You might be surprised to learn that Birmingham, Alabama right in the heart of the country music homeland does not have an annual country music festival. Well it does now.
If you want to see some of the best artists in independent country all in one place, but aren’t entirely thrilled with doing so with 30,000 other people, The Jackalope Jamboree will sit perfectly in your country music Goldilocks zone.
Here we are in a moment in country music custom made for the neotraditional sounds of Midland, and here they are invoking the era in music when folk rock turned into mom rock on the easy listening station.
It’s a good time to be a country music fan. No reason to reach for the Backstreet Boys, Diplo, or Nelly to entice fans to the event. If anything, they give the whole lineup an ick factor it doesn’t need.
What Two Step Inn got right was that you can mix today’s independent country with country legends from the 80s and 90s, and even some of the cool up-and-comers in the mainstream, and have an event that breaks down barriers and cross-pollinates fans bases because it’s all great country music.
Jon Pardi is calling it the “Mr. Saturday Night World Tour,” but let’s just go ahead an label it the “mainstream country that doesn’t suck and actually sounds country” tour. That’s been Jon Pardi’s calling card for a while now, and he even kicked it up a notch with his recent album “Mr. Saturday Night.”
Eric Church is a fan of country music’s “Outsiders” if you will. That is why for his “Outsiders Revival” tour, Church will be reviving the practice of featuring some of the cooler folks in country music as opposed to whatever boilerplate star the industry is trying to shove down the public’s throats at the moment.
Marcus King, Lainey Wilson, Charley Crockett, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ashland Craft, Chris Stapleton, The Black Pumas, The Steel Woods, Brit Taylor, Midland, Nikki Lane, Jake Worthington, Quaker City Nighthawks, Casey Donahew, and Jaime Wyatt are some of the cool names that have appeared in the Tulsa King soundtrack.
Every year to make sure the best titles in mainstream country don’t get overlooked, and to encourage the quality in the mainstream to rise to the top, we run down the best mainstream country albums to compliment the Album of the Year nominees. Some years there is overlap.
With Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers headlining Saturday and Sunday, and other names from the independent country world like Charles Wesley Godwin, Kaitlin Butts, Paul Cauthen, and Austin’s Kathryn Legendre playing, it speaks to the independent aspect the festival organizers want the festival to take on.
This Jon Pardi guy must’ve taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque or something. He’s all wrong side up. Doesn’t he understand that the arc of a country music star is to start off real twangy so you get support from the grassroots, and then as soon as you start to blow up a little bit, switch to pop or rock to cash in.
In 2015, we couldn’t imagine artists not supported by mainstream country radio selling out arenas, and minting multiple Platinum singles without the help of Music Row. Here in 2022, Tyler Childers is considered one of the top artists in the entire country music industry, and now we have Zach Bryan.
Aaron Raitiere has this favorable disposition for a songwriter of not taking himself too seriously, and this interesting knack for always being able to see the bright side of things, even if there really isn’t one. “Single Wide Dreamer” is a musical attitude adjustment.
It’s not that those “authenticity” concerns don’t continue to linger. But Midland is most certainly a mainstream country music bright spot, and has been ever since the band’s inception. This new album is no exception, once again taking Midland’s throwback 90s-era style…
In what is quickly becoming both one of the biggest and most important festivals in independent country and Americana in just its third year, Under The Big Sky Fest in Whitefish, Montana has announced its 2022 lineup for July 15-17, and once again it’s a doozy.
If 90% of mainstream country music is bad, then it stands to reason that 10% of it must be good, or at least decent. So under the philosophy of celebrating what stands out in hopes it sustains, the idea that mainstream country fans deserve good music too, and to not be independent music music snobs […]
I listened to the entirety of ‘The Sonic Ranch’ album by Midland and watched all of the 45-minute documentary so you don’t have to. It’s not that it’s terrible, or in any way offensive. For what it is, it’s fine, and you can’t approach either the album or the film as if these were finished products
While many clubs are still shuttered, and arena shows are still likely months away even as restrictions ease, the “Biggest Honky Tonk in the World” makes for about the perfect intermediary where they can offer safe and socially distanced shows, yet still accommodate big names.
To some it was much ado about nothing. But to many in Austin, TX, the Midland trio conducted a grave offense when a photo featuring the band ended up in a recent Washington Post feature with the sign of the legendary Sam’s BBQ in east Austin changed to the name of one of their songs.
The picture at the top of the Washington Post article shows Midland’s Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson, and Cameron Duddy hanging outside of a BBQ shack around a Cadillac with steer horns on the front. Many from Austin and beyond immediately noticed the storefront as that of the legendary Sam’s BBQ on on E 12th Street in Austin.
Mike Harmeier, Caitlin Rutherford, Kyle Ponder, Zach Moulton, and the incomparable Omar Oyoque. Mike and the Moonpies as they’re know collectively. Also known as the greatest country music band in the world at the moment — Gary Stewart. The King of the Honky Tonks.
We though Mike and the Moonpies caught us completely off guard last August when they released a surprise album on us recorded in London. Now they have a brand new record of completely unheard songs written by country legend Gary Stewart on the way.
It’s been 10 years since Country Music Hall of Famers Brooks & Dunn hit the road for a proper national tour. That will all change this summer and fall when the duo hits the road on the REBOOT 2020 Tour. Who will the opening acts be? According to the duo, there won’t be any. But there will be “special guests.”
All country albums, regardless if they emanate from a major label or receive radio play, are considered for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year nominations. But not every year does a mainstream album make it. Even though one didn’t make it to the top of the heap in 2019, we had a bumper crop of quality mainstream country releases.