Classic Rewind: Lee Ann Womack – ‘Ashes By Now’

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 [...]

Discussion: Crossover roots?

Last week, this article about Taylor Swift’s crossover success got me to thinking about not only Swift, but other country stars who have met with major success in pop and adult contemporary markets.  It’s a mixed bag among the genre’s most steadfast supporters, while we welcome all the new listeners and fans to the format, somehow [...]

Album Review: George Strait – ‘Somewhere Down In Texas’

In 2005, twenty-four years into his hit-making career, George Strait released Somewhere Down In Texas, a collection of laid-back songs that contrasted 2003’s Honkytonkville’s hard honky-tonk sound.  The album landed at the top of the country albums chart as well as the all-genre Billboard 200 and was certified platinum.  It also provided Strait with another [...]

Single Review: Lady Antebellum – ‘Need You Now’

Reading the other day, I was surprised that Lady Antebellum was already promoting a new album- after three hit singles from their debut album. Lady A’s trade mark is slick pop-country, like their most recent hit, “I Run To You” (Read the review here), something that can be good if done right.
Thankfully, their new single [...]

Recommendation: Songs of marital discord

Yesterday while driving around from one place to another, I decided I needed some real country music, so I popped in Lee Ann Womack’s There’s More Where That Came From in my car’s CD player. I only got this CD last August, but it became an instant favorite the first time I heard it, just [...]

Album Review: Brad Paisley – ‘American Saturday Night’

First of all a disclaimer: I have never really been a Brad Paisley fan until today, when I listened to this album. Sure I like “Whiskey Lullaby”, “When I Get Where I’m Going” and “Letter To Me”, but I never really thought “Man, I need to hear some Brad Paisley right now.” He just wasn’t [...]

A lot of inspiration in this room

Yesterday, I was watching a new TV show called Glee that premiered on Fox this week. During the show, the cast sang the hit “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey- a great song. While I had heard this song before, something about hearing it then got me, inspired me. The song doesn’t even really apply to [...]

Signature songs from superb singers

This past year, Taylor Swift had a massive hit in “Love Story.” I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It went to #1 on 3 charts worldwide, including the American and Canadian County charts as well as Australia’s all-genre chart. Beyond that, “Love Story” went into the top 5 on U.S. Billboard’s Hot 100, Pop 100 [...]

What makes it country?

Even after a good three years of listening to my local country station, rooting around on the internet and exploring country music blogs, I still often wonder to myself, “What makes country music, country?” There’s such a variety of artists with a diversity of sounds and looks these days. Is there a definitive element that [...]

Single Review: Lee Ann Womack – ‘Solitary Thinkin’

I bought Lee Ann’s album, Call Me Crazy, when it came out in October.  It had a little sticker on it which said “Including the hits ‘Last Call’, ‘Solitary Thinkin’ ‘ and ‘Everything But Quits’!” After that, I knew that it was highly possible that “Solitary Thinkin’ ” would be a single, and I was [...]

ACM Predictions

Tomorrow night’s Academy of Country Music awards are on everybody’s minds and lips. Reba will be hosting for the 11th time as the Academy hands out the awards on their 44th annual show.  Here then, is our contribution to the ACM Awards media frenzy.  These are the predictions of the My Kind of Country writing [...]

Mixtape Time!

I was talking to a friend yesterday morning, and he told me that I need to give him a mixtape so he can “assess my personality”- so I decided to try and make my mixtape to try and encompass all of the music I listen to in just a limited number of tracks, say around [...]

To twang or not to twang?

It’s a generations-old question.  Is country music country enough these days?  And when does the want to go mainstream override the need to remain traditional? Remixing country songs for pop radio is certainly nothing new.  But it’s a subject that seems to be coming up more and more these days.  Taylor Swift’s done it, and [...]

That song in my head

I was driving home today and had the radio tuned to my country station.  As much as we all like to berate the current state of top 40 country, I think every one of us is guilty of turning it on now and again – if only out of morbid curiosity.  Anyway, the new Toby [...]

CD Giveaway: Dolly Parton – ‘Those Were The Days’

AND THE WINNER IS …..
TIM!!!
Congratulations, you’re the winner of Dolly’s Those Were The Days CD. It will be on its way to your home shortly.
Thanks to everyone who participated. Stay tuned for more giveaways in the future.
Feeling nostalgic for the 70s?  If you are — or if you’re too young to remember them [...]

Can You Beat Us? – Grammy Predictions

So finally after all these polls about the Grammys, we’re going to have a little contest using the results! I thought we could see who will guess the most winners! We have the predictions of all the writers here at My Kind Of Country, as well as all of the top choices as voted by [...]

Poll – Grammy For Best Country Collaboration With Vocals

This is the category I completely forgot about, so I apologize for cramming so many polls in this week, but I promise, I have a plan. Remember, if you haven’t voted for the Duo/Group poll, please do so here! The results of these polls will be used very soon for a special purpose, so make [...]

Poll – Grammy For Best Female Country Vocal Performance

Here we have another entry in our Grammy poll series, this time for best female country vocal performance! In my opinion, this is a fairly strong category. I apologize for having so many polls close together, but the Grammys are fast approaching and there are still some country categories left!
As usual, check out the Grammy [...]

Chris’s End of 2008 List: Top 10 Album Cuts

These are my favorite album cuts from albums released in 2008. I decided to do it for all genres, but there are only 3 songs that aren’t country, so I hope you guys like it! (I also shortened my comments to just a few sentences.)

10. “Strawberry Swing” – Coldplay
- The great looping guitar in the [...]