Lack of Top Talent Puts End to Big State Festival For ‘08
- Big State Festival is officially done, at least for this year. Charlie Walker, co-owner of C3 Presents, cites “a lack of top tier talent” as the reason behind the festival’s demise.
- John Gerome says starting in 2005, life for Patty Loveless took a hairpin turn. She lost her mother-in-law, brother, and mom, which spurred a three year hiatus from music in order to heal. She began to immerse herself in all the old records she had grown up with. It was comforting, and before long she was working on an album of standards with her husband. That project, Sleepless Nights, will be released next Tuesday.
- It’s been announced that Asleep at the Wheel founder Ray Benson will receive the prestigious Les Paul Award at the 24th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards. “Named for the legendary musician, inventor and pioneer of multitrack recording, the Les Paul Award was established in 1991 to honor the lifetime achievements of musical artists and others whose work has exemplified the creative use of recording technology.”
- Brad Wheeler has another review of Jessica Simpson’s performance at the Avalon Ballroom last week and it’s just a shade nicer than the one posted in yesterday’s news roundup.
- Stuart Munro calls the recently released George Jones album Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets a mixed lot, so it’s not essential, but it is a recovery of some worthwhile late-period Jones.
- Daily Trivia: Hank Thompson was born on this day in 1925 (listen to “The Wild Side of Life” on Last.fm).
- Speaking about her new album, Little Honey, Lucinda Williams says, “I feel that this is the most eclectic record I’ve ever done, and I’ve always been known for being eclectic.” (via Amber Waves of Twang)
- NPR posted audio from Josh Turner’s first appearance on Mountain Stage. He performs “Would You Go With Me,” “Backwoods Boy,” “Long Black Train,” “Firecracker” and “Your Man.”
- Amazon and IMDb unveiled a new music research service a couple of days ago that flows in the same vein as Wikipedia. SoundUnwound allows users to edit information about bands and artists, however, the edits must be approved by the staff before they’ll be shown to the public. Still in its beta, I noticed that there’s isn’t a whole lot of information available, but maybe in the future it’ll prove to be a great resource. (via Listening Post)
- Watch Jerry Reed tear it up on “Lightnin’ Rod,” a song Redd Volkaert (played guitar for Merle Haggard) mentions as one of his favorites.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to subscribe to our feed or receive updates via email.
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
In this exclusive interview for The 9513, Little Big Town’s Jimi Westbrook talks about life with the band, as well as A Place to Land, the group’s current album, which has charted in the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart on two separate occasions
For the second episode of The 9513 Country Music Podcast, your host Kelly Dearmore caught up with two seemingly different artists in Sarah Borges and Trent Willmon. Take a listen.
In an attempt to discover and highlight the best music every month, We'll be publishing a list of the best songs released throughout that period. Here's Brady Vercher's picks for September.
Free Music Downloads: If you’ve only recently come to country music, or have never delved past the genre’s surface and it’s most famous names, you may not have heard of Tom Russell. That’s a shame, and The 9513’s Free Music series is here to help set you down the right path.
Martina McBride - “Ride” Catchy, but a little low on cogency–not to mention originality. And it essentially resolves into the same kind of positive “message song” that has defined so much of McBride’s recent work.
Richie McDonald - “How Do I Just Stop” So gloriously simple and unequivocally lackluster that people of every political persuasion should rejoice in the opportunity to come together and have a hearty laugh at its expense.
Donnie Vondra - “If I Didn’t Love You” Combinining a golden trifecta of country music—steel guitar, fiddle and a strong, twangy vocal—"If I Didn't Love You" pulls together a sweet, toe-tapping ditty reminiscent of Marty Raybon-era Shenandoah.
Lance Miller - “Bacon Frying” A charming country song that is beautiful for its simplicity, a musical remnant from a time when songwriters understood that often the best thing to do is just get out of the song’s way.
John Rich - “Another You” For a guy who is supposed to be a genius songwriter, John Rich sure does seem to be running out of ideas. 
George Ducas - “Walk Through This World” Ducas banks on the success of recent artists’ pleasantly bland lyrics and agreeable instrumentation for his first release with WhiteStar Nashville.
Forgotten Artists: Cal Smith - When the Florida Sunshine Opry (Eustis, FL) booked its first “name” (non-local) act back in 1999, the act they chose was Cal Smith. No wonder, since Cal is an excellent singer, musician, storyteller and showman. | View more artists featured in Paul W. Dennis' recurring "Forgotten Artists" feature »
Tagged In This Article
Big State Festival // George Jones // Jerry Reed // Jessica Simpson // Josh Turner // Lucinda Williams // Merle Haggard // Patty Loveless // Ray Benson
Current Discussion
- Bouseteonee: Hi Just because I lost all of that time doesn't mean you should have to. You Have Just Discovered The Fastest ...
- Vicki: :Yawn:...yeah Taylor is tops on the Billboard. No surprise there. She writes extremely well and knows how to ...
- scooter: I also listened to the clips and was also disappointed. I like the title track and thought this would be ...
- Rick: Wow, the article I have a link to above is even mentioned in Chet Flippo's brand new "Nashville Skyline" column ...
- CMW: This review pretty much confirms what I suspected from listening to the clips a few days ago: too many indistinct ...
- Razor X: Martina is capable of so much better than this. Her last album was a huge disappointment and based on this ...
- Trailer: I love the vocals and the band is pretty tight... it's the songs that are the liability to me. Nothing ...
- Hollerin' Ben: "The 90s were not the Utopia some of us might like to think they were..." seriously?
- Pierce: Boo. I had high hopes for Houser. I guess I'll put off buying this album... Oh well! Another ...
- Stormy: Uh-oh--his street team is going to freak.
4 Comments
RSS for comments on this post | Trackback URI for this post
September 3, 2008 at 10:44 am Permalink
The Amazon “Sound Unwound” isn’t unlike IMDB that way (In that they allow editing that is then approved or unapproved).
September 3, 2008 at 11:32 am Permalink
Patty Loveless will be a featured guest with Eddie Stubbs Intimate Evening series on WSM next Monday night (Sept 8th). You can listen to it on their website. :)
September 3, 2008 at 6:53 pm Permalink
i like Carrie Underwood.
September 3, 2008 at 10:39 pm Permalink
You’re kinda off topic there, Dallas. You should’ve said “I like Carrie Underwood a lot more than I do that dopey Jessica Simpson.”
Leave a Comment