20 Years Ago: The Tragic Death of Gary Stewart
There is perhaps no artist, no performer in the history of country music whose impact, influence, appeal, and footprint so far outpaced the recognition he received in life and death than Gary Stewart.
There is perhaps no artist, no performer in the history of country music whose impact, influence, appeal, and footprint so far outpaced the recognition he received in life and death than Gary Stewart.
There are concerts. Then there are concerts that go on to be so iconic, they become etched into the consciousness of music indelibly and forevermore. On December 3rd, 1993, Johnny Cash played one such concert.
Let’s delve a little bit deeper into this Paul Cauthen arrest business to clear up some misconceptions, address some unfair criticisms, and talk about how all of this plays into the independent country music community at large.
There’s nobody out there pushing the creativity of country music to the edges of human consciousness like Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are doing here, even among the gaggle of young bucks fresh and hungry to make their mark.
In the founding era of country rock, guitarist Tom Leadon was right there witnessing and participating in some of the most important moments and projects. He just happened to be overshadowed in many respects by the bigger names that country rock would launch.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve likely seen the iconic image of Johnny Cash aggressively flipping the bird from back in the day. In fact, you’ve probably seen it all over the place, perhaps to where you may be tired of seeing it at this point. But few remember how it came into the world.
It is very important to contextualize that Luke Combs has completely scrubbed Confederate flags from his image, and for many years now—a critically important point not relayed by Margo Price’s tweet. If nothing else, this should exonerate Billy Strings from having to answer for anything.
In 2013, rock icon Tom Petty had some unsavory words for what was happening in modern country music. “Well, yeah I mean, I hate to generalize on a whole genre of music, but it does seem to be missing that magic element that it used to have.” Chris Stapleton responded with a letter, and an offer.
The somewhat curious, but super cool obsession that the current King of Country Music George Strait has for rock legend Tom Petty continues. It has been announced that Strait will host a tribute to Tom Petty on Petty’s dedicated SiriusXM channel. Strait will spin some tunes and share some Tom Petty stories.
It’s not that it’s especially strange for someone to be a fan of Tom Petty. It’s just that when you think of George Strait, you think of the quintessential straight-laced and starched Wranglers good ol’ country guy, not singing along to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”
It was June 11th, 2019, and the music world was left in shock and anger after the publishing of an investigative report by The New York Times detailing the loss of an estimated 175,000 master tapes, and some 500,000 total songs in a fire on the grounds of Universal Studios in Hollywood, California.
Margo Price will release her latest record called That’s How Rumors Get Started on May 8th after moving on from Jack White’s Third Man Records to Loma Vista, an imprint of Concord Records. Margo released her first taste of new music in mid January with the song “Stone Me.” Now we get the first proper single.
If you didn’t get your fill with Blackberry Smoke’s recent record ‘Find a Light,’ or it just increased your appetite for their infectious classic Southern rock vibe, well then you’re in luck. The Atlanta, Georgia boys will be releasing the ‘Southern Ground Sessions EP’ as an accompaniment to ‘Find A Light.’
As the end of the year draws near, it comes time to reflect on all the country music greats big and small, superstars and sidemen, session players and songwriters, who passed away in the past year, and pay our respects to the contributions they made to country music, and to us as fans through the music they shared.
The President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, is furious with the Jason Aldean camp for allegedly turning down the UFC’s offer to sing the National Anthem before UFC 2016 Saturday night in Las Vegas, citing that he was still to shaken up to perform, and may never to perform again, only to show up to unexpectedly on SNL.
According to numerous reports, Tom Petty was rushed to the hospital Sunday (10-1) night when he was found in his Malibu home unconscious, and not breathing, having suffered from cardiac arrest. They were able to get a pulse on Petty as he was rushed to UCLA Santa Monica Hospital where he was placed on life support.
Tom Petty and a host of other cool folks have come together to collaborate on Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers alumnus Chris Hillman’s first record in over a decade called ‘Bidin’ My Time.’ The album includes a collection of songs from in and around Chris Hillman’s career, but many that fell through the cracks in one way or another.
It don’t matter who’s on country radio, Chris Stapleton is still the current king of country music when it comes to recognition and album sales. A solid 16 months since he shocked the world at the 2015 CMA Awards, and he is still the perennial chart topper on the country albums charts with Traveller most every week, and there is no signs of it slowing down soon.
“The Driver” is Charles Kelley’s version of Theodore Roosevelt buying a $700 cowboy shirt and heading for the Dakota badlands, or Rose from Titanic choosing to attend the dance in the boiler room instead of the ballroom because the help knows how to party better. It’s this strange, striving for everything Charles Kelley and Lady Antebellum isn’t that defines this solo album.
While “Red, White & You” makes an ironclad case for itself as the worst “country” song in the history of recorded music, it indisputably takes the top prize for the worst lyrical line the world has ever been forced to behold. What the hell does “yum yum” mean you ask?
Heading into the final couple of months of 2015, there may not be a hotter name in country music among critics and distinguished listeners than Chris Stapleton. The long wait for his often-rumored and much-delayed debut album was finally rewarded on May 5th with the release of the Dave Cobb-produced “Traveller,” and fans were not let down.
Bingham recorded the album with producer Jim Scott, well known for his work with Wilco, Tom Petty, and The Dixie Chicks. The twelve songs of Fear and Saturday Night were written in seclusion. Bingham sequestered himself in an Airstream trailer in the California mountains without electricity or phone service, and drew inspiration from his tale-riddled and troubled life.
Call it Bro-Country, call it just plain bad, but Merle Haggard apparently prefers to call the puss oozing from the open sore that is modern-day radio country “Boogie Boogie Wham-Bam.” And hey, he’s Merle freaking Haggard, so he can call it whatever the hell he wants. “Too much boogie boogie wham-bam and not enough substance. It’s all the same musicians, too,” Merle said.
Oh Jason, this is most unfortunate. Since Jason Aldean has re-entered the single life after getting caught in a douche-soaked nightclub on the Sunset Strip handling up on some American Idol semifinalist castoff, now he thinks he’s Mr. Sexy, taking cues from Jerrod Niemann and entering the EDM space to keep the child support money streaming in.