The 9513 - Country Music Blog

Austin native and fiddler Amy Farris, who was part of the group The Guilty Women that played with Dave Alvin, was found dead at her residence in Los Angeles at the age of 40. Suicide is suspected, although an investigation is still underway.
Alt-512 Music Musings posted audio of Corb Lund’s CD-release show at Threadgill’s on [...]

Continue reading "Guilty Women’s Amy Farris Found Dead; Nashville at Nite Returns; New 1100 Springs Music on the Horizon;"

This September, The 9513 is saluting one of our favorite topics: truckin’. We had a list long as Route 66, but after much debate, narrowed it down to 40 artists and 40 songs.
Though there is a fair amount of women truck drivers, this list is Y chromosome heavy. You won’t find too many ballads on [...]

Continue reading "40 Truckin’ Songs"

Rumors of an affair between LeAnn Rimes and her Lifetime movie co-star Eddie Cibrian continue to burn, and now Us Weekly reports that Cibrian’s wife, Brandi Glanville, has left him.
“LeAnn is a stalker,” Glanville told Us last month. “She refuses to leave us alone. It is shameful and scary. People are going to say it [...]

Continue reading "News Roundup – The Stalker Edition; Hank Jr. Lashes Out; He’s Got A…Mustache"

Sara Evans‘ former nanny scored more than $500,000 in the settlement for a defamation suit she filed against the country singer in April 2007.
Kathy Mattea on the divide between traditional and pop influences in country music: (via GAC)
“This tension between a real traditional sound and pop music, it’s nothing new,” said Mattea. “We had Barbara [...]

Continue reading "Sara Evans Settles Suit; Jack Ingram Bests Taylor Swift; What’s Country?"

If anyone in Country Music can truly be said to be a “renaissance man” that person would be Billy Edd Wheeler. Poet, playwright, author, songwriter, singer, artist, lecturer and ecologist would be but a few of the hats that accurately (and comfortably) fit onto his head.
Billy Edd Wheeler fits into the realm between folk music, [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Billy Edd Wheeler"

Based on a quote from a source close to the Spears family, E! Online is reporting that Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger sister to Britney Spears, is working on a country album. [That should get the comments flowing.]
The Tennessean’s Peter Cooper and The New York Times‘ Douglas Martin wrote profiles on the life and career [...]

Continue reading "Jamie Lynn Spears Is Reportedly Working On Country Album"

When the nominations for the ACM Awards were announced on Wednesday, several readers keenly noted that the album of the year nominees were missing from the list. It was reported that those nominations would be announced in March after a re-vote. Country Universe has the reasoning behind the re-vote via Peter Cooper’s article in The [...]

Continue reading "ACM Officials Reconsider Criteria For Album of the Year"

The return of a legend. The emergence of two legends’ sons. The unexpected pairing of two husband-and-wife duos. These were among the stories that defined country music in 2008.
This year’s top albums came to us from every corner of the country music spectrum–from Australia to the coal mines of Appalachia to the stage of [...]

Continue reading "Top 10 Country Albums Of 2008"

Barry Mazor introduced the new Bear Family series Country & Western Hit Parade: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music in his most recent column for NoDepression.com. The first six volumes are structured around a given year from 1945 through 1950 and attempt to gather songs that represent that year without necessarily relying on by-the-charts [...]

Continue reading "New Bear Family Series Exemplifies Country Music From 1945 to 1950"

USA Today’s Ken Barnes and Brian Mansfield singled out Kathy Mattea’s Coal as one of their picks of 2008. Mansfield also gave a nod to Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song.
After counting down the best country music of 2008 at PopMatters yesterday, Juli Thanki returns with the best bluegrass. Two different Vincents make the list along [...]

Continue reading "Naughty Or Nice, May You Find Coal In Your Stockings This Christmas"