of 30 total dates, including a couple in the UK and some previously-announced festival appearances, it gives Tyler Childers fans the greatest set opportunities to see him in the last three years. Though there are some big venues and amphitheaters on this tour, these are not arenas.
The Pill. THE PILL! Even before the unfortunate passing of the great Loretta Lynn on October 4th, there was nothing that exposed one more as a political apparatchik larping as a journalist within the country music space than shoehorning a reference to Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill” into your misguided think piece.
Held on the same grounds as the massive Rocklahoma gathering, Born & Raised boasted one of the best lineups all year on an incredibly crowded weekend. Just the Friday night lineup alone was worth the effort, with some of the best songwriters and performers in all of country music booked one after another.
‘Rolling Stone’ published a list of the The 100 Greatest Country Albums of All Time this week, and as per usual, it has many arguing its merits, omissions, and inclusions. There was a time when whatever Rolling Stone said was taken as the definitive word in music. These days it’s more polarizing.
As reported by Saving Country Music in July, a new 6-part, 12-hour documentary named ‘They Called Us Outlaws: Cosmic Cowboys, Honky Tonk Heroes, and the Rise of Renegade Troubadours’ is on the way, featuring over 90 interviews and 75 live performances, with Jessi Colter executive producing.
August 16th, 2022 would have been Billy Joe Shaver’s 83rd birthday, but unfortunately, he passed away on October 28th, 2020 at the age of 81, leaving a legacy of songwriting that set the very foundation for Outlaw country music that is still just as influential and resonant today.
There are many festivals out there now catering to independent country and Americana. But in three short seasons and amid a pandemic, Under The Big Sky Fest has quickly made the case for being the biggest and most important of all off the strength of its lineups.
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.
After two years away due to COVID-19, the annual Healing Appalachia concert event is returning September 23rd and 24th to Lewisburg, WV, with Tyler Childers once again headlining the event that looks to raise funds and raise awareness about the opioid crisis gripping Appalachia, and so many parts of the US.
There may not be another collection of voices more commonly featured via the recordings and live performances of country and roots artists than The McCrary Sisters—from the top reaches of mainstream commercial country, to the most revered Americana performers.
“I always knew I wanted to make a bluegrass record someday,” Molly Tuttle says, and so did the rest of us. Yet strangely, it had never come to pass until now. Already considered a titan of the bluegrass discipline as a two-time winner of the IBMA’s Guitarist of the Year…