We Need To Talk About These 2024 ACM Awards Nominations
Every year as the nominations for country music awards come and go, it’s hard to not fall into a perfunctory attitude about them due to the cyclical and predictable nature of the nominees.
Every year as the nominations for country music awards come and go, it’s hard to not fall into a perfunctory attitude about them due to the cyclical and predictable nature of the nominees.
Started in 2019, the Grand Ole Opry’s NextStage program looks to highlight rising talent by featuring them more regularly on the Opry stage, and across the Grand Ole Opry’s various programs and properties.
The band’s new album Wandering Star comes at a time when so much is happening in country music independent of the mainstream, it’s hard to even keep up, and a band like Flatland Cavalry can almost get overlooked.
As the name implies, the new movie has a major musical component, pairing it perfectly with a soundtrack that could have implications well beyond the film, and expose an audience to important music and performers.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right now in country music. Available on all major streaming platforms.
Here comes the newest installment of the Hunger Games movie franchise that not only has a bunch of deserving artists on the soundtrack, but has a significant musical element throughout the script.
Flatland Cavalry is the latest independent country band from Texas to partner with a major label, and is readying the release of their new album called Wandering Star out October 27th.
It’s pretty telling of how busy of a news week it is in country music when you have a controversy involving Miranda Lambert that stimulates Whoopi Goldberg to walk off the set of ‘The View’ in disgust, and it’s the second biggest story.
Over the last few years, Born & Raised Fest in Pryor, Oklahoma has distinguished itself as one of the leading festivals in the independent country music space with an emphasis on the Texas and Red Dirt artists that were born and raised in the region. The 2023 installment will be no different.
While on the Red Carper at the 2023 Grammy Awards if February, someone from CBS shoved a microphone into the face of Luke Combs, and asked him “What song can you not stop listening to?” Luke’s answer? “John Prine’s son, Tommy Prine, wrote a song when his dad passed called ‘Ships in the Harbor.'”
Well it wasn’t just a lark apparently, and competing egos ended up not getting in the way, because the Texas supergroup epicentered around Lubbock called The Panhandlers have announced they’re ready to release their second official album called “Tough Country.”
Flatland Cavalry have their work cut out for them in the coming weeks and months. They’ve already been announced as one of the big beneficiaries of the massive stadium tour Luke Combs is throwing this year. But they won’t be sitting on their laurels in between.
On December 18th after Zach Bryan had three of his songs featured on Season 5, Episode 7 of the Paramount series Yellowstone, singer and songwriter Rich O’Toole took to social media to say that Zach’s song “Motorcycle Drive By” had borrowed/stolen the guitar/melody part from his song “Take My Heart” released in 2014.
Zach Bryan and the Paramount TV show Yellowstone rekindled their affinity for each other and in a big way on Sunday night, December 18th. The 7th episode of Season 5 included not one, not two, but three Zach Bryan songs via the official soundtrack, and not through a superimposed backing track.
The amount of country/roots/Americana releases coming at you each week has officially reached critical mass. And it will spill over like a school bus taking a dive into an above ground pool on Friday, October 28th. Luckily, you know about lil’ ol’ Saving Country Music, so at least you have a head start.
Finally. 14+ years into a 10 year town, and Hailey Whitters is receiving the attention from the mainstream of country music that many fans, critics, and prognosticators have been saying she deserved many years ago, wishcasting her as one of the future bright stars of the genre if she was just given a chance.
Held on the same grounds as the massive Rocklahoma gathering, Born & Raised boasted one of the best lineups all year on an incredibly crowded weekend. Just the Friday night lineup alone was worth the effort, with some of the best songwriters and performers in all of country music booked one after another.
Things in country music are changing, and across the board, even at an old relic like the Grand Ole Opry. Of course, it’s days of launching stars overnight are long gone. But you ask any artist in country music, and they’ll tell you that making their Grand Ole Opry debut is a lifetime bucket list achievement.
The final months of 2022 are here, and just like the first portion of the year, it is jam packed in an increasingly cluttered environment for new releases. Instead of being overwhelmed, use this guide to help you navigate through the crush of titles, with the first 20 albums listed considered some of the top releases.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.
No ladies and gentlemen, the Panhandlers weren’t just a lark. The supergroup of Texans consisting of Josh Abbott, William Clark Green, songwriter John Baumann, and Cleto Cordero of Flatland Cavalry has just released a boot-stomping, hard country tune called “Where Cotton Is King.”
Headlined by Zach Bryan on Saturday, and the Turnpike Troubadours on Sunday, other fast-rising names such as Charles Wesley Godwin, Flatland Cavalry, 49 Winchester, and Larry Fleet also round out the lineup. Greenville Country Fest also makes sure to include some native Carolina blood.
Well, we certainly didn’t see this coming, but it’s very hard to argue with. In the midst of the Grand Ole Opry’s ongoing effort to finally induct worthy artists as official members after having been passed over for many years, Charlie McCoy and Don Schlitz have both been invited.
Fans of Kaitlin Butts have been waiting like patience on a monument for a new album. But maybe the release of ‘What Else Can She Do?’ will finally be her moment. Taking a critical assessment of the record, it’s hard to argue why it shouldn’t be.