Radio Survey Crowns Brad Paisley Listeners’ Favorite Country Artist
- A poll of more than 13,000 radio listeners who cited a country station as their main station ranked Brad Paisley (4.5) as listeners’ favorite country artist. He was followed by Brooks & Dunn (4.4) and George Strait (4.4) on a scale that graded the artists from one to five. According to a press release sent out, the five least favorite artists were: Jimmy Wayne (3.5), The Lost Trailers (3.4), Eric Church (3.4), Kid Rock (3.3) and The Dixie Chicks (2.8)
- Film producers Mark Roberts and Lorena David are in the process of creating a new television series titled American Storytellers. The duo, along with TV production company Granada America, plan to turn some of country’s story songs into one-hour dramas. Unfortunately, executives working on the project refused to reveal which songs are being used.
- Ryan, one of the bloggers on AristoMedia’s publicity team, posted a thorough wrap-up of the events at CRS-40.
- Music Fog posted video of Audrey Auld and Cole Bruce singing “Clinch Mountain Prayer” on their bus at Folk Alliance. They’ve been doing a bang-up job with all these videos, which has me excited for their SXSW coverage where they’ll be hosting their own showcase.
- The weight loss product alli is offering Wynonna’s latest album Sing: Chapter 1 for free inside specially marked packages.
- On March 24, Universal Records South will release Bad Magick: The Best of Shooter Jennings and the .357’s, which will include 13 tracks from his previous albums and two previously unreleased songs.
- There are a couple of really good articles that you should check out today. This first one is from Chris Willman, author of Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music, and contains pieces of his conversations with Jamey Johnson and John Rich at Country Radio Seminar about their current singles, “High Cost of Living” and “Shuttin’ Detroit Down.”
I believe they’re the kinds of songs that ultimately bring people to country radio, and which reinforce its original reputation–forged over a century, and really only recently lost to sentimentalism–as a form of popular music that deals, entertainingly, with hard truths that other genres can’t or won’t.
- The second really good article that you should check out is from Nathan Rabin, who has carved a niche for himself as a hip-hop writer but recently, after being spurred by Billy Joe Shaver’s “Been To Georgia On A Fast Train,” decided to alter his musically unbalanced education by completely immersing himself in country music for a full year. The first article in his planned series, titled Nashville or Bust, covers Johnny Cash’s American Recordings. Read Rabin’s introduction for more of the what and why behind his experiment.
- In her latest blog post, Sunny Sweeney says she’s been writing her ass off. The fruits of that labor are being added to her MySpace page in the form of work tapes and she wants your feedback.
- Kenny Chesney’s second volume of hits will be released May 19.
- Drunken Angel: The Legend of Blaze Foley, a documentary that attempts to unravel the mystery behind the duct-taped poet, will premiere next Wednesday (Mar. 19) at SXSW. The film features unreleased living room recordings and the film’s director, Kevin Triplett, hopes a soundtrack will follow soon.
- Hollywood Hollow, a popular country music venue in Lawsonville, NC., was fined $54,800 for 366 fire code violations at a Jamey Johnson concert on Saturday night. The venue was 364 people over it’s maximum occupancy count of 492, which prompted the Fire Marshall to file everyone out the doors before allowing them back in one at a time until the maximum number of occupants was reached. (via reader email)
- Sugar Hill records is offering a free download of “Better At The End of The Day” from Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles — who Kelly Dearmore featured in the second episode of The 9513 podcast.
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
Is Dave Haywood going solo? This and many other of country music's most pressing questions answered in the September edition of The 9513's world famous Mailbag!
Caroline Herring likes to sing songs about life in the South. No, not exactly like Justin Moore and Jason Aldean...
The 9513's resident historian Paul W. Dennis sits down for a chat with country music legend Gene Watson.
As much as we love girl singers, we love songs about girl singers even more. Here's just a few of the many tribute songs out there.
Step away from the river and up to a jukebox, because heartbreak is only temporary, but a good song about drowning yourself—like a diamond—lasts forever.
What do you think about music labels "testing the waters" with a single before providing access to an artist's entire album? 
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?Tagged In This Article
Billy Joe Shaver // Blaze Foley // Brad Paisley // Dixie Chicks // Eric Church // George Strait // Jamey Johnson // Jimmy Wayne // John Rich // Johnny Cash // Kenny Chesney // Sarah Borges // Shooter Jennings // Sunny Sweeney // SXSW // The Lost Trailers // Wynonna
Current Discussion
- Matt: I'm glad you chose to review this as opposed to the new Joe Nichols album. Instead of complaining about bad ...
- Terry Ridont: I think its cool. Thats what I like about indy rock artists, everything isn't the same high budget packaging and ...
- Stormy: Jon: The problem is that the progressive country music is now being called Americana. And why is it ...
- Razor X: Maybe his brother did talk him into it but what’s to say he hasn’t ‘always loved’ and ‘wanted’ to ...
