Comments on: The Year in Review: Top 20 Country Music News Stories of 2007

By: fire joe morgan | New semi news

fire joe morgan | New semi news — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:34:50 +0000

[...] The Year in Review: Top 20 Country Music News Stories of 2007 [...]

By: Matt B

Matt B — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:30:31 +0000

Eva, even if Jim has seen her live, he could still hold the same position he does. He’s also not arrogant to feel what he feels about ‘national’ critics. It’s much the same way when comparing a national sports columnist to a local beat writer. The beat writer is going to know their ‘team’ better than the columnist.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:32:45 +0000

Sale Watson wanting to create a new label for traditional country music is well intentioned but unnecessary. What traditional country music needs is a supporting organizational structure to nuture new traditional artists and promote the genre. The CMA and ACM serve this purpose for mainstream, Top 40 pop-rock-county music, Bluegrass has the IBMA, and Americana has the AMA. The fact traditional artists now get dumped into the catch-all Americana realm marginalizes the music even further rather than supporting it.

Traditional country music related organizations in Nashville, such as the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Grand Ole Opry, and WSM should be the ones to found and sponsor the Traditional Country Music Association. I’d nominate WSM DJ Eddie Stubbs to be the first president as no one on the planet loves and values traditional country music more than than Eddie. The organization could help plan traditional country music festivals much like bluegrass festivals and maybe foster more traditional over the air radio stations like WSM in other markets.

Unless such an organization is founded the popularity of traditional country music will contine to decline in the US, and sadly follow the path of Cowboy music into obscurity. Traditional country doesn’t need a new name, just a support structure to help it flourish….

PS – As for Miranda Lambert, I voted for her consistently during the first season of Nashville Star and I’ve seen her in concert. Even so I still agree that the media hoopla and critical acclaim she’s received so far is far greater than her talent deserves at this point in time……

By: Eva Brazil

Eva Brazil — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:03:05 +0000

Jim, pretty arrogant stance you take towards your “fellow critics”. However, you still didn’t answer the question if you have seen Miranda perform live?

By: Matt B

Matt B — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:31:29 +0000

Jim, I tend to agree with you w/r/t Miranda. I’ve liked her from the get-go but she’s hardly great in my book. Hell, her album may barely make my “best of list” while none of her songs from this year did.

By: Jim Malec

Jim Malec — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:37:21 +0000

Eva–

Yes, I guess you could put it that way. I bet most of the critics at those magazines didn’t listen to more than five country albums all year.

By: Baron Lane

Baron Lane — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:51:37 +0000

Nice list. Garth’s comeback is hardly news though, it was just a matter of time and price.

By: Hollerin Ben

Hollerin Ben — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:15:37 +0000

nice roundup. This is one of the rare occasions where I completely agree with the top five entries in a countdown/list. well done.

By: Eva Brazil

Eva Brazil — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:20:54 +0000

just one question, has Jim Malec seen Miranda Lambert in concert? She is unbelievable and really delivers an amazing show. Not sure what he means with overrated… is he saying all these other well known critics (Blender, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone etc..) who love her music, don’t know what they are talking about.. kind of funny