Category Archives: News

by Makayla Markey | November 13, 2014 · 8:00 am

Garth Against the Machine

From a young age I listened to Garth Brooks around the house. My mother is a huge fan of Garth Brooks. My mother was actually in the Primetime documentary about Garth Brooks in the front of the crowd at one of his concerts in July of 1992 in what used to be called the Coors Amphitheater in Southern California. She was at the concert with a big group of friends and just happened to be filmed. This is her claim to fame and I will never forget this story.

This is why I took great joy in informing my mother that after 13 years of retirement Garth Brooks is making a comeback with his new album called Man Against Machine under the label RCA Nashville. This album will be quite different than most of the music circulating around other male Country Music singers. Brooks looks past partying and rural life to music that better speaks to the common man. In his album Brooks is representing the middle class that works day in and day out without time for excessive partying and celebration. I am very interested in seeing how listeners will react to this divergent theme. This album shows influence from Jason Aldean and Eric Church with its heavy guitars and dark-hued themes. He doesn’t include auto-tuned vocals, rhythm loops or rapping unlike most modern male country stars. His tracks are weighty and wordy, just like his previous albums “Scarecrow” and “In the Life of Chris Gaines” left off.

Due to this type of construction of the album I get a new traditionalist subgenre vibe from Brooks new album. He reals country music back in to a more traditional standpoint unlike the modern country music that is currently popular. Although his album strays from the current modern country themes produced by male country stars, in my opinion, his desire to address life’s important themes should be more successful than the more superficial themes currently popular in Country music. The themes in Man Against Machiene, show that Garth still nods to his Oklahoma roots, patriotism, parenthood, and there are trademark dashes of feistiness. Mostly, though, there are well-constructed songs with catchy melodies and a sturdy voice that show that a decade of rest has served Brooks well. This album brings together a new and old Garth Brooks. I urge all of you to check the new album out, and hopefully you will connect to it and enjoy it as much as I did.

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Filed under New Country, News

by Gerrit Cook | November 4, 2014 · 8:00 am

Why Are You Performing at the CMA Awards?

“Country Music’s Biggest Night” is working with mainstream pop this year. On November 5^th, Ariana Grande will perform a duet with Little Big Town during the CMA Awards. I consider myself “in the know” when it comes to the music industry, but it doesn’t take a forensics team to conclude that Grande doesn’t really fit in with the country music crowd. Her Wikipedia page considers her a representative of EDM and electropop, and her selection as a performer for the CMA Awards confuses me.

Don’t get me wrong; I love all kinds of music. My Itunes library consists of anything from N.W.A to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana to Eric Church, Ziggy Marley to…you get the idea. I am all for musicians on opposite ends of the spectrum collaborating together to make a song or maybe even an album, but to have this performance on this night seems weird. The CMA Awards is considered “Country Music’s Biggest Night.” Why are you having someone who hasn’t earned their place in the country music industry performing on its “biggest night?”

If I was a country artist that wanted to perform at the CMA Awards, and an artist who is in a completely different category ousted me I would be pissed! I am trying to picture George Strait and Willie Nelson looking perplexed as this performance would unfold and I cant help but laugh. This situation is almost similar to Taylor Swift coming out as a “pop artist” after her start as a self identified “country artist.” Now I am struggling to figure out what is and isn’t country.

We all know that rock, bluegrass, and jazz have an influence in country. Pop has had an influence as well, but it has always been one of those genres that never made sense to me. Country was around for a long time before people started making techno sounds on a computer, and to have Grande waltz right in and perform seems like an odd mix. My only explanation: TV ratings and money.

If an Ariana Grande fan hears about her performing at the CMA Awards, he or she might watch an awards show that they previously wouldn’t have. Multiply that by the millions of people who have bought her records and it could make a big difference in the ratings. After the announcement of this surprising performance, TV Networks might get in a more intense bidding war for the rights to cover the future CMA Awards. In the end, CMA wins.

I am not trying to slam Grande’s music in any way, I mean, her record sales speak for themselves. I don’t think it makes a ton of sense to have the most important night in country music be shared with an artist that represents a completely different genre. In my opinion, they might as well get Waka Flocka in the mix.

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Filed under Awards, News

by Makayla Markey | October 31, 2014 · 8:00 am

Sam Hunt’s Montevallo

sam-hunt-x2c

On October 27^th, Montevallo, the debut album by the new hot country music artist Sam Hunt, was released. Zach Crowell and Shane McAnally produced this Country Pop album under the label MCA Nashville. New music is always so exciting especially from a very new and already popular Country Music artist. It is also exciting to see that Sam Hunt wrote all of the songs on the album with some help but for the most part he is the main writer. This is his first studio album ever! Before this album he came out with the popular single, “Leave the Night On”, which is on Montevallo. Hunt also released “X2C,” a four song EP, intended as a preview for his first studio album. The EP debuted on the No. 36 on the Billboard 200 and No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. This is the only music he has with his label MCA Nashville.

