Photo Credit: Beth Garrabrant Taylor Swift wrote her third album entirely on her own. This was partly a result of Swift getting her “best ideas at 3 am in Arkansas,” as she would tell Songwriter Universe, but it also served as a rebuttal to critics and other commentators who had previously doubted teenage Swift’s creative… Read more
Photo Credit: Ashley Osborn In recent years, two distinct roads have emerged in the country music landscape. That less traveled is occupied by the likes of Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, The Highwomen, and Jess Williamson. These are singers who embody country’s music original promise – of heartfelt, homespun, hugely evocative songs – while updating the… Read more
Photo Credit: Kristín Braga Wright Though you wouldn’t necessarily know it from listening to country radio, women have spent the last few years carrying the genre on their backs. While Sam Hunt has been delivering toxically masculine lyrics over awkward genre fusions and Walker Hayes has been making bro-country Applebees jingles, Margo Price has been… Read more
Sure, one could argue that being a household name within the music industry in any way should disqualify you from complaining. Still, there are plenty of groups out there that deserve way more appreciation than they get. Here is a list of ten groups – new and old – that we think should be talked… Read more
Photo Credit: Sonya Jasinski It’s fair to say that Michelle Branch has spent nearly two decades living in the shadow of her first two albums – 2001’s The Spirit Room and 2003’s Hotel Paper. How could she not after taking a fourteen-year break from solo output between her second and third LP? If Branch’s fourth,… Read more
To have something important to say and to know how to say it – that’s the art of succeeding with your debut album. Some debut albums have such an important message that they change the world forever. Some of them are just incredibly well executed, burning with the energy of a new artist who finally… Read more
Photo Credit: Randee St Nicholas In the nearly two decades since winning American Idol, Carrie Underwood has established herself as the rare country star that everyone can root for. She’s consistently found a tactful balance between pop and country that leaves fans of both genres largely satisfied and has steadfastly avoided wading into politics –… Read more
Photo Credit: Chuck Berry via Universal Attractions (artist management) “Hail, hail rock and roll // Deliver me from the days of old.” – Charles Edward Anderson Berry Rock and roll always had a problem orienting itself from the beginning. It is the musical product of a dozen styles of American music blended through time and… Read more
Photo Credit: Paige Sara Back in 1999, as we were just on the brink of the new millennium, Jack White seemingly came out of nowhere (actually Detroit) to save rock ‘n’ roll. Or at the very least, strip it down to its basics, as in his band the White Stripes he used only an electric… Read more
Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar said back in 1988 that “alternative music has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum.” That’s a great explanation of what started during the late-‘70s to early-‘80s as college radio features like Dead Kennedys… Read more