Here we are in a moment in country music custom made for the neotraditional sounds of Midland, and here they are invoking the era in music when folk rock turned into mom rock on the easy listening station.
With an uncommon adherence to country sounds for a contemporary popular artist, and bolstered by reams of clever songwriting and spirited performances, Carly Pearce turns in an inspired and compelling album.
“Deeper Well” might have a few more memorable songs and mark a return to a more organic sound for Musgraves, but that “something’s missing” feeling persists. It seems to be marked by boredom.
Before all the pomp, pop, and circumstance of the televised portions of the 2023 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Premier Ceremony transpired Sunday (2-5) afternoon in Los Angeles. This is where many of the country awards are given out, as well as awards for bluegrass, folk, Americana.
There was most certainly a time in country music—and even in it’s more open-minded and less commercially-concerned cousin of Americana—where not fitting neatly within the gender binary would be a significant burden on the attention you would receive for your music. 2022 is not that time though.
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.
After a quarter century, and a very messy last eight years or so, Gary Allan has just made it official: he’s leaving his long time label home of Universal Music Group Nashville. And though we won’t know for a while just where he’ll land or how everything will shake out, it feels like it can only be a positive development.
It’s not that those “authenticity” concerns don’t continue to linger. But Midland is most certainly a mainstream country music bright spot, and has been ever since the band’s inception. This new album is no exception, once again taking Midland’s throwback 90s-era style…
If you feel like you’re experiencing déjà vu with Gary Allan lashing out at country music’s radio system, it’s because you’re more dialed into the doings of country music than the writers over at Rolling Stone. Yes, we have been at this exact spot with Gary Allan before.
Apparently, Carly Pearce did not get the memo. The script says that if you’re a mainstream country starlet that shows early promise in maintaining a little bit of country roots in your sound, as soon as you see some initial success, you’re supposed careen straight into full blown pop.
Many true country fans were ecstatic at the news, but I fear some folks have visions of getting a slew of new songs from Gary along the lines of “Nothing On but the Radio” and “Smoke Rings in the Dark” when we already have multiple indications that’s unlikely the direction Gary Allan will be taking.
We’ve known for a while now that Carly Pearce has the heart, and the history to become something special in the country mainstream. Now with her new 7-song album ’29,’ the Carly Pierce we’ve been impatiently waiting to reveal herself finally emerges.
Lady A started by changing their name to erase what some considered the racist connotations of “Antebellum” and to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Now that action has resulted in them publicly suing a well-respected black member of the music community and receiving a massive backlash for it.
Grammy nominated, CMA-winning, well-respected and admired singer and songwriter Brandy Clark is prepping the release of a new album in the new year called ‘Your Life Is A Record.’ Though details on the new record are still a little light, Brandy did preview the new record recently during a promotional event.
The effort to save country music must be a pragmatic one. Classic country like the stuff Midland is peddling has become a hot commodity in the mainstream and beyond in the last couple of years, and don’t question for a second that Midland and their big radio singles haven’t been a catalyst for this positive development.
Miranda Lambert has just loaded up her trophy case with a bunch of new precious metal after the RIAA handed down multiple new platinum accolades for previous songs and records. After one of her two sold-out shows at the Country Music Hall of Fame has part of her 2018 Artist-In-Residence duties….
Heretofore, the greatest asset of the Brothers Osborne has been that they’re not Florida Georgia Line. This is how the singing and guitar playing brother duo hopscotched Beavis and Butthead to become the shoo-in duo for all of mainstream country’s industry awards, despite having not nearly the commercial prowess, or frankly, the influence.
So here we are once again staring at a list of the nominees for the ACM Awards, with few surprises, lots of predictable stuff, and finding ourselves full of self-reflection on if we should even care about the annual country music gala that is most susceptible to bloc voting and horse trading.
So we finally received the info on Kacey Musgraves’ new album ‘Golden Hour.’ But where is a single from the new Kacey Musgraves album for country radio? “Space Cowboy” would be a great country radio single. The song has already received over 500,000 spins on Spotify. The television performance now gives it an extra boost.
Friends and neighbors, I know you would rather spend your time reading about something a bit more positive in nature than the rabid attitudinal protestations of some twisted up music critic spouting off about this grotesque specimen of audio diarrhea, and during what is supposed to be a festive season no less….
Keith Urban decided in the aftermath of the revelations about Hollywood producer and financier Harvey Weinstein’s decades of alleged sexual assault to release a single called “Female,” which he recently debuted live at the 2017 CMA Awards. Though the message, and maybe the intent behind it is honorable, “Female” is just flat wrong.
The 2017 CMA Awards could have been a disaster, and for a host of reasons. It was obvious heading into the presentation that forces from outside the genre, fueled by political fervor and fanned by bias media, were hellbent on attempting to make the presentation a political spectacle. But the upper lip stiffened.
It’s an interesting case study to track the career trajectory of a prodigy musician. Often times they take a terrible spill that is impossible to recover from when they go from the cute kid who can sing well or play fast, and attempt to transition to a full-time career. In fact, that’s the most common […]
“If I ever meet that guy from Saving Country Music he is gonna see just how Country I really am!” says Mark Wystrach of Midland, while calling Saving Country Music’s coverage of the band “lies” and “click-bait.” But it was never about how “authentic” Midland was. It was about their attempts to unnecessarily embellish their back story.