Post Malone’s “country” album “F-1 Trillion” isn’t even out for another month, and he’s already dominating the narrative at a time when country music was finally dominating much of the narrative in popular music all on its own.
It’s not just Zach Top’s music, nor just his history. It’s the cut of his jib. It’s the contours of his character. It’s the full package that assures you that the future of country music is in good hands.
It’s not Beyoncé, but Shaboozey who has seeded the song of the summer with “A Bar (Tipsy),” and released the album that has shown the resonance and stickiness “Cowboy Carter” failed to.
This is a quieter and more melancholy album, perhaps less country than previous works, and captures a maturing young man whose thoughts and problems have moved on from young adult concerns to bigger and more daunting questions.
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 .
Despite Zach’s arena and stadium headliner status, this hatred and misunderstanding for his music among grassroots fans is quite severe and loud, and ultimately, damaging to the independent country community.
Taking a novel, intriguing, and diverse approach to country music—but one that still nestles squarely in the genre and affirms its roots—Chasen Wayne has released an album that will pull you right in and demand repeat listens.
On Saturday (6/15) at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, George Strait officially shattered the all-time record for attendance at a single concert with 110,905 tickets sold. The attendance breaks the previous record.
The idea was to explain the groundbreaking, genre shattering nature of how this song came about. But instead of exposing the genius behind it, the breakdown was an inadvertent self-own by Shaboozey.
In some respects, these are all good problems to have, and speak to the growing pains of an emerging reality where independent artists have just as much pull and agency live as their mainstream counterparts.
On Tuesday, May 28th, it was reported that “Pink Skies” was sent to Top 40 pop radio as a single, and it seems like Zach Bryan is not too happy about it. Zach might not be too happy with his label Warner Records either.
It was supposed to be one of the biggest events in music in 2024, if not one of the biggest in music in the last many years. Most definitely it was going to be the defining moment in country music in 2024, if not in country history.
Instead of importing pop stars to fill out the performance roster, why not pick up on some of the fast-rising independent stars that are quickly outpacing the popularity of country’s 2nd-tier mainstream performers?
10 years ago today on May 13th, 2014, Sturgill Simpson released what many people consider his magnum opus, and perhaps one of the most important records in the long history of country music.
You have to tip your hat to Sturgill Simpson on how he’s leveraged his absence into top tier headliner status here in 2024. As the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Alright. So it goes without saying that this really isn’t a “good” song, and that it’s not especially “country” either, aside from a few tokenary and surface inferences. But regardless, according to Billboard, it’s the #1 song in country.
As strange as it may sound, the term “saving country music” or “save country music” has been said and written more in the last few months than at any other time in history. This begs a deeper discussion about the term.
The Rolling Stones are headed to North America this summer to tour behind their new album Hackney Diamonds, and they’re tapping a bunch of cool openers from the country and roots world.
Every year as the nominations for country music awards come and go, it’s hard to not fall into a perfunctory attitude about them due to the cyclical and predictable nature of the nominees.
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.
On Wednesday, March 27th, massive Texas music superstar Koe Wetzel took to X/Twitter to announce a surprise show at the tiny Sam’s Town Point in Austin. But it ultimately didn’t happen.
Friday, March 22nd is one of those days where not just the top level of album releases includes monster names, but the volume of big album releases overall constitutes such a monster day of new music.
It nears the realm of impossibility to put enough emphasis on how monumentally important the seismic shifts occurring in the music business at the moment are, and how they’re reverberating throughout every sector of the industry.
Peyton firmly places himself in the community of country and Americana’s strong contemporary songwriters writing songs that don’t just distract from our demons and internal dilemmas, but address them.