Classic Rewind: Skeeter Davis – ‘I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know’

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Hillbilly Deluxe’

After the success of Red Dirt Road, the duo had issued a second volume of Greatest Hits, and unusually the new singles released from that (‘That’s What It’s All About’ and ‘It’s Getting Better All The Time’) had done very well. Their next studio album, 2005’s Hillbilly Deluxe, shares its title with a Dwight [...]

Classic Rewind: Gene Watson – ‘Farewell Party’

Album Review: Brooks and Dunn – ‘Tight Rope’

The duo’s sixth studio album, 1999’s Tight Rope, saw them in bit of a rut. After a string of multi-platinum sellers, this album remains their only studio effort to date (apart from their latest, Cowboy Town) not to be classified platinum, and none of the three singles was a really big hit. Each [...]

Classic Rewind: George Jones – ‘If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)’

Songs about adoption

I was adopted as a baby, and because of that the subject has always drawn me in fiction. In fact I’ve read some really bad books and watched some bad TV purely because of the topic. One of the things I appreciate most in country music is the range of topics it covers, [...]

A few thoughts on the CMA awards

We didn’t do too well with our predictions of this year’s CMA Award winners. In part, that’s probably because we gave the CMA way too much credit for artistic integrity. Next year, I’m going to take a look at the nominees and predict the very worst person in each category, and I suspect [...]

Trace Adkins – ‘Til The Last Shot’s Fired’

She didn’t link back to it for this recommendation, but Occasional Hope wrote an excellent editorial/review of this song back in February. It’s definitely worth revisiting.
- J.R

Album Review: Anita Cochran – ‘Serenity’

Former Warner Brothers artist Anita Cochran achieved one #1 hit, ‘What If I Said’, in a duet with Steve Wariner, in 1997. None of her solo singles came anywhere near the top of the charts, and it’s not as if her label didn’t persevere – they released two albums and nine singles over a [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Waitin’ On Sundown’

Brooks and Dunn’s third album was released in September 1994. Produced like the first two by Don Cook and Scott Hendricks. In theory, Kix and Ronnie had equal billing, each singing lead on five songs, but Ronnie’s lead vocals were showcased on four of the five singles. This may have been the [...]

Classic Rewind: Vern Gosdin – ‘Is It Raining At Your House?’

Who will win the CMA Awards

We shared our wishlist for this year’s CMA awards with you of last week. Now for the hard part – this is where we go out on a limb and try to predict who will actually walk home with a CMA award this year. We collectively sucked at prediction the last time [...]

Album Review: ‘Hank Williams Revealed: The Unreleased Recordings’

A year after the arrival of the Time-Life first box set of previously unreleased Hank Williams performances comes a second set. Like the first set, all the material comes from a series of pre-recorded performances Hank did for sponsor Mother’s Best in 1951, which were then broadcast ‘as live’. This edition, however, is [...]

Who should win this year’s CMA Awards

This year’s CMA Awards are due to be announced on November 11th. There are bound to be a few surprises, with unexpected winners or losers. We’ll share our best attempts at prediction with you next week, but first we thought we would let you all know not who we expect to win, but [...]

Classic Rewind: Mel Street – ‘I Met A Friend Of Yours Today’

70s star Mel Street with a top 10 hit which was later covered by George Strait.

 

Album Review: Joe Nichols – ‘Old Things New’

A few years ago, Joe Nichols looked to be one of the brightest young country stars, with an interestingly textured voice and a sound with genuinely country roots which still worked on country radio, thanks to some very good songs. His career seems to have gone off track since them – no doubt not [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Sleepless Nights’

Patty Loveless was dropped by Epic following disappointing sales and minimal airplay for her last album for the label, Dreamin’ My Dreams. She was in no hurry to make her next move, taking some time off the road to move down to Georgia, and dealing with family deaths and illness, but in 2008 she signed [...]

Album Review: Tim McGraw – ‘Southern Voice’

Tim McGraw has never impressed me as one of the great country voices, but where he frequently has impressed me is in his choice of interesting material, the kind of songs which are worth hearing in anyone’s hands. His tenth studio album is produced by the same production team of McGraw, Byron Gallimore and Darran [...]

Album Review: Bobby Marquez – ‘Bobby Marquez’

Texan country singer Bobby Marquez’s debut album on independent label Grande Star is a good example of solid country music with a Texas feel, underpinned with generous helpings of fiddle and steel. Bobby has quite a light voice but a very listenable one, and he is a very promising songwriter, having contributed to half [...]

Slaid Cleaves live at the Lantern Theatre, Romsey, 9 October 2009

Living in England, I don’t often get the opportunity to see acts live. Although some artists who have had airplay here do tour (usually small) venues, it’s not often both someone I’m interested in is appearing at a venue that’s very convenient for me to get to. So it was exciting for me [...]