-
Songwriters: Who’s Your Favorite Unsung Hero?
Without songwriters, we wouldn’t have any songs, but they hardly receive the recognition they deserve for the contributions they make. We have the greats that are obvious like Harlan Howard, Cindy Walker, and even Hank Williams that are hard to pass up–and they really aren’t all that lacking in the accolades–so let’s limit this to [...]
Continue reading "Songwriters: Who’s Your Favorite Unsung Hero?"
-
Your Take: Favorite Line From A Song
Sometimes a line in a song will make you stop and think a minute or you might not put two and two together until later, but you’ll pay attention to it every time it comes around when you hear that particular song, or it just might make you laugh out loud. Every line in “Pancho [...]
-
Your Take: Bad List, Good List?
In an email we received this week, one of our regular readers asked why the use of lists in the lyrics of a couple of recent single reviews was frowned upon. It’s a great question (see the latest mailbag for the other kind of question), so I decided to expand upon it and get feedback [...]
-
Your Take: The Experience Element In Songwriting
In Matt’s review of Ashton Shepherd’s forthcoming album, the issue of experience in songwriting and whether or not it is a prerequisite to crafting a more realistic or meaningful song cropped up in the comments. A few readers weighed in with their thoughts, but I thought the issue would make for a good discussion outside [...]
Continue reading "Your Take: The Experience Element In Songwriting"
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
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
- Chris N.: Is there some hidden emotional trauma in “Let the Good Times Roll” that I'm not catching? It's kind of a ...
- Roger: isn't anybody working this afternoon?...you hit a nerve ben!!!!
- Peter: I'm surprised no one has mentioned the cute dialogue at the start of Start A Band. Where KU drops his ...
- Razor X: "That T-Shirt with the abstract heart shape he wore at the CMA’s was amazingly arrogant….like Terrel Owens level arrogant." Huh??
- idlewildsouth: So making an album to display one of your strengths is arrogant? Wether or not you enjoyed the album, you ...
- Hollerin' Ben: Chris N. "I’m still not sure what’s so arrogant about it." I'd say that cutting an instrumental record where you play fast ...
- Paula_W: This is what I love about country music. Damn shame it’s so hard to find. Amen.
- Trailer: Well, there's this one chord progression on track 3 that subliminally says "I can shred better than Hendrix and my ...
- Kelly: That T-Shirt with the abstract heart shape he wore at the CMA's was amazingly arrogant....like Terrel Owens level arrogant.
- Chris N.: I'm still not sure what's so arrogant about it.
