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Luke Bryan Wins Nine American Country Awards; Ronnie Fauss Releases Free Christmas MP3; New Album Releases
Luke Bryan took home nine trophies at last night’s American Country Awards. The full list of winners can be found here. Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale were featured on The Los Angeles Times music blog “Pop & Hiss.” Here’s an excerpt in which Miller discusses harmony singing: “I’m not a big fan of most three-part [...]
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CMT Names Artists of the Year; Keith Urban Receives Nashville Symphony Harmony Award; New Music Videos
Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood were named as 2012 CMT Artists of the Year. Rolling Stone announced their top country albums of 2012 and Kellie Pickler was at the top of the list: “American Idol also-ran Pickler is an unlikely trad-country heroine. But 100 Proof may [...]
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Ken Burns Plans Country Music Documentary; Justin Moore Goes Gold; New Music Videos
The American Music Awards were held last night. Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift took home trophies. Now that his Vegas run is over, Garth Brooks is planning a 2014 world tour. Paper Angels, the book co-written by Jimmy Wayne about the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Project, is going to be made into a [...]
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Outliers and the “Old Guard”: The 2012 CMA Awards
It’s been a long time since a genre’s experienced a shift like country did at this year’s Country Music Association Awards. With no Garth-like mandate, no behemoth sales figures a la Kenny Chesney’s ticket sales or Taylor Swift’s album numbers, the advent of a whole new guard descended in one three-hour primetime special. Suddenly, outliers [...]
Continue reading "Outliers and the “Old Guard”: The 2012 CMA Awards"
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Nothing Much Goin’ on Around Here: Jason Aldean Makes Nowhere Big Business
He doesn’t sing about much. Not really. Back water towns with water towers, driving with no place to go, working with one’s hands, no real arc for what the future holds, needing to believe and finding little to put one’s faith in. An American Dream that’s faded, now torn and shrinking. The will to survive [...]
Continue reading "Nothing Much Goin’ on Around Here: Jason Aldean Makes Nowhere Big Business"
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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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Ray Benson Launches Kickstarter Campaign; Darius Rucker Inducted Into Opry; New SteelDrivers Album Due in February
The Farewell Drifters played a couple for the Bluegrass Situation. Darius Rucker was formally inducted into the Opry yesterday. Watch here. Ray Benson launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds for the release of an Asleep at the Wheel documentary. Jewly Hight talks with Shelby Lynne about her evolution as an artist and the [...]
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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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2013 Stagecoach Lineup Announced; Johnny Cash Music Festival Raises $200,000; Underwood, Bryan Among American Music Awards Nominees
Whitney Self of CMT.com interviewed Jessi Colter about Waylon Jennings’ final recordings, released as the album Goin’ Down Rockin’. Percussionist Richard Farrell Morris, who appeared on albums including Kris Kristofferson’s The Silver Tongued Devil and I, passed away October 4 at the age of 74 after a battle with lung cancer. Friday’s Johnny Cash Music Festival [...]
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Chris Thile Wins MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant”; Stream New Darrell Scott & Tim O’Brien Album; New Releases
Chris Thile is one of the 2012 winners of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” Thile is considering using the $500,000 grant to fund “a chamber music project for a bluegrass quintet.” Blake Boldt interviewed Gretchen Peters. Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien’s live album, We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This, is streaming at American Songwriter. Zac [...]
Current Discussion
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
