Texas music and independent country continue to gain market share and offer a better, and more healthy alternative to the mainstream, and we’re continuing to see this reflected in the ever-expanding festival space. A new festival in Oregon is gearing up to offer the Pacific Northwest their first taste of the Texas festival experience.
“People can tell the difference between (B.S.) and not (B.S.). I’ll second the motion to say there shouldn’t be rap in country music,” Randy Rogers says. “But I will go on the record saying I like Kendrick Lamar. I like my rap. But when I think of country music, I think of Merle Haggard.”
In many sectors, the future of country music is rife with uncertainty as you’re forced to squint hard at the current tiers of top stars and up-and-comers and wonder where this all will lead us years down the road. But when it comes to the Texas country scene, there is no cause for concern for who’s gonna fill the shoes.
With 75 years of history hanging thick in the air, Floore’s Country Store booked two nights of stellar talent Easter weekend to celebrate their 75th Anniversary. Friday and Saturday evening saw Robert Earl Keen and the Randy Rogers Band taking the stage, with Bruce Robison joining them on Friday, and Red Shahan opening the show on Saturday.
Sturgill Simpson is currently in the running and being voted on by members of the Country Music Association for three of the 50th Anniversary presentation’s biggest prizes. Also surprising since she’s not on a major label, Margo Price has made the top 20 females being considered for Female Vocalist of the Year.
Right now, Texas and Oklahoma is being robbed of its female talent from Nashville and the two coasts. And these women are regularly sucked up into a system that absconds with their creative freedom, sexualizes their image, and drops them unceremoniously whenever their commercial viability is perceived to be spent.
Scheduled to take place this year between April 18th to the 23rd, the Larry Joe Taylor Festival will welcome an estimated 50,000 people through the gates over 6 days, and feature music on three stages from over 50 bands at the Melody Mountain Ranch in Stephenville, TX. One of the biggest and oldest music festivals in the country, Larry Joe Taylor Fest has been going on for over a quarter century.
But what’s the fun of getting to the top when you’ve compromised everything to get there? Despite some declaring the #1 for “Backroad Song” as a victory for Texas country, it is anything but. It was Granger’s abandonment of Texas country and the values of that scene, and walking away from the decent songwriting evidenced earlier in his career that finally got him the commercial success he has clearly craved.
We’ve all heard of the “Class of ’89” in country music, right? That was the year that Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and others came to power. Well have you ever heard of the “Class of ’87”? That was the year Todd Snider, James McMurtry, Bruce Robison, Hal Ketchum, and Terri Hendrix all played regularly at an old wooden music venue in San Marcos, Texas called the Cheatham Street Warehouse.
Who will be releasing new albums in 2016? What are some of the most-anticipated projects? What are the rumors swirling out there about new albums that may be released in the coming year? Here’s a rundown of upcoming projects from artists recommended by Saving Country Music that you can look forward to in 2016.
A common criticism of Texas country is that it has become a kissing cousin to Nashville’s Music Row over the last few years, especially with so many of the region’s top acts, including the Randy Rogers Band, signing with Nashville-based outfits. But the band returning to their independent roots is a good sign they will make whatever album they wish, without the influence of Music Row’s commercial interests.
Thoughts and prayers continue to pour in for Randy Rogers, his wife Chelsea Rogers, and the entire Rogers family after the Texas country star revealed that his recently-born daughter Rumer passed away Tuesday night (6-9) after battling a rare brain condition. A memorial for the newborn is being planned. “She died in our arms and in no pain. She was absolutely beautiful in every way,” Randy said in a statement.
Not your run-of-the-mill country protest song, “Standards” makes use of sharp wit and country stylings to land a poignant and cutting point about the plight many musicians face when they interface with the music industry. Though protest songs droning on and on about how Nashville is no longer country are just as cliché as the songs they’re criticizing, “Standards” has an appeal beyond…
It’s the ACL Fest, Lollapalooza Bonnaroo, and Coachella, of Texas music all wrapped into one, but without the complex maze of performance areas and wristband access, legions of hipsters, and hackneyed joining of disparate music acts that scream of the monogenre forming in American music. Instead most, if not all of the performers at Larry Joe Taylor Fest know each other.
That’s right, the long-running legendary Texas country tour, and the long-anticipated album complimenting the collaboration is finally happening. Hold My Beer, a studio record featuring A-list Texas country talent Randy Rogers of The Randy Rogers Band and Wade Bowen trading licks back and forth will finally be released.
Ahead of this self-titled release, the buzz was immense. There was a sense this wasn’t going to be simply another Wade Bowen album—that his experiences of the last few years helped Wade see himself for who he really is, instead of who everyone else wants him to be. Two songs in, and this album already delivers on any promises and expectations preceding it.
even though this Restless Road boy band is still competing on The “X’ Factor, part of the ‘X’ Factor bit is to match up contestants branding even as they’re competing. And I’ll be damned if Restless Road, The ‘X’ Factor marketing team, or someone didn’t straight up rip off the Randy Rogers Band logo, back-to-back capital ‘R’ ‘s, with the white highway stripes down the middle and everything.
Jimmy Carter (no, not the peanut-farming ex-prez) on 96.9 “The Kat” from North Carolina in his “Wednesday Dirt Alert” segment called the recently-released Academy of Country Music awards nominations “super-political” and asserts that he was specifically told that Carrie Underwood got snubbed for nominations from her label so that fellow label-mate Miranda Lambert would get some much needed press.
Organizers are working on plans for original country music Outlaw Billy Joe Shaver to be honored by Corsicana, TX, the town he was born in. Tentative plans include renaming a portion of the street Billy Joe grew up on in Corsicana to “Billy Joe Shaver Way,” as well as adding a prominent “Billy Joe Shaver […]