In today’s media-driven world, first appearances are everything and conforming to consumer-centric norms is critical. Most albums released take their cue from other things on the radio, happy to imitate a sound that is a proven cash cow.
Mary McBride’s By Any Other Name goes against that grain with it’s raw barroom brand [...]

It’s no secret that today’s music industry is devoid of values, heart, and for the most part talent. Indie labels are usually the only outlet for serious artists and regardless of who you buy an album from it costs too much. With rampant downloading typically the corporate scapegoat, most news outlets have ignored [...]

Toby Keith won big last night at the Academy of Country Music Awards. His four awards were a dream come true for Keith:
I always kept hoping this night would come. Let’s all go party tonight and rock it out here in Vegas, all right?
Keith’s dream is my nightmare however. Last year there [...]

Todd Snider’s new disc, East Nashville Skyline, is due July 20 but some outlets around the country are playing cuts now. While I cannot share much about the album at this point I can tell you that calling your local stations and requesting they play the disc will help your chances of hearing this [...]

It isn’t often that CMT rates well in my opinion but this morning you can listen to Jim Lauderdale’s new CD, Headed for the Hills, free at CMT.com. The album was released a few days ago on Dualtone and is sure to make Lauderdale fans of some of those country-radio loving CMT addicts. [...]

Some quick updates for the day:

Todd Snider’s new disc, East Nashville Skyline hits store shelves on July 20
You can listen to Todd debut his new material on Bob and Tom the morning of July 19
Joining Charlie Pride on the injured reserve list is Willie Nelson, suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome; too much guitar!?!?
Don’t forget to [...]

My grandparents and parents both enjoyed watching the Grand Ole Opry upon the invention of TNN and well-before that channel became Spike. It was an institution they had listened to for years on the radio and once the palace’s image could be seen as well it was as expected. If the television was [...]

A friend of mine who is relatively uninitiated in country music decided to watch a little country music television this morning. Upon admitting he watched it he drew a fairly obvious yet unspoken parallel between today’s country music and harlequin romances.
It had me thinking about all of the similarities the two artforms share:

Both pander [...]

I have some musical pet peeves and I certainly have a preference to how music should sound. My biggest pet peeve has to do with musical preferences and the expression thereof: ranking things. Other pundits and writers refer to albums as “one of the X best of the year” or “one of [...]

Mother Jones, a socially progressive magazine, has selected Will Kimbrough’s “Goodnight Moon” as part of their monthly Mojo Mix of recommeded downloads. Kimbrough, a Sharkbitten favorite, is listed along with Norah Jones, Jet, and the Jay-Z/DJ Danger Mouse mix.
So take Mother Jones’ advice and go download some music–legally of course. If [...]