The 2020 pandemic has exposed how essential many country music institutions are to society. The Grand Ole Opry beamed its signal into households to the tune of becoming the most successful streaming concern in music during the entirety of 2020.
You can try to imbibe your recordings with the influence of country royalty, or you can just invite them into the studio to record with you, which is what Amber Digby does on this new record, cutting duets with the likes of Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, the late great Johnny Bush, and Vince Gill among others.
One of the most curious, and maybe one of the most cool developments in music over the last couple of years has been Vince Gill becoming a late career member of The Eagles. It wasn’t a development that came with a lot of fanfare or explanation. With the passing of Glenn Frey in 2016, it just sort of happened.
A once-in-a-lifetime event happened on January 12th, 2019 when a wide-ranging assemblage of talent from country music and beyond came together at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to pay tribute to Willie Nelson. Called ‘Willie: Life and Songs of an American Outlaw,’ it’s being released on CD and DVD.
Saturday, October 10th would have been John Prine’s 74th birthday. The revered songwriting legend passed away on April 7th due to COVID-19. But there will still be plenty of remembering and celebration to mark the occasion., including re-airing the popular “Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine.”
The Grand Ole Opry will begin celebrating its 95th Anniversary on Saturday, October 3rd, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, gathering for the country music institution’s 4,944th consecutive Saturday night broadcast with Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Terri Clark, and Lorrie Morgan.
It was one of the coolest things in country music while it lasted. But one of the cool things about The Time Jumpers is nothing lasts forever aside from the band itself. Nashville’s Western Swing house band has been entertaining crowds with interchangeable players and keeping traditions alive since 1998.
When the COVID-19 shutdowns began in mid March, the Grand Ole Opry was one of the only live music institutions that endured, with the first non-audience show transpiring on March 14th with the evening’s regular scheduled slate of performers.
Reba McEntire at her finest is some of the best country music you can find. She proved that when she released her latest album, 2019’s ‘Stronger Than The Truth,’ which marked the redhead’s return to the more traditional-sounding country of her early career, and it turned out to be one of the best albums released all year.
Vince Gill has been one of the regulars during these quarantine Opry performances, appearing more than any other artist. Adding Emmylou Harris along with Rodney Crowell is just about the perfect combination, not just for the history the duo has together, but due to the history they both have with Vince Gill.
COVID-19 has caused a second wave of closures and cancellations throughout the country music heartland and sunbelt south, but the storied institution of the Grand Ole Opry endures on Saturday night as it has done since the very start of the pandemic, and for over 95 years. Vince Gill and Reba McEntire will take the stage Saturday night.
Country Music Hall of Famer and Southern rock icon Charlie Daniels passed away on Monday, July 6th at the Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83-years-old. On Friday, July 10th, funeral services will be held at the World Outreach Church, and will be streamed online.
A virtual celebration of Prine’s life and legacy has been planned for Thursday, June 11th called Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine to be streamed online. Also after the presentation will be the revealing of a new John Prine song, with more unheard music on the way.
Country music legend and long-time Grand Ole Opry star Jan Howard has passed away at the age of 91. Howard died on Saturday, March 28th peacefully in her sleep in Gallatin, Tennessee near Nashville. A Grand Ole Opry member for nearly 50 years, news broke of her passing as the storied country music institution was broadcasting.
For the third week in a row, the Grand Ole Opry will endure through the unprecedented shutdown in American life to offer entertainment to the masses by holding true to it’s tradition of broadcasting on Saturday night (3-28). And for the third week in a row, there will be no audience and no backing band, but Vince Gill and Amy Grant will perform.
The world has been shuttered and turned upside down by the Coronavirus. But the Opry will continue on, refusing to break its storied tradition with its 4,916th consecutive Saturday night broadcast. There will be no backup band and no audience obviously. But the Opry will bring out the stars.
The big tribute show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena for Willie Nelson that transpired on January 12th, 2019 is finally set to be broadcast for the rest of us who couldn’t attend, and it will include some behind-the-scenes footage and interviews as well. Specials for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers are also on the way.
On the Friday night Opry (1-17), Gene Watson received a long-overdue invitation to finally join the Grand Ole Opry as the next official member. The 76-year-old from Palestine, TX was surprised by Vince Gill, who is one of the Opry’s favorite couriers of formal invitations. Of course, Gene Watson accepted.
All country albums, regardless if they emanate from a major label or receive radio play, are considered for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year nominations. But not every year does a mainstream album make it. Even though one didn’t make it to the top of the heap in 2019, we had a bumper crop of quality mainstream country releases.
When you’re putting your list together of country traditionalists and purists popping through in the mainstream, make sure you don’t forget to include Mo Pitney. When he released his debut album Behind This Guitar in 2016 and even before, he had people singing his praises for his songwriting that reminded you of simpler times.
When you want to record one of those absolutely devastating country music tearjerkers that holds back nothing and mercilessly goes to work on the audience’s emotional receptors, the songbook of Erin Enderlin is where you turn. Now she’s more posed than ever to emerge from the songwriting shadows.
The pedigree that runs curiously through country music did not pass Georgette Jones up, and her talent for singing and finding songs that embody all that’s great about the country genre is on full display on her latest record, Skin. This album has not scored the insatiable buzz some other records from women in country have this year.
When the Ken Burns documentary was first announced a few years ago, the hope was the film could act like a big reset button on the status of country music, and give a boost to many of the songs and artists abandoned by radio in the present day. It has been a big boon in sales and streams for many of the classic country artists featured.
If you’re a country music fan and are disappointed that your favorite artist didn’t get enough screen time in the Ken Burns film on country music, well guess what, your favorite genre did, and by the most revered documentary filmmaker of our time, and before rock n’ roll, pop, the blues, soul music, or hip-hop.