It’s almost like the entire music industry has memory holed Oliver Anthony. It was just two short years ago that he took a video of him hollering out in the woods all the way to #1 in all of music.
Country music is unlike most other popular music genres. It’s humans impressing fingers on wood and wire, and singing from the gut and soul in the beautiful imperfection of authentic expression.
Viral star Oliver Anthony unleashed a firestorm recently when he made multiple accusations against performers at country festivals as part of a greater 15-minute video rant addressing some of the ills of the country industry.
Some of the observances and sentiments Oliver Anthony shares are true, and things you might be inclined to pump your fist in agreement over. A few of the things he says are categorically false and misleading at best
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.
It nears the realm of impossibility to put enough emphasis on how monumentally important the seismic shifts occurring in the music business at the moment are, and how they’re reverberating throughout every sector of the industry.
On Monday, February 19th, Wyatt Flores announced that he would be cancelling his upcoming show in Oxford, Ohio. Other upcoming shows in Detroit and Toronto will also be rescheduled to a later date.
Fans love Elle King for her “devil may care” attitude and over-the-top presentation. She’s a lot, and that’s fine. But the Grand Ole Opry stage is supposed to be a family friendly environment, and it’s not the time or place.
Taking a step back and zooming out, it’s an entirely different setup in 2024 compared to when Saving Country Music was founded going on 16 years ago. It all begs the question, “Has country music been saved?”
In a true procrastinator’s fashion, I have waited until the final dying moments of the year to tackle 2023’s most difficult album to review, and the one that will include some of the most dissenting viewpoints from prevailing sentiments.
“I was gonna write a speech,” Johnson said as he took the podium. “But like everything else I did while I was here at Jacksonville State I have procrastinated until the last possible second.”
Any objective assessment of how this lineup was curated will come to the conclusion that political affiliation was a critical part of the decision making process. “It’s for the people who love America,” is the slogan.
The skit does a pretty good job lampooning all the tropes of country music’s Bro-Country era, including the obsession with inane lists of everyday items, hip-hop gesticulations, and predictable and formulaic production.
Despite the litany of allegations and all of the negative press coverage for Kirt Webster, he continues to be entrenched in the country music industry via shadow hand management.
Most definitely, Jason Isbell and his new album Weathervanes with his backing band The 400 Unit is worthy of Grammy consideration. Most anyone with an objective ear would conclude this. But for some, none of this matters.
The latest Maren Morris temper tantrum comes in the form of two new songs and videos released via an EP called The Bridge. It was serviced via Columbia Records out of New York as opposed to Sony Records Nashville.
Sure, there might be bigger things to worry about in life and country music. But if there ever was a year to feature country music on the Super Bowl Halftime Show, it would be this one.
Not only is country music codifying its monopoly at the top of the charts, it’s being done by independent and outright unsigned artists that came up solely from the strength of grassroots support.
The widespread support Oliver Anthony enjoys spans across political, social, and geographical, and racial lines. It includes an international reach, and cross-genre support well beyond country music.
After taking some time out of the spotlight to fight the Cancer, Keith is now starting to battle back and appear in public again. But don’t expect a bunch of new songs from him anytime soon.
Ever since Oliver Anthony and “Rich Men North of Richmond” went viral, the accusations that he’s an “industry plant” or that his meteoric rise has been the product of “Astroturfing” have been pervasive.
There are a lot of threads and tentacles to talk about and run down when it comes to the ultra viral explosion of Oliver Anthony and the video for his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
It’s such good times in independent country music at the moment, the Top 25 Playlist is busting at the seams and been extended to 29 temporarily just to take in all the great songs and artists demanding to be heard,
Enter Oliver Anthony, and the super-viral recording of his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Undoubtedly, it is quite a remarkable song and performance. He’s a songwriter from Farmville, VA…