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Kitty Wells Passes Away; New Videos from Ray Wylie Hubbard and Nick 13; Album Releases
The legendary Kitty Wells passed away yesterday at the age of 92. These lengthy obituaries from the Washington Post, New York Times, Tennessean, MusicRow, NPR, and CMT.com are all worth reading. Bassist Bob Babbitt, who played on classics like Gladys Knight & The Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” and appeared on albums by Frank Sinatra, Elton [...]
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Eric Church’s Chief Goes Platinum; How Listeners Shape Music Evolution; Chatham County Line Video Premiere
Listen to “Getting’ Down on the Mountain,” a new Corb Lund song. Kathleen Edwards, Sara Watkins, and Trampled By Turtles made NPR’s listener-voted list of the year’s best albums to date. Phil Barton talks to American Songwriter about one of his co-writes, Lee Brice’s “A Woman Like You.” The song “was recorded the actual night [...]
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Album Review: Don Williams — And So It Goes
Listen to the radio for any length of time and you’d think country fans are all in a state of extended adolescence, what with middle-aged men celebrating keg party plasticware and lyrics like “Girl, you make my speakers go boom boom” serving as deep expressions of love. Thankfully, we’ve still got Don Williams, who’s got [...]
Continue reading "Album Review: Don Williams — And So It Goes"
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Roots Watch: Meeting Kenny Rogers
Back when I was researching and writing my book Meeting Jimmie Rodgers, at least one friend misheard what I was doing and thought I was dedicating years of work to Kenny Rogers. There were a lot of polite, puzzled “Is that so’s” and ‘How ’bout that’s.” These two artists strike so many people as so very different that they [...]
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Dirt Drifters Cancel All Upcoming Appearances; Chatham County Line Plans Live Album Release; Jewel to Play June Carter Cash in Lifetime Movie
The Ryman’s chief audio engineer, Les Banks, talks about the room’s sound with Mix Magazine: “There are so many reflective surfaces, and the biggest challenge is the absolutely phenomenal difference between the empty Ryman at soundcheck and a full house that night. It’s night-and-day different; to this day I get freaked out by how loud [...]
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New Josh Turner Album Due June 12; Kathleen Edwards Cancels Shows Due to Vocal Strain; HoF Extends Chet Atkins Exhibit
Josh Turner’s new album, Punching Bag, is scheduled for a June 12 release. Kathleen Edwards had to postpone the rest of her North American tour due to “symptoms of vocal strain and burnout.” Chet Flippo on Willie Nelson’s new record, Heroes: Maybe his songwriting pen isn’t as frenetic as it once was, but he still [...]
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The Chieftains — Voice of Ages
When it comes to Ireland’s national treasures, The Chieftains have to rank right up there with the Blarney Stone and the Guinness brewery in Dublin. There’s nothing wrong with the contemporary acts that have blended Irish music with rock (Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys) or New Age easy listening (Enya) – for the most part, at [...]
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New Album From Don Williams Out 6/19; ACM Off-Camera Award Winners Announced; Carolina Chocolate Drops at Library of Congress
And So It Goes, a new album from Don Williams, will be released on Sugar Hill Records June 19. Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and Keith Urban guest on the record. Listen to a track here. This year’s ACM off-camera award winners include Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam, Billy Sherrill, Roger Miller, and more. Check out the [...]
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Vince Gill Leaves MCA; Don Williams Plans New Album; Chet Flippo Discusses Social Commentary and Country Music
Vince Gill is leaving MCA after 23 years. If you’ve got an hour to spare and are interested in music and copyright law, check out this lecture from UCLA ethnomusicology professor Anthony Seeger, who “looks at the opposing positions of ‘Don’t pirate my music’ and ‘Knowledge wants to be free’ to discuss the more general [...]
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Frank Liddell to Produce Lee Ann Womack’s New Record; Whitey Morgan & The 78s to Record Live Album; New Releases
Lee Ann Womack’s husband, Frank Liddell, will produce her new album, which will be released some time in 2012. The newest Quotable Country features Mac McAnally, Caitlin Rose, Jimmy Wayne, and more. Barry Mazor had a talk with Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson for a feature in the Wall Street Journal. Speaking of Clark, he’s [...]
Current Discussion
- Luckyoldsun: Rick If Taylor Swift is scoring her 60th No. 1 record at age 61 or whatever, I'll... (Oh, I forgot--I'll be ...
- Rick: Opry Alert! Tonight's Opry features Easton Corbin, Lee Greenwood, Craig Morgan, Mandy Barnett, Diamond Rio (who needs pitch correction these ...
- Both Kinds of Music: "I think we wrote close to 60 or 70 songs" and then put Wagon Wheel on there just to show ...
- Luckyoldsun: Amazing One, " “Given credit as the ‘artist” by who? " Um, by the movie studio, by the critics, by the Academy. It's ...
- Jon: Well, that's just gibberish. When Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald sang on the silver screen, they were the artists ...
- Barry Mazor: Thanks for straightening me out LuckyOlSunbody. "Given credit as the 'artist" by who? Take it up with the Screen Actors ...
- Luckyoldsun: Barry: As far as the comparison to movies: The person who's given credit as the "artist" of a movie is the director--not ...
- Jon: I've got to say, I think "Lots More Blues, Rags, and Hollers" was a better record.
- Janice Brooks: As for new releases, I love the new Don Rigsby and Mike Scott. Will also dig up a cut of ...
- Barry Mazor: Look, one sort of music reporting/reviewing I like to do best is reporting on live performance, the interaction with the ...
