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Gordon Stoker Passes Away; New Pokey LaFarge Album Due in June; Jim Mills Remembers Earl Scruggs
Gordon Stoker of The Jordanaires passed away yesterday at the age of 88. From MusicRow.com: The Jordanaires’ harmonies can be heard on some of the most famous recordings from the 1960s and early ‘70s, particularly the Elvis Presley classics “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” and “It’s Now or Never.” Stoker had worked with [...]
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HoF to Open Nashville Spotlight Exhibit; Terry Baucom Offers Free Song Download; MerleFest Launches Smartphone App
A spotlight exhibit dedicated to the show Nashville will open at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum on April 5 and run through October 31. Check out the album art and track listing for George Strait’s Love is Everything (out May 14). Here’s Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale playing “I Lost My Job [...]
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Roots Watch: Pop Artists Driving Close to Country
I’ve been traveling through the intersection of Roots and Pop for, well, a long time now, but the artists who speed right through the yellow and red lights have never stopped grabbing my attention. Are they doing that on purpose? By accident? Unaware there’s an intersection–even if it’s a backed-up, jammed up intersection? Or maybe [...]
Continue reading "Roots Watch: Pop Artists Driving Close to Country"
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Frank Page, John Wilkinson Pass Away; Skynyrd, Paisley to Take Part in Inaugural Festivities; New Music Videos
Willie Nelson’s next album, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, will be released March 5. The press release states that the album’s songs “include American standards and country classics, Irving Berlin and Carl Perkins, Django Reinhardt as well as Willie-penned originals.” Peter Cooper wrote a feature on the tragic tale of Glen Sherley, the Folsom inmate who wrote “Greystone Chapel.” [...]
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Stream Songs from Van Zandt, Willis & Robison; The Band Perry & Dierks Bentley to Pay Tribute to Johnny Cash; Peter Rowan Goes Old School
Listen to a track from the upcoming Townes Van Zandt collection Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions & Demos 1971-1972. Paste has a stream of “Drinking Coke and Eating Ice,” a cut from Drive-By Trucker Mike Cooley’s new solo record, The Fool on Every Corner, which drops December 11. Here’s an hour-long BBC documentary called The Joy [...]
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Pandora Sues ASCAP; Doc Watson’s Guitar Up for Auction; New Lindi Ortega Video
In non-internet life, our friend Kevin Coyne of Country Universe is an elementary school principal in the Rockaways, an area heavily hit by Hurricane Sandy. Many of his teachers, students, and staff were affected by the storm. Here’s how you can help if you’re so inclined. Thanks. Pandora sued ASCAP. Bloomberg.com reports: Pandora, which is [...]
Continue reading "Pandora Sues ASCAP; Doc Watson’s Guitar Up for Auction; New Lindi Ortega Video"
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Stream New Tracy Lawrence Single; IIIrd Tyme Out Partners with Cracker Barrel; Six Degrees of Reba McEntire
Bela Fleck talks about the New York Banjo Summit with Mary Sydnor of Philadelphia’s Daily News. Speaking of Fleck, here is an older YouTube video of his take on Saint-Saens’ delightfully spooky “Danse Macabre.” Listen to Canadian Country singer Daniel Romano’s song “Middle Child.” Rodney Crowell chats with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Nick Cristiano about Kin and the [...]
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TG Sheppard Hospitalized; Sam Phillips, Jerry Lee Lewis Among Memphis Music HoF Inductees; Underwood Goes Platinum
T.G. Sheppard is in critical condition after being hospitalized on Sunday with a bladder infection that spread through his bloodstream. Barry Mazor interviewed Garth Brooks for this fine Wall Street Journal article. Julie King of the News Guardian reviewed a recent Mary Chapin Carpenter/Shawn Colvin concert. Willie Nelson was one of the guests at Jamey [...]
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Memphis Launches Music Hall of Fame; More Performers Added to CMA Awards Lineup; New Album Releases
Shania Twain’s Come On Over is on UK music magazine NME’s list of the 30 best-selling albums of the last 30 years. Restoration of Johnny Cash’s boyhood home is underway. Download a new James Hand song here. If you missed Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss singing “Make the World Go Away” on Letterman the other [...]
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Braddock, Gill Among Songwriters Hall of Fame Nominees; Avett Brothers & Randy Travis to Film CMT Crossroads Episode; Stream New Rosie Flores Record
Bobby Braddock, Vince Gill, JD Souther, and Bob McDill are among the nominees for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Wanda Jackson talks about her old songs, new album Unfinished Business, Elvis, and Justin Townes Earle, in this interview posted on The A.V. Club. Jackson also answered a few questions for CMT. Jewly Hight [...]
Current Discussion
- 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 ...
- nm: That's probably why I generally don't watch music on a screen in my home, except for films of live shows. ...
- Jon: If you are watching music on a screen in your home, you're not going out to a show, are you? ...
- nm: I don't think the problem with lip-synching (for me as a member of the audience at a live event) is ...
- Jon: I've played for some audiences I'd have liked to have sued!
- Barry Mazor: One of the funny aspects of lip synching is that virtually every Hollywood musical number ever shot has been lip ...
- Jon: "So you’re saying that lip synching is not done–or not commonly done–anymore." Nope. If someone doesn't like the decades-old practice ...
- Paul W Dennis: Interesting song - I look forward to hearing the rest of the album
