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HOF Inductees Announced; Buzz Around “Accidental Racist” Continues; Punch Brothers Documentarian Launches Kickstarter Campaign
The new Hall of Fame inductees were announced this morning: Kenny Rogers (Modern Era), Bobby Bare (Veterans Era), and Cowboy Jack Clement (Non-Performer category). The DelFest daily schedule was announced. On May 10, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will unveil a spotlight exhibit dedicated to Lee Greenwood. Lee Greenwood: American Patriot will run through April 25, [...]
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Best Music Books of 2012
Making year-end lists of best books is an exercise at once exciting and frustrating. Listing the best books of the year helps recall fondly those great books that revealed new information about an artist or his or her music or drives you to pick a again a book that you didn’t want to end the [...]
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Haters Gonna Hate: The Incredible Danger of Knowing What You Know
It happens every week. Every Wednesday, when I post my variation of “Gone Fishing” on my Facebook page, announcing I am M-I-A because I will be facedown in ABC’s primetime drama, Nashville, the comments start piling up. About how the writing sucks, the plot blows, but especially, how dreadful the music is. I laugh. I’m not watching the [...]
Continue reading "Haters Gonna Hate: The Incredible Danger of Knowing What You Know"
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FTC to Vote on Universal-EMI Merger; Gary Allan, Brad Paisley Plan New Albums; New Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard Video
European regulators approved Universal’s $1.9 billion takeover of EMI. The FTC votes on it today. This article about the Universal-EMI deal and the digital music market paints a grim picture. An excerpt: Major labels control so much of the world’s music catalog, however, that new providers have to ink deals with them before turning to [...]
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IBMA Award Nominees Announced; Ashton Shepherd and MCA Nashville Part Ways; Trampled By Turtles Cover Springsteen
IBMA Award nominations were announced last night. The entire list of nominees, along with the names of two new Hall of Fame inductees (Ralph Rinzler and Doyle Lawson) can be found here. It appears that Ashton Shepherd and MCA Nashville have parted ways. The JaneDear Girls have split. Barry Mazor wrote about The Mountain Music [...]
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Unreleased Ralph Stanley Song Gets Record Store Day Treatment; Country Music Debate Leads to Hammer Attack; New Music Videos
The Eagles’ Joe Walsh is releasing his first solo album in two decades called Analog Man on June 5; it’s produced by Jeff Lynne. You can listen to the title track here. Fellow Eagles member Glenn Frey talked with Rolling Stone about his May 8 album release of After Hours in addition to an Eagles [...]
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Loretta Lynn Postpones Shows; Carolina Chocolate Drops Ready New Album; Brad Paisley Renames Tour
Check out the Chieftains/Pistol Annies collaboration on “Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies” from the Chieftains’ upcoming 50th anniversary album, Voice of Ages. The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ new album, Leaving Eden, will be released on February 28. Loretta Lynn postponed her first two shows of the year to give her a few more weeks [...]
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Country Album Sales Increase in 2011; New Music From Emily West; Stream The Little Willies’ New Album
Stream For the Good Times, the upcoming album from The Little Willies, over at NPR’s music blog. Journey and Rascal Flatts are rumored to be doing a CMT Crossroads together in February. Bluegrass banjo player Shorty Eager passed away. He had played with Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys and several other bluegrass groups. Peter Cooper [...]
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Roots Watch: Americana’s Younger Than That Now
At this year’s Americana Music Association’s Fest and Conference, staged mid-month here in Nashville, there were plenty of convincing signs that the Americana field and format has finally come of age, and in a healthy and forward-looking way—sixteen years since it was first identified and promoted to radio, twelve since the AMA was founded, and [...]
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Taz DiGregorio Killed in Auto Accident; Buddy Miller is AMA Artist of the Year; Free Bluegrass in Dallas
Taz DiGregorio, vocalist and keyboardist in the Charlie Daniels Band (and co-writer of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”) was killed in an automobile accident. He was a member of the CDB for four decades. Robert Plant, Buddy Miller, Justin Townes Earle, and Mumford and Sons all won awards at yesterday’s AMAs. Lucinda Williams, Jerry [...]
Current Discussion
- Jon: That's my favorite song of the bunch, too, but the whole album is solid.
- Barry Mazor: The assumption that everybody would be signed if only they could be no longer is necessarily so..Given the relatively much ...
- Luckyoldsun: Can't say I necessarily know who is or isn't signed, but I have no knowledge that any of the following ...
- Occasional Hope: Is Patty Loveless free now, since she's implied she doesn't seem to have any plans to record again, but perhaps ...
- Arlene: Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison's current terrific album, Cheater's Game, was financed via Kickstarter. If they are still unsigned, they'd ...
- KC: My picks seem to be doing ok without a label, but I would sign them even if it was just ...
- SCOOTER: Sturgill Simpson - fantastic artist Ashton Shepherd - I know she was recently dropped and a lot of people complain ...
- Daniel Mullins: Lee Ann Womack is a must. I would also sign Wyatt McCubbin. He was featured on The Music Inside: A Tribute ...
- Ken Morton, Jr.: BTW- Julie's been in the recording studio all this past week and will be unveiling something new soon.
- Ken Morton, Jr.: Jonathan, I actually had this exact conversation with Julie Roberts a couple weeks ago. She came out with Emily West, ...
