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Wake Up To Little Big Town and Phil Vassar at Red Roof Inn
In a campaign designed to capitalize on the popularity of country music among their customers, Red Roof Inn enlisted the help of Little Big Town and Phil Vassar to record wake-up calls and hold messages for guests. The goal for the hotel is to become the hotel of fans and of bands, while the campaign [...]
Continue reading "Wake Up To Little Big Town and Phil Vassar at Red Roof Inn"
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Country Music Hall of Fame Plans Exhibits for Johnny Cash and Gene Watson
Next Tuesday the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will unveil a special spotlight exhibit dedicated to Johnny Cash. The following week they’ll open a new one for Gene Watson. Both exhibits will run through Spring 2009.
Darius Rucker joined an exclusive list of Ray Charles and Charley Pride as the only black artists to [...]Continue reading "Country Music Hall of Fame Plans Exhibits for Johnny Cash and Gene Watson"
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Jimmy Wayne Undressed: Clothing Not Optional with Airport Security
A groggy Jimmy Wayne was recently caught with his pants down at an airport metal detector.
“I kept trying to get through and it would go off,” he explains. Wayne shed his sweatshirt and necklace, but the detector still buzzed. “Finally the TSA officer said something to the effect of, ‘Remove your shorts,’ and I [...]Continue reading "Jimmy Wayne Undressed: Clothing Not Optional with Airport Security"
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Songwriters Hall to Induct Matraca Berg, Tom Shapiro & John Hiatt
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame plans to induct Matraca Berg, Tom Shapiro and John Hiatt during ceremonies on Oct. 26. Hiatt is being inducted in the songwriter-artist category while Berg and Shapiro will go in under the songwriter moniker.
Sugar Hill Records announced that they’ve slashed most of the prices in their catalog to the [...]Continue reading "Songwriters Hall to Induct Matraca Berg, Tom Shapiro & John Hiatt"
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Jamey Johnson Joins Willie Nelson and Kenny Chesney In Farm Aid Lineup
Jamey Johnson is joining Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews for the Farm Aid music festival in New England on Sept. 20. Maybe this will end up being the first step towards a Jamey Johnson and Willie Nelson studio collaboration. Or maybe I’ll just keep on dreaming my dreams.
Keeping with [...]Continue reading "Jamey Johnson Joins Willie Nelson and Kenny Chesney In Farm Aid Lineup"
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Hee Haw Reruns Coming to TV In September
The comedy show “Hee Haw” featuring performances from country music stars is being resuscitated. The RFD-TV cable channel will begin airing reruns of the Roy Clark and Buck Owens co-hosted show on September 7th.
Peter Cooper has a nice article on Don Helms:
In performance, he would treat audiences to instrumental versions of songs by Williams, [...] -
Sugarland Drops Miley For First Chart-Topper On Billboard 200
Sugarland’s sales saw a 45% decline, but it was still enough to take the top spot from Miley Cyrus on the Billboard 200 chart.
Leave it to Jamey Johnson to turn the often humorous Photocrap blog serious.
Jamey Johnson makes another appearance on Unplugged at Studio 330 next week, but for now you can go check out [...]Continue reading "Sugarland Drops Miley For First Chart-Topper On Billboard 200"
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Forgotten Artists: Charley Pride
While he’s not exactly forgotten, it’s been a nineteen years since Charley Pride received much airplay on Country Radio–which seems unbelievable considering the dominant force he was on the charts. For the ’70s, Billboard has Charley listed as its third ranking singles artist behind only Conway Twitty and Merle Haggard. Pride also shows up as [...]
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Kenny Chesney Most Played Artist In First Half of 2008
The list of artists with the most airplay from the first half of 2008 is topped by Kenny Chesney, with Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts rounding out the top five.
After more than a decade with Epic Records, Patty Loveless is going indie with the September 9th release of Sleepless Nights–her [...]Continue reading "Kenny Chesney Most Played Artist In First Half of 2008"
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Kristy Lee Cook Hooks Up With Arista Nashville; Single Due In August
American Idol’s Kristy Lee Cook scored a record deal with 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville. Her first single, “15 Minutes of Shame,” will hit radio on August 11 and her full album is due out sometime this fall. Last month, in his article proclaiming country music as American Idol’s uncomfortable bedfellow, Matt predicted that she’d be signed [...]
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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 »
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- Matt C.: Yeah, Kenny, that leak from your publicist totally makes me believe that you are "dating" that Miss Tennessee chick.
- Nicolas: Well the Xmas remix was good, so nicely done Joey+Rory I forgive you guys for that terrible hip-hop "King mix" :) ...
- SMB: A better question might be "how do I suck up to Taylor Swift and convince her to produce my album?" The ...
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- Razor X: I actually agree with something on NPR's site. First time for everything.
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 October.
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.
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.
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






