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Toby Keith – “Somewhere Else”
Songwriters: Toby Keith and Bobby Pinson The first two singles from Toby Keith’s latest album, Bullets in the Gun, have landed short of the Top Ten (“Trailerhood” and the title track). It’s a rare double miss for the ACM Entertainer of the Year nominee after nearly 20 years of chart success. He returns to radio [...]
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Dave Alvin Scores TV Gig; Randy Traywick’s (Travis) Publicity Photo; The Grascals Find Success with Cracker Barrel
Davin Alvin will make a guest appearance in, and wrote a new song for, the second season of the FX channel’s crime-drama series Justified. My pal Kelly Dearmore digs the new Hayes Carll record, KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories), even if it doesn’t exactly make him forget about its predecessor. [...] this is the [...]
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Alan Jackson Splits with Longtime Label; Bloodshot Signs Lydia Loveless; The Steep Canyon Rangers Celebrate 10 Years
After 22 years together, Alan Jackson and Arista Nashville are parting ways. As for a future label home, Jackson’s manager says there’s currently three options that look really good, but doesn’t mention what they are. Our Country’s Chris Willman gets more into the specifics of what the split means. Something else to think about: Trace [...]
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Dallas Wayne Added to Heybale Lineup; The Smilin’ Irishman of Country Music Passed Away; Lionel Richie Recording Country Duets
Singer, songwriter, and Sirius deejay Dallas Wayne has been announced as the replacement for Gary Claxton in the band Heybale. The Austin Chronicle‘s Margaret Moser published a really cool profile on Elizabeth McQueen, who in turn, dishes out a lot of praise for Ray Benson and Willie Nelson. The Smilin’ Irishman of Country Music James [...]
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Cherryholmes Disband; Taylor Swift’s New Video; Shania Twain Chosen For Canadian Music Hall of Fame
The Cherryholmes are disbanding. Many of you have watched us from the beginning. You’ve seen our children grow into young adults. Though it is bittersweet, there comes a time in a family when seasons change. We’ve always known this season would come. Now that it has, we believe it is only right that our young [...]
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The Automatic Add Club
“For the first time in my career I really feel like I have some real momentum going here,” Blake Shelton told me during an interview a couple of years back. “I’ve never had that. I’ve always been the guy that’s making a comeback every time.” What he meant was that at that time radio didn’t [...]
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The C Word
There is country radio, and then there is Country Radio. When I first began covering the business a decade ago, I was at first annoyed to see the way that radio insiders insisted on referring to their milieu as “Country Radio” in every casual mention (see here)—but I eventually became grateful for the useful distinction. [...]
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Mailbag: The Blake Shelton Guest Edition
Why is country music the best? Country music is more diverse than any other genre. It embraces a lot of styles and sounds and Country artists are influenced by all those different styles. And…Country music fans have the biggest boobs. – Blake Shelton In what city is there a street named George Jones Place? I [...]
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Sugarland Settles Lawsuit with Founder Kristen Hall; Country Shows Expand; Anna Wilson Adds Jazz to Country Standards
Current Sugarland members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush settled a lawsuit with the group’s founding member, Kristen Hall, who claims she was owed more than $14 million. Details of the settlement weren’t disclosed. NPR’s Meredith Ochs says the new Hank Williams box set The Complete Mother’s Best Recordings…Plus! challenges commonly held perceptions: Though it’s well-known [...]
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In Defense of the Critic
Kevin J. Coyne over at Country Universe caused a ripple in the space-time continuum of the country music blogoverse a couple of weeks ago with his ruthless takedown of Sugarland’s latest. “The Incredible Machine is a terrible album, an unmitigated disaster that manages to fail in ways that shouldn’t even be possible,” he wrote, concluding [...]
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- Jack Hanford: For those who are interested, there is a new 90-minute documentary video about Tompall & the Glaser Brothers on DVD ...
- joe morris: how come nobody mentions his fan club which started 1950 and was called the " the penny pushers " which ...
- jane: I'm reading this article in 2013 and I've yet to hear anything from the album played on the radio.....
- Catwandy: I guess Matt C. is eating his well-deserved crow 'bout now. Critics....gotta love 'em , bless their little hearts.
- Ed McClendon: Saw the brothers in Greeley CO on the occasion of Tompall's 50th birthday. The show wasn't well promoted and there ...
- Roby Fox: I'm sure no one else will know, or even care about this little tidbit of trivia. "Keep Your Change" was ...
- kate wonders: Roni Stoneman is still on Hee Haw every Sunday night on RFD channel.
- Marsha Blades: Tommy, You were so kind to me during a tough time in my life and I don't think I ever ...
- Leona Jones: I seen Chris at the Grand Ole Opry last week.. First time I have heard of him.. He rocked the ...
- Sonicjar Music: Agree with Lucas, But one thing is certain, for a song to come to existence, so many things have to ...
