Category Archives: Featured

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Celebrating Stoney Edwards

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Stoney Edwards on Country Music News Blog

If you’ve never heard the song “Cute Lil Waitress” then you don’t know the simple fun and joy of Stoney Edwards’ contribution to country music. Living among the legends of yesterday, Stoney Edwards was an often overlooked stellar songwriter who couldn’t get a fair shake if he tried. Now the music industry is doing its’ best to rectify that oversight. Though the Cliff Notes version of the Stoney Edwards story portrays him as country music’s other Black star of the 70’s, his heritage was even more complex than that. Though his dad Rescue “Bub” Edwards was Black, he also had Irish in his blood. Stoney’s mother Ollie “Red” Edwards was Native American. Born on Christmas Eve 1929 in Seminole County, Oklahoma, Stoney once told historian Peter Guralnick, “I was never really accepted by any race. Sometimes I wished I was black as a skillet or white as a damned sheet, but the way I am it’s always been a motherf***er.”

Out Now: Trixie Mattel Drops Double LP ‘The Blonde & Pink Albums’

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Trixie Mattel Drops Double LP ‘The Blonde & Pink Albums’

Today, Trixie Mattel has reasserted herself as one of the most exciting modern day pop culture pillars and important current voices in queer music with the release of her double LP ‘The Blonde & Pink Albums’ via PEG Records. Inspired by Trixie’s fascination with duality, specifically the juxtaposition of her glamorous, serious side with her fun-loving, carefree side, ‘The Blonde & Pink Albums’ will usher in a new sonic era for the beloved chart-topping superstar. Listen HERE.

Country Music Hall Of Fame To Open New Exhibit On L.A. Country-Rock

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Country Music Hall Of Fame To Open New Exhibit On L.A. Country-Rock

The COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’s next major exhibition will be “Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of LOS ANGELES Country-Rock.” The exhibit, to open SEPTEMBER 30th for a nearly three-year run in the museum’s newly revamped gallery, was announced YESTERDAY (6/22) with two separate events at the TROUBADOUR in LOS ANGELES and the museum’s FORD THEATER in NASHVILLE.

Out This Week: Watershed LP – The Belle Curves

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Out This Week Watershed LP - The Belle Curves

Long Island, New York may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of country-Americana music with a strong rural connection, but you might think differently after spending some time with the work of singer/songwriter Delaney Hafener. The driving force behind The Belle Curves, Hafener has a way of turning your assumptions upside down. So whatever preconceived notions you harbor about country music, the USA, love, relationships, identity and belonging, you’ll likely find yourself looking from a newfound vantage point by the time you get to the end of the Belle Curves’ sophomore full-length Watershed. 

Willi Carlisle: A Snapshot of a Fast-Rising Star

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Willi Carlisle on Country Music News Blog - Photo: Mike Venata

There’s a fine line between “having to” and “choosing it”… and that was the line that made me fall in love with the sound and style of Willi Carlisle. It’s from his latest track “Van Life” on his upcoming album “Peculiar, Missouri” which comes out next month, and it perfectly sums up a dream I’ve been chasing ever since I left the bustling city behind 13 years ago. All my friends thought I was crazy to leave my established desert music scene, uproot my kids and go hide in the woods. My bank account cried over the loss of “city wages”. My mother worried that I was never going to be able to manage the tedium of raising chicken and keeping a garden. But the fact that I chose this life on purpose made all the difference. In fact, once I started listening to more of Willi’s music, it felt like he was telling my story. Mine. Not his. Not some bubblegum pop country generic references to checklists about rural life. MY STORY. But that’s the mark of a great songwriter, isn’t it? When they tap into the human condition then find a way to spell it out so that it feels both personally and universally true at the same time.