Screw the CMA's

The worst thing I have is that he thinks Chris Stapleton sings R&B. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

New album is good, if a little too poppy for my taste. I’d like to see her go a little harder into the twang to buck the Nashville studio system like Lainey Wilson and Carly Pearce have done on their newest releases.

Pearce’s 29: Written In Stone is a better post-divorce album than Kacey Musgraves’ new star-crossed, a straight pop album that tries to channel whatever the hell Taylor Swift was doing when she recorded her lockdown albums without doing it as well as Taylor did.

 

I agree it sounds like something an American Idol-alum would produce - but that's what they're playing on country radio these days right? I do enjoy the blend of country and blues though.

 

Once upon a time, Turnpike Troubadours was the hardest working band in the country-Americana-red dirt music space. Lead singer Evan Felker is probably the best songwriter in that space. But that was in about 2017, and then a lot of things happened.

• Felker’s willingness to take a drink turned into full-blown blackout alcoholism.
• He cheated on his wife with Miranda Lambert. His wife divorced him.
• He cheated on Miranda Lambert with his ex-wife. Miranda dumped him.
• He was too drunk to go for too many shows, leading to a lot of cancellations and eventually the joke that COVID-19 had canceled more shows than the Turnpike Troubadours.
• The band took a break in 2019. Most of the members took side gigs, waiting for Felker to get his shit together, but then …
• COVID-19 happened. That turned out to help, because …
• Felker checked into rehab, got dried out, took a job on a southeast Texas cattle ranch to pay the bills, and remarried his ex-wife.
• They had a daughter.
• The band got back together.
• After a year and half with nothing from the band’s Twitter feed, this slipped out Monday afternoon:

There’s allegedly an album forthcoming, they’ve booked a headline date in May at Red Rocks (which they will probably sell out, because selling out Red Rocks is what they do), and on Monday Rolling Stone posted this feature in which the band members (all of them, somehow, despite everything) reflected on the past two years:
Exclusive: Turnpike Troubadours Talk Unexpected Hiatus, Newfound Sobriety, and Surprise Reunion

When Turnpike returns to the road, fans should expect a more measured approach to tours than the “any gig, any time” outlook the band adhered to for a decade. They’ll certainly aim to find as much time at home as they find under spotlights.

“We have to keep things well-rounded,” Felker says. “Life has to have some sort of balance, otherwise it’ll spin off into outer space. We were in the bars — for 10 years, I was in a bar every night. If you expose yourself to that long enough, you’re going to wind up needing some help. I know I did. I don’t miss it. I don’t miss that. I miss playing music, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t miss being drunk and telling the same stories over and over again, not at all.”​

And if you haven’t heard of Turnpike Troubadours before, come out from under the rock before it’s too late.

Also, I didn’t dig out the #CountryMyAssAwards hashtag on Twitter even once on CMA night and I’m pretty impressed with myself about that, although I was tempted when they announced Old Dominion as the vocal group winner (at least it wasn’t Lady Antebellum or Little Big Town).

 

Missed this last weekend.

RIP Stonewall Jackson, the first artist to be invited to join the Opry before getting a recording contract.

Farewell to Country Music Legend Stonewall Jackson - Cowboys and Indians Magazine

 

Well shit. Last year on the road for Robert Earl Keen.

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/...nQt2WlY0UHZBLB0DRwGAvSuHWgSFdaNoTr0lAr4sylhoE

 

Damn. He didn’t look well when he sat for his Ken Burns’ Country Music interviews, so I kind of expected this.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/en...o-tv-host-country-music-hall-fame/6541650001/

From Kyle at Saving Country Music:

Whether you saw that smile on television, or heard it in his voice that was built for broadcasting, his enthusiasm for the subject matter of country music was rendered infectious. It didn’t emanate from New York or Los Angeles like so much of America’s national media. It came straight from Nashville, in the form of WSM radio broadcasts, the television show Pop! Goes The Country from 1974 to 1980, later Nashville Now from 1983 to 1993, and many other programs throughout the years. No matter where you were, Ralph Emery put country music front and center, while truck drivers coast to coast will remember Ralph Emery as the late-night disc jockey keeping them awake and entertained during those long hauls.

