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Is CMA Fest’s Nashville Future In Jeopardy?
CMA board member Kix Brooks believes the annual CMA Music Festival needs to start paying artists to play at the event, instead of asking them to perform for free year after year.
“It’s not in immediate danger, but we need to do some housekeeping,” he said. “I was pleading today with civic leaders to get on [...]Continue reading "Is CMA Fest’s Nashville Future In Jeopardy?"
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Your Take: Visionary Collaborations
Collaboration between established artists has created some interesting and successful pairings throughout country music’s lifetime. Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, Alan Jackson and George Strait, and with the advent of technology, Alison Krauss & Keith Whitley, and Hank Williams and Bocephus. Last year, Raising [...]
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2008 Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees Announced
The newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame for 2008 were announced today at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Tom T. Hall, Emmylou Harris, The Statler Brothers, and Ernest “Pop” Stoneman will be inducted into the pantheon of country music’s great later this year.
Stoneman will be inducted [...]Continue reading "2008 Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees Announced"
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Writer’s Guild and Grammys Reach Interim Agreement
The Writer’s Guild of America came to an agreement with the producers of the Grammy telecast to allow writer’s to work on the show.
Martie McGuire of the Dixie Chicks is expecting her third daughter with husband Gareth. (Thanks Peter)
Production on a straight-to-DVD comedy starring Bill Engvall begins today. Engvall owns a small town bait shop [...]Continue reading "Writer’s Guild and Grammys Reach Interim Agreement"
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George Strait To Kick Off 2008 Tour In Austin Tonight
Austin360’s John T. David lists eight things you will never hear George Strait say. My favorite is:
‘TMZ wants to film me working my cutting horses.’
Go read the others and see if you can come up with any good ones of your own.
The Dreamtime blog did some research and pieced together different aspects of the unfinished [...]Continue reading "George Strait To Kick Off 2008 Tour In Austin Tonight"
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Georgia Anti-Dogfighting Ad To Feature Willie Nelson
Sissy Spacek and Reese Witherspoon land on EW.com’s list of favorite singing actors for their respective roles as Loretta Lynn and June Carter Cash. Spacek portrayed Loretta in the 1980 biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter and Witherspoon played June in Walk the Line.
In his description of Miranda Lambert and her music Chris Gray writes “…live is [...]Continue reading "Georgia Anti-Dogfighting Ad To Feature Willie Nelson"
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Songs About Hank Not Sung By Guys Named Hank
I’ve always been a bit skeptical about the amount of praise heaped upon Hank Williams. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy his music immensely and carry Hank Williams Gold wherever my truck blindly leads me. I just figured people paid him lip service because of his position in history. That’s why I was surprised when [...]
Continue reading "Songs About Hank Not Sung By Guys Named Hank"
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Songwriting Doesn’t Come Easy For Trailblazing Lyle Lovett
A local Austin news station obtained a copy of the episode from the “Sam and Bob Morning Show” that co-host Sam Allred was fired for. Below is the sequence that apparently led to his punishment:
Sammy: “If you knew what it was, why did you call and ask?”
Bob: “It’s not until this coming weekend.”
Caller: “Sammy, no [...]Continue reading "Songwriting Doesn’t Come Easy For Trailblazing Lyle Lovett"
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Country Music Sales Down Twenty-Six Percent
Industry Blog Coolfer reports that total album sales have been bleak this year, dropping 14% year-to-date over 2006. Country albums sales are down a whopping 26%.
Former mullet-man Billy Ray Cyrus has been cast to star in an indie drama titled Flying By. He’ll play “a businessman who risks his marriage, family, and fortune to [...]Continue reading "Country Music Sales Down Twenty-Six Percent"
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Merle Haggard Debuts At Number 1 On Bluegrass Charts
The Politico has a great “story behind the song” type feature about how “For These Times” was written and eventually ended up on Martina McBride’s latest album, Waking Up Laughing. Inspiration is everywhere.
It begins in Pittsburgh on election night 2006. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), losing to Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr. by a wide margin, [...]Continue reading "Merle Haggard Debuts At Number 1 On Bluegrass Charts"
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We've labored long and hard to come up with our list of the Top 10 Country Albums of 2008. Click here to see who claimed the honor of the year's top album, as chosen by The 9513's staff and writers.
Don’t confuse disappointing with worst, as that list would most likely be dominated by obscure indie knockoff bands along with a couple of mainstream releases. There has to be a modicum of expectation that’s dashed upon the release of an album for it to qualify for the year’s most disappointing.
Join host Kelly Dearmore as he shines the light on several noteworthy album releases you might have missed and interviews various artists, from Sarah Borges to Trent Willmon and Reckless Kelly to Wade Bowen, in the first two episode of The 9513 podcast.
Jim Malec counts down the top 20 country music news stories of 2008. How many times do you think John Rich will be mentioned?Current Discussion
- northtexas: Jewel commented in her blog: People's Choice Awards Recap Posted in From Jewel on January 7, 2009 Hi! So the awards ...
- Drew: Is there any link to the Eddy Arnold accusation story? I'm interested to read the whole thing.
- Jim C.: Is there such a thing as 'the Americana scene'? Maybe just Russell is projecting his own thoughts on his crappy band.
- Paula_W: The People Choose Underwood and Flatts At People’s Choice Awards What people? Not me!
- Nashville4U: Great to see Carrie Underwood win those awards but Rascal Flatts....I don't know if they deserved that one. Also that ...
- Brady Vercher: Britt's demo is tacked onto the end of the final track, "Bruised," on her Little Wildflower album, but like Rick ...
- Rick: Let us not forget that Catherine Britt was the co-writer with Rory Feek on "Sweet Emmylou". Catherine recorded a rough ...
- Jim Malec: I think "Sweet Emmylou" is the kind of song that few people are capable of writing. There's a reason why ...
- celeritas: I quite like this song but it should not be a single. Curb have lost it with this CD. There ...
- Brady Vercher: That's what I was going for. And if you connect "Down the Road" with the yellow brick road...
