New Sara Evans Single; Joe Pug Releases Free EP; Patsy Cline Autograph Fetches Top Dollar
- Listen to Sara Evans‘ new single “Feels Just Like a Love Song.” ( MySpace | iLike )
- Saguaro Road Records is giving away a free download of Tanya Tucker’s “Love’s Gonna Live Here” on Amazon. The track is from her upcoming album My Turn, which can be streamed in its entirety on CMT before its release next week.
- Miranda Lambert picked up the saxophone to add to her live show.
- Country California’s C.M. Wilcox on regionalism:
I’m not as crazy about the insular, myopic attitudes you sometimes find within these scenes. Like rabid Red Dirt fans loudly proclaiming the superiority of everything Texas to everything anywhere else (especially everything Nashville). Or some Nashville industry type who hangs out with bassists from justly forgotten ’90s bands proclaiming that Texas music is “quite un-polished (poorly recorded both vocally and musically)” compared to “the polished sound of good vocals and fine musicianship that Nashville is known for.”
- Watch the new video for Justin Townes Earle’s “Midnight at the Movies,” the title track to his most recent album.
- How do the chances of a Gretchen Wilson comeback compare to the possibility that Carrie Underwood’s fan club is actually a cult? Find out in Farce the Music’s relative size chart.
- The Austin Chronicle’s Jim Caligiuri recapped Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson’s second set at Cactus Cafe on Monday evening.
- Musicouch ranked classic country artists based on the amount of money their autographs fetched at auction. Patsy Cline took the top spot, followed by Hank Williams, Jim Reeves and Jimmie Rodgers. (via The Boot)
- In an interview with Deborah Evans Price, Brad Paisley says his new album, American Saturday Night, reflects where he’s at in his life right now and he gives some insight behind a couple of the songs.
- Jeff Dykhuis continued his coverage of Country Fever — including acts like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Reckless Kelly and the Randy Rogers Band — on his blog, American Music Photography.
- Texas Music Matters posted a live recording of Sarah Jarosz’s “Song Up In Her Head.”
- After a 25 year hiatus from recording Larry Jon Wilson has a new self-titled album out that compares favorably, according to the press release, to Johnny Cash’s American Recordings and Kris Kristofferson’s This Old Road. Houston Press’ Doug Wallen described the project in a recent article:
These dozen tracks let Wilson’s persuasive vocals and acoustic guitar fill the room, though the Black Swans’ Noel Sayre added a few peals of violin later. The sessions’ one-take nature makes the impressive medleys “Loser Trilogy” and “Whores Trilogy” all the more so, and on the soul-influenced “Throw My Hands Up,” Wilson sings, “Music City’s tryin’ to break me, man / It never knew how to take me.”
- Tim Krekel, the songwriter behind Crystal Gayle’s No. 1 “Turning Away” and a co-writer, with Matraca Berg, on Patty Loveless‘ “You Can Feel Bad” and Martina McBride’s “Come Around,” died yesterday from cancer. He was 58.
- The Cherryholmes updated their iLike page with a couple of live tracks from their concert at The Rutledge during last year’s IBMA week. Both tracks, “Sumatra” and “Don’t Believe,” are free. (via The Bluegrass Blog)
- Levon Helm’s new album, Electric Farmer, can be streamed in full at EW.com. It will be released next Tuesday. (via No Depression)
- In an interview with Melissa Block for All Things Considered, Todd Snider says his favorite kind of songs are sad, but funny, too, by guys like John Prine, Shel Silverstein and Billy Joe Shaver. He also talks about being bipolar and putting his desire to be a good husband above being a good songwriter.
- Holly Williams credits a near-fatal car accident for changing her outlook on life and her work ethic.
- Chris Mosser from The Roadhouse show on KVET posted video of Paul Eason performing “The Mountains of Nuevo Leon” live. Browse his channel for some more great stuff, like Ryan Bingham’s acoustic performance of “Dylan’s Hard Rain.”
- Joe Pug released a free, five-song EP today titled In The Meantime. It consists of unreleased songs recorded during the sessions for his original EP, Nation of Heat.
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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
- Jim Malec: "Keeps her letters in a nightstand." She sent him letters, Jon!