It was the rapport he kept with many entertainers that allowed Ralph Emery to get something special from interviews. They didn’t see Emery as a member of the media on a second tier from themselves. They saw him as an equal, while many up-and-comers were just as star struck to meet him as they would be some of their country music heroes. It wasn’t uncommon for artists just to “stop by” one of his shows unannounced, and time and room would be made. Wherever Ralph Emery was, that was country music’s living room, and everyone was welcome.

And it wasn’t just the big stars that Ralph’s platform was reserved for. On the contrary, Emery was one of the few in country music’s notoriously “hard to break through” system that would give up-and-comers their first big break. When then rest of Nashville considered Randy Travis “too country,” Ralph Emery gave him a platform on Nashville Now, and Randy’s first brush with fame. In January of 1984 while Randy was still employed as a dishwasher at the Nashville Palace, Ralph put him on his TV show, unsigned, and without a single. Randy Travis was shaking he was so nervous, but Emery told him, “Randy, don’t be nervous, you’re among friends.” …

The second time Randy Travis appeared on Nashville Now on July 16th, 1984, he was still working full-time at the Nashville Palace, so he brought Emery dinner from the venue’s kitchen. Randy thought since he wasn’t famous yet, he would be expected to play something from George Jones or Merle Haggard. But Ralph Emery insisted to Randy, “Do your own songs.” Lorrie Morgan also found her first brush of fame thanks to Ralph Emery, as did many others.

Ralph Emery wasn’t just influential in country music. He was also a titan of American broadcasting in general. Dubbed the “Dick Clark of Country Music” by many, or “The Johnny Carson of Cable” by others, his programs not only inspired aspiring country artists watching and listening at home, he also inspired others to want to be their own version of Ralph Emery, hobnobbing with the stars, and bringing their stories and music them to the world. NASCAR driver and announcer Darrell Waltrip unabashedly claims that he stole his broadcasting approach from Ralph Emery. This is one of many reasons Emery was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2010.

Ralph Emery is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame where he was inducted in 2007. One of the hardest Halls of Fame to get into for anyone, to get in as a broadcast and media personality speaks to the influence and impact Emery had on the music, and from young to old. Emery didn’t play a partisan role in country music, making sure both young talent, and aging legends were well-represented in the country music diet.​

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/...ry-country-musics-preeminent-broadcaster-rip/

 

Man - never heard of Walker Hayes until now. For a guy who can't sing and what songs he does perform are incredibly dumb, he's done OK for himself. Seriously, you get the impression Nashville is figuring if fans like bad, dumb "country music"- they may as well push the envelop and see how bad and dumb they can make it.

 

Was in a quick mart by a highway and they were playing a god-awful country song - something about tailgates, country music and some such. And as bad as country music has been in the last 20 years, mainly due to insipid, uninspired cliche-ridden lyrics, the music still kinda held up. But trying to look up the song I heard (I was guessing Eric Church or Brantley Gilbert) made me realize the music has gotten worse and the lyrics are still bad, but the phrasing and meter of most of these songs is all over the place, with words left dangling over notes, or squeezed to fill out a line. This isn't the one I heard, but it IS terrible. When did country stop namedropping other country singers and start namedropping products?

 

Check out Joshua Ray Walker. His looks and weight guarantee he’s never going to be the “it” singer in Nashville, but he puts out damn good music.

 

I don't dial up country at all, but Chris Stapleton somehow slid into my feed, and damn that ol' boy can sling it.

 

Trying him out, good stuff. Then "Sexy After Dark" comes on. I know I've heard that before, probably on one of my new music playlists. It's caught my attention before. It should land in some Tarantino-type movie or TV show.