Week ending 11/7/09: #1 singles this week in country music history

1949: Slippin’ Around — Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely (Capitol)
1959: The Three Bells — The Browns (RCA)
1969: To See My Angel Cry — Conway Twitty (Decca)
1979: You Decorated My Life – Kenny Rogers (United Artists)
1989: Ace In The Hole – George Strait (MCA)
1999: I Love You — Martina McBride (RCA)
2009: Toes – Zac Brown Band [...]

Week ending 10/31/09: #1 singles this week in country music history

1949: Slippin’ Around — Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely (Capitol)
1959: The Three Bells — The Browns (RCA)
1969: The Ways To Love A Man — Tammy Wynette (Epic)
1979: All The Gold In California — Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers (Columbia)
1989: High Cotton – Alabama (RCA)
1999: I Love You — Martina McBride (RCA)
2009: Only You Can [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Mountain Soul’

After 2000’s lackluster Strong Heart failed to chart any significant or memorable hits for Patty Loveless, she took a different approach with the material for her next record.  But these songs were really nothing new to Loveless, who had been including one or two of these sort of rootsy chestnuts on each of her mainstream [...]

Mountain country magic: A tribute to Patty Loveless

When we announced Patty Loveless as our Spotlight Artist, all of us here at My Kind of Country were very excited about the opportunity to write about one of our favorites.  In past months, we’ve brought in Guest Contributors to help out with the reviews.  But this month, all the reviews were snatched up [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Trouble With The Truth’

When we were divvying up the albums that we wanted reviewed for this month, I called dibs on Trouble With The Truth because I knew I would be busy and it’s one of my absolute favorites. First I want to tell a short story: At the end of last year, I was working on my [...]

Classic Rewind: Martina McBride – ‘Wrong Again’

Classic Rewind: Martina McBride – ‘Independence Day’

Single Review: Carrie Underwood – ‘Cowboy Casanova’

A while back I must have become a follower of Carrie Underwood on Facebook, because after returning from the library, I saw a notice of her new single on my news feed- and I decided to give it a listen. I enjoyed Carnival Ride at first, but after a while, I got sick of it [...]

Classic Rewind: Connie Smith & Martina McBride – ‘Once A Day’

R-r-r-r-remix time!

Remixes are a foreign concept in country music- in my opinion, good country music shouldn’t ever have to be remixed in any other way. A remix makes me think “What, it wasn’t good enough the original way? Why is this better?” Usually country songs, if remixed, will be remixed for pop radio, like Taylor Swift’s [...]

Completed collections

A few weeks ago, while chatting to Country California’s C. M. Wilcox on facebook, I expressed my goal for the summer. Due to Patty Loveless releasing her next album, Mountain Soul II, on September 29 I made my goal to get all of her studio albums before summer ended. So far? I’m almost done, I’m [...]

Classic Rewind: Clint Black & Martina McBride – ‘Still Holding On’

Album Review: Tanya Tucker – ‘Soon’

Continuing with our Tanya Tucker coverage, this review was written by a guest contributor, Michael, who is also a frequent commenter here at My Kind of Country.
When I was a boy, my mom and I scored front row seats to a Tanya Tucker concert but she cancelled the show.  My mother never forgave her, and [...]

Single Review: George Strait – ‘Living For The Night’

Honestly, I’ve never been a big George Strait fan. I’ve known some of his songs, his more recent hits, and on a whim I bought Troubadour this past January. When I got it, there were a few good tracks, but it never caught with me and I stopped listening to it.
However, this new Strait [...]

Classic #2’s

As was noted in some of the recent discussions here, chart position is not necessarily indicative of a song’s quality. A lot of #1 hits are forgotten as soon as they drop off the charts, while other songs that didn’t reach the top have more staying power. In fact, we’re often surprised, years [...]

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 [...]

Single Review: Tanya Tucker – ‘Blood Red and Goin’ Down’

Few songs illustrate the stark changes that have taken place at country radio over the past thirty-odd years better than “Blood Red and Goin’ Down.” Nowadays radio is programmed to appeal to the soccer moms and the subject matter is kept light and non-controversial (in other words, bland.) As such, a song such as this [...]

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 [...]

Single Review: Reba – ‘Strange’

For her first solo single since 2005, Reba returns offering up an irresistible up-tempo strong woman anthem.  The self-described ’sexy sassy’ sound of her new single ‘Strange’ is filled with the spunk that has been missing from Reba’s singles for over a decade.  My only complaint with the production is that the backing vocalists are [...]

Buying albums: standard CD or super-duper deluxe collector’s edition with bonus tracks and DVD?

 
Buying albums sure has gotten complicated over the past few years. Sure, there have always been choices of format; I can remember when the choices were LP, 8-track or cassette. Then 8-tracks were phased out and CDs became available. Then LPs and eventually cassettes went by the wayside. If you wanted an album, you had [...]