Nobody is listening to Cowboy Carter. It was the most lauded release all year by the press, is supposedly supported by the biggest Stan army in the world, and sits at #133. Meanwhile, Zach Bryan has 3 albums in the Top 20.
It’s a good time to be a country music fan. No reason to reach for the Backstreet Boys, Diplo, or Nelly to entice fans to the event. If anything, they give the whole lineup an ick factor it doesn’t need.
Congratulations are in order for Oklahoma’s Turnpike Troubadours, and Alabama’s Jason Isbell. Both have received major accolades. Now they can add being protested by the Westboro Baptist Church to their list.
Beyoncé does not consider herself a country artist, and she does not consider her 2024 album Cowboy Carter as a country album. Full stop. Saying that Cowboy Carter is a country album is a canard sown out of whole cloth.
We’re rounding the corner on the summer, but the hits keep coming. The last month or two has seen some of the top album releases of the year, and many of them are represented in the latest additions to the playlist.
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.
It’s one of the saddest and most compelling stories in rodeo history. And with the way country & Western music is so synonymous with the rodeo, it’s no surprise country music has taken a large share of inspiration from it.
In a somewhat strange coincidence, two of country music’s biggest stars both saw fans rush the stage at their shows on Thursday (7-25) evening. The two situations couldn’t have been handled more differently.
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.