Album Review – Shawna Thompson’s “Lean On Neon”

Well deep fry my okra. You want country? You damn well better, and bring your appetite, because Shawna Thompson is serving up heaping helpings of it. There’s no shrinkflation in twang happening here.
Well deep fry my okra. You want country? You damn well better, and bring your appetite, because Shawna Thompson is serving up heaping helpings of it. There’s no shrinkflation in twang happening here.
It’s tough to know where to start enumerating the many contributions of fiddle legend Bobby Hicks, and impossible to encapsulate them all in a few sentences and paragraphs. He was also one of the oldest country legends at 91.
Steven Curtis Chapman is the most awarded artist in Christian music history. This includes an incredible 59 Dove Awards including seven Artist of the Year trophies, five Grammy Awards, 50 #1 songs, and over 10 million albums sold.
Many have played the banjo in the annals of country, folk, and bluegrass music. Jim Mills lived the banjo. He was most recognizable as the banjo player in Kentucky Thunder behind Ricky Skaggs for 14 years.
Since pretty much every living soul on the planet right now was born, raised, and is living at a time when Willie Nelson was making music, it’s easy to overlook or take for granted just how remarkable this achievement is.
The younger, more blonde, and more bombshell that a woman is in country music, the more pop their country music leans. This is the unfortunate stereotype that country music fans have been conditioned to believe over the last 15 years.
Chart placements, annual sales and streaming numbers, and glowing reviews aren’t the true testament to the importance of a piece of music. Time is. Over time, the fortitude of a song or album is tested rigorously.
Why is Mo Pitney not more of a thing? I mean seriously folks. Now I know that to Mo Pitney fans, he is a huge thing. They don’t need to be sold on the talent and authenticity of this young man. But you don’t always see Mo Pitney listed off with all the other names of newer artists.
A pretty universal consensus from the country fans who did suffer through the presentation to see the extended Alan Jackson tribute at the end was that in 2022, the CMA Awards seemed to do a 180-degree turn, and started going back in the right direction toward featuring more actual country music.
For years, all we’ve had to see of what Marty Stuart had in store with the Congress of Country Music were architectural renderings. But as the Ellis Theater gets ready to open, we’re finally getting to witness just how much love and effort Marty Stuart and many others have put into bringing it to life.
There is new music from Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. I repeat, there is new music from Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. Along with the new song, Marty Stuart is finally announcing the opening of the first piece of his long-awaited Congress of Country Music.
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.
Sensing a change of pace was needed, Dailey & Vincent decided to cut loose and record a country album this time. Granted, when they say “country,” don’t think of straight traditional country, or the 90s country sound that’s all the rage, and most certainly not the more contemporary country you may hear on the radio.
It’s always exciting when one of your favorite country artists like Dwight Yoakam, Alan Jackson, or Sturgill Simpson decides to cut a bluegrass album. It’s pretty rare to have a bluegrass outfit decide to flip the script and make a country album. But that’s exactly what long-time bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent have decided to do.
Though you won’t see any press releases about it, or social media posts about it from their personal accounts, both Tyler Childers and Chris Stapleton have been spotted in the region with their boots on the ground in Kentucky directly helping local residents after the historic flooding.
“I don’t have to tell y’all what this moment means to me. I’ve been talking about this moment since I was a kid,” Jamey Johnson said on the Grand Ole Opry’s Saturday night presentation (5-14), as Bill Anderson brought out a trophy officially commemorating Johnson’s induction.
Since the Hall of Fame continues to not allow for public broadcast of the ceremony, fans of The Judds and other inductees have been mostly resigned to piecing together the events. But luckily, a full video of The Judds induction has emerged.
Most certainly, country music has always been a bastion for more conservative and traditional viewpoints, for the most part. But there has always been exceptions and counter-balances within that narrative, expressing a lot more open-mindedness in the industry.
Keith Whitley. Ricky Skaggs. Tony Rice and Larry Rice. Doyle Lawson. Jerry Douglas for crying out loud. Phil Ledbetter. These are just some of the many names that studied under bluegrass legend and banjo God J.D. Crowe, and did service time in his transformative band The New South.
Welcome to Episode #5 of Country History X, which looks to tell the history of country music, one story at a time. This is story of the tragic life and death of Keith Whitley who died at the age of 34 due to alcohol abuse, and the conspiracy theories that surrounded it.
Of course you usually say nice things upon someone’s passing. But when Dolly Parton said, “I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t been there” as she eulogized Uncle Bill after his passing on Wednesday, April 7th at the age of 85, you known it’s the honest truth.
It’s just unfortunate to even see the talk of cancelling Ricky Skaggs, discounting his music, disinviting him from future events, simply because he decided to accept an award he wholeheartedly deserved, and was likely to get from whomever was President at this moment.
The news spread quickly, and put country music right in the middle of the political imbroglio. However, reports by Rolling Stone and other outlets that the awarding of the medal was a quote “reaction” to the impeachment are false. Instead, it was a preplanned ceremony orchestrated in advance.
From the hills and hollers of Kentucky as a strict traditionalist, to some of the most enterprising and innovative interpretations of the bluegrass form, from beside artists as far ranging as Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice was American string music incarnate.