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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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Lee Ann Womack – “Last Call”
Songwriters: Erin Enderlin and Shane McAnally
Lee Ann Womack’s latest single, “Last Call,” about the conflict a woman goes through when ending an unfulfilling relationship is a good song, although it does suffer from a few problems. The production of the verses give the song a haunting feeling that sets it up for an internal [...] -
Live Blog: Nashville Star, Season Six, Episode One
It seems a bit anti-climatic to be watching Nashville Star auditions when the finalists have already been announced, but NBC doubtless has some tricks in store to make the network debut of Nashville Star entertaining nonetheless. Tonight’s premiere will also feature a live performance by Taylor Swift, though I don’t know how NBC plans to [...]
Continue reading "Live Blog: Nashville Star, Season Six, Episode One"
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Nashville Star: A New Beginning, an Uncertain Future
This is the first installment in a series of Nashville Star coverage on The 9513. Be sure to visit The9513.com at 8 p.m. central on Monday, June 9th as we live blog the Nashville Star premiere on NBC.
Nashville Star, long maligned as a poor man’s American Idol, has finally made it to the big time. [...]
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Book Review: Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music by Dana Jennings
It begins with a fitting quote from Hank Williams, “You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly.” Part memoir, part history, part analysis, Dana Jennings sometimes waxes poetic about the country music he loves in Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music. Specifically, [...]
Continue reading "Book Review: Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music by Dana Jennings"
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Keith Urban – “You Look Good In My Shirt”
Songwriters: Mark Nesler, Tony Martin, and Tom Shapiro
Back in 2004, Keith Urban was preparing to release a 5th single from his Golden Road album, but when “Days Go By” the single from his then upcoming Be Here album was ready, plans for the 5th single were dropped and “Days Go By” was released in [...]Continue reading "Keith Urban – “You Look Good In My Shirt”"
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Album Review: Eleven Hundred Springs – Country Jam
In conversation, as well as in my writing, I’m often dismissive of current, corporate, country music radio, so it’s typical to field accusations of “elitism,” of trying to pigeonhole country music’s sound into an early 60’s George Jones mold for narrow-minded nostalgia’s sake, and of requiring that every song have the pretense of earth-shaking [...]
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Willie Nelson – Spirit
One of my best friends once asked me “Hey Ben, I want to get some Willie Nelson albums and I wanted to find out which were the best ones.” I can’t tell you how grateful I was that he asked, and how excited I was to share my opinions on the subject.
After [...]
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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
- Vicki: Or Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless and Vince Gill
- Vicki: The Beatles, Carrie Underwood, Jamey Johnson and Josh Groban.
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- Joe: When she moved from Mercury to BNA, I think we were all just allowed to think there'd be some grand ...
