Robert Earl Keen & Friends Raise Over $3 Million for Texas Flood Relief

The people of Texas haven’t forgotten about the tragic flooding in the Hill Country on July 4th, and continue to show up for their fellow neighbors, with no fatigue displayed.
The people of Texas haven’t forgotten about the tragic flooding in the Hill Country on July 4th, and continue to show up for their fellow neighbors, with no fatigue displayed.
The music community is stepping up big time to make sure the folks affected by the flooding in central Texas and the Hill Country are made whole, and those who lost loved ones are enveloped by the rest of community.
Cotton Fest boasts being “The biggest BYOB country music festival in west Texas,” and who’s gonna argue or check the math with a lineup like that? Coeds from Tech, roughnecks from The Patch, and everyone in-between will be there.
In the embarrassment of riches that is the current country/Americana landscape, it’s an increasingly common issue where there are more new album releases on a given Friday than time to review or even listen to them in a timely manner. So to make sure you don’t miss anything…
Well it wasn’t just a lark apparently, and competing egos ended up not getting in the way, because the Texas supergroup epicentered around Lubbock called The Panhandlers have announced they’re ready to release their second official album called “Tough Country.”
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.
Active now for 15 years, with five records under his belt, and now 35 years old, the singer/songwriter and member of the Texas supergroup The Panhandlers is taking a more reflective and introspective approach to what will be his sixth record and his first in four years.
A Saving Country Music ‘Song of the Year’ nominee is not just your favorite ditty that gets stuck in your head. These are songs that have the power to change hearts and change lives, open you up new ideas or ways of thinking, or unlock memories or emotions you haven’t felt in years.
A tribute record to the revolutionary Red Dirt rock country outfit Cross Canadian Ragweed and its frontman Cody Canada is on the way, and it includes a litany of cool artists from Texas and Red Dirt who all paid tribute to the band last winter at the long-running Music Fest in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Not your standard and cliche-riddled country protest song, this more thoughtful, reflective, and hushed effort bemoans the passing away of important things in life—country music included—to the onslaught of progress and noise, while resisting the new favorite Americana pastime of laying blame.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or just use the song, artist, and album recommendations to find something new to listen to. New songs just added.
The Panhandlers aren’t just bound by their ties to the region. The geography and people of the upper portions of West Texas is what this music is all about. From falling water tables to failing farms, this is an account of an unforgiving land nobody would ever choose to call home. Yet people still do.
If you want to know just how much pent up appeal there is for the music of Evan Felker and his band the Turnpike Troubadours, here’s a pretty good sign. This week on the Americana Music Association’s Radio Albums Chart, the recently-released The Next Waltz – Volume 2 compilation produced by Bruce Robison has landed at #1.
The only thing better than a badass Texas music songwriter from the Panhandle is four of them combining their powers in a country music supergroup. That’s what you have with The Pandlandlers, which sees William Clark Green, Josh Abbott, John Baumann, and Cleto Cordero of Flatland Cavalry coming together.
If you’re going to be in Tulsa this New Years, let me just say on behalf of all the country and roots fans that won’t be, we hate you and your ugly stupid face. It’s completely unfair that you’ll get the opportunity to take in some of the best lineups of performers this side of the big festivals.
Luke Combs doesn’t need any help selling tickets on his currently sold-out “Beer Never Broke My Heart” tour. He’s arguably the biggest artist in all of country music at the moment. But he’s calling in the cavalry for his show Saturday night at San Antonio’s 18,000-capacity AT&T Center anyway. Combs has tapped the fast-rising Flatland Cavalry.
“It really is a representation of what we’re trying to do here, which is connecting the greatest music in Austin with country music in a greater sense,” Bruce Robison says about the upcoming compilation. Though all the names and songs are worth getting excited over, it’s Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker that has many talking.
Man, there’s nothing better to get your country music pants going crazy like a good ol’ supergroup, and it appears we got a new one that’s formed right under our noses. Called The Panhandlers, it’s not in reference to vagrants, it pertains to that flat-ass piece of land in West Texas that sticks up like a chimney pipe on the map.
What started out as some simple pledges by Texas country artist Casey Donahue to help a few Texas teachers fulfill their supply lists for the upcoming school year has morphed into a cultural phenomenon in Texas music and beyond, with artists and fans signing on to the cause to get classrooms filled with the items teachers need.
Fans of country and Red Dirt’s Turnpike Troubadours were left forlorn late last month when it was announced that the band would be going on an indefinite hiatus amid a rash of cancelled shows and concerns for frontman Evan Felker, which begs the question of who might be able to step up to fill this important void.
Georgia songwriter Brent Cobb has been out on the road bolstering his name recognition in 2018 as one of the opening acts on Chris Stapleton’s All-American Road Show tour, and now as that tour winds down, Brent Cobb has ordered up a bunch of new tour dates coming up in 2019.
Randall Clay had recently received some of the widest recognition of his career when Ashley McBryde cut the songs “American Scandal,” “Tired of Being Happy,” and “El Dorado” co-written by Clay for her recent album ‘Girl Going Nowhere.’ Clay also wrote or co-wrote songs for William Clark Green, Josh Ward, Hannah Aldridge, & Curtis Braly.
The newest additions to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Playlist start with the opening tracks to a couple of cool new records. John R. Miller and the Engine Lights have a new album out called ‘The Trouble You Follow,’ and the witty and true “Holy Dirt” tops the newest incarnation of the playlist
It seems like just a few short years ago we were thinking about William Clark Green as the “Next Big Thing.” Now all the young frat bros in Lubbock have moved on to Koe Wetzel, and William Clark Green has graduated to headliner status. His new album ‘Hebert Island’ finds the songwriter settling into his established career.