Though he’s taking the spotlight as a solo artist for the first time, Hunt is not exactly new to the Country Music industry. Before signing with MCA Nashville he had a 15 song mix tape and one single called “Raised On It”. He has also co-written a few popular songs, like Kenny Chesney’s 2012 single “Come Over”, for which he received an award from ASCAP. Hunt also wrote two singles released in 2014: Keith Urban’s “Cop Car” and Billy Currington’s “We Are Tonight”. Even though he has had recent success with music it hasn’t always been his passion. Sam Hunt was a college football quarterback at both Middle Tennessee State University and University of Alabama at Birmingham. After college he was briefly signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs.

So as you can see this is Sam Hunt’s first actual step onto the country music scene. So far he has had lots of positive feedback from fans. His single made it on US Billboard Hot 100 38 times. I expect that Montevallo will experience the same type of success since the single is from the album. It will be very exciting to see how listeners will react to the album. I love when I am able to discover an artist early on in their career because you can watch how they grow in their music and how they transform throughout their career. Definitely give Montevallo a listen when you can it is a very fun listen that will get you singing along as well as make you a new fan of newcomer Sam Hunt. He is currently on his CMT Tour: Up in Smoke with Kip Moore and Charlie Worsham that started in September and will continue through November at venues across the U.S.

Tracks:

1.	“Take Your Time”
2.	“Leave the Night On”
3.	“House Party”
4.	“Break Up in a Small Town”
5.	“Single for the Summer”
6.	“Ex to See”
7.	“Make You Miss Me”
8.	“Cop Car”
9.	“Raised on It”
10.	“Speakers”

3 Comments

Filed under News, Reviews

by Holly Kern | October 29, 2014 · 8:00 am

My picks for this years CMA Awards!

Screen Shot 2014-10-27 at 9.02.10 PM Well, its that time of the year again! The biggest night in country music is coming up next week, the CMA awards. It airs next Wednesday on Nov 5^th at 7 PM, I sure hope anybody who’s enrolled in this class watches to see who takes home what awards this year and with Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley as the hosts, its sure to be a fun, musical night. Since I love country music so much I’m going to breakdown the nominations in a couple different categories and make my picks, hopefully as accurately as possible! Now I will point out that along with my own opinion I did do some research to decide my choices so let’s see how many I can get right this year!

Album of the Year: I believe Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party will take the prize this year. This album sold over 2 million copies and won Billboard Music Award’s Country Album of the year title earlier this year. I feel like we’ve seen Luke Bryan only grow since 2009 when he released his first big single “Do I”. Crash My Party released six singles all of which were widely successful.

Entertainer of the Year: KING GEORGE! What more do I have to say? Honestly I believe it would be a complete injustice if Strait didn’t win this award this year. For his “Cowboy Rides Away Tour” he pulled out all the stops bringing in tons of different artists for his farewell tour to enhance the fan experience. He HAS TO and WILL win. It’s also worth noting that he took this category in this years ACM awards also.

New Artist of the Year: This one is going completely off whom my favorite is and it’s a toss up between Cole Swindell and Thomas Rhett. I think Rhett may have the edge over Swindell because Swindell has just recently gotten hot with 3 singles released; where as Rhett has been around a little longer and has released 5 in the last 3 years and his “It Goes like This” and “Get Me Some of That” were really hot in 2013. Although, I personally like Cole Swindell’s voice the best!

Song of the Year: I believe “I Don’t Dance” by Lee Brice will take the cake on this one. This song sold 1,028,000 copies in the US. This song pulled the emotions of all the country listening women in America when we found out Brice wrote it for his then fiancé to be performed during their first dance. This song hit the tops of the Billboard country charts and had a lot of radio airplay (still does). But I must mention that this song is in good competitive company with “I Hold On”, “Follow Your Arrow” and “Automatic” in the mix!

Vocal Duo of the Year: Anybody who thinks anyone besides Florida Georgia Line will win this award must be out of his or her mind! Of the nominees, if I could put money on FGL winning (don’t worry I cant really, NCAA rules) I would put it all on them. Last year they won this exact award from CMA and they for sure did not disappoint us with their music since! (They also won top duo in this years ACM awards in April) “This is How We Roll” and “Dirt” have been their most popular singles this year, both becoming at least platinum certified singles.

So what do you think? What and who will be remembered at this year’s CMA awards?