Aren’t you lucky that you’re connected in with Saving Country Music, which is the website numerous other websites use to stay informed about all the albums coming out each week. It’s darn near a full time job.
Willie Watson was one of the most revered members of Old Crow Medicine Show for around 13 years, including during the band’s big O.C.M.S. / “Wagon Wheel” moment in 2004. But he left in 2011 to become a folk singer.
For the nonprofit and mostly volunteer-driven SFF Presents, the encroachment and dominance of musical juggernaut Live Nation is not just a hypothetical. The organization is on the front lines of supporting music on a local level.
Over the last 20 years, there are a few specific albums you can select out of the crowd and give credit for critically reshaping country music into what it is today, and specifically for re-instituting the roots of country.
Old Crow Medicine Show is at its best when they embrace the wild assed hillbilly street performer persona. Crow has always put the “show” into their version of throwback country.
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. I unilaterally declare that August 25th in the Year of Our Ford 2023 will be officially recognized as a country music holiday, with all right and privileges thereof.
The Tyler Childers set was captured on Pickathon’s legendary Woods Stage in the tall Douglas Fir forest that surrounds the festival grounds the weekend he released his latest album ‘Country Squire.’ Yours truly was standing stage side for the set, and can attest to its quality. Admission is free, but the concert is a MusiCares fundraiser.
Christopher “Critter” Fuqua played his final show as a member of the iconic string band Old Crow Medicine Show at the band’s annual New Year’s Eve performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Tuesday night. The show was partly a celebration of Critter’s contributions to the band over the last 21-plus years as a founding member.
Singer, songwriter, Warner Bros. Records signee, and critical favorite Charlie Worsham is the newest member of iconic string band and Grand Ole Opry members Old Crow Medicine Show. The Mississippi native officially joined the band before they embarked on their current summer tour in late May.
This year’s Oscars will have country music implications. Among the Academy Awards nominees announced Tuesday morning (1-22), David Rawlings and Gillian Welch have been nominated for Best Original Song for their composition “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings,” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”
The gray bearded and bespectacled Charlie Parr is not exactly the person you would envision tearing up city parks on a skateboard like some stoner kid in Vans. Charlie Parr’s usually caught out in the wild performing as one of the most world-class slide and fingerpicking dobro resonator players in existence.
Ever since former Old Crow Medicine Show member Willie Watson released his debut solo record ‘Folksinger, Vol. 1,’ we’ve been waiting impatiently for Vol.2, if there would even be one. With only himself and a guitar, Willie Watson was able to accomplish what entire bands struggle to do their entire careers.
David Rawlings and long-time collaborator Gillian Welch have once again compiled a collection of songs together, this time called Poor David’s Almanack. It will be Rawlings and Welch’s 8th collaborative album since first meeting at the esteemed Berklee College of Music, and will be Rawlings’ 3rd solo release.
With over 200 artists playing AmericanaFest this third week of September, it can be a little bit intimidating for the folks either looking to attend in person, or experience the gathering vicariously through various social channels and video streams. So here is a curated list of artists battle tested and approved by Saving Country Music.
The AmericanaFest keeps piling on names for their annual gathering, causing you to seriously question your September plans if they don’t involve trekking to Nashville to take in this years festivities. After announcing the first 68 names in early May, another batch of performers has just been released, swelling the participants to a solid 121.
From crude videos taken on somebody’s phone, to full production videos with scripts and actors and sets, to animated shorts and everything in between, you never know what’s going to capture the imagination and become the perfect compliment to a song in the visual form. what breaks through the crush of visual material to be called the best in 2014?
Each year when Saving Country Music sits down to compile the best songs, it’s done so with a solemn reverence and understanding that the idea embedded in a song has the power to change a life, and change the world. There are many songs out there that are a joy to listen to, but a Song of the Year must say something that can evoke shivers, and do so in a way nobody else has done before.
Pickathon is the roots music experience like no other. It offers one of the most forward-thinking lineups in the independent festival circuit, is two steps ahead in featuring artists that are on the verge of becoming the next big thing, and presents the artist in some of the most unique settings to be found. Even if you can’t make it to the Northwest extremity of the country next weekend….
Compared to albums, making picks of songs is such a tough, arbitrary business. This year seems especially tough, not because the field isn’t strong, but because many of the best moments are coming from unlikely sources, including a cadre of cover songs that despite the spirit of the “Best Songs” approach being about original compositions, seem almost criminal to omit.
Willie Nelson’s private town called Luck, TX that sits on the edge of his ranch just west of Austin in the Texas Hill Country was heavily damaged in storms that moved through the area late last week. “Our beautiful Luck wasn’t so Lucky recently,” the Willie Nelson camp said in a statement, “Last week’s tornado force winds ripped several buildings apart…”
On paper, nothing about this album should work. You can’t take one guy, and one guy only, no overdubs or band, just acoustic instruments and a cued mic and call it good. Not to mention that this is an album entirely consisting of covers and traditionals. So yeah, this isn’t Billy Bragg or Charlie Parr. I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough to hold the listener’s ear for an entire album. Or is it?
Saving Country Music was out and about Austin, TX and its outskirts over the past week or so as part of the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) gathering, pounding the pavement and looking for the next country music artist worthy of your ears that you may never otherwise hear about. In the coming months I look forward to taking some of these discoveries and sharing them with you.
Oh you poor little non-SXSW goers, you’re social network feeds are about to get positively inundated with South By Southwest information, riddling your psyche with scores of free music events you’re unfortunately missing out on, resulting in an experience for you somewhere between the teasings of a cruel temptress, and Chinese water torture. Here’s a list of artists that all happen to be attending SXSW…