Well here we go again. And the same people who were defending Garth Brooks four years ago are now calling Carrie Underwood a completely washed-up has-been who needs to be completely canceled.
Before we look forward to 2025, let’s look back at 2024 and remember the important individuals we lost, from huge superstars, to songwriters and side players. They all contributed to the music we love, and deserve to be remembered.
It sets a bad precedent that when a titan of country music passes, we don’t take anything more than 20 seconds and a box of plastic cups to pay tribute. This is country music, and we honor our past legends.
Crunching election data, a plan was hatched under the premise that if the institution of country music could be assuaged to become a political tool, it could help persuade the rural slice of the American electorate from red to blue.
After many years and many excuses for not releasing a new album—including a concussion, publisher issues, and just plain apathy—Jamey Johnson has experienced a creative explosion recently.
Appreciate that those 100 ticket holders constituted about 12% of the people with RSVPs to get in, including “Honor Society” members of the Country Music Hall of Fame who pay five and six-figure annual fees for entry.
Where the Rock and Roll Hall dominated conversation throughout the English-speaking world, the Country Music Hall of Fame induction was a gross afterthought that slid scandalously under-the-radar.
The media loves to place individuals firmly in the political binary, and then pit them against each other. It’s good for clicks and business, even if it causes collateral damage in communities or greater society in the process.
During the Toby Keith tribute, Tyler Hubbard was scheduled to sing Toby Keith’s most simple and silly song, “Red Solo Cup.” If you had to hand off a song to a former member of Florida Georgia Line, it would be this one.
The 2024 ACM Awards had many pondering the question, is it better for an awards show to be bad for the inadvertent entertainment value as opposed to being so boring you want to gouge your eyeballs out?
On the 2024 CMT Awards Sunday evening (4-7), long time Toby Keith friend and Major League Baseball pitching legend Roger Clemens came out to start off a musical tribute to Toby Keith who passed away in February.
The CMAs. The ACMs. The CMTs. The PCCAs. None of them come even close to truly recognizing the “best” that country music has to offer in a given year. It’s questionable if any of them truly deserve your undivided attention at all.
It feels just about perfect and poignant that less than six weeks after Toby Keith tragically passed away at the age of 62 after a fight with stomach Cancer, he’s headed into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The misconception that Toby Keith helped launch Taylor Swift’s career comes from a now viral clip taken from a Channel 4 WSMV news story shot in 2005 that features a 15-year-old Taylor Swift singing and talking about her career.
Now Toby Keith is gone, and all that is left is a range of emotions that for many might be as strong as the ones people may feel for a close friend or family member, while for others they will be as complex as the man’s legacy itself.
Almost immediately as the news spread and outlets started reporting on King’s drunken performance, some came forward to claim that the criticism Elle King was receiving constituted a double standard.
A good barometer for where country music has been over the last few years, and where country music might be headed is the wild path of Toby Keith’s song “Don’t Let The Old Man In.”
It turns out that the people of country music chose Morgan Wallen to be the inaugural People’s Choice Country “Artist of 2023” and other major awards. But you would have no clue this happened by watching the awards.
Yes, there was actually a country music awards show on Thursday night (9-28). But unless you are a massive Dan + Shay fan or just a glutton for punishment, you probably didn’t even notice or know about it.
After taking some time out of the spotlight to fight the Cancer, Keith is now starting to battle back and appear in public again. But don’t expect a bunch of new songs from him anytime soon.
It goes without saying that at this moment in history, everyone in America is incensed and sickened by the level of gun violence plaguing society, and specifically the prevalence of mass shootings, and especially school shootings.
Who sings the song marking the passing of a soul when the person who has died is the one we turn to on such solemn and grave occasions? Who writes the obituary for the man who was responsible for marking the passing of so many greats in country music when he is now the one being eulogized?
The family of singer, songwriter, performer, producer, journalist, and historian Peter Cooper are asking for thoughts and prayers after the veteran member of the country music community suffered a head injury that was initially thought to be life threatening. He remains in critical condition.
World famous Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sting was in Nashville on Wednesday, May 18th to perform at the city’s Ascend Amphitheater, just a short walk down from Lower Broadway. And along with being one of the most famous bass players, Sting is also a country music fan.