Hopefully everything is okay with Jason Isbell, and especially if it isn’t, he deserves our understanding and grace. But it also feels like consumers deserve more leeway and explanation if performers expect that courtesy to be reciprocated.
The New York Times did do something last week to help address the continuing controversy around their songwriters list, and it became an excellent illustration of the deeper cultural rot at the heart of elite music coverage.
Songwriting with purpose that’s unafraid to grow older and wiser with its audience, clothed in country rock music that’s unafraid to yearn for wide and infectious appeal—this is the experience of ‘A Heavy Duty Heart.’
When Jason Isbell released the song “When We Were Close” on his 2023 album “Weathervanes,” it created some interest, and stirred some controversy since the song is about Justin Townes Earle.
Jelly Roll is finally starting to experience the widespread scrutiny his life, career, and music has deserved for a few years now. But it’s coming in a very unusual, and frankly, misguided manner.
Sarah Trahern’s tenure at the CMA wasn’t really marked with any especially remarkable achievements or catastrophic mistakes. She wasn’t really vilified by purists or lauded by the industry.
“Songwriter.” Many people can claim the skill, whether it’s on an amateur or professional level. Few reach the point where they become synonymous with the term, and recognized universally as a titan of the discipline.
What is it about the Grammy system that doesn’t allow that one consensus album of a given year to rise to the top like it should, like it didn’t for the Turnpike Troubadours in 2025?
With nominations in all of the categories he was eligible in, Tyler Childers leads all nominees in country music with four. Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert tie Childers.
Hate on Lower Broadway all you want. But if you really want to make a difference about how that area is evolving, steer people to the places down there that are still doing it right, that act like beacons of true artistic expression.
When the history books regard this era when the independent became the mainstream in country music, Tyler Childers will play perhaps the most important, and most pivotal role in that story.
Once again the public is being asked to weigh the character of Zach Bryan after an online imbroglio. And once again, the scenario feels like a big nothing burger, blown out of proportion.
Telluride Bluegrass doesn’t just entertain revelers on a local or regional level. It works as an incubator for talent, a launching pad for stars, and the implications of what transpires both on and off the stage is often momentous.
As he proved headlining the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Thursday, anyone recusing themselves from Jason Isbell’s music—either in album form, but especially in the live arena—are doing a dramatic disservice to their life’s musical experience.
So much for releasing only one more major label album, mostly stepping away from music, or outright retiring altogether, all of which Zach Bryan has flirted with or overtly promised over the last year or two.
Why is Morgan Wallen getting a second opportunity to play Saturday Night Live when there are so many other worthy names from the country and roots world that are still waiting for their first one?
Writing and recording divorce records in the era of non-disclosure agreements has to make for a difficult task. But if there’s any wordsmith out there in the world capable of navigating those hurdles, it’s probably Jason Isbell.
The debut country album from Shooter Jennings called Put The ‘O’ Back in Country was a critically-important moment in the country music revolution we’re currently in the midst of.
Three artists from three separate countries have released versions of “The Bullfighter” over the last two months. Who will be next? We will have to see.
After releasing his last many albums with his backing band The 400 Unit, and performing with them over the last many years, 2025 will see the release of a solo acoustic album, with a solo acoustic tour following.
There are many music festivals these days, but there’s only one Telluride Bluegrass Festival. As one of the oldest and most prestigious music gatherings in the world, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience each year.
It sets a bad precedent that when a titan of country music passes, we don’t take anything more than 20 seconds and a box of plastic cups to pay tribute. This is country music, and we honor our past legends.
“They were good until they got sober” is often the dumb offering from social media dunces when some musician goes sober. But contrary to this common misconception, sometimes sobriety brings the best out in an artist.
Crunching election data, a plan was hatched under the premise that if the institution of country music could be assuaged to become a political tool, it could help persuade the rural slice of the American electorate from red to blue.