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Texas Monthly Gets Naked For Special Willie Nelson Cover
Subscribers of Texas Monthly will receive a copy adorned with a portrait of Willie Nelson on the cover and no text. The preview is pretty flippin’ sweet.
Jewel is returning to Nashville Star to join John Rich as a judge and mentor to the contestants.
On July 8 George Jones will release Burn Your Playhouse Down (The [...]Continue reading "Texas Monthly Gets Naked For Special Willie Nelson Cover"
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Eric Church - “His Kind Of Money (My Kind Of Love)”
“His Kind Of Money (My Kind Of Love)” is the first single from Eric Church’s upcoming sophomore album. It’s a good song, not as transcendent as Church would have you believe, but still good, nonetheless, maybe even really good. Although the song is worth a few spins, it isn’t without it’s faults. Hank Williams’ [...]
Continue reading "Eric Church - “His Kind Of Money (My Kind Of Love)”"
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Dolly Parton To Take Her Hits To American Idol Tomorrow Night
Dolly Parton will be the first of four superstar guest mentors on American Idol this year. Her stint as mentor begins tomorrow night when contestants will choose from her catalog for their performances, but don’t expect her to be too critical. “Even the bad (singers) are just as sincere as the good ones,” Parton said. [...]
Continue reading "Dolly Parton To Take Her Hits To American Idol Tomorrow Night"
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President Bush Parodies “Green, Green Grass of Home”
Here’s a YouTube video of President Bush singing a parody of “Green, Green Grass of Home” at the Gridiron Club’s Annual Spring Dinner on March 8th.
Taylor Swift thinks the problem labels are having with trying to capture a younger audience is due to them trying too hard.
“There are record labels that are admitting to the [...]Continue reading "President Bush Parodies “Green, Green Grass of Home”"
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Stop Cutting Hits: The Story of Lefty Frizzell’s “The Long Black Veil”
Lefty Frizzell rivaled and might have been bigger than Hank Williams in 1951, placing four songs in the top ten at the same time, a feat that’s never been matched. Like Williams, he led a turbulent life, mostly due to his own bad habits, but it was his friend Hank who was immortalized by an [...]
Continue reading "Stop Cutting Hits: The Story of Lefty Frizzell’s “The Long Black Veil”"
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Jumping Ship: Reflections on Americana Music
It was hard times for roots based country acts in the 90s. Garth and Shania delivered an enormous audience to country music that the Nashville establishment had no intention of losing, and people who were playing “traditional” country music were being increasingly marginalized in favor of those who were playing a more pop-based variety. Country [...]
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The Cyrus Virus: Billy Ray Tapped To Host Nashville Star
Billy Ray Cyrus announced he’ll be hosting the sixth-season of Nashville Star.
“This year it is all about the dream, about the music, about persistence and never giving up faith,” Billy Ray told Leno. “You know, I’ve been to the fair, and I’ve seen the bear, and I’m really excited.”Calvin Gilbert on the CMT blog: “At [...]
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Vince Vaughn: Honky Tonk Man
I knew there was a reason I liked Vince Vaughn, aside from his fast-talking, used-car salesmanesque humor and wit. His twelve-song celebrity playlist on iTunes has a couple of songs apiece from Dwight Yoakam, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard and then he throws in a Hank Williams and Buck Owens duet with Yoakam [...]
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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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Country Music Hall of Fame Scores Lester Flatt’s Guitar
Vince Gill and Marty Stuart at the Country Music Hall of Fame on February 13. Photo by Marilu White
Valentine’s Day came a day early for the Country Music Hall of Fame when Marty Stuart and Connie Smith donated memorabilia from their personal collection. Among the most famous of the gifts was Lester Flatt’s guitar.
Other major [...]Continue reading "Country Music Hall of Fame Scores Lester Flatt’s Guitar"
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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
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 »
Current Discussion
- 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 ...
- WhiskeyChick: Hah! I love it! Perhaps I should post my own email Q&A at some point... some of the questions I ...
- Mayor Jobob: I thought this was Blake Shelton!!!!
- mikeky: actually, many have argued that dylan has a great voice. it's as expressive a voice that's recording today. ...
- Mayor Jobob: He wasted his chances with that last album. There were so many good songs on that album but he decided ...
- Mayor Jobob: Let me add that with this album as well as with Garth's "The Life of Chris Gaines". I wish he ...
- Mayor Jobob: I wouldn't call this album a car crash, but this is background noise compared to Throttleneck, Timewarp, and The Nervous ...
- Razor X: I actually agree with something on NPR's site. First time for everything.
