JP Harris was currently on tour at the time, and flew into Nashville last minute to perform the tribute. Early on in Luke Bell’s career, not only did JP Harris give Luke a place to stay and a job (JP Harris is also a full-time contractor), he also was a mentor to Luke, referring to him as “little brother.”
As we look back on 2022 and before we look forward to 2023, it’s important we take the time to pay tribute to the important individuals in country music who left us over the last year, and who left a mark on the country and roots music world that will never fade. 2022 saw some absolute titans of the music leave us.
Country artist Luke Bell was officially laid to rest in a private ceremony in Cody, Wyoming on September 9th. But on Saturday, November 12th, friends, family, fellow musicians and fans were given the opportunity to remember and celebrate Luke Bell publicly.
Luke Bell was officially laid to rest in a private ceremony at the Christ Episcopal Church in Cody, Wyoming on September 9th. But now a public memorial is planned for Luke that will be taking place on November 12th at the Circle P Ranch in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville.
Like too many of the great country music poets before him, Luke Bell died way too young due to the devastating ailment of the Lovesick Blues. Unfortunately though, that’s not one of the boxes that medical examiners are given to check off when they turn in their autopsy reports.
The 2022 Americana Music Awards transpired at the Ryman Auditorium Wednesday Night, September 14th, with Billy Strings, Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, Sierra Ferrell, and The War and Treaty all walking away with big awards. There were also a few surprises.
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.
This week has been very bittersweet for Martha Spencer. It happened to be that Luke Bell picked the same week to grab everyone’s attention that she was releasing her new album called ‘Wonderland,’ which also happens to feature Luke Bell appearing on one of the album’s tracks—one of Luke’s last recordings.
If you’re sick and tired of turning on the CMA and ACM Awards and wondering where the hell your favorite artists are as you stare at some dude in skinny jeans shaking his ass with backup dancers, or a tractor rapper singing into an Auto-tuner, it’s about time you checked out the Dale Watson-founded Ameripolitan Awards.
Never has the story of a deceased independent country artist been so compelling to the point where it is covered so overwhelmingly across the entirety of American media, and beyond. And yes, the results of all this attention is translating into people listening to Luke Bell’s music.
He was one of the most authentic and magnetizing artists to grace the country music art form in the modern era. And those who knew Luke Bell, they know this assessment is in no way hyperbole or flattery. Even though he released only one album, in that single volume, Luke Bell captured a bygone era, aura, and mood.
Friends of country artist Luke Bell are raising concerns after he went missing over a week ago on Saturday, August 20th near 4th Ave. in Tucson, Arizona. Bell hasn’t been seen or heard from since. There is a possibility he is still in the area, or he could have left the Tucson area and Arizona entirely.
Normally a video for a cover song may not be cause to stop down and request your undivided attention. But anything that involves the always elusive Luke Bell these days is worth stopping down for, and he proves why when he teams up with the equally impressive Martha Spencer.
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. New songs have just been added.
First recorded in 2016 around the release of his self-titled album as a standalone acoustic performance for Amazon, Luke Bell’s cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” might not be the debut single from a new album many are hoping for, but anything with Luke Bell’s name on it is welcome.
As an addendum to The Search for Luke Bell, the elusive country music singer and songwriter originally from Wyoming re-emerged Sunday afternoon (7-27) after a long period of being out of the public eye. The occasion was a live stream event with close friend and common collaborator Matt Kinman.
It was June of 2014, and an unsolicited submission came into my inbox from an artist named Luke Bell, accompanied by a BandCamp link to an album called ‘Don’t Mind If I Do.’ Nearly six years later, the most common query that lands into that same inbox that Luke Bell first submitted his music to is “Where is Luke Bell?”
Very excited to share the latest additions to the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist, which includes songs from some great records and artists that need to be on your radar. Ben Jarrell’s debut LP ‘Troubled Times’ has been setting people’s hair on fire, and there’s nothing better to get the blood pumping at the top of the playlist.
If artists such as Luke Bell and Pat Reedy suit your fancy, Nick Shoulders will slide right into your wheelhouse. But where these artists perhaps own a deeper arsenal of original songs at the moment, Nick Shoulders distinguishes himself by possessing an incredible, world-class high voice and yodel the likes of which we’ve rarely heard.
If you’re looking for the real deal, its name is Pat Reedy. A hard-traveled kind of guy who got his music education busking on street corners in New Orleans and traveling the country to play backyard shows in beat up rigs, he has the kind of natural poetry of a drifter that many artists envy, but few ever put the effort out to actually acquire.
The small yet mighty, meticulously-curated, and expertly-planned festival just outside of Portland, OR known as Pickathon continues to be the local festival with international implications in how talent presented at the festival is given the possibility to break out onto the national stage.
I remember saying it myself when the Carolina Chocolate Drops first came on the scene. Excellent band, and great to see some diversity represented in country and Americana music in a way that illustrates the role African American’s played in creating roots music. But there was something a bit off about watching a black band playing for a distinctly white audience.
It has once again come that time of year for reflecting back on some of the best albums released in the last 12 months or so, not to treat country music as competition per se, but as an exercise undertaken with the intent of expanding your musical knowledge in hopes the gaps that formed due to the busy lives we all live get filled in with joyous little music projects.
List making either before or after events has become a dubious enterprise of mainstream outlets just looking to troll the fan bases of independent performers to get these performers to dutifully post the coverage to their social network feeds and drive unique views to the outlets while little if any true discovery for said artists by new fans actually occurs.