Well hot damn. If you wanted to see two of just about the best songwriters out there at the moment together, Vincent Neil Emerson and John R. Miller have just announced a joint tour of intimate venues that will be worth suffering a hangover at work the next day for.
Over the last few years, we all haven’t been able to stop harping on all the great country music talent coming out of the greater Appalachian region, from Kentucky, to West Virginia, to the Commonwealth, to south and eastern Ohio. One festival has its finger squarely on the pulse.
It seems these days that life pinballs back and forth from one disaster to another. You almost have to be reminded that on December 10th, a cluster of tornadoes ravaged Western Kentucky and the surrounding areas and states, leaving a large swath of destruction.
The benchmarks a Song of the Year winner must meet, and the stress test it must endure is more strenuous than any other in music. We’re not looking for some infectious fanny shaker here, or even a song that might stir an emotional moment.
The annual Essential Albums list is Saving Country Music’s most comprehensive guide to the music of a given year. Drawing from the over 100 album reviews published during the year, this is where you come to find what you might have missed in a very busy year for releases.
The tornadoes that ravaged large swaths of Western Kentucky on December 10th struck at the very heart of country music’s heartland, and what’s become the launching point for the current country music revolution led very much by artists from Kentucky.
New for 2021 are the Single of the Year nominees, which are songs whose primary litmus test is simply the enjoyment they convey. The Single of the Year are more well-rounded offerings that have proven infectiousness.
Tickets to the two shows sold out almost immediately. But if you still want to get in on the action, you can do so by paying into a livestream of one or both of the events via fans.live. Tickets will be $19.99 in advance, and $24.99 after the concert has commenced. Or you can purchase tickets to both nights.
Mountain Stage’s longtime host Larry Groce is not going anywhere just yet, so there’s no call for misty eyes and career retrospectives. But after having co-founded and hosted the show since 1983, it was announced last week that Larry will be seceding weekly host duties to Kathy Mattea.
In the throes of summer is the best time to shake up your musical diet, discover something new, and crank it up loud. Lucky for you, the Top 25 Playlist is here to help facilitate this, and has just been provisioned with a brand new hosts of songs for your listening pleasure.
John R. Miller’s music, used cars, and auto repair is officially open for business coast to coast, specializing in swapping out starters and alternators, rebuilding carburetors, selling used tour vans, and peddling songs about hard-hearted women, and a hand-to-mouth subsistence.
On Monday (6-21), Tyler Childers celebrated three decades on this mortal coil as the birthday boy of June 21st, 1991. But it was him doling out the gifts, not receiving them. It started by Childers sharing a remastered live stream of his 2019 Red Rocks performance.
It’s been a while since we loaded up the playlist with new selections, and there have been a ton of superb new songs released over the last few weeks. This results in a massive update of some excellent new tracks that deserve to be on your radar, so look alive.
If you can’t get enough of guys like Tyler Childers and Arlo McKinley who define the very heart of the authentic Appalachian sound, then John R. Miller needs to be occupying space in your musical catalog as well, if he isn’t already. Tyler Childers has been one of John R. Miller’s biggest proponents.
A couple of the most promising up-and-coming performers and songwriters in independent country music have recently signed to Rounder Records, and its cause for celebration for these two artists who will now hopefully receive a higher level of interest in their craft moving forward.
No matter the attitude one brings to this unusual, and unexpected work by Tyler Childers, it’s undeniable that when his biography is penned, a dedicated portion will be transfixed on remembering that time during the crazy pandemic of 2020 that he released a surprise record full of old-time fiddle tunes
Music is just one of the many factors to weigh when naming the Artist of the Year. Unlike Album of the Year nominees, and Song of the Year nominees, this is not a distinction that is put up for a vote to the public, and it’s not just about the appeal any particular artist might garner for their yearly musical output, live or recorded.
The newest additions to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Playlist start with the opening tracks to a couple of cool new records. John R. Miller and the Engine Lights have a new album out called ‘The Trouble You Follow,’ and the witty and true “Holy Dirt” tops the newest incarnation of the playlist
As real as the sharp curves of mountain roads and the abandoned shucks of coal towns, John R. Miller weaves his stories of struggle and survival with a poetic wit, honesty and abandon, and a palpable authenticity. These are songs so tucked away up a holler, to find them you have to creep past No Trespassing signs.