Just as the popular portrayal of Johnny Cash as a lawless hellraiser overlooks a nuanced man’s love of faith and family, painting 80-year-old Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Ray Stevens as just a comedy act undercuts his decades of work as a producer, businessman and multi-Grammy-winning singer of serious …
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Joshua Fleming never expected to live this long. Self-medicating with a cocktail of drugs in his early twenties, bouncing between jobs and playing in punk bands, he was hell-bent on burning out instead of fading away. So it’s not so surprising that the Vandoliers front man should be so pleased …
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Reba McEntire delivers a story of deception, heartbreak and self-medication on “Stronger Than the Truth,” the title track from her upcoming album. Stronger Than the Truth is the country superstar’s follow-up to the 2017 gospel collection Sing It Now. “Stronger Than the Truth,” penned by Hannah Louise Blaylock and Autumn …
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Since the beginning of their musical and personal partnership Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have evoked the primitive, traditional roots of country music. One of those most important traditions, the cowboy song, is captured in the pair’s plaintive Academy Award-nominated tune, “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” for …
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Todd Snider has released a new song from his upcoming acoustic LP, Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3. Titled “Like a Force of Nature,” the track features Jason Isbell and was originally written for his rootsy jam band Hard Working Americans. As with “Just Like Overnight,” the previous song to be …
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The Americana Music Association U.K. (AMA-UK), a self-described “little sister” of the Nashville-based AMA, recently held their annual conference in London, with last weekend’s U.K. Americana Awards ceremony the centerpiece. At the gala, staged at Hackney Empire in East London, Mary Gauthier was named International Artist of the Year, while …
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Kassi Ashton doesn’t typically concern herself with such things, but she had a suspicion that her new song “Violins” might not go over well with Interscope, the pop half of her country-pop label deal. “It’s very opposite what’s happening in pop right now,” says the Missouri native, who announced herself …
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It’s a rainy November evening in Nashville and Josh Ritter and Jason Isbell are huddled in front of the console at Sound Emporium Studios, an historic space located in an otherwise nondescript building in the city’s Belmont neighborhood. It’s the last recording session for Ritter’s new album, which Isbell is …
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Ryan Bingham is getting back in the saddle this winter as he prepares to release American Love Song, his first LP of new material in four years. The performer gets back to his gritty roadhouse roots on his latest song, “Jingle and Go.” The new track, which will lead off …
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“The power of two people sitting down and singing together just knocks you out, doesn’t it?” That’s Chris Shiflett‘s response to Carolina Story’s live performance of “We Were Young Once Too,” which fills the final moments of the duo’s appearance on Walking the Floor. As longtime partners onstage and off, …
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