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Album Review: Carrie Underwood – Play On
Reality-show prodigy turned down-home diva, Carrie Underwood has earned little critical praise despite moving over 10 million albums since her 2005 American Idol win. Nashville’s now the stomping ground for ‘80s pop-rock refugees, and Underwood’s widely viewed as a key cog in the nouveau Music Row machine–with high-minded traditionalists blanching at her country bona fides.
Despite [...] -
Album Review: Sam Bush – Circles Around Me
At 57, Sam Bush is only getting better with age. With Circles Around Me, he combines old and new sounds in an irresistible blend that ranks among some of his best solo work to date. Though he’s sharply dressed in a suit on the album cover (a far cry from earlier album covers like Glamour [...]
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Album Review: Dolly Parton – Dolly
No pun intended, but Dolly Parton cuts a striking figure in country music. Growing up destitute in the mountains of West Tennessee, she showed a strong musical talent as a child and cut her first record before she was a teenager. Since then, she has recorded frequently and adventurously, surveying a wide swath of American [...]
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Album Review: Drew Kennedy – An Audio Guide To Cross Country Travel
Road trip: Journey via automobile, often unplanned or impromptu.
An Audio Guide to Cross Country Travel: Thinking man’s soundtrack for said road trip.
Another explanation, of course, could be “Third album by Texas transplant and wordsmith Drew Kennedy;” however, since Kennedy’s musical aesthetic defies mainstream country molds somewhere between Americana and indie singer/songwriter, definitions aren’t nearly as [...]Continue reading "Album Review: Drew Kennedy – An Audio Guide To Cross Country Travel"
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Album Review: Toby Keith – American Ride
Say what you will about Toby Keith, but he’s nothing if not a hard worker. It’s been less than a year since That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy was released (hell, the gold record probably isn’t even hung up in the Show Dog Nashville office) and here he is with another album, one that’s [...]
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Album Review: Tim McGraw – Southern Voice
Recorded in the fall of 2006 in the months following his step-father Horace’s passing, and suffering delay at the hands of Curb Record’s much maligned Greatest Hits Vol. 3, Southern Voice is filled with deep and weighty subjects like infidelity, death, regret and tragedy. It’s a deeper approach to song selection than on any previous [...]
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Album Review: Rosanne Cash – The List
Despite the endlessly repeated backstory, Rosanne Cash’s new album has little to do with her father and his influence on her tastes and career, at least not beyond suggesting the tracklist. Rather, The List plays like a tribute to the durability of country songwriting and its impact over the decades. Despite the genre’s lowly reputation [...]
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Album Review: Kris Kristofferson – Closer To The Bone
Listening to a Kris Kristofferson record for his melodious singing voice is a little bit like reading The New Yorker solely for the cartoons. Kristofferson—one of the greatest songwriters country music has known—has never been the strongest singer, even in his prime, but here he sounds every day of his 73 years. Still, while he [...]
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Album Review: Miranda Lambert – Revolution
While Miranda Lambert’s debut album Kerosene offered a refreshing burst of artistic exuberance and a relative disregard for the conventions and methods employed by her then would-be peers, the album suffered from a certain narrative naivety and a notable lack of artistic refinement. With her sophomore effort, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Lambert brought her artistic vision into [...]
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Album Review: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Speed of Life
It’s been five years since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released an album. Though they haven’t exactly been resting on their laurels, this interval between records isn’t too surprising: After all, once a band’s been together for 45 years, don’t you think they’d get a little bored with it all? Listening to Speed of Life, [...]
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What country artist, young or old, would you recommend as a must-listen artist to a newcomer on his/her journey through country music, and what would your essential song picks be?Current Discussion
- Razor X: When you chose to work with pop producers, the choice is pretty easy. Sellout. That's what makes the ...
- Razor X: I prefer that politics be kept out of songs except in general terms – I don’t mind it being ...
- Liz: I enjoyed the song and video. Nicely done!
- Jon: Unfairly stereotyped, sure. But there's a faulty premise there, Karlie: "Historically, country music ...has been built upon conservative and ...
- Leeann Ward: Couldn't have said it better than Paul.
- Paul W Dennis: I prefer that politics be kept out of songs except in general terms - I don't mind it being an ...
- Jon: Aah, the bracing sound of a rock guy dragging his attitude into the country realm.
- Steve M.: "Steve, You really should drop the “holler than thou” additude. Everything in this commerical; don’t act like you’re above that. Carrie ...
- estelle: I love it! From Cowboy Casanova to Play On, there's not a single track that I do not like. So ...
- highwayman3: Dan Milliken, thanks for that post, I wanted to comment on the Miranda comparison as well because its just silly ...
