You can’t let fans load into the venue, get a beer in their hand, and then last minute, pull the plug. It’s not cool. And this is what Morgan Wallen did in Oxford, Mississippi on Sunday night, April 23rd at the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, even waiting until after openers Hardy and Ernest had performed.
The 2023 CMT Awards could very well go down in country music history as a significant moment, but it won’t be for the reasons the producers of the presentation or their proponents in the media hoped for, or will purport it to be. And no, we’re not just talking about the polarizing political moments…
One of the hottest up-and-coming artists in all of country music is now signed to the roster of one of the hottest labels in all of country music. Announced Wednesday afternoon (3-29), West Virginia native Charles Wesley Godwin has signed to Big Loud Records, which is the home of Morgan Wallen.
With every single piece of recorded music now right at your fingertips, spending time reading professional reviews may seem silly. But the problem is that you have every single piece of recorded music right at your fingertips, which means we’ve gone from not enough options, to way too many.
The Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone has now been accused of doctoring the story to overplay the angle of governmental overreach, and to hide the true reason James Gordon Meek’s home was raided, namely that Meeks was under federal investigation for being in possession of images depicting child sex abuse.
Love him, hate him, find yourself among the population of the very few who feel indifferent about him, Morgan Wallen is the biggest thing in mainstream country, and at this point, by such multiples of scale, it truly is difficult to comprehend. We’re talking Garth-level, generational, genre-defying popularity.
Whatever we’re calling this post Bro-Country era in popular country music, the bespectacled Hardy has a heavy hand in it, both as a primary song contributor to Morgan Wallen and others, as well as a performing career that continues to swell in popularity.
On Sunday morning (1-8), the country music internet was all abuzz from a story in TMZ about Morgan Wallen pouring a drink down the front of the blouse of a woman at a Nashville bar. The incident allegedly happened Friday night, January 7th, at an unnamed bar on Nashville’s Lower Broadway.
Over the Christmas/New Year holiday, Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof” set a rather landmark achievement by becoming the first radio single in country music history to spend 10 weeks at #1—a record that despite the song’s country lyricism as a heartbreak drinking song, can only be regarded as dubious.
Morgan Wallen basically dominates everything. But what we’re concerned with here is digging through the raw data to determine if our hypothesis that non radio-supported artists such as Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan really are as big as we think they are, and if a country music revolution is underway.
Luke Combs said it best while accepting the trophy for Entertainer of the Year Wednesday night (11-9) at the 2022 CMA Awards: “This is my fifth or sixth year being at this awards show, and country sounded more country than it has in a long time tonight.” In truth, the CMA Awards righting the ship goes back even further.
Zach Bryan is currently crossing the final frontier yet to be conquered by an artist not groomed by Music Row. We’re speaking of course about country radio. For months now, Zach Bryan’s single “Something in the Orange” has been either the #1 most streamed song in all of country music, or #2 or #3.
A couple of weeks ago, HARDY announced a new album called ‘The Mockingbird and THE CROW’ to be released on January 20th, 2023, and released three preview songs with it. One of them is called “here lies country music,” and similar to ERNEST’s “Flower Shops,” it’s a straight ahead traditional country song.
According to numerous journalists, artists, and activists, after MIranda Lambert’s appearance on stage at the Bridgestone on Friday evening with Jason Aldean, all of her good will and Miranda’s active efforts to make country music a more inclusive place deserves to be called into question.
The new triple album from Tyler Childers ‘Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?’ debuts at the highest mark for the Kentucky-based artist on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, but fails to top the Billboard Country Albums chart, or best his top debut sales peak set by his previous major studio release.
Zach Bryan is arguably the 2nd biggest thing going in all of country music at the moment behind Mullett Boy, but of course you couldn’t tell that by piping up your country radio, unless you have one of those cool radio stations in your area that actually play what they want. But all of that might be changing.
The album ‘Purgatory’ by Tyler Childers will go down in history as one of the most important and successful releases by any country music artist in the last ten years, and perhaps in history. But now it’s time for Tyler’s ‘Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?’ to attempt to grip our attention.
Ever since video leaked of Morgan Wallen using the ‘N’ word on camera on January 31st, 2021, the situation has been broadly mischaracterized by the media and others looking to exploit the situation as opposed to giving it the accurate portrayal such an important incident deserves.
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.
Never has the story of a deceased independent country artist been so compelling to the point where it is covered so overwhelmingly across the entirety of American media, and beyond. And yes, the results of all this attention is translating into people listening to Luke Bell’s music.
Tyler Childers continues to rack up the milestones and the precious metal as the popularity of his album ‘Purgatory’ continues to defy odds. Released five years ago last week, ‘Purgatory’ continues to be one of the most popular titles in all of country music, and it continues to rack up the certifications.
“American Heartbreak” by Zach Bryan has been showing all indications of being one of those “sticky” albums, selling another 24,803 in albums and equivalents again last week. Even more interestingly, the album retook over the #2 spot from the new Luke Combs album “Growin’ Up” two weeks ago.
No rest for the weary, and no time to ruminate upon and digest the 34 tracks Zach Bryan released just a couple of months ago via his massive #1 album ‘American Heartbreak.’ Make room on your plate, because here are nine more in what Zach Bryan is calling an EP.