- Leverett Sherrif: Paulaw, Brutal, sir..you heard them when they were first getting started..these young girls have worked extremely hard to get to ...
- sam (sam): I'm just a fan, but as I understand it, both singing and songwriting are essential to making good music. It ...
- Jon: @K, thanks for the further explanation. As near as I can tell, there are at least as many mediocre ...
- K: “I would hope that the legacy of a great singer is rewarded more richly than a great writer.” After reading my ...
- Jon: PS – Its too bad Amie Comeaux wasn’t born years later so she could have been a contestant on American ...
- Joe: Great guilty pleasure. I'll enjoy hearing this on the radio.
- Michelle: I love That's My Job by Conway Twitty, but I can't listen to it with others in the room.
- Michelle: Two stars? Whatever!
- Michelle: I love this song. I would love to climb up in his lap and drive his big green tractor!
14 Comments
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June 25, 2009 at 11:11 am Permalink
When I hear or read about fantastic musical happenings in Austin, I usually find some way to convince myself that life isnt so bad up here in Dallas, and that we see our fair share of great shows. I tell myself that it’s not that big of a deal that I must often miss out on things like the Chambers/Nicholson show (among other festivities). That said, I can not do that this time around! I think I would’ve traded in my ACL Fest tix this year to go to even one of those gigs…I’ll stop now since I have to get a tissue to wipe my tears away.
June 25, 2009 at 11:12 am Permalink
…oh yea, the new Pug E.P. is pretty great.
June 25, 2009 at 11:54 am Permalink
Dude, you know what they say about Dallas–Its full of criminals, sex offenders and sleezebags. And that’s just the football team.
June 25, 2009 at 12:40 pm Permalink
bah-dum-dum.
June 25, 2009 at 2:29 pm Permalink
1. Is there any Williams without a death wish?
2. A professional artist should be ashamed to drag that saxophone on stage, and a professional country artist should be doubly ashamed to do it for the purpose of playing “In The Midnight Hour.”
June 25, 2009 at 3:16 pm Permalink
The new Evans single fell a little short of my expectations, personally. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in what else she may offer on the album that this single was designed to promote. I guess we’ll see what happens.
June 25, 2009 at 3:28 pm Permalink
Fantastic new single Sara Evans – I’m real excited about the upcoming album! <3
June 25, 2009 at 4:47 pm Permalink
Brady and Brody, I implore you guys to use a sort of code next to lesser known male artists names to give us a clue if they are from Texas, as so many seem to be. I’d recommend “TRD” for “Texas Red Dirt” and “TRA” for “Texas Regional (charts) Artist” although of course there is a lot of overlap between those two. This would allow me to quickly skip over those article and music links for artists which I’m likely to have little to no interest in.
Of course the most prized code is reserved only for those artists that Kelly finds superlative, ie the exalted moniker “Texas Ultimate Red Dirt” artist, or “TURD”! (lol)
June 25, 2009 at 7:06 pm Permalink
Sara’s voice puts so many to shame.
Those autographs are priceless. Under $3,000 and they’re practically giving them away.
June 25, 2009 at 8:50 pm Permalink
After watching that Miranda Lambert video, I think I may be in love.
June 25, 2009 at 8:51 pm Permalink
Rick’s Random Tidbits: Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson won an APRA Award for the “Country Work of the Year”. I must say I agree with those Aussies on this one!
Link: http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/apraawards/musicawards/history/2009Winners.aspx
June 26, 2009 at 1:12 am Permalink
Nice saxophone idea, Miranda =D Its very creative, although I’d prefer to see her play something like a banjo or fiddle, this is okay
June 26, 2009 at 8:18 am Permalink
Rick – again, you got me. If you rally ever paid attention to anything I have comemnted on, you’ll find that no one that comments here holds Texas artists to a higher standard than i do. I have been quick to dismiss and criticize many “red dirt” artists, as well as the genre as a whole, itself.
Remember, for all of your barbs about me and various Texas artists, you’re still the guy who likes Jypsi and friggin’ Bomshel…
June 26, 2009 at 11:29 am Permalink
The new Sara Evans song is great and her voice sounds better than ever! I can’t wait to hear her new album!!!
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