The Little Willies Return; Own the Night Tops Charts; New Dale Watson Video
- The Little Willies are back, with a second album due out in January that will feature covers of “Lovesick Blues,” “For the Good Times” (also the title track), “Jolene,” and more.
- At 7pm Central tonight, NashvilleSymphony.org is streaming Bela Fleck’s “Concerto for Banjo and Orchestra.”
- The 17th Annual ICM Faith, Family & Country Awards, held October 28th in Nashville, will be hosted as an online ticketed webcast via StageIt.com. Ricky Skaggs and Joey + Rory are two of the acts scheduled to perform.
- Is Bill Monroe’s legacy fully appreciated by those outside the realms of bluegrass and Americana? An excerpt from the must-read feature by Grayson Currin and Marc Masters: Monroe’s impact on popular music is difficult to identify and trace because he started something that is definitively niche and deliberately limited; you can hear traces of bluegrass (and so, Monroe) in hundreds of bands, from simplistic rock and heavy metal to experimental music and certainly the symphonic indie swells of the last decade. Most any band that shows too many traces of bluegrass, though, is almost immediately sequestered into the Americana realm.
- Little Big Town and Clay Walker are performing at this year’s Holiday Notes from Home concert, taping October 6. Tickets are free, with preference going to military members and their families.
- Lady Antebellum sold over 347,000 copies of their new album in the first week of sales.
- Marty Stuart, Uncle Dave Macon, and Freddie Hart are the newest additions to Country Universe’s Top 100 Men of Country Music Countdown.
- Curly Seckler will be inducted into the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Hall of Fame this Saturday.
- Chris Young will be on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Monday night. Ben Haggard recently posted on Facebook that Merle Haggard will be appearing on Conan in the near future; we’ll keep you updated.
- Paul W. Dennis tackles Sonny James in his newest Country Heritage piece.
- Saving Country Music posted a social media guide for artists and fans.
- Eric Church bears a striking resemblance to the Unabomber, as you’ll see in this helpful post from Farce the Music.
- Colt Ford talks to American Songwriter about the story behind “Dirt Road Anthem.”
- Meredith Ochs of NPR Music reviewed Hank3’s new albums.
- Peter Cooper’s newest column tells the fascinating story of Jesse Lee Jones, “Lower Broadway’s traditional country music torchbearer.”
- The Suwannee Springfest lineup was announced yesterday: Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Duo, Justin Townes Earle, Split Lip Rayfield, and more are slated to play the Florida festival in March of 2012.
- Check out the new(ish) music video from Dale Watson & The Texas Two.
Tagged In This Article
Bela Fleck // Ben Haggard // Bill Monroe // Chris Young // Clay Walker // Colt Ford // Curly Seckler // Dale Watson // Eric Church // Freddie Hart // Hank3 // Joey + Rory // Justin Townes Earle // Lady Antebellum // Little Big Town // Marty Stuart // Merle Haggard // Peter Rowan // Ricky Skaggs // Sonny James // Split Lip Rayfield // The Little Willies // Tony Rice // Uncle Dave Macon
Current Discussion
- Matt: Wow! Great topic! Just by typing Dylan in my itunes then sorting by most plays.... 1. "Maggie's Farm" - Stephen Malkmus ...
- bll: I'm happy to hear that Ronnie Dunn and Garth are going to do something together; they go way back, and ...
- Luckyoldsun: Jon, I think you should try re-watching the Conan video--you "missed" it the first time. If I may give my interpretation, ...
- BRUCE: Toby's generosity and philanthropic work is very expansive. His USO tours plus other works deserves praise, though I an sure ...
- Luckyoldsun: Arlene, That's another big one.
- Fervor Coulee: Sometimes I really think I live in a Stephen King bubble-town: 12 weeks at number one, and I've never heard ...
- bll: Nice roundup today, Trisha singing and Jen Chapin too!
- Paul W Dennis: I guess my favorite would be George Hamilton IV's version of "Forever Young" and The Byrd's cover of Mr. Tambourine ...
- Jack Williams: Speaking of Chris Smither, he did a nice version of Visions of Johanna. Other favorites: Neville Brothers - The Ballad of Hollis ...
- Leeann Ward: I think benefit concerts and telethons are great and needed, but I'm also impressed by Underwood's generous donation.
2 Comments
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September 22, 2011 at 12:21 pm
So excited about the new Little Willies album! I really didn’t think there would be another one.
September 22, 2011 at 7:18 pm
I hope the band is a little tighter on this go round with The Little Willies. The first album kept crossing the line between sounding “live” and “sloppy”. I will admit Norah Jones’ vocal skills do cover a multitude of sonic sins though.
“Ticketed Webcast” huh? I sure hope Music City Roots doesn’t get any ideas here. On the other hand offering low price (in the couple dollar range) online access to many of the concerts at the IBMA and AMA festivals would be interesting as long as the broadcast quality was top notch (like MCR).
Well considering the only song Elvis ever got to sing on the Grand Ole Opry was “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, I’d have to say Bill Monroe’s influence had a powerful effect there!
Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and Rascal Flatts show that pop-rock country is the way to go for big sales volumes in this shrinking market. Just further cannon fodder for the Top 40 AirHead Country radio programmers to continue their downward spiral into utter mediocrity.
If that concert tonight was featuring Ryan Shupe rather than Bela Fleck, I might be motivated to tune it. Oh well…
Hank III continues to redefine the concept of artistic self-indulgence. Crikey!
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