Staying The Night at the Waylon Jennings FREE RV Park
23 CommentsNot much in life is truly free anymore, if it ever was. But there’s one glaring exception, beckoning to weary travelers and country music fans alike like an shimmering oasis in rural West Texas.
Hillbilly Casino’s Geoff Firebaugh Talks Live Album & Lower Broadway
5 CommentsOne of the last remaining bands that still holds onto that spirit that revitalized Lower Broadway and still plays there on a regular basis is Hillbilly Casino. Nearing their 10-year anniversary, the band that can regularly be seen playing Layla’s Bluegrass Inn has released a live album recorded at the Exit Inn called “Live in the USA.” I spoke to the Hillbilly Casino bass player Geoff Firebaugh about the album and Lower Broadway.
Garth Brooks Falls in Tulsa, Again on Stage Conveyor Belts
35 CommentsLuke Bryan, you officially have a rival for the clumsiest entertainer in country music. When we first heard of the return of Garth Brooks, we all wondered if he would ring up the score on the younger Bro-Country pups, but we didn’t know it would be from how many times he’s waxed on stage. Garth experienced a pretty serious fall during his Saturday, January 10th show.
Viral Mashup Exposes Silent Majority of Disgruntled Country Fans
62 CommentsOn Wednesday morning (1-7) when Saving Country Music received an unsolicited email from a “Sir Mashalot” touting a video that had been uploaded to YouTube back on November 4th of 2014, who knew that it would become the first country music viral sensation of the young, fertile year. Subsequently the video has gone über viral, racking up nearly 2.2 million views at the time of this post.
Song Review – Reba McEntire’s “Going Out Like That”
31 Comments“Going Out Like That” is not just another single. It symbolizes the very first song from the NASH Icon enterprise pairing Big Machine Records with Cumulus Media in an effort to revitalize overlooked legacy artists, and the first single from Reba McEntire in nearly four years. As the precursor to a planned 2015 album release, the single also may give us a glimpse into what we can expect from a revamped Reba.
Odie Blackmon Talks Teaching George Jones College Course
16 CommentsAround the passing of The Possum in 2013, I remember the news of his widow Nancy setting up an endowment and scholarship fund for MTSU in the name of George Jones. What I didn’t know, and what has gone somewhat under-reported, is that the passing of George and the endowment encouraged the faculty of MTSU to enter a class on the life of George Jones into the school’s curriculum.
Party Down South’s Deadbeat Dad Josh Murray in Jail for Child Support
33 CommentsSo much for the lovable, huggable character that is portrayed on CMT’s flagship reality show Party Down South. Saving Country music is able to report that the large, Louise, Mississippi native famous for getting naked at a moment’s notice on the show is currently incarcerated in the Humphreys County, Mississippi jail for back owed child support to the tune of $14,000.
Mashup Illustrates How Many Country Hits Are The Same
149 CommentsWe complain all the time about how today’s popular country music pretty much all sounds the same, but is this really true from a technical standpoint? That is what one enterprising Audiophile and songwriter set out to illustrate by making a mashup of some of Bro-Country’s biggest singles over the last couple of years in a pretty mind-blowing and revealing video.
Saving Country Music’s 2014 Artist of the Year
44 CommentsThis isn’t going to be some long form praising of Sturgill Simpson’s work in 2014, or yet another rundown of his long list of successes last year. There’s already been plenty of that, arguably too much of it, and I am just as tired of writing about it as you are of reading of it. Yeah yeah, Sturgill Simpson’s great, but his name has become the independent country version of click bait.
The Opry Trends Older As Newer Stars Shirk Obligations
74 CommentsOut of the 67 current members of the Opry, only 25 of them fulfilled their 10 appearance obligation, and three of those died during the year. 11 members didn’t make any appearances at all. But what may be more interesting is who is appearing on the Opry to take up the slack. Of the Top 11 performing members at the Grand Ole Opry in 2014, the average age was 79-years-old.
Kentucky’s Fifth on the Floor Is Breaking Up
11 CommentsLexington, Kentucky-based Southern rock / sometimes country band Fifth on the Floor is breaking up, according to a missive sent out by the band today (1-6-15). Led by songwriter and lead singer Justin Wells, Fifth on the Floor was seen by many as one of the most promising upstart Southern rock bands of the last decade, releasing three albums over the eight year span of the project.
Craig Wayne Boyd’s “My Baby’s Got A Smile On Her Face”
27 CommentsBoyd’s “My Baby’s Got A Smile On Her Face” became only the second single to debut at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart ever. The other #1 debut was Garth Brooks’ “More Than A Memory” from 2007. This development had the media going crazy, ready to annoint Craig as the genre’s next superstar. this week it has completely dropped out of the Top 25. Poof, it’s gone. Sales of the song dropped a whopping 94%.
Jamey Johnson Offers New Song “Alabama Pines” for Free
25 CommentsBaby New Year all swaddled and cooing dropped a welcomed gift for traditional country fans on New Years Day while many people were busy boiling up New Year feasts and fixated on college football. Jamey Johnson, mere months removed from launching his own record label called Big Gassed Records, offered a free song to his fans called “Alabama Pines.”