Paying a Visit to Marty Robbins
If there was ever a “most interesting man in country music,” Marty Robbins would make a great candidate. The career of Marty Robbins really was quite incredible.
Webb Pierce
Grammy-Winning Country & Choral Vocalist Anita Kerr Has Died
What we consider as the foundational sound of the Countrypolitan or Nashville Sound era was very much sung and arranged by Anita Kerr. Along with the The Jordanaires, The Anita Kerr Singers—selected and arranged by Anita Kerr—contributed most all the chorus singing that was set behind country songs.
Nashville ‘A’ Team Guitarist Ray Edenton Has Died
Maybe you’re not intimately familiar with the name, but you’re most definitely familiar with the licks he played, and the songs that he helped turn into country hits and standards over decades. One of the most prolific and respected session guitarists in country music history, Ray Edenton, has died.
Country Music Legend Warner Mack Has Died
When you write a song at the age of 13 that becomes a country standard and a hit in three separate decades, you know you were born to make country music. Warner Mack was born Warner McPherson on April 2, 1935 in Nashville, Tennessee, and was a natural.
Nudie Cohn: The Ukrainian Refugee Who Created the Image of Country Music
It was 1913, and ethnic Jews living in the Ukraine region of the Russian Empire were regularly subjected to brutal, mob-like massacres, known as pogroms. Just two years after a young boy named Nuta Kotlyarenko (Нута Котляренко) was born in Kiev on December 15th, 1902.
Gram Parsons / Austin Steel Guitarist Neil Flanz Has Died
There are few tours that are more legendary to the history of country music than the six-week tour that Gram Parsons embarked on in 1973 behind his album GP. Yes, there were certainly bigger tours with higher grossing receipts, or tours that featured a more scintillating lineup.
Hank Williams & Grand Ole Opry Steel Guitarist Billy Robinson Dies
Imagine having backed Hank Williams on his legendary Grand Ole Opry debut in 1949, or playing behind any of the other country music legends who performed on that hallowed stage during the Opry’s golden era. This was the fortune of steel guitarist Billy Robinson.
Album Review – Brock Gonyea’s “Where My Heart Is”
Here comes this surprise EP from upstart country artist Brock Gonyea that will deliver you and your country-loving heart smack dab into 1950’s country music bliss, warming your cockles about the prospects for the future of the country genre.
Cody Jinks Goes off On Sam Hunt’s “Hard To Forget”
Cody Jinks rarely casts stones, and isn’t inclined to spout off against pop country unless the situation is really called for. That happened to be the case when he made a recent visit to the dentist, and was exposed to the Sam Hunt song “Hard To Forget,” though he didn’t know the song or artist at the time.
Album Review – Tessy Lou Williams (Self-Titled)
In an era when it seems like most every single piece of “country” music must come with some sort of prefix, suffix, or other qualifier or explanation attached to it, Tessy Lou Williams and this debut album is like the answer to all prayers, the fulfilling of all requests, auspiciously plugging a gaping hole in the country music environment.
Sam Hunt Soils Himself While Sampling Webb Pierce Track
Haha. Okay… So this is how Sam Hunt is making his music, “… more traditional in terms of the genre … that’s definitely where the songs are leaning at this point,” like he promised us he was doing last summer? By filching a piece of a sacred Webb Pierce classic and misappropriating it for a derivative drum-looped pop song?
Review – Hank Williams Takes Center Stage in Ep. 3 of ‘Country Music’
Even though names like Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, and The Carter Family loom large for many of country music’s devoted fans, they don’t necessarily rise to the level of household names like Ernest Tubb, and of course the great Hank Williams, who was the centerpiece of the third installment of the Ken Burns ‘Country Music’ documentary.
Han Solo is Apparently a Huge Traditional Country Fan
Who hadn’t thought that when Han Solo was outrunning Imperial starships in the Millennium Falcon—not the local bulk-cruisers mind you, I’m talking about the big Corellian ships now—that he wasn’t booming a little Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Billy Joe Shaver? Remember, Han was a smuggler, so it’s only fitting he’d find a hankering for music that many a moonshine runner would blare.
After 55 Years, The Louisiana Hayride Is Coming Back
The Louisiana Hayride is on its way back, and in a big way. Arguably the 2nd most influential music program in country music history, only rivaled in stature by The Grand Ole Opry, it’s been an effort that has lasted over 20 years and seen a major renovation of the radio program’s original home of The Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport that has put organizers on the brink of bringing the show back.
The Overlords of Country Trucker Songs
A big battle ground in country music right now is the presence of so many songs about trucks. Though this recent popularity trend seems especially sinister in its simplistic, incessant nature, it is not necessarily unprecedented in country. From the early 60’s into the mid 70’s, songs about semi-trucks and truck drivers were all the rage, with big names like Merle Haggard, Del Reeves, and Buck Owens getting in on the action.
The Meaningless Billboard Florida Georgia Line Songs Record
Billboard and the echo chamber that is much of the entertainment media/blogosphere made much hoopla last week over Florida-Georgia Line’s “Cruise” breaking the all-time record for weeks at #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Closer scrutiny of the charts shows that, contrary to the flashy press releases and hype you may see regarding Florida-Georgia Line’s “Cruise,” its “record-setting” week is the historical achievement that isn’t.