Lost Highway To Release Willie Nelson Compilation; Country’s Shrinking Middle Class
- Lost Highway Records will release a 17-track Willie Nelson compilation on August 11 to celebrate his 10 years with the label. The track list was culled from nine different albums and includes three previously unreleased songs.
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New releases for the week of July 14, 2009 include:
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Angela Easterling – Black Top Road
Amazon | CD Baby | MySpace -
Bryan Sutton and Friends – Almost Live
Amazon | iTunes | Sugar Hill Records
Any others?
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- David M. Ross commented on country’s shrinking middle class.
It’s easy to point to the superstar crowd—Swift, Underwood, Flatts, Sugarland, Paisley, Urban, Chesney, Strait, McGraw, Keith and maybe a few others we’ve mistakenly omitted, but what about the up and comers? Where is country’s middle class? A quick look at the Top 10 selling country albums this year names the following; Swift, Hannah Montana, Rascal Flatts, Zac Brown Brand, Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean, Sugarland, Swift and Underwood. Only two of those CDs have broken the million mark this year; only three have passed the 500k goalposts, which is the start of profitability for many labels.
- My Kind of Country: What are some of your favorite collaborations in country music. And why?
- Jason Boland And The Stragglers announced a West coast swing as part of their summer tour. (via press release)
- Watch Ray Wylie Hubbard perform “Rabbit.”
- Bob Willis, who wrote many country songs recorded by the late Jimmie Davis, passed away Friday at the age of 75.
- iTunes in a perfect world…
- If one person were to break through from the Red Dirt scene, Craig Shelburne says he’d bet on Wade Bowen.
- The Los Angeles Times‘ Randy Lewis counts Eric Church, who played a 30-minute set in Hollywood last week, among “a new breed of Southern rocker who’s laying waste to the stereotype of the genre being the exclusive domain of beer-drinkin’, flag-wavin’ good ol’ boys.” (via Country Music Tattle Tale)
- The blogger at A Truer Sound shared his favorite Del McCoury Band recording.
- And Big Rock Candy Mountain highlighted several Gary Stewart tunes.
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In each and every instance, the best country albums of the past ten years were built on the backs of songs -- stories about you and me from birth to death and stories that paint landscapes rooted in every region of America and beyond. These are the top country albums of the decade.Tagged In This Article
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Current Discussion
- bputt: WOW how old are you guys that are knockin the new upbeat country songs? if you dont like it go ...
- glasnost: Well Done! I Like it!
- Jon: *facepalm* By an reasonable way of understanding the term, Juli is a professional journalist. I don't know that I would ...
- john: I remember watching the night the Duke of whatever was inducted and was just amazed because i fully expected Webb ...
- Thomas: ...does "being better off in a pine box on freight train back to georgia" count a as burial instruction? doug ...
- Thomas: ...this is a hit song. there's tons of fools out there, who will recognise themselves in those lyrics. how do ...
- sam (sam): I think K was right to call the review "unprofessional." It was also "immature and juvenile," in my opinion. And ...
- K: "@K Agree with her assessment or not, there is absolutely nothing unprofessional about Juli’s review. OK, proffesional was probably the ...
- Laura: First, while I agree that Carrie's main strength is singing, she does show potential as a talented songwriter in Temporary ...
- Kim: Hey...I shop at vintage boutiques and I drink smoothies and I still don't like this.
9 Comments
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July 14, 2009 at 11:05 am Permalink
The middle class of sales probably went the same place the country style of the 90’s went. Rowdy parties, good music, catchy hooks. Once the labels find one again the other will follow.
July 14, 2009 at 11:10 am Permalink
The Bryan Sutton album sounds pretty good, but I’m not really into sucha heavily instrumental kind of album. For Nickel Creek fans, Chris Thile is on a track and co-wrote another.
July 14, 2009 at 11:48 am Permalink
The 9513 probably linked to this article last week but I wasn’t paying attention, so here’s another link to the Wall Street Journal’s “The Sisterhood of Bluegrass” written by Barry Mazor:
Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124701433834009187.html#mod=article-outset-box
Top 40 mainstream country radio these days is content to populate the Top 40 with the newest singles from the same group of proven hitmakers. A few newcomers hit the Top 20 now and again, but if they don’t crack that barrier first time out they usually wind up on the shelf. The playlists have become as stale as year old bread….
Gary Stewart is a fine songwriter but his voice is an acquired taste. He should have hooked up with a great singer to perform his songs as part of a Gary Stewart Band! Gary is a Bernie Taupin type who desperately needed an Elton John…
July 14, 2009 at 1:08 pm Permalink
Sunny “Disasta” Shasta Sweeney has new songs up on her myspace page. Sounds pretty good even for demos.
http://www.myspace.com/sunnysweeney
July 14, 2009 at 3:17 pm Permalink
Wade Bowen?
whatever happened to Pat Green and Cory Morrow?
July 14, 2009 at 3:41 pm Permalink
FYI, 500k is the profit line for artists based on his scenario, whereas 350k is the profit line for labels.
July 14, 2009 at 5:35 pm Permalink
whatever happened to Pat Green and Cory Morrow?
they are working on the follow up to their compilation album “songs we wish we’d written”. just to throw a curve ball to the kids, this album will be all songs that pat and cory penned themselves. working title: “songs we wish we’d never written”. look for foreword and liner notes by dale watson and chris wall.
July 14, 2009 at 5:38 pm Permalink
“I ain’t going down on Brokeback Mountain/That shit ain’t right”
Heh, I reckon “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” was more in line with the movie’s agenda.
I remember “Superman” from the Last of the Breed tour. It was pretty humorous and got a good reaction from the crowd. I’ve already heard a few versions of “Back to Earth;” it’s destined to be a classic.
July 14, 2009 at 6:59 pm Permalink
In reality… the profit should be at about $200,000. I bet the way that Tracy Lawrence went with Rocky Comfort it was even a lower threshold – the Lawrence brothers have a great business model going on.
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