As wild as it might seem to say, Brooks & Dunn, who released their debut album in 1991, are currently the reigning CMA Vocal Duo of the Year, and might be the most relevant duo in all of country music.
Merle Haggard deserves credit for a lot. But who knew that late in his career when an aging Merle Haggard was in his swan song, he also played a pivotal role in the legacy of another Country Music Hall of Fame act: Brooks & Dunn.
Where Yellowstone left off helping to promote independent country and roots artists, the 2024-2025 series ‘Landman’ starring Billy Bob Thorton stepped up. The soundtrack includes new, original songs.
If you only ever interact with one thing Saving Country Music does, it should be this playlist. The articles are too long and too opinionated? Don’t have the time? This playlist boils everything down to direct suggestions.
Miranda Lambert, Parker McCollum, Kelly Clarkson, and Cody Johnson will headline the “Band Together Texas” benefit at Austin’s Moody Center on August 17th.
Jamey Johnson reveals just how much new music he has saved up, including a song about him written by another big artist, his feelings on today’s country, as well as his affinity for Zach Top.
Fans both in attendance at Thursday night’s (4-3) show in Indianapolis at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and others online are showing concern for Ronnie Dunn of the Hall of Fame duo Brooks & Dunn.
What Brooks & Dunn fans really want to know is if or when the duo might be interested in releasing some legitimately new music. It’s been since 2007’s Cowboy Town that they did. Well, according to Kix Brooks…
The latest Garth Brooks album and his 17th overall will finally be made available on Friday, September 6th … for streaming only … exclusively on Amazon Music. No word on if physical standalone copies will ever be made available.
You almost hate to even broach this subject from fear of giving it too much oxygen. But no, Tom Petty did not hate country music. He loved country music. Tom Petty was a roots rocker from Florida influenced by country.
In Texas, songwriting is a different animal from what it is in Nashville, Los Angeles, or other places. Instead of trying to make hits, they’re trying to stand on the shoulders of the greats that came before them.
No need to go supping at the trough of close facsimiles to the 90s country music that’s so near and dear to your heart, served up by 20-somethings who weren’t even alive in the era and can only boast being “90s-inspired.” Brooks & Dunn are still alive and kicking.
Every year to make sure the best titles in mainstream country don’t get overlooked, and to encourage the quality in the mainstream to rise to the top, we run down the best mainstream country albums to compliment the Album of the Year nominees. Some years there is overlap.
Coinciding with the announcement of Shania Twain’s signing with Republic Nashville was the release of the most terrible single called “Waking Up Dreaming” that dashes any hopes for a resurgence of Shania country, and picks up where her paltry 2017 comeback record Now left off, namely pop music.
So now here comes Blake Shelton with a photoshopped mullet, releasing what he’s marketing as a 90s-style country single called “No Body.” But unlike some of these other artists professing their proficiency with 90s country, ol’ Blake Shelton was actually around and playing music at the tail end of the era.
George Strait doesn’t make many public appearances these days after officially retiring from the road. But he’ll be making a “special appearance” at the inaugural Legends of Music Row Festival set to transpire October 13-15 in Key West, Florida at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater.
Now celebrating five years of gathering in festival form, KOKEFest attracts a huge crowd of local KOKEheads, as well as people from across the country who want to get the genuine Texas country experience, including those who regularly listen to the station remotely online.
Everybody wants to be 90s country these days, but nobody wants to live through an era without the wide proliferation of the internet, and when cell phones looked like carry-on luggage. But if you want the real stuff, you’re always best going directly to the source, like Ronnie Dunn.
90s country is back on the upswing, and either you can get your fix from some new performer who was still soiling their diapers or learning multiplication tables when Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn were dominating country radio, or you can go to the source.
I know what you’re going to say. “NeW yOrK CiTY!” like that guy in the old Pace Picante Sauce commercial. Or if you pride yourself in having any sort of semblance of taste, maybe you’re wondering why anyone in 2021 would still be listening to mainstream country radio at all.
It’s country. It’s traditional. But it’s also not so stuffy and dated that the masses would writhe at the sound of it like so many traditional country fans do when they get a whiff of today’s mainstream country radio, or today’s radio listeners do when they hear Hank.
Triston Marez has been a traditional country guy bubbling up in both Texas and Nashville for a good while now. And now he’s about ready to burst into the country music world proper with his debut record, and is getting a boost from a Country Music Hall of Famer to boot.
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.
‘Co-Starring’ is a spirited, ambitious, well-written and performed late career effort by Ray Wylie Hubbard that makes a strong case why he deserves major label backing, why all the praise and opportunities he’s been receiving lately (however late) are warranted, while also making a worthy introduction into why so many revere this man.