For years I’ve been thinking that a cool way to present the legends of country music would be to illustrate the genre’s top artists through a deck of cards. Where to place what artist, what suit would be suited best for certain performers all seems like it would create great discussion points.
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.
Full of original classic country songs that sound like they’re recorded 60 years too late (in the best of ways), it is a breath of fresh air compared to many of today’s modern country monstrosities, and a worthy introduction to an artist we hope to hear much more from in years to come.
50 years ago today on December 12th, 1972, Randall Hank Williams Jr. and his wife Gwyn Yeargain welcomed their first and only child into the world. Keeping with the family tradition, they gave him the middle name of Hank, with his full christening taking shape as Shelton Hank Williams III.
Beginning earlier in November—and rising to a fevered pitch over the last few days—there has been concern that the house of Hank Williams called Beechwood Hall is about to be demolished. But the house’s ties to country music and it’s history deserve greater context.
The truth is, Hank Williams at the time was in the twilight of his life, whether he knew it or not. Having suffered chronic back pain throughout adulthood that aided his alcoholism, by late 1952, Hank had turned thin, frail, incontinent, and had lost most of his hair, even though he was only 29 years old.
The album ‘Purgatory’ by Tyler Childers will go down in history as one of the most important and successful releases by any country music artist in the last ten years, and perhaps in history. But now it’s time for Tyler’s ‘Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?’ to attempt to grip our attention.
A new Johnny Cash compilation, as well as a 10th year Anniversary/Deluxe Edition of the James Hand studio album ‘Mighty Lonesome Man’ is coming from the Austin, TX-based independent record label Hillgrass Bluebilly Records. The releases are part of a last hurrah and Grand Finale from the label after releasing multiple original albums, compilations, and reissues over the past 15 years.
It’s official now. Tyler Childers is going back to his Gospel roots and religious upbringing in his latest album Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven, which is actually a collection of three albums in a unique concept where all eight songs are rendered three different ways. Announced Thursday…
‘Rolling Stone’ published a list of the The 100 Greatest Country Albums of All Time this week, and as per usual, it has many arguing its merits, omissions, and inclusions. There was a time when whatever Rolling Stone said was taken as the definitive word in music. These days it’s more polarizing.
On August 11th, 1952—70 years ago today—one of the most notorious moments in country music history occurred. The original King of Country Music, and the genre’s first undisputed superstar, Hank Williams, was unceremoniously fired from the institution that he helped bring to prominence.
Undeniably baby faced, but sounding as mature as anyone and standing at an imposing 6’5″, young Alex Miller is here to re-instill your faith in the future of the country music genre, and maybe in life itself. The Kentucky native is definitely country.
Dolly Parton will be one of the next inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The next question is how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will consider country performers for induction moving forward. This moment presents a slippery slope.
A fourth generation of the Hank Williams lineage will officially be crowned when IV and the Strange Band featuring Coleman Williams release their debut album ‘Southern Circus’ on June 17th via the Black Country Rock label owned by Shooter Jennings.
The nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced last month, and leading the pack and making the biggest splash was not a name from the rock world, but a country one in the form of Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton.
It was 1913, and ethnic Jews living in the Ukraine region of the Russian Empire were regularly subjected to brutal, mob-like massacres, known as pogroms. Just two years after a young boy named Nuta Kotlyarenko (Нута Котляренко) was born in Kiev on December 15th, 1902.
The bloodlines of Jennings and Williams are running together once again as the great grandson of Hank Williams, grandson of Hank Jr., and the son of Hank Williams III has signed with the record label of the son of Waylon Jennings, Black Country Rock.
Before you can understand where country music is going, you first have to know where it’s been. And since the very beginning of the genre, country music has been calling on the roots of Gospel music for much of its structure and inspiration.
On December 9th, 1996, with his career forgotten and his health failing, Faron Young decided to end his own life. He penned a suicide note specifically enumerating the decline in his career, and how he felt abandoned and forgotten by country music as one of the causes
Capturing a classic country sound with a faraway feel, Nick Sizemore carried a handful of his original songs into the studio with producer Brett Robinson and captured just about the perfect mood for this material. Morose and melancholy, Nick Sizemore seizes the essence of the sad country song both in writing and sound.
There’s just about nothing that will give you deeper chills in country music than the delivery of the final verse in the song “The Ride” written by Gary Gentry, J. B. Detterline Jr., and performed by David Allan Coe. It’s almost like seeing a ghost. That may not be by accident.
On this night in 1951 when Hank found the time to record the demo for “Tear In My Beer,” and 40 years later when it became a big hit in country, it proved that a good song with a simple sentiment can often withstand the ultimate test of time, and be entered into eternal cultural relevance.
Imagine having backed Hank Williams on his legendary Grand Ole Opry debut in 1949, or playing behind any of the other country music legends who performed on that hallowed stage during the Opry’s golden era. This was the fortune of steel guitarist Billy Robinson.
Could it be that the most important and influential bloodline in country music history actually has a lost branch? Country History X Episode #11 delves into this complicated and convoluted story, while now a 4th generation of performers have emerged looking to carry on Hank’s name.