Posted: September 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am| By: Craig Shelburne
Sugarland dominated the mainstream country sales chart this summer, but there’s still plenty of room for the indies to get some attention. Of course, Randy Travis and Emmylou Harris still sound sterling on the new songs I have included here, and rock musicians like John Mellencamp, Sheryl Crow and My Morning Jacket contributed excellent songs to my summer soundtrack. Bluegrass is well-represented too, with the Duhks, the Grascals, Blue Moon Rising, Tony Rice and Cadillac Sky. Now that Labor Day weekend is over, and autumn is upon us, at least I have these songs to remind me of a pretty fun summer.
Wedding vows? Please. Those are so woefully shallow to me now. Things like “til death do us part” are no comparison to the lines of Randy Travis’ newest single. “Dig Two Graves” is about devotion so deep, one can’t even go on without the other. About how her love is the blood running through his veins. And how he will literally die without her.
When I was at Telluride, I posed this question to my friend and fellow festivarian: “If you could book your own festival, who would you get?” Almost instantly, she decided on a ’80s country music theme, and I was immediately interested. Since we were just sitting around waiting for a band to start, we decided to go ahead and build the schedule. Here’s what we came up with:
Posted: July 22nd, 2008 at 11:53 am| By: Whitney Self
Out of all the details and colors and nit-picky particulars, my fiancé and I do have something set in stone, our wedding song. Randy Travis‘ “Forever and Ever, Amen” will be our first dance as a married couple. Since they say music is the soundtrack of life, I’d like this to be ours.
Usually I can persuade a few of my friends to join me for the nightly concerts at the CMA Music Festival, so I don’t have to sit there by myself all night, taking notes. This year, for the first time, I had several friends ask if they could tag along. Well, sure! Seeing the event through the eyes of a first-timer always makes it a lot more fun. When Rascal Flatts suddenly appeared as the surprise guest that first night, you could definitely sense the excitement in the crowd - stuff like this just doesn’t happen outside of Nashville.
Jessica Simpson is proving that a pop star can record country. But can she dress the part? We’ll have to wait to see the album cover, but it sounds like she’ll be cowgirled up.
If artists do more and more marketing directly to retailers like Wal-Mart, what will become of labels?The New York Times looks ahead to the retailer-as-hitmaker world.
So, what have I seen at the CMA Music Festival this year? Well, that’s as easy as ABC.
A is for Australians - Before the event officially started, I checked out some international showcases in the honkytonks of Lower Broadway. Some of it was terrible, and one guy traveled all the way from Australia to sing “Crazy.” (Um, I think we’ve all heard that before.) My personal favorite was Troy Cassar-Daley, with his smooth baritone, traditional bent and songs reminiscent of Randy Travis, Doug Stone and non-silly Joe Diffie. If I ever get to Australia, hopefully I can hear some more.
Posted: May 19th, 2008 at 12:35 pm| By: Edward Morris
Garth Brooks had his share of critics when he went stratospheric in the early ‘90s, but there’s no doubt that he brought more fans (and money) to country music with his larger-than-life personality than anyone else before or since. When Brooks was at his peak, artists who can’t even get a record deal today were routinely selling albums at gold and platinum levels. As one artist skyrockets, all the others get a boost, and that means good times for the whole music industry.
Planned obsolescence, anyone? That seems to be Apple’s only hope for reviving sales of its iPod line. Make the old ones seem old, so sales of the new ones go up.
Wedding vows? Please. Those are so woefully shallow to me now. Things like “til death do us part” are no comparison to the lines of 
So, what have I seen at the 
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