Classic Rewind: George Strait & Alan Jackson – ‘Murder on Music Row’

This just seems appropriate today.

Classic Rewind: Alan Jackson – ‘Between The Devil and Me’

Week ending 9/26/09: #1 albums this week in country music history

1984: Merle Haggard – It’s All In The Game (Epic)
1989: Clint Black – Killin’ Time (RCA)
1994: Tim McGraw – Not A Moment Too Soon (Curb)
1999: The Dixie Chicks – Fly (Monument)
2004: Alan Jackson – What I Do (Arista)
2009: Brooks & Dunn – #1’s and Then Some (Arista)

Spotlight Artist: George Strait

Earlier this year, George Strait was recognised by the Academy of Country Music as its Artist of the Decade – quite an accolade for an artist nearing the end of his third decade of country music superstardom. He is also frequently called King George – a nickname which may have been awarded by Garth [...]

Album Review: Reba McEntire – ‘For My Broken Heart’

Heartbreak is at the heart of country music. Perhaps that’s because heartbreak is the common denominator for us all. No matter our lot or station in life, we’ve all lost someone or something at some point – a job to the economy, our innocence, a lover to another, a spouse to divorce or death, a [...]

Album Review: David Nail – ‘I’m About To Come Alive’

Missouri’s David Nail has been on the fringes of success for a while. He first saw chart action back in 2002, when his Mercury single ‘Memphis’ failed to gain traction, faltering outside the top 50, and David was unceremoniously dropped, leaving an unreleased album (produced by Alan Jackson’s producer Keith Stegall) to languish in [...]

Classic Rewind: Alan Jackson – ‘Pop a Top/Choices’

Listening and learning

I’ve been listening to country music since I was 9 years old.  When I was a kid listening to some of these songs, I just sang along, memorizing the melody and the lyric, never really knowing what the song meant.  It wasn’t until I got older that I realized Garth Brooks was singing about murder, [...]

Classic Rewind: ‘You Can Be A Star’

Back in the day, before American Idol and Nashville Star, there was a talent competition on The Nashville Network called You Can Be A Star. See if you can recognize two of the contestants that eventually went on to bigger and better things:

The bottle that pours the wine: Songs about songwriting

It’s always about the song in country music. Whether the writer sings the song or not, a topic Razor X raised last week, the song itself is what everything else ultimately depends on. One of the things I love about country music is the range of subjects it tackles, but the thing most songwriters [...]

Recommendation: Songs about saying goodbye

Today an album that I’ve been anticipating for a while came out, namely Far by Regina Spektor- a very unique artist indeed. Listening to the album’s lead-off single, “Laughing With” (See the music video here), a line hit me kind of hard:
No one laughs at God on the day they realize
that the last sight they’ll [...]

Create a covers album

There are some songs that are so closely associated with their original performers that they just sound foreign coming from the mouths of even the best singers. Covers albums can be a blessing or a curse for this reason. And in my opinion, some get it right and some don’t. Some artists make [...]

Album Review – Keith Whitley: A Tribute Album

One of the problems with making a tribute album is how far the participants are prepared to bring something of themselves to the interpretation, and how far they are so concerned to pay their respects the artist being honored, that the end result is little more than very tasteful, high-class karaoke.
The tribute album produced by [...]

Recommendation: Songs about rain

It’s raining again today in southern Ohio, and it has been for the better part of a week now.  A couple days ago, during a particularly torrential downpour, I was sitting here listening to music and decided to search the word ‘rain’ in my media library.  And I have to say I was surprised at [...]

Spotlight Artist: Keith Whitley (July 1, 1955 – May 9, 1989)

Last month we spotlighted the Class of ‘89, noting the many creative and commercial triumphs that occurred during that landmark year for country music. The same year brought one of country music’s great tragedies — the untimely death of Keith Whitley from alcohol poisoning. May 9th marks the 20th anniversary of that sad day. This [...]

Missing from radio?

A comment made by Kevin at Country Universe got me to thinking more about the minuscule playlists of today’s country radio stations.  Satellite radio almost seemed like a savior for the format at one point, but since that idea didn’t really catch on with the mainstream even enough to affect the Top 40, hope for [...]

Class of ‘89 Album Review: Travis Tritt – ‘Country Club’

Like Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt just sneaks in as a member of the Clas of ‘89. Although his debut album was not released until 1990, the first single came out in 1989. Travis was less traditional than many of his peers, but he brought a distinctive, southern-rock-influenced flavor to the country charts which marked out his [...]

Class of ‘89 Album Review: Lorrie Morgan – ‘Leave The Light On’

Lorrie Morgan was one of the ‘Class of ‘89′ who had been around on the fringes of the country world for a while, but who made a major breakthrough that year. Her father George Morgan was a minor country star of the 1950s, who sold a million copies of his biggest hit, ‘Candy Kisses’, [...]

Class of ‘89 Album Review: Alan Jackson – ‘Here In The Real World’

Alan Jackson was not one of the obvious ’stars’ of the ‘Class of ‘89′. His debut single, ‘Blue Blooded Woman’, was released in 1989 to very modest success, and it was not until the following year, when Here In The Real World was released, with the best songs from the album making a genuine [...]

Meet the Class of ‘89