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Americana Music Association Executive Director Jed Hilly Is On A Mission
With the halcyon days of multi-platinum records and even diamond records (for 10 million copies of an album sold), the music industry has run into economic struggles. Sales of CDs are down, music piracy is continuing to take its toll, and the industry’s seemingly reluctant embrace of digital music hasn’t done much to stop the [...]
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Just Another King Following in the Footsteps of the First
Drew L. Wilson is a writer, photographer and documentary filmmaker who’s work has appeared in Stream Side, Water World, PBS and over 20 other environmental and engineering magazines. He is currently working on a documentary about Bob Wills to premier at Tulsa’s Historic Circle Cinema, as well as a screenplay with Merle Haggard on Bob [...]
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20 Songs About Hobos
Springtime is here, the economy is in the toilet, you just lost your job (and John Rich is probably going to write a song about it)–doesn’t it just make you want to pack a bandanna on a stick and head out of town on the next freight train? It sure sounds romantic: seeing the country, [...]
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Your Take: Male Artists Vs. Female Artists
In a genre of music dominated by songs covering the trials and tribulations of love, it’s easy to fall into the trap of He Said/She Said.
I’m not talking about the latest high school drama from Taylor or Miley, or two-sided accounts of where love went wrong–although songs like Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call” and [...]Continue reading "Your Take: Male Artists Vs. Female Artists"
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Your Take: Decades of Country Music
In Jim’s interview a few weeks back with former front man of The Mavericks Raul Malo, the singer had an interesting game for country listeners to play in their cars:
Here’s an experiment for you if you wanna try this out just for fun one day. If you have satellite radio, put on the 40s station [...] -
Your Take: Corporate Control of Concert Prices
The first day of spring kicks off next Friday, and with warmer weather comes exciting announcements of summer country concert tours. We’re pretty concert-happy around here as well, as we’re sponsoring the New American Voices Tour with Rodney Hayden and Drew Kennedy.
Before television and the Internet, the concert experience was the only way to get [...]Continue reading "Your Take: Corporate Control of Concert Prices"
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Your Take: What Do Your Musical Tastes Say About You?
In yesterday’s news roundup, Brody listed some of the more interesting statistics published in the Country Music Association’s study on country music audience demographics. There were some interesting numbers on people who consider themselves “countryphiles,” as well as the genre’s love/hate relationship with digital downloads.
The nugget I found to be the most intriguing, however, [...]Continue reading "Your Take: What Do Your Musical Tastes Say About You?"
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Your Take: Country Music Tragedies
Almost exactly 50 years ago on February 3, 1959, a plane crash in Iowa killed three rock and roll pioneers. The Day the Music Died, as it was coined in Don McLean’s “American Pie,” marked the loss of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson (who wrote George Jones’ first No. 1 [...]
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Your Take: What Is Country Music?
In movies, country music is flashy Nudie suits, thick accents and troubled childhoods. In Nashville, it’s barrooms, cash cows and demo tapes by the dozen. In pop music circles, it’s hokey, old-fashioned and the quintessential line “I like all music…but country.”
Country music can arguably be all (or none) of these things, but they still don’t [...] -
Rucker Proves That Sometimes, The Best Marketing Is No Marketing At All
Don’t look now, but Darius Rucker, lead singer of 90s rock group Hootie & The Blowfish, has a country hit on his hands. “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” currently sits at number 14 on Billboard’s country singles chart and continues to pick up spins. What you probably haven’t heard is that Rucker [...]
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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?Current Discussion
- Erik: You amuse me, Rick.
- Please!: I'll say something else here about hooks.. I heard two different women at my work place on two separate ...
- Please!: 'I find Carrie’s music to be a fresh of breath air and anybody who doesn’t feel this can easily find ...
- Rick: Speaking of polite company, King Rat Obama and his fellow democrat vermin in the U.S. House of Representatives (and one ...
- Steve M.: I don't mind songs with political overtones-after all, Woody Guthrie wrote most of his tunes with a solid political bent, ...
- Vance: Only a superfan of Carrie would think I'm bitter as her fanbase is unable to take hearing any criticism about ...
- Dan E.: Vance: You seem a little bitter.
- Dan E.: Kurt: I bet you'd be surprised at how many people are both fans of Carrie and Taylor. Only a small ...
- Vance: The lyrics are actually, “boy meets girl, girl leaves boy” Also, I’m loving her fresh music. It's not fresh music, it's cookie ...
- kurt: I personally don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with a country artist working with someone like Martin or Dioguardi if ...
