Emotional Traffic Streaming on NPR; Play Country Radio Bingo; New Album Releases
- Here is the obituary Robert K. Oermann wrote for the late Charlie Collins, the guitarist and sideman who worked with Roy Acuff, Sam Bush, and others.
- Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic, his final Curb album, is streaming on NPR.
- NPR’s Weekend Edition aired a lovely feature on folk duo Red Heart the Ticker, whose latest album features songs that one of the band members’ grandmother collected in the 1960s.
- “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” the Eli Young Band’s version of the Will Hoge song, is the iTunes free music video of the week.
- David Nail, Brantley Gilbert, Jerrod Niemann, Hunter Hayes, and more are the ACM New Artist of the Year semifinalists. The awards show will be held April 1.
- Minstry frontman Al Jourgensen has a country-influenced side project: Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters. If that sounds up your alley, you can listen to the band’s new album, described by Jourgensen as “this stoner country record that’s perfect for sitting back, lighting up a big fatty, and listening to on headphones,” here.
- Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton will sing “America the Beautiful” before the Super Bowl, while Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker, and Sara Evans will perform at various Super Bowl-adjacent events next month.
- Fred Eaglesmith has a new album and new tour dates this winter.
- Play Farce the Music’s Country Radio Bingo.
- Jake Owen had to cancel his upcoming Chicago shows (Jan. 18 and 19) after a snowboarding accident resulted in a broken collarbone and surgery.
- Cumberland River’s “Antietam’s Hill” will be featured on FX show Justified tonight.
- Pitchfork premiered The Chieftains’ collaboration with Justin Vernon on “Down in the Willow Garden.”
- Peter Cooper’s newest column is about guitarist/Music City ambassador David Andersen, who plays “for four hours each working day, in more than 2,000 performances over the past decade, in the high-ceilinged lobby at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. There, Anderson plays his Epiphone through a Fender amplifier, via a wireless connection that allows him to wander about without constraint, talking to the Hall’s visitors. ‘I’ve met over a million people here,’ he says. ‘In a way, I’ve bypassed the music business, making music that expresses my heart and connects to the general public.’”
- Keith Urban’s “All for the Hall” benefit concert has been rescheduled for April 10. Urban, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and others are slated to perform.
- This week’s albums:
Rodney Hayden – Live From the Phoenix Saloon
Carolann Ames – Laurel Canyon Road
Martina McBride – Hits and More
Cory Morrow – Live at Billy Bob’s Texas/Live at Billy Bob’s Texas: Acoustic
Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters – Bikers Welcome! Ladies Drink Free
Tagged In This Article
Alison Krauss // Blake Shelton // Brantley Gilbert // Buck Satan & The 666 Shooters // Charlie Collins // Cumberland River // Darius Rucker // David Andersen // David Nail // Dierks Bentley // Eli Young Band // Fred Eaglesmith // Hunter Hayes // Jake Owen // Jerrod Niemann // Keith Urban // Miranda Lambert // Red Heart the Ticker // Roy Acuff // Sam Bush // Sara Evans // Tim McGraw // Vince Gill // Will Hoge
Current Discussion
- Rick: Rest in peace Chet. His columns were about the only thing I ever bothered to read at CMT.com and I'm ...
- Arlene: I also didn't always agree with everything Chet Flippo wrote, but I enjoyed disagreeing with him, if that makes any ...
- Luckyoldsun: I'm sorry ol' Slim passed, but he's one of those people who when you hear they died, you feel kind ...
- bruce: Although I do not know the exact number of Slim Whitman album sales, I think it might surprise some if ...
- Leeann Ward: Thanks to it being linked here in the original post, I paid the pretty penny for the Kasey Chambers, Papa ...
- Luckyoldsun: "Any ideas on who could play Possum?" Well, even if Nancy is controlling it, I think the movie will have to ...
- TX Music Jim: RIP Chet you have all of my respect ! Sad :(
- Sloane Spencer: Thank you so much for the inclusion of our conversation w/ Kevin Russell AKA Shinyribs. I've been wanting to talk with ...
- Leeann Ward: I didn't always agree with Flippo, but there's no doubt that music journalism has suffered a big loss today. As far ...
