-
Brad Paisley Recording Duet With Buck Owens
The forthcoming Brad Paisley instrumental album won’t be strictly instrumentals. According to GAC, there will be three or four vocal pieces, including a duet with Buck Owens.
Brad got permission to work with the track from Buck’s company, and Brad thinks it’s “the most special thing on the record.”
“He wrote a song that works great as [...]Continue reading "Brad Paisley Recording Duet With Buck Owens"
-
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"
-
Carrie Underwood Invited to Become Grand Ole Opry Member: Can I Say “I Told You So?”
Randy Travis surprised Carrie Underwood on the Grand Ole Opry stage last night after she finished singing her cover of “I Told You So” and asked Underwood to become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry. A tearful Carrie accepted the Opry’s invitation.
If you’re a regular The 9513 reader, this is old news. [...] -
Comedy Central Postpones Willie Nelson Roast
Due to scheduling conflicts, Comedy Central had to postpone the highly-anticipated April 17th roasting of Willie Nelson. A new date has not been determined yet. (via ggcolumn)
Despite the numerous hits in Randy Travis’ repertoire, Shirley Jinkins of the Star-Telegram says one of his best performances Saturday night at Billy Bob’s was an unlikely one.
He turned [...]Continue reading "Comedy Central Postpones Willie Nelson Roast"
-
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”"
-
Jason Boland and Aaron Watson Team Up for Texas Tour
Score 1 for the traditional country fans in Texas. Jason Boland and Aaron Watson announced they’ll be joining forces for a tour across the Lone Star State starting in April.
While discussing past magazine ideas, No Depression’s Grant Alden mentions the issue with Miranda Lambert on the cover was, to the best of his knowledge, [...]Continue reading "Jason Boland and Aaron Watson Team Up for Texas Tour"
-
Bust Out The Vinyl and Sleeveface Your Favorite Artists
Sleeveface.com is a website gaining in popularity, and deservedly so as the illusions created can be quite entertaining. The term sleeveface is defined as “one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.” Basically a person holds a sleeve of a vinyl disc featuring [...]
Continue reading "Bust Out The Vinyl and Sleeveface Your Favorite Artists"
-
Hillbilly Poetry Playlist: An Introduction to Recitations
The recitation is a tradition embedded deep in country music. It’s the art of storytelling that involves spoken words with musical accompaniment, and usually has a strong moral undertone. They vary in subject matter, from the honorary (”I Remember Johnny Horton” - Claude King) to the infinitely cheesy (”To a Sleeping Beauty” - Jimmy Dean). [...]
Continue reading "Hillbilly Poetry Playlist: An Introduction to Recitations"
-
Christmas Playlist And Music Giveaway
Whether you’re a fan of Christmas music or not, it’s hard to avoid during the month of December. So in the spirit of the holidays each of The 9513’s editors decided to give you some download fodder and jotted out a list of their favorite holiday inspired tunes. Be sure to share some of your [...]
-
Country Music Accounts For A Fourth Of Radio’s Top 100 Songs
CMT has a new blog up where multiple authors are posting, one of which is Sunny Sweeney. She’s already written about two of my favorite Texas guys in Adam Hood and Jason Boland and the Stragglers. She said people kept asking her if she only listens to old country, and she did until recently when [...]
Continue reading "Country Music Accounts For A Fourth Of Radio’s Top 100 Songs"
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
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
- Jim Malec: Considering that Ben once wrote an article praising the promise and impact of Taylor Swift, I don't think agenda is ...
- Drew: Well said... just a total waste of an album.
- Paula_W: I havent heard the record (nor will I) but I really really enjoyed reading this review. Whether the actual ...
- Trailer: Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the album either. It's decent background music and I'd give it a 2 ...
- Guy: How do I become a reviewer / critic like Ben? I want in on this .... it seems like he's having ...
- Pierce: I'm not a huge Brad fan, but a moderate one. I, too, disliked this album, but my commercial guitar ...
- TAYERS: Whoa. No more coffee for Ben, okay?
- Jim Malec: I'm going to go ahead and stand up for Ben before this Ben-bashing gets out of hand. This was a ...
- Pierce: Being too harsh? I thought I was being easy on him... there's no way I'm going to give a thumbs ...
- Kelly: Did Aimee Mayo and/or Chris Lindsey have anything to do with this album, Ben??
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






