You gotta love when one of your favorite music artists starts massively screwing with you head with cryptic verbiage and imagery, making you rack your brand about what it might be all about. These days this usually means new music or some other big development is on the way, and that’s what fans of Tyler Childers are hoping for.
It feels like any day now we’ll hear something about a new record coming from Sturgill Simpson. But just in case the country fan in you is hoping it will be a return to Sturgill’s roots, and similar to his earlier records like ‘High Top Mountain’ and ‘Metamodern Sounds in Country Music’, you best steel yourself for something else.
Once again Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Fest sponsored by Blackbird Presents will be rolling down the road, and they have just released the 10 separate lineups, dates, and locations for the 2019 season. Originally started as a one-off event in 2016, for the last two years the Outlaw Music Festival has been a touring affair.
Before Dave Cobb was Dave Cobb, and Sturgill Simpson was Sturgill Simpson, Dave Cobb produced an album for Edmonton, Alberta singer and songwriter Lucette called Black Is The Color, and Sturgill Simpson appeared prominently in the video of the evocative murder ballad and signature song “Bobby Reid.”
When you hear an artist like Charles Wesley Godwin sing, there is no need to power cycle your sense of disbelief. The sinewy roots of West Virginia’s hardscrabble existence seem to be intertwined with Godwin’s synapses and muscle tissue, almost as if he’s a construct of the land itself, like a scrub tree clinging to life.
Sturgill Simpson’s incursion into the acting world continues after it was recently revealed he will be part of an upcoming film called “Queen & Slim.” Starring Daniel Kaluuya as “Slim” and Jodie Turner-Smith as “Queen,” the film was first announced in July of 2018 as a independent romance drama.
“It’s an honor to be here tonight. This is my first time ever playing the inside Bridgestone,” Sturgill Simpson said before launching into the song, making reference to his notorious busking set streamed on the internet during the 2017 CMA Awards. Then he launched into “Red Headed Rounder.”
It’s both weird that fellow Texans and country legends Willie Nelson and George Strait have never collaborated together or even performed side by side in their illustrious careers, and yet it also makes perfect sense. But it was bound to happen eventually that the two would sing together.
An artist like Ashley McBryde doesn’t need radio. It’s radio that needs an artist like Ashley McBryde. Radio shouldn’t play McBryde just because she’s a woman. They should play her because she’s real. Ultimately, “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” may fail at radio. But Ashley McBryde is going somewhere regardless.
Some benefit concerts are humbled to have whomever they can get to grace their stage and contribute their talents to the cause. When it comes to the over 30-year-old Tibet House US Benefit Concert held annually in New York City, it’s a humbling experience for the artists asked to play due to the prestige of the opportunity.
Kacey Musgraves didn’t fail because country radio ignored her. She succeeded because she ignored country radio. This is the lesson of Kacey Musgraves, ‘Golden Hour,’ and the 2018 CMA Awards. Of course country radio sucks, and is inequitable when it comes to women. But what are you going to do about it?
Live records can often be a wild card when it comes to sales, but Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s “Live From The Ryman” has proven to be a hit. The successful debut also comes as Jason Isbell just wrapped up another sold-out six night run at the Ryman Auditorium October 22nd through the 28th.
Kacey Musgraves cheesed off a few of her straight-laced country fans when she released the disco-infused track “High Horse” off of her recent album ‘Golden Hour.’ But that is not the only reason the song has stirred commentary and controversy since its release. What many people want to know is, who is “High Horse” about?
It’s pretty rare that a piece of an artist’s merchandise accoutrement is worthy of a broad discussion or deep analysis into its intrinsic meaning. But leave it to Sturgill Simpson to stupefy some, intrigue others, and leaving something so open to interpretation as he’s done with a T-Shirt he’s been hawking at recent shows.
Formidable bluegrass power group Town Mountain must have left the back door to the studio open while recording their new record New Freedom Blues due out October 26, and in walked a stark raving hilljack covered in goat’s blood, also known as newly crowned Americana Emerging Artist of the Year Tyler Childers.
After making some remarks about keeping the back door open and allowing people like himself in, and making reference to his mispronounced name, Tyler Childers delivered a directed and pointed diss to the term “Americana,” saying it was a distraction from the real problems of country music.
Nobody has benefited more from the momentum of Sturgill Simpson than fellow Kentucky songwriter turned burgeoning star Tyler Childers. But now Tyler is enjoying a momentum all his own, and if anything, is even further ahead than Sturgill was at this point in his career.
All across the United States of America, student-aged youngsters are turning their summer smiles into school year frowns as they once again acquiesce to the indoctrination of academia. But for one high school in Jackson, Kentucky, they got a pleasant and completely unplanned surprise when Grammy Award-winning hometown hero Sturgill Simpson showed up to serenade […]
As first revealed in March, Sturgill Simpson will make his acting debut as a recurring character in a new CBS television drama series called “One Dollar.” The on-demand series is a mystery set in a small rust belt town in post-recession America, where a one-dollar bill changing hands connects a group of characters.
One of Hinterland Music Fest’s most most memorable moments came during the set of Tyler Childers in the early afternoon when at one point both Sturgill Simpson and Wheeler Walker Jr., joined Tyler on stage. Sturgill was sitting in with Tyler’s band on guitar during the set, and Wheeler joined them on stage.
Willie Nelson’s 2018 4th of July Picnic in Austin, TX was disrupted by heavy thunderstorms that moved through the area on Wednesday, resulting in cancellations in numerous performances. Being held at the Circuit of the Americas just south of Austin proper, fans were told to take shelter at roughly 2:30 p.m.
This is all especially concerning since Country Music USA is the basis of the new Ken Burns film on country music, which will reach a much wider audience than this final chapter, and like all Ken Burns films, be referenced by many generations to come as a master work of country music history.
The Willie Nelson camp has released the particulars for the 33rd Annual Farm Aid benefit concert, this year taking place September 22nd in Connecticut at the Xfinity Arena in Hartford. This will be the first time the longest-running concert for a cause in America will be held in Connecticut, which is home to 6,000 farms.
Whether there’s any need for panic among fans and artists who are part of the new reshuffle remains to be seen, but it is certainly something to keep an eye on. Often these label reshuffles are enacted with the best of intentions, and the devil is ultimately is in the details.