The 18th annual Americana Honors & Awards have announced the performing lineup for the September 11th ceremony. A pool of veterans and up-and-coming artists, it’s a particularly mixed group that mirrors the diversity of this year’s nominees. John Prine, Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, Delbert McClinton, and Mavis Staples are all …
Read More »Fox News to Kacey Musgraves: Shut Up, Sing, and Don't Say 'F-ck'
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt wants to know where all the “wholesome country singers” have gone. The talking head tightly clutched her pearls over Kacey Musgraves calling for an end to gun violence onstage at Lollapalooza last weekend by — be still my heart — using an emphatic swear word. …
Read More »Kendell Marvel Previews Dan Auerbach-Produced Album With 'Hard Time With the Truth'
Over the course of his songwriting career, Kendell Marvel has spent time in the same rooms as many Nashville heavyweights, including Chris Stapleton (“Either Way”) and Jim Lauderdale (“Twang”). Even so, he had a rare moment of intimidation when he was working on his new album and producer Dan Auerbach …
Read More »Hear Joe Diffie's New Song 'As Long As There's a Bar'
Joe Diffie makes a triumphant return to the honky tonk with his new song, “As Long As There’s a Bar,” which premieres today. The lively, hard-twanging tune is the singer’s latest release from an upcoming album and has some echoes of his Nineties commercial peak, when he extolled his affection …
Read More »Hear Billy Currington's Soulful New Song 'Details'
Billy Currington offers a rejoinder to the argument that men don’t pay attention in his new single “Details,” released on Friday. It’s the Georgia native’s follow-up to “Bring It on Over,” which was released in September 2018. “I couldn’t tell ya, what I did today, or the day before,” sings …
Read More »Flashback: George Strait Nods to Keith Whitley With His Version of 'Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind'
By mid-1984, Texas honky-tonk heartthrob George Strait was on a hot streak at country radio. Since his first Number One hit, “Fool Hearted Memory,” in 1982, he’d had four more chart-toppers, all of them in a row. Thirty-five years ago today, on June 25th, 1984, he was at Nashville’s Sound …
Read More »See Rodney Crowell and Randy Rogers' Playful 'Flatland Hillbillies' Video
Texas natives Rodney Crowell and Randy Rogers go full Lone Star on the new collaboration “Flatland Hillbillies,” which will appear on Crowell’s upcoming album Texas. The video for the tune, which Crowell wrote with author Mary Karr, is out now. Over a muscular, country-rock groove, Crowell describes a kind of …
Read More »Watch Willie Nelson's Tender Cover of Guy Clark's 'My Favorite Picture of You' on 'Fallon'
Willie Nelson performed his cover of Guy Clark’s bittersweet love song “My Favorite Picture of You” on The Tonight Show Tuesday. Nelson’s rendition will appear on his upcoming album, Ride Me Back Home, which arrives this Friday, June 21st. “My Favorite Picture of You” was the title-track of Clark’s final …
Read More »Dylan LeBlanc Stares Down Sobriety, Organized Religion on New Album 'Renegade'
“It’s really hard to get arrested in New Orleans,” says Dylan LeBlanc, rapping a heavy silver ring he’s wearing on the table in front of him for emphasis. Somehow, though, the singer-songwriter managed that feat in 2014. “I got into some sort of scuffle in the street and I was …
Read More »Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert to Receive Awards at 2019 ACM Honors
Country stars Brooks & Dunn, Martina McBride, Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert are among the recipients for the Academy of Country Music’s 13th Annual ACM Honors, which will be presented Wednesday, August 21st, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Recognizing the special honorees and off-camera category winners from the 54th Academy of …
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