Mickey Newbury is one of the most criminally-overlooked, though critically-important songwriters in American history. Though he’s most often associated with country music, his songs and influence span across multiple genres.
One of the most common misunderstandings when it comes to Black performers in country music is the legacy of Ray Charles. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022, his legacy is regularly diminished.
Vince Gill and Paul Franklin are reuniting once again, and this time to pay tribute to Ray Price and his legendary backing band The Cherokee Cowboys.
Taken from a Westwood One radio broadcast with announcer and all, what makes this recording unique is it includes all kinds of stage banter, stories, and jokes from Randy, and it comes from a legendary spot in Gilley’s during a really important time in Randy’s career.
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.
The Country Music Hall of Fame has partnered with Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings to release a 36-song companion double album to coincide with what the public can expect to see and hear as part of the upcoming Outlaws & Armadillos exhibit. The track list of the album reveals just how deep the exhibit will go.
Saturday evening (2-24) at Austin’s Paramount Theatre, the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association held its annual induction ceremony for a dignified and power-packed class of new honorees. Quite an impressive lot of musical dignitaries were also on hand, but I’m not sure anyone expected a star of the caliber of Eric Church to show up.
Dammit, can’t we do anything in American without someone wanting to inject their political vitriol into it and make a moment of unification into a vehicle for polarization? God blessed, we’re inundated with political acrimony 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and in every sector of American life. You can’t get away from it.
“The Guadalupe Breakdown” is lost between towns, lost between loves, and told in a musical language lost in time. Excellent songwriting is combined with tasteful, well-crafted arrangements that bring rise to the nostalgic sentiments of acoustic folk, while also delivering essential country ingredients like twangy steel guitar and choruses set in half time. It is the best of both of worlds conjoined together with reverence.
As the lives of most songwriters go, John Fullbright has lived a charmed one for sure. His debut studio release, 2012’s “From The Ground Up” found its way to the very highest reaches of industry accolades when it was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 55th Grammy Awards, and he seemed to be quickly anointed as a songwriting golden boy out of the gate.
John Howie Jr. is one of those artists you don’t have to spend any time warming up to. Right off the bat you know this is real country, and real good. Pedal steel, a true country voice, and rock solid songs suck you in and have you saying to yourself, “Now this is what I mean when I say country music.” No need for “alt” or “Americana” qualifiers here, this is country music how it’s supposed to be.
The year was 1974, and a two-story stucco office building / studio located two blocks from Nashville’s infamous Music Row at 916 19th Avenue South got christened “Hillbilly Central” by a New York-based music writer. Hillbilly Central was the brain child of Tompall Glaser, a member of the Glaser Brothers, who took the the money he earned from some success in the country music business to revolutionize it.