Music Country

The pairing of Ashley Monroe and producer Dave Cobb on the singer’s forthcoming LP Sparrow was bound to be a stellar combination, and her new song “Paying Attention” shows how it was also a gorgeously dramatic one. Recorded while Monroe was pregnant with her son, “Paying Attention” is a heartbreaking …

Few artists can command an audience with just a guitar and harmonica quite like Kris Kristofferson. But for two intimate club shows in May, he’ll share the stage with one of country music’s most famous bands: the Strangers, along with Merle Haggard’s son Ben. Billed as “Kris Kristofferson and Ben …

Chuck Klosterman once wrote that “sarcasm is when you tell someone the truth by lying on purpose.” He was right: nothing makes reality sink in quite like when it’s disguised as some light-hearted humor, a tactic that Courtney Marie Andrews uses to her advantage on her new song, “I’ve Hurt …

John Prine offers another sneak peek into his first solo album of all-new material since 2005 with the release of the track “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door.” Co-written with Pat McLaughlin, whose credits include cuts by Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Gary Allan any many others, the tune is prime Prine, …

Chris Stapleton leads his peers in nominations for the 53rd annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which were revealed Thursday morning. Among his eight total nods, he picked up his first nomination for Entertainer of the Year as well as one for Male Vocalist of the Year, then scored double …

Southern-rock quintet Blackberry Smoke deliver a blistering reminder that everyone wants what they don’t have – with the added caveat that maybe, good things come to those who wait – in their newly released song “Best Seat in the House.” Described by lead singer Charlie Starr as a sort of …

In January, Rolling Stone Country published an in-depth report about an endemic culture of sexual harassment and misconduct in the world of country radio, including incidents at events and annual conventions such as Country Radio Seminar, known as CRS. The organizers of CRS, which is happening in Nashville this week, …

In a revealing aside from Stephen King’s novel It, the bartender Ricky Lee remembers a washed-up “rumdum” who stumbles into his dive, gives a woman a roll of quarters for the jukebox and spends the night drunkenly singing along to the music of the country singer Moe Bandy. He then …

Gwen Sebastian‘s latest album Once Upon a Time in the West: Act 1 opens with the dramatic flourishes of the title track: a vaguely Latin, minor-key progression and eerie spirals of pedal steel adorn a story of two ride-or-die lovers on the run that concludes with the cinematic instructions “Fade …

Kenny Chesney‘s massive stadium concerts have long been known as the country superstar’s calling card, but 2018 he’ll return to smaller digs for a newly announced series of amphitheater dates. After announcing he would play 18 stadium shows in 2018, Chesney has now revealed 21 more concerts scheduled in amphitheaters …