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Tony Douglas Passes Away; Blake Shelton Controversy Boils Over; Coen Brothers Release Trailer for New Folk Music Film
The Blake Shelton business mentioned in the Thursday morning roundup exploded yesterday afternoon. Ray Price took to his Facebook page and wrote It’s a shame that I have spend 63 years in this business trying to introduce music to a larger audience and to make it easier for the younger artists who are coming behind [...]
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Country Radio Returns to NYC; Willie Nelson, Jerry Douglas to Play New Orleans Jazz Fest; Album Releases
New York City has its first country radio station in 17 years: Cumulus launched “Nash 94.7” on Monday. An excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article on the new station: In addition to building a NASH-branded network of stations, Cumulus also plans to launch a NASH country lifestyle magazine, through Modern Luxury, the magazine company [...]
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Church, Johnson Top Nashville Scene Critics’ Poll; CMT Begins Next Women of Country Campaign; Corb Lund Announces Tour Dates
Jamey Johnson took home Top Album honors and Eric Church’s “Springsteen” was named the No. 1 single in the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics’ Poll. Read the list of results and comments. The Scene also published a feature on Iris DeMent. Precious Bryant passed away at the age of 71. Charley Pride, Asleep at the Wheel, and [...]
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Eddie Stubbs Marks 30 Years in Broadcasting; Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell Announce Tour Dates; Stream Carrie Rodriguez’s New Record
George Strait kicks off his The Cowboy Rides Away Tour this Friday in Lubbock. There’s a Holly Williams EP available on NoiseTrade. Iris DeMent, Kelly Hogan, Taylor Swift, and Todd Snider are a few of the acts whose albums were in the Top 50 of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Jewly Hight [...]
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Little Jimmy Dickens Turns 92; iTunes Offers Nashville Indie Spotlight Sampler; Zac Brown Band, Aldean Among World Music Awards Nominees
Little Jimmy Dickens turns 92 today. The Tennessean posted a career-spanning gallery of Dickens photos. Read this fine Jewly Hight interview with Connie Smith and Marty Stuart. Adam Gold of Rolling Stone interviewed T-Bone Burnett. Here’s an excerpt where Burnett talks about Nashville: The reason this show is important to me is that music is [...]
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Billboard Changes Chart Methodology; Birthplace of Country Music Museum Starts Construction 11/1; Stream New Holly Williams Song
Billboard changed the way they tabulate the Hot Country Songs chart (and a handful of other charts). Now it will “incorporate digital download sales (measured by Nielsen SoundScan) and streaming data (measured by Nielsen from Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music) along with the BDS monitored airplay measurement. The new chart will also [...]
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George Strait Announces The Cowboy Rides Away Tour; First CMA Awards Performers Named; Holly Williams Plans Album Release
George Strait announced yesterday that his two-year The Cowboy Rides Away Tour will be his last. However, he will continue to make records and may play the occasional show. There’s an Old 97s EP available on NoiseTrade. On Tuesday, a Tennessee Court of Appeals “upheld a 2011 Chancery Court decision to deny Curb Records’ request [...]
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Roots Watch: Country Icons and Family Legacies
Working as I do in both journalism and music history, from time to time I’ve had the opportunity (and also the working need, truthfully) to interview the immediate families of some of country and roots music’s most celebrated figures, sometimes getting to know them outside of that defined situation. It occurs to me again and [...]
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Opry Celebrates 86 Years; Brad Paisley Visits Sesame Street; Billy Burnette To Be Inducted Into Rockabilly HoF
Barry Mazor’s got a feature in the Wall Street Journal in which Holly Williams and Alan Jackson offer their thoughts on The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams. Jean Shepard, Connie Smith, Dierks Bentley, Chris Young, and more are helping the Opry celebrate its 86th Birthday Bash. In other Opry news, Randy Travis celebrated his 25 [...]
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Album Review: Various Artists — The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
Completing unfinished Hank Williams songs is a bit like taking a Sharpie to unearthed Da Vinci sketches. The quality of The Lost Notebooks aside, the album’s very existence raises a question of ethics: Is it acceptable to complete a dead artist’s work when we don’t know what his intentions were with those fragments of lyrics? [...]
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Current Discussion
- 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, ...
- Jack Williams: The first name that came to my mind was electic bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart. He hasn't released a proper ...
- bob: There was a survey by cmt.com dated 3/31/10 which showed more than 175 country act signed to major labels. I ...
- Jonathan Pappalardo: I would sign: 1) Trisha Yearwood - I don't believe she's affiliated with Big Machine Records anymore and a new CD ...
- Juli Thanki: Oh, good thinking with Hellbound Glory, Mike. Their music matured so much between Old Highs & New Lows and Damaged ...
- Mike Wimmer: 1. Jamey Johnson-I know he is technically with a label already, but they are in dispute over how he feels ...
- Juli Thanki: The first name that came to my mind was Lee Ann Womack. I'm dying to hear new music from her.
- BRUCE: Who the hell is "Pay Price"? Good grief.
- Luckyoldsun: Can't say I personally want to hear anything he's done since before the Watergate break-in--save for that duet album with ...
