The 9513 - Country Music Blog

For Sunny Sweeney, being a country music artist comes with some baggage… the good kind. Sweeney clearly believes that she holds a responsibility to the sound and music that inspired her as a child. Names such as Haggard, Lynn, and Parton are names she owes her own brief legacy to and wherever that career may [...]

Continue reading "Merle Haggard Is Pretty Much Sunny Sweeney’s Hero"

On June 6, 1962, two days after signing their recording contract, the Beatles went to EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London for their first recording session. Having built a reputation for drawing crowds in nightclubs, their shot at stardom had come at last. Two months later, something happened that manager Brian Epstein felt could [...]

Continue reading "No Sex Please, We’re Country"

As the year winds down, the staff here at The 9513 has been taking a look back at everything that country music had to offer throughout the previous 12 months. It was a daunting task, to say the least, but we’re happy to bring you our best country songs of 2010. Inclusion on the list [...]

Continue reading "The Best Country Songs of 2010"

“This Is Country Music,” a song that Brad Paisley debuted on the CMA Awards show last month, has soared up the charts and earned raves from fans who relate to the familiar topics: trucks and tractors, Mama and little towns. All things that are good and fine and well. This is just the type of [...]

Continue reading "Brad Paisley – “This Is Country Music”"

A few weeks ago I had the enormous pleasure of sharing the stage with two fantastic songwriters inside of a little bar in the downtown area of Bandera. This hill country hamlet in Texas is not much more than tiny speck on the map, as far as population goes. If map locations were demarcated by [...]

Continue reading "Scheduled Spontaneity"

At this year’s CMA Awards, the conversation has largely revolved around who’s missing in the Entertainer of the Year category, including four-time winner Kenny Chesney, defending champion Taylor Swift and format stalwart Carrie Underwood. Otherwise, this year’s nominees are a predictable lot, though there are a few smart picks–Dierks Bentley’s Up on the Ridge and [...]

Continue reading "The 44th Annual CMA Awards: Predictions"

Since my September 2008 article, Charlie McCoy, Barbara Mandrell, Roy Clark, Don Williams, Billy Sherrill, Ferlin Husky and Jimmy Dean have been elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. As I noted, for decades the Country Music Hall of Fame was caught in the position where many deserving performers died before their turn for [...]

Continue reading "Revisited: Who the Country Music Hall of Fame Should Induct Next"

Over on The Boot this week, Alan Jackson answered 20 questions ranging from his favorite date night activities to the best car ever made. One question that stood out had the country legend-in-making naming tunes he enjoyed so much, he wished he had written them: What song did somebody else write that you wish you’d [...]

Continue reading "Your Take: I Wish…"

Since landing on the national country music scene in 1990 with the top five hit “Too Cold At Home,” Mark Chesnutt has gone on to garner four platinum albums, five gold albums, 14 number one singles and 23 Top 10 singles. His neo-traditionalist style of country music, along with others such as Randy Travis, Tracy [...]

Continue reading "Talking Outlaws and Freedom with Mark Chesnutt"

Songwriters: Britton Cameron and Patricia Conroy With a name like Steel Magnolia, it’s easy to wonder if Meghan Linsey and Joshua Scott also have affinities for the Dukes of Hazzard, Designing Women or any other stereotypically Southern television show or movie. The clichés continue on the duo’s latest single, “Just By Being You (Halo and [...]

Continue reading "Steel Magnolia – “Just By Being You (Halo and Wings)”"