- Juli Thanki: UPDATE: Chet Flippo has passed away. http://www.musicrow.com/2013/06/respected-journalist-chet-flippo-passes/
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January 17, 2012 at 12:42 pm
So NPR Music’s first foray into promoting mainstream country is an album the artist doesn’t support, and his core fans are openly boycotting, from Music Row’s most notoriously-obstructive label. That doesn’t sound very “progressive” to me.
The Ministry gone country is pretty awful, don’t bother in my opinion.
January 17, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Pssst, the “P” in “NPR” stands for “Public,” not “Progressive.” And if you look at the NPR Music page for the album First Look, it makes reference to the legal dispute between McGraw and Curb. Furthermore, saying that McGraw doesn’t support the album doesn’t exactly capture the situation; his tour is, after all, called The Emotional Traffic Tour, and he’s called the album his “best ever.”
January 17, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Given the highly competitive nature of the popular music entertainment business and the fact that an artist can be the hottest thing one day and a has-been the next, it would be idiotic for an artist to want to sabotage his own major label album release. And the idea that McGraw’s core fans are “boycotting” his album is nonsensical. I doubt that anything more than a small fraction of his fans are even aware of the controversy or care about it to any extent. His core fans want to hear his music.
January 17, 2012 at 3:18 pm
” I doubt that anything more than a small fraction of his fans are even aware of the controversy or care about it to any extent.”
Whether they care about it will presumably be measurable by its sales, but I’d say all but a small fraction of his fans are aware of the fact that he and his record company were recently in court.
January 18, 2012 at 12:18 am
Jon,
Tim McGraw’s tour “was” called Emotional Traffic, but it ended months ago. It was supposed to coincide with the release of his album, but country music’s version of Darth Vader did that in. His next tour with Kenney Chesney is called “Brothers of the Sun” and won’t start until the summer.
As I’ve been informed by some of McGraw’s core fans ;), that quote about this being his “best album ever” is quite the mini controversy in itself, and he uttered those words over 2 years ago. Now the words he uses about Emotional Traffic is that he’s “moved on”. Of course, Curb couldn’t create a quote for the album, because they’ve spent the last 18 months bagging on it, saying how the music is not relevant and there’s no single, even though they’ve released 4 of them since losing to McGraw in court.
My point is, it’s weird, and somewhat telling for NPR to take up this particular album, and I stand behind that.
January 18, 2012 at 9:50 am
“Tim McGraw’s tour “was” called Emotional Traffic…”
Oops, you’re right, I was wrong.
On the other hand, he posted this on his website, shortly after the court decision back at the end of November:
“I fought very hard for the release of Emotional Traffic, it’s an album full of music of which I am very proud. It’s extremely unfortunate that it wasn’t released earlier this year in conjunction with the Emotional Traffic tour but all I want to do now is focus on the positive and look to the future.”
And more immediately, the top item on his website’s “news” page – posted on Monday – is a link to the NPR “first listen.”
So you can stand where you like, but the fact is, it’s neither weird nor “telling” – whatever that’s supposed to mean – for NPR to take up this particular album, as McGraw’s apparently quite happy with their doing so. And why shouldn’t he be? He just called it “an album full of music of which I am very proud.”
January 18, 2012 at 10:17 am
Country Radio Bingo = Genius!
January 18, 2012 at 8:13 pm
Man, I sooooo don’t give a crap about Timbo McGraw, and I don’t see why any of you folks do either! Crikey. He could get kidnapped by aliens and I wouldn’t care…
That Buck Satan album title reminds me of a funny sign in the men’s bathroom at the Bravo Farms Cheese Factory roadside attraction along Highway 99 in Traver, Calif. It says: “Men: No Shirt, No Service! Ladies: No Shirt, Free Service!” (lol)
I hope Cia Leigh Cherryholmes hastens through this “Stetson & Cia” phase quickly and forms a straight ahead bluegrass band akin to Rhonda Vincent’s. Cia has way too much talent to get distracted on a “Civil Wars” clone act…
January 19, 2012 at 12:13 pm
There are so many things I don’t give a crap about. Only I don’t talk about them–because I actually don’t give a crap about them.
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