The Texas, Red Dirt, and Americana-oriented Mile 0 Fest in Key West, Florida will be moving forward in 2021, and they have just announced the festival’s preliminary lineup. Usually occurring in late January/early February, they have moved the date later in the year due to COVID-19 concerns.
It’s worth noting that Rolling Stone’s new updated version of their “500 Best Albums of All Time” significantly diminishes iconic titles from the classic country canon. Not only were some titles downgraded, some were eliminated entirely.
Evan Felker—the frontman of the Turnpike Troubadours—is sober, recovered, and thinking about music again. These are the revelations that came from an excerpt of the book “Red Dirt: Roots Music, Born in Oklahoma, Raised in Texas, at Home Anywhere” by Josh Crutchmer scheduled for release.
Italian film composer Ennio Morricone passed away on Monday (7-6) at the age of 91. And though he will will always be remembered as the definitive mastermind behind the sounds and sonic imagination of the Spaghetti Western, it would be criminal to overlook the influence Morricone had on American country music.
Taking time between cattle ranching and hanging out in the Canadian Rockies to write songs and perform them for folks when he can, over the last few years Alberta native Corb Lund has gone from the best kept secret of cowboy music to a living legend of it.
Envisioned as a concept record with interludes and elements inspired by the Spaghetti Western sounds of Ennio Morricone, ‘Lightning On The Mountain’ and Other Short Stories is an ambitious, adventurous, varied, and diverse effort that keeps you on your toes for 17 tracks.
The United States is a popular and polarizing subject in music right now to say the least. But Reckless Kelley isn’t really looking to dive directly into that whole fracas with their new double record “American Jackpot/American Girls,” despite what you may glean from the title and cover art.
Some new photos of Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker were posted by a photographer named Calvin Shofner late Monday evening, May 10th. They are the first physical signs they’ve seen of Evan Felker in quite some time.
A blazing tune of bootleg, intrigue, and power, it lives up to Kyle Nix’s promise that storytelling will be the centerpiece of his debut album, while the brazen and galloping tempo reminds one of Turnpike’s “Before The Devil Knows We’re Dead,” partly due to members of the Turnpike Troubadours itself being behind the effort.
If you’ve been hankering hard for anything Turnpike Troubadours related, it appears your prayers are about to be answered, and in a huge way. Turnpike fiddle player Kyle Nix is preparing to release a solo record, and we’re not talking about some slapped-together bedroom EP.
The Turnpike Troubadours, Jason Boland, and the Medicine Stone Festival held annually in Oklahoma have all filed suit against their former management, Cory McDaniels Enterprises LLC, for what they claim are irregularities in accounting and the handling of financial affairs, and to be released from their management contracts.
Sure, perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the indefinite hiatus of the boys from Oklahoma has us all foggy-eyed in recollection. But according to one industrious Twitter user’s social experiment in the midst of the Coronavirus quarantine, the Turnpike Troubadours rule the roost.
The numbers for the song, and for Tyler Childers in general are incredible. But looking bigger picture at the accomplishment, this will be about the opening of a new era in music where non-radio, independently-minded musicians with creative control of their music began to compete with their mainstream counterparts in sales.
Canadian country and Western singer Corb Lund recently announced he will be releasing a new album called ‘Agricultural Tragic,’ and ahead of the record, he’s released a new song called “90 Seconds of Your Time.” Corb alluded with the release of the song that it was based on a true story, and now we know just how true that story is.
Here are the greatest country and roots albums of the last decade in Saving Country Music’s estimation. Albums were regarded primarily on quality, and how they held up over the decade, as well as the influence they had on country music, and music at large. These are the albums that should not be overlooked over the last 10 years of music.
If you want to know just how much pent up appeal there is for the music of Evan Felker and his band the Turnpike Troubadours, here’s a pretty good sign. This week on the Americana Music Association’s Radio Albums Chart, the recently-released The Next Waltz – Volume 2 compilation produced by Bruce Robison has landed at #1.
You can’t blame Texas/Red Dirt fans for being a little jumpy these days. After the announcement from the Turnpike Troubadours earlier this year about their indefinite hiatus, some fans are worried what other bands 2019 might claim before the end of the year. But according to Cody Canada, everything is cool.
Through the Turnpike Troubadours hiatus, Kyle Nix has been guesting with other artists, including with RC and the Ambers, as well as Texas songwriter Jason Eady. But he also has something else brewing. Do we have a Kyle Nix solo record in the offing, or perhaps a project he’s working on with someone else?
There is a reason the indefinite hiatus of the vaunted Turnpike Troubadours hit fans so hard, almost like losing a relative. The way you leaned on the band’s music to make it through hard times, and celebrate the good ones, it’s tough to fathom a world without the voice and songs of Evan Felker backed by the boys from Oklahoma.
“It really is a representation of what we’re trying to do here, which is connecting the greatest music in Austin with country music in a greater sense,” Bruce Robison says about the upcoming compilation. Though all the names and songs are worth getting excited over, it’s Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker that has many talking.
Add Sturgill Simpson to the list of things in society that are extremely polarizing, right up there with politics, religion, LeBron James, pumpkin spice, and whatever else people get worked up about, with half the world professing something or someone is utter and unequivocal garbage, while the other half can’t contain their enthusiasm.
“Yellowstone” provided a ton of music and artists for fans of the show to explore, especially throughout the country and roots realm, and especially artists that the mainstream often ignores. And the success of the show has also resulted in deserved attention for the songs and artists featured.
The commonality of criticizing country radio within the ranks of country music’s classic and independent fans is pretty severe, and for good reason. Generally speaking, country radio is a blob of nationalized playlists and unimaginative music, and no curation by the DJs on the ground in local markets. But this doesn’t mean all radio is bad.
The Paramount Western series Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner doesn’t just make for compelling television, it also works as a great discovery mechanism for good country and roots music that much of the rest of popular culture ignores. Season 2 of the series that started in June has been no different.