Embarrassment for Toby Keith’s ‘Red Solo Cup’ ACM Nods

For those fans of Hank Williams III that wished he’d stayed or go back to his early 2000′s neo-traditionalist country style and release more material reminiscent of that era, you may have just received your wish. And for the Hank3 fans that are worried that his post-Curb career will be marred by incessant album releases of rehashed material, your concerns have just been validated.

Diamonds & Gasoline has a lot of the common earmarks of a Red Dirt album, and a lot of a good freshman album, even though officially it is their 2nd release. I really like this album, but moreover, I really like their potential, and am excited to see what the Turnpike Troubadours have to offer in the future.

American Idol introduced Jason “Wolf” Hamlin as one of this year’s contestants on the episode that aired Sunday night. If you reacted positively to seeing Jason “Wolf” Hamlin on American Idol and said “Well hell, I kind of like this guy. I may actually watch this stupid show this year!” just understand that is exactly what the folks in Hollywood wanted you to say.

Something remarkable happened in music in 2011: sales stabilized. What the music industry is ignoring, as well as virtually everyone else in the SOPA argument, is this dramatic and unexpected stabilization of music sales. Where did it come from and why? When you dig deep into the numbers there are two answers: women and vinyl.

Saving Country Music, along with Muddy Roots and Cracker Swamp have teamed up with Hillgrass Bluebilly’s 5th Annual XSXSW showcase to create a two day, three stage event for the edification of the underground roots fan, and to help represent the independent roots community to the rest of the independent music world.

Whether it is punk bands that simply interchange their electric instruments for acoustic ones, or bands that have a more traditional country sound, but overload it with “whiskey, devil, and drug” references, parody in the “punk gone country” movement has become a problem primarily by the way these artists can typecast other country punk bands, fans, and entities.