- Brian: Josh Kelley will be fine. At the very least it means Katherine Heigl may show up on country award shows regularly. ...
- Razor X: Change may be inevitable but we aren't required to support it and if enough people boycott it, it doesn't last ...
- Jon: "You can’t stop “progress”… We can if we try hard enough. Um, no. Not that I think "progress" is a good ...
- Joe: When she moved from Mercury to BNA, I think we were all just allowed to think there'd be some grand ...
- sam sam: Well, Suzie, maybe if I saw his live show I'd love him. But I'm not interested in attending concerts. Radio ...
- JOHN: Personally Sherrie s voice is as pure as it gets to me. Just listened to her demo songs after reading ...
10 Comments
RSS for comments on this post | Trackback URI for this post
March 13, 2009 at 11:13 am Permalink
From Chris Willman: “I believe they’re the kinds of songs that ultimately bring people to country radio, and which reinforce its original reputation–forged over a century, and really only recently lost to sentimentalism–as a form of popular music that deals, entertainingly, with hard truths that other genres can’t or won’t.”
Chris is a good writer, and I think (or at least hope) that his choice of “sentimentalism” rather than “sentimentality” was deliberate; when it comes to country music history, it’s not a trivial distinction.
March 13, 2009 at 11:50 am Permalink
Quite the comment threads they get over at AV Club.
March 13, 2009 at 11:51 am Permalink
Those poll takers must not have asked my morning radio DJ who her favorite is because she is very vocal about her dislike of Brad Paisley. I agree with her….he doesn’t do it for me either. He sits on the verge of boring to me! He’s too silly and loves the center of attention! But to each their own. Also, I read some reviews for Toby Keith and Rascal Flatts yesterday about their performances at Country Thunder and they were not so nice! My favorites were not listed, but you can’t have it all!
March 13, 2009 at 12:56 pm Permalink
Why so low for Eric Church? I thought his debut album was excellent, and like both “His Kind Of Money” and “Love Your Love The Most” from the new one. But Lost Trailers and Jimmy Wayne… happy to see they made the list.
March 13, 2009 at 4:40 pm Permalink
I think they did a misprint with the Shooter Jennings album title. I thought it was “Bad Muzak, The Best of the Worst of Shooter Jennings”. Hmm…
Thanks for the link to the Audrey Auld Mezera video. Audrey became well known in her native Australia when she hooked up with Kasey Chamber’s father Bill and they put out some albums together. She is an interesting performer and tells stories at her concerts like a female version of Hayes Carll.
Opry Alert! Justin Moore is making his Opry debut tonight for whatever that is worth. I have put in a request for him to perform “I Could Kick Your Ass” and dedicate it to the Gaylord bean counters who canned Keith Bilbrey at WSM after 34 years of faithful service. Charlie Daniels will also be performing tonight.
Midnite Jamboree Alert! Saturday night after the Opry on WSM there will be a special two hour E.T. Record Shop Midnite Jamboree live from Brady, Texas. It’s the “Heart of Texas” label’s anniversary party show and will feature the label’s artists. I’m looking forward to hearing Amber Digby again and Kimberly Murray live for the first time. Its too bad Miss Leslie isn’t on that label. Oh well…
March 13, 2009 at 5:07 pm Permalink
I don’t like that Dixie Chicks were the least-popular, I wish they got radio airplay again … its time to move on
March 13, 2009 at 5:13 pm Permalink
I am not a Paisley fan. But how have you got the impression that he is self-centered? The consensus is that he is a nice guy. I wish that he would lose the novelty shtick, though. It is ridiculous.
March 13, 2009 at 5:29 pm Permalink
Realistically, which of them isnt a little self-centered? Not that everyone takes it a bad place, but we’re talking about people that wake up one morning and say “Hey, I should pursue a job where I make a living having people spend money on coming to see me, and listening to my voice.” Im not saying that this is intrinsically a bad thing, but I dont think we should be surprised that any of them are a little self-centered.
March 13, 2009 at 6:15 pm Permalink
Breaking News! Taylor Swift has decided to stay down under a couple of extra days to join a Wildfire Victim Relief concert in Sydney dominated by rock and pop artists. A similar concert will happen in Melbourne that features some of Australia’s top country artists, so at least Taylor knows where she fits in the scheme of things. I’ve heard rumors the real reason for her extended stay is she needed more time to finish her new song “Hey Morgan”. Its is tribute to her “hand picked” opening act artist Morgan Evans, a mid 20’s Keith Urban wannabe who is building a loyal female fan base due to his looks…
Link: http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1606971/taylor-swift-joins-australia-bushfire-concert-with-coldplay-barry-gibb.jhtml
March 31, 2009 at 5:00 pm Permalink
Eric Church kicks ass despite what this survey says, I think Carolina is going to surprise a bunch of people and maybe, just maybe, Church will get the recognition he deserves.
Leave a Comment