The 9513 - Country Music Blog

The sheriff’s department in Tyler, Texas is investigating an alleged assault case involving Miranda Lambert. According to reports, Lambert and her boyfriend Blake Shelton were attending a CD release party for an Adam Hood show when she was approached by Aisha Esbay for a photograph. She said Lambert told her “maybe later.”
Esbay said she went [...]

Continue reading "Miranda Lambert Accused of Assault; Still Dating Blake Shelton"

Although the charts aren’t officially out until Thursday, word has it that George Strait earned his 56th No. 1 with “I Saw God Today.”
Another day, another pop artist wanting to make the crossover. Nelly Furtado has recorded a duet with Keith Urban on one of her previous hits, “In God’s Hands.” Check it out at [...]

Continue reading "George Strait Bags Fifty-Sixth No. 1"

One of the roundups at the beginning of the month included the news that founding member and lead singer of the Hacienda Brothers Chris Gaffney was diagnosed with liver cancer. His insurance wasn’t going to cover all of the costs, so a benefit and a website were set up to help collect donation. In a [...]

Continue reading "Hacienda Brothers’ Chris Gaffney Succumbed to Liver Cancer"

A whole slew of performers were added to the lineup for the CMA Music Festival, including everybody’s favorite Celebrity Apprentice, Trace Adkins. The lineup also sees Randy Travis returning after a decade long absence.
Do Lyle Lovett and Australian pop singer Ben Lee look alike? Sixty-eight percent of the voters at Spinner see at least some [...]

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Aside from making True Fans sound like stalkers, Kevin Kelly has a fascinating concept he calls 1,000 True Fans.
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
1,000 is [...]

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In a perfect world, The 9513 staff would select the ACM nominees and fans would not vote for Entertainer of the Year. Here in the real world, the Academy votes for the nominees, the fans vote for the Entertainer, and I make fun of both.
There are only two rules: as much as I’d like to, [...]

Continue reading "43rd Annual ACM Awards: Who Should Have Been Nominated"

Nominees for the CMT Music Awards have been announced with several new categories. Brad Paisley’s “Online” and Sugarland’s “Stay” each pulled multiple nominations.
Jeff Bates is back with a self-titled album due out on April 8th. “Jeff also tells us that this album will be ‘very different than my other albums because it’s a little more [...]

Continue reading "Brad Paisley’s “Online” Heads List of CMT Music Awards Nominees"

I can’t say I’m not a little sad that we’ve come to the close of my 2008 preview. I’ve been married to this project for the past couple of weeks, tirelessly making calls and working the research channels in order to bring you everything you need to know about country music’s new artists in ‘08. [...]

Continue reading "Artists to Watch in 2008 (Part 5 of 5): Critic’s Picks"

Alabama was the story of the 1980s, one of the few artists from that decade that I don’t wish to forget. Alabama was country music’s first supergroup and one of its first superstars, so it’s surprising that their success didn’t immediately spawn a generation of successors. Nineties groups like Blackhawk, Ricochet, Shenandoah and Lonestar were [...]

Continue reading "The Year in Review: Everybody’s Trying to be the Next Alabama"