With nominations in all of the categories he was eligible in, Tyler Childers leads all nominees in country music with four. Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert tie Childers.
The country music gods will smile down upon the listening public with an embarrassment of riches on July 25th, 2025, requiring Saving Country Music to officially declare a country music holiday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz has sent an open letter to Ron DeSantis claiming that the festival is requiring “vaccine passports” from attendees, which would be against Florida law that forbids such requirements. But no such requirement is being made by the festival.
From Austin, TX comes a unique take on American country music that is cosmic in scope, West Coast in attitude, but still well-inferred and tethered to the roots of Appalachia and the rust of Texas honky tonks. The group is called The Tender Things, and this new album titled How You Make a Fool evokes strong memories of the Flying Burrito Brothers.
It’s been a long road for Tanya Tucker, but she has finally received distinction from the Recording Academy. In fact, she received a few of them during the 2020 Grammy Awards Premier Ceremony Sunday (1-26) afternoon before the televised portion of the program for Best Country Song and Best Country Album.
A new album by the Dixie Chicks is on the way, and it’s no longer a matter of “if,” but “when.” Recent social media posts confirm the trio is working in the studio with super producer Jack Antonoff, and that a new record is coming “someday.” If they’re teasing us on social media already, that “someday” is more likely to be counted in months.
Like a lazy Sunday morning, a Patty Griffin song can frame life perfectly, and put everything into perspective. This gift is the reason artists such as Emmylou Harris, Miranda Lambert, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and the Dixie Chicks have selected her songs to record, and the Grammys have awarded and nominated her efforts.
The 10th annual 30A Songwriters Festival set for January 18-21, 2019 in Walton County, Florida will take on extra significance this year, and not just because it’s the event’s 10th Anniversary. Located in the Florida Panhandle, and just west of where the devastating Hurricane Michael made landfall in October.
Once again Brandi Carlile has proven why she is a gem of independent roots music, and an asset to the planet. While other people have talked, planned, promised, and threatened to throw an all-girl festival or tour in the roots realm, Carlile has hauled off and actually done it.
There would be no mainstream country music career for Ashley McBryde if it weren’t for the help of Eric Church. Eric Church isn’t a guy you would expect to be a big champion of country music’s women on the surface. But quietly, Church has become a champion of many of country music’s most deserving women.
When you think of the modern country music landscape, you think of a clear delineation line between the independent and mainstream. However the songwriting credits for Miranda Lambert are the one clear exception. Looking through her list of collaborators, it’s pretty incredible.
Ray Wylie Hubbard will add to his legacy of bone-rattling grit and groove, and hymnals that speak to a weary soul torn between the battle of good and evil when he releases his latest record ‘Tell The Devil I’m Gettin’ There As Fast As I Can’ on his own Bordello Records via Thirty Tigers.
Forget all the sappy relationship stuff, and how it happened and where it might lead. Miranda Lambert ditching Blake Shelton and ending up with Anderson East might be the perfect illustration of the drastic role reversal 2015 has ushered in throughout the greater country music realm, and how 2016 could be poised to completely turn everything upside down.
On Monday April 12th, The Americana Music Association announced the nominees for their 2014 Americana Music Awards to be held September 17th at the Ryman Auditorium as part of their annual Americana Music Conference. The ceremony was emceed by performer and Sirius XM DJ Elizabeth Cook, and was simulcast on Sirius XM and streamed on Music City Roots.
Lone Star Music, the Texas music cornerstone that has such good taste and cool vibes that appreciation for it’s unique approach of putting the music first spreads well past the Texas border, has just announced the nominees for their 6th Annual Lone Star Music Awards, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hit the sweet spot in showcasing many of the artists that are helping to save country music.
Once again the Europeans out class their cross Atlantic counterparts with the newly-launched Country Music Magazine from Team Rock—the same people who’ve brought the UK the long-running and widely-distributed Classic Rock Magazine. Despite the generic name, this magazine is anything but, with 132 extra wide glossy full-color pages, accompanied by a free, 15-track CD with music from Sturgill Simpson and Guy Clark.
American Kid is a worthy specimen if someone asked you produce an album that exemplifies Americana’s influence and artistry. From the ultra-traditional “Mom & Dad’s Waltz” by Lefty Frizzell, to the progressive and airy “Highway Song” co-penned by Robert Plant, American Kid presents itself like a tree hanging heavy with fruit, with all but the two aforementioned songs written by Griffin solely.
This Saturday, April 20th is the 2013 installment of Record Store Day. 2013 has some juicy releases, including some super rare Willie Nelson demo sessions, a split with Waylon Jennings and the Old 97’s, some cool live albums from Gram Parsons and Sarah Jarosz, and a re-issue of Justin Townes Earle’s first album, the Yuma EP.
“Wild and Lonesome” from Shooter’s upcoming album The Other Life is a sparse, fiercely classic country tune with great country instincts and arrangement. It’s not great because of its classic country flavor, it’s great because Shooter had the wisdom to get out of the song’s way an allow it to pick its own path and tell its own story, and that happened to lead it down the classic country road.
Usually when actors and artists from other music genres make a move to get some of that sweet, sweet nectar from the voluptuous and lucrative pop country tit, it’s my job to pull down their pants and laugh at their privates for “going country.” I’ve seen probably two dozen websites and “E news” reports saying […]