Music Country

Del Barber has had a strange few years. After releasing what could have been his career-making opus, Prairieography, in 2014, the Canadian singer-songwriter moved from Winnipeg to a farm in rural Manitoba. For his anticipated follow-up album, Barber decided to release a novelty record of hockey-themed cover songs under the …

In the mid-Eighties, Ricky Skaggs married his brand of bluegrass — a modernized version that included drums, piano, and electric guitar — to the burgeoning music video medium. The result was one of country music’s all-time great videos, an irreverent clip that shined a light not only on Skaggs’ vibrant …

The Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival rebounded strong in 2019, following a tough 2018 when a large portion of the Franklin, Tennessee-based event was cancelled for heavy rainfall and flooding. Attendees coming out to Harlinsdale Farm September 21st and 22nd got dust and punishing heat instead, along with performances from …

By the second half of the 20th century, country music was big business. Radio, records, television and movies all played a part in its popularity, but its artists and its songs were still at the forefront, even as profits soared or slumped. The second half of Ken Burns’ Country Music …

In October, Jason Isbell will expand his now-annual Ryman Auditorium residency to a full week of shows, spread across nine days. On Wednesday, Isbell’s label Southeastern Records announced the full lineup of opening artists for the 2019 residency, most of whom have deep roots in the blues community. Singer-songwriter Amanda …

CMT’s annual Artists of the Year special returns October 16th with a live broadcast from Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center that will honor five country performers who have ruled in 2019. This year, those honorees include Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Dan + Shay, Kane Brown, and Thomas Rhett. The 90-minute live …

Ruston Kelly pays tribute to some of his formative influences with the new project, Dirt Emo Vol. 1, which will be available October 11th. On Friday, the Nashville singer-songwriter, who released the album Dying Star in 2018, dropped a cover of Dashboard Confessional‘s breakout hit “Screaming Infidelities” that features the …

Tami Neilson gets into sizzling rockabilly mode on her new song “Hey, Bus Driver!”, which is the first offering from her upcoming full-length album. The Canada-born, New Zealand-based singer-songwriter’s Chickaboom! — the follow-up to 2018’s Sassafrass! —will be released February 14th, 2020. “Fall asleep looking at your picture, wake up …

Trisha Yearwood is enjoying her biggest hit in years with the lead single and title track from her new album, Every Girl, recently debuting at Number 21 on the country airplay chart. But there’s another song on the album, out Friday, that proves Yearwood’s creative instincts are still just as …

Rodney Crowell could have spent a lifetime writing an album about Texas. In a way, he has. Though the Grammy-winning Americana storyteller left the Lone Star State for Music City in 1972, he’s returned to it time and again for inspiration in the decades since, from his 2001 LP The …