Getting into the Texas theme (or at least, a country one), Post Malone threw everyone for a curve ball by borrowing Dwight Yoakam’s band, and busting out a few country songs at Matthew McConaughey’s Texas benefit Sunday night.
A week ago, the international television audience tuning into see the 2021 Grammy Awards got to see a little slice of country music history when the presentation cut to the acoustic room in Nashville, Tennessee known as The Station Inn, and its owner JT Gray.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Current Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats. New songs have just been added.
“Every time I need an escape, I go to Marfa TX,” she says. “Jack Ingram and Jon Randall come. We recharge. We get inspired by its beauty. We write songs. ‘Tin Man’ was the 1st we shared with you. ‘Tequila Does,’ the 2nd. In between, we’ve written 13 more. It’s about time to share them with y’all.”
Didn’t we just endure an installment of the ACM Awards just a few short months ago? Well yes we did. But thanks to COVID-19 the last cycle was protracted, and here it has come back around again. Whoopee. Get ready for (mostly) the same parade of names that get nominated every year.
Every year the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville seats a variety of names from throughout the country and roots world in what they call their American Currents exhibit. This is the opportunity for artists that you may not normally see an exhibit for get an opportunity to be featured.
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.
As some of the dust begins to settle from the fallout of Morgan Wallen’s inappropriate and offensive use of the N-word, there’s an addendum that needs to be addressed in regards to the accusations of a double standard pervasive in country music.
The 2021 Grammy Award nominees were announced on Tuesday (11/24), and as can be expected, there is some good, some bad, many worthy nominations, a few probably born of virtue signaling as you can expect. But overall, it’s about par for the course.
Some of the best Miranda Lambert songs can be found on the stuff she does outside of her regular album cycles. A song about how it’s often our heartbreak and failures that lead to the insight and inspiration that becomes our greatest triumphs, “Champion” is a song of perseverance.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats. New songs have just been added.
Unless you were there in person, you missed it. But now we’ll all get the opportunity to see the tribute concert that transpired on April 6th, 2017, when a hefty list of musical talent all assembled at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to pay tribute to the legendary Merle Haggard.
The 2020 CMA Awards will transpire on Wednesday, November 11th (make sure to follow along with Saving Country Music’s LIVE blog), and this year it will be a tribute heavy affair. Tributes, remembrances, and the marking of anniversaries will be a big part of the presentation.
I just know too much about the untold history of Barry Gibb and his dalliances with country music to be perturbed that at 74-years-old, he wants to make a country record. And the first song they released from it featuring Jason Isbell sounds pretty damn good to me.
Many gave credit to Garth Brooks for taking himself out of contention, and you can’t blame him personally for voters awarding him the CMA Entertainer of the Year. But there’s still some bad blood out there coming from many in the country community, including Miranda Lambert, apparently.
To help in the COVID-19 recovery effort, the Hall of Fame is planning a special live streaming event that will match up many of the iconic instruments in the “Precious Jewels” collection and other displays with many of the best artists and players of today.
It was one of the coolest things in country music while it lasted. But one of the cool things about The Time Jumpers is nothing lasts forever aside from the band itself. Nashville’s Western Swing house band has been entertaining crowds with interchangeable players and keeping traditions alive since 1998.
It’s worth noting that Rolling Stone’s new updated version of their “500 Best Albums of All Time” significantly diminishes iconic titles from the classic country canon. Not only were some titles downgraded, some were eliminated entirely.
Just remember, “It’s only the ACM Awards.” It’s just disappointing that one of their best presentations in perhaps a decade or more—and under difficult circumstances—had to be sullied at the very end by a silly and avoidable decision.
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.
Also as part of the reopening, the Hall of Fame is planning a special live streaming event on October 28th, and one they hope will be one of their biggest fundraisers ever, called “Big Night (At The Museum)”. It will match legendary instruments with many of the legendary artists of today.
This week, Maddie & Tae’s “Die From A Broken Heart” finally made it to #1 on the country radio charts. It is a major accomplishment, and a long-fought battle for a song that was originally revealed to fans all the way back in the fall of 2018, and not released as a proper single to radio until May 6th, 2019.
From Taylor Swift’s recent surprise album ‘Folklore,’ the most folkish or “country” song from the collection called “Betty” is being sent to country radio as a proper radio single. It was sent officially to many radio affiliates on Thursday (7-30) after numerous stations were already playing the track.
Margo Price’s new album That’s How Rumors Get Started was described by American Songwriter as “very un-country.” Talking with The Nashville Scene, Price herself foretells how people will still try to sell her new album as country by trying to use “fancy words.” But she states decisively, “Nope, I made a rock ’n’ roll record.”