country music

Willie Nelson CD Review: His Son Also Rises in Duets-Heavy 'Heroes'

May 15, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Snoop Dogg, Sheryl Crow and Merle Haggard all show up on Willie's mostly satisfying new album, but it's really a torch-passing exercise 

  

ACM Awards Wedding: Couple to Marry Onstage

March 30, 2012 By Kimberly Potts 1 year ago

New Jersey couple who met in a grief support group will be serenaded by Martina McBride and Train's Pat Monahan as they get hitched during ACM Awards

  

Lionel Richie Goes Barely Country for 'Tuskegee'

March 27, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Only Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles cuts through the smooth-pop clutter in their duet on "Hello"

  

Lionel Richie Sells 20,000 Country Albums in an Hour on HSN

March 19, 2012 By Kimberly Potts 1 year ago

Yep, that's right, pardner … Lionel Richie's a country singer now, dueting with Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney

  

Lyle Lovett Makes Writer's Block Work for Him, Again, in 'Release Me'

February 28, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Review: It's hard to complain about Lovett's spate of mostly-covers albums when he resurrects such juicy blues, country, and Texas-music obscurities

  

Academy of Country Music Awards to Air on CBS Through 2021

January 25, 2012 By Kimberly Potts 1 year ago

The Dick Clark Productions-produced awards show has aired on the network since 1998

  

Review: Tim McGraw's 'Emotional Traffic' Is Serious and Silly

January 24, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The uneven album, once the center of legal battle between the singer and his label Curb Records, hints at greatness and settles for affability

  

The 45th Annual CMA Awards Air on ABC -- Why You Should Watch

November 9, 2011 By Kimberly Potts 1 year ago

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood return as hosts, Keith Urban and Sugarland perform and "American Idol" winner Scotty McCreery makes his CMA debut

  

Review: Induct Miranda Lambert in the Hall of Fame Right Now!

November 1, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

On her great new "Four the Record," the Texas firebrand shows off a softer side -- but she's hardly forsaken hell-raising

  

Review: Martina McBride Makes a Nicely Restrained Fresh Start With 'Eleven'

October 11, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The diva's first album for a new label flirts with contemporary pop and Nashville-style R&B before settling into being a honest-to-gosh country album

  

Review: Bob Dylan, Jack White, Sheryl Crow Hook Up With Hank Williams' Ghost

October 3, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The Dylan-shepherded "Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams" lets a well-chosen cast of contemporary rockers and country stars rifle through the legend's unused lyric scraps. It's great -- but hope you like steel guitar and suicidal waltzes

  

Review: 'Idol' Scotty McCreery Aims for the Mushy Middle

October 3, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

But once he lays off the treacly ballads, the deep-voiced Season 10 winner sounds more like a more wholesome Dierks Bentley doppelganger than a Josh Turner mini-me. But that still doesn't solve this country kid's distinctiveness problem

  

Lady Antebellum Owns 'Night' -- and Billboard Chart

September 21, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Easily aced failed comebacks by a whacked Bush and petered-out Primus

  

Review: Kristin Chenoweth Is Too Much of a Good Witch on Her Country Debut

September 13, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

When she's camping it up, the Broadway diva is a natural in her theater-to-twang transition, but a plethora of soppy message songs undercut the fun

  

Review: Lady Antebellum Gets Too Lady-Like on Ballad-Thick 3rd Album

September 12, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The country-pop trio try to repeat the romantic formula that produced "Need You Now," with less miraculous results

  

Review: George Strait's 'Good Time' Could Use More Heartbreak

September 6, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The country superstar co-wrote most of his own material for the first time on his 39th album, which suffers for shutting out the great tunesmiths Strait's leaned on in the past

  

Review: Glen Campbell's 'Ghost' a Moving -- But Not Entirely Satisfying -- Farewell

August 29, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The Alzheimer's-diagnosed star remembers the arrangements that made "Wichita Lineman" soar but falls a bit short lyrically

  

Review: Jake Owen's 'Blue Jean Night' Revels in Ordinary -- and Not in a Good Way

August 29, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The country hunk can't rise above the idealized clichés of backroads romance on his determinedly upbeat third album

  

Review: Miranda Lambert's Side Project, Pistol Annies, Pull Trigger on 2011's Best Country Album

August 22, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Sly country comedy competes with stark economic realism in the rude, charming debut from Lambert's off-hours female trio

  

Review: Country's Hunk of the Week, Luke Bryan, Confined by 'Tailgates'

August 8, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Other than those super-white teeth, Bryan can't quite set himself apart from the rest of the overcrowded young-country-male pack with his third album

  

Review: Trace Adkins Saves Belligerence for Bonus Cuts on New Album

August 1, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Country star and "Apprentice" contestant Trace Adkins is all sweetness on his tenth album... unless you buy the deluxe edition

  

Review: Eric Church's 'Chief' Aim Is Poetic Rowdiness

July 25, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

On his third album, country star Eric Church puts a welcomely poetic spin on some overly familiar small-town tropes

  

Music Charts: Blake Shelton, Demi Lovato Make Splashy Bows

July 20, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

'Voice' judge Shelton found an agreeable jury for his first No. 1 album, while Lovato's 'Skyscraper' is a rehabilitative hit on the singles chart

  

Review: Blake Shelton Finds a Slightly Less Rowdy 'Voice' in 'Red River Blue'

July 11, 2011 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Country rambunctiousness is traded for less polarizing romance in --but fans of his funnier side won't find his rogue-ish charms altogether MIA

  

Country Stars Come Out for the CMT Awards (Slideshow)

December 31, 1970 By C. Molly Smith 43 years ago

Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts and country music's finest threw on their cowboy hats and spurs for Wednesday's Country Music Awards in Nashville

  

George Jones, Country Music's 'Possum,' Dies at 81

December 31, 1970 By Anonymous 43 years ago
  
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