(Ryan Bingham’s new album Junky Star is on sale for a limited time through Amazon for $3.99. CLICK HERE.) Hey Ryan, it’s me, Country Music. I’ve been hearing some interesting things lately, about how you’re eager to dispel that your music is country. This puts me in a weird position, because I’m used to people [...]
I had no idea what to expect when driving down into Dallas to see Willis Alan Ramsey perform. Information on the legendary, but somewhat reclusive songwriter is scant at best. No website, no calendar or social network sites to help. If you’re not religiously scanning the fine print of your local alternative newsweekly, and you [...]
When it boils right down to it, what is it going to take to Save Country Music? Hard work, education, and grass roots efforts are one way, but the magic bullet would be an artist that could rise above all the arguments dividing country music, and offer widespread appeal through a new approach while also [...]
I’d love to tell you that I know a lot about Larry Jon Wilson, who died Monday at 69 from a stroke, but truth is I only know him through the bits of his music that have passed under my nose over the years, and from his appearance in the documentary Heartworn Highways. There isn’t [...]
Today we’re met with the sad news that actor Dennis Hopper has died of cancer. As a star in films like Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now and others, and as a long time friend of Willie Nelson, Dennis could could be kind of seen as an honorary country music Outlaw so to speak. Especially since [...]
The sheer speed at which American pop country is devolving before our very eyes can only be described as “awesome.” It is the evolutionary equivalent of if we could witness a species of apes evolve into a new race of humans in the length of a football season. As the creatively bankrupt boardrooms of Music [...]
I’m going to have a lot to say about this record, but the upshot is that its damn good. It is an improvement from Hank III’s last offering Damn Right, Rebel Proud. It may not be his best album, or the album of the year, but considering all the different factors Hank had to juggle [...]
When you hear the name Roger Alan Wade you’re likely to hear somewhere before or after “Johnny Knoxville’s cousin.” Not that anything is wrong with being Knoxville’s cousin, or even maybe using that to help your music career, but Roger has songs numbering in the hundreds. He’s written for Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, [...]
Today is the day that original country music Outlaw Billy Joe Shaver faces trial for shooting 50-year-old Billy Coker in the cheek outside of Papa Joe’s Saloon in Lorena, TX, on March, 31st of 2007. Shaver’s charged with aggravated assault. The incident has been memorialized in the song Where Do You Want It? from the [...]
As I first reported here, Michigan-based honky tonk band Whitey Morgan & The 78′s have signed with Chicago-based independent label Bloodshot Records. Both times I saw them at South by Southwest, their live show did not disappoint. Whitey might be the closest thing to Waylon you can see these days. There’s a lot of bands [...]
I’m gonna start this off with a prediction: Either this album will be some groundbreaking marquee release in rock n’ roll history, or it will be the most curious find in the bargain bin in short order. It is pure genius, or an unforgivable stroking of ego. Either way, Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, is [...]
I told you. Once Music Row figured out there is a HUGE group of disgruntled REAL country music fans out there with money to spend, they were going to start manufacturing their own “Outlaws,” fresh faced and focused grouped, ready to maximize their profits with fashion plate country. Well ladies and gentleman, I give you [...]
That’s right, don’t rub your eyes or go hunting for your glasses. The one and only Merle Haggard is going to be on Outlaw Radio Chicago this Wednesday night (2-17-10) at 8 PM CENTRAL. It can be heard on scrubradio.com live, and if you miss it, the episode will be posted right here at savingcountrymusic.com/outlaw-radio. [...]
When Hank Williams III’s album Damn Right, Rebel Proud went to #2 in the charts last year, this was a significant development in the movement to Reinstate Hank Williams to the Grand Ole Opry because of the first track, “The Grand Ole Opry (Ain’t So Grand),” was a song protesting the Grand Ole Opry’s stance. [...]
During his appearance last night on Outlaw Radio, Lucky Tubb announced plans for new albums, and new tours including opening for Hank III on a yet-to-be-announced March tour, and then his own tour of Europe this summer. The new album will be called Hillbilly Fever and will include 13 tracks, including what Lucky calls “Tubb [...]
TONIGHT (12-9) at the stroke of midnight Central time, The Highwaywoman Brigitte London, a great songwriter and editor of Outlaw Magazine will be on Big G’s Texas Roadshow, streaming online at revfmradio.com. Brigitte will be talking about among other things “Outlaw Afternoons in Luckenbach” which will be a monthly event running from March to October [...]
Lately so much music has been coming out from oldtime artists I follow, I can hardly keep up. Hopefully in the future I will have features or reviews on all of these projects, but in the meantime here they all are to bring you up to speed. If there’s one album you like to see [...]
Back in the mid 70′s-the first time country music was saved- The Outlaws of country like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings found a home and harbor from Nashville’s ill ways in the Austin, TX singer-songwriter scene. People like Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphy, Townes Van Zandt, and Ray Wylie Hubbard had made Austin a [...]
I’ve got so many great readers and supporters, and it seems like everyone has something they try to support beyond REAL country music. I wish I had more time to investigate and be more involved in all of these great causes, but there is only so much time in the day, as they say. I [...]
Recently, especially after the Newsweek article decrying pop country came out, I’ve seen an uptick in blogs and articles wondering if the pop influences in the genre have gone too far. We all know my opinion on the matter, but I have been encouraged in this uptick in commentary. Even if the majority of people [...]
