Though it's fashionable to say that genres are dead and irrelevant, if not outright detrimental to the creativity of artists, they perhaps have never been more necessary as 120,000 new songs get ...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/proposing-dewey-decimal-classifications-for-countrys-subgenres/
Instead of importing pop stars to fill out the performance roster, why not pick up on some of the fast-rising independent stars that are quickly outpacing the popularity of country's 2nd-tier mai...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/2024-acm-awards-pander-to-pop-while-ignoring-countrys-popularity/
You have to tip your hat to Sturgill Simpson on how he's leveraged his absence into top tier headliner status here in 2024. As the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. The post...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/sturgill-simpson-parlays-absence-into-megafest-headliner-status/
In lieu of Randy being able to sing new, original songs due to his continued aphasia, he has partnered with his old label Warner Music Nashville to release a new song called "Where That Came From...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/on-the-beauty-and-dilemma-of-the-new-ai-randy-travis-song/
As strange as it may sound, the term "saving country music" or "save country music" has been said and written more in the last few months than at any other time in history. This begs a deeper dis...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/answering-the-question-does-country-music-really-need-saving/
Instead of coming out with his regular band and performing some of his biggest hits such as "Drink In My Hand," "Springsteen," and "Talladega," Eric Church instead capped off Night One of Stageco...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/eric-church-roundly-criticized-for-his-2024-stagecoach-set/
Every once in a while, a reset of perspective on the ultimate purpose of Saving Country Music is in order. Now is one of those times. Saving Country Music was founded to tackle critically importa...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/this-is-the-purpose-of-saving-country-music/
On Friday, April 12th, the widow of Americana singer and songwriter Justin Townes Earle took to social media to let her thoughts be known about the song "When We Were Close," written and performe...
Every year as the nominations for country music awards come and go, it's hard to not fall into a perfunctory attitude about them due to the cyclical and predictable nature of the nominees. The ...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/we-need-to-talk-about-these-2024-acm-awards-nominations/
Once again, Morgan Wallen has made an embarrassment of himself. And once again, it's an embarrassment that unfortunately country music has to answer for since Wallen continues to crown the genre....
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/on-morgan-wallens-latest-arrest-the-chair-incident/
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter is officially the #1 album on the Billboard Country Albums chart. This is despite Beyoncé explicitly stating in a March 19th statement, "This ain't a Country album," and...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/beyonce-this-aint-a-country-album-billboard-yes-it-is/
The CMAs. The ACMs. The CMTs. The PCCAs. None of them come even close to truly recognizing the "best" that country music has to offer in a given year. It's questionable if any of them truly deser...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/your-annual-reminder-that-the-cmt-awards-dont-matter/
This Rolling Stone list of the 25 Best Country Soul Albums has so many holes you could strain your spaghetti with it, while simultaneously including some titles that have no business being there....
"She clearly was not trying to showcase the talents of black country artists in a real way, which I’m sure is extremely disappointing to the black country folks busting their asses to make it."...
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter is not a country album. It was never meant to be considered a country album. When the first songs were released, they were not labeled as country songs, and were not sent...
Along with clarifying that Beyoncé herself believes her upcoming release "Ain't a country album," she also further reiterates that the project came about from, "taking my time to bend and blend ...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/beyonce-this-aint-a-country-album-this-is-a-beyonce-album/
This doesn't settle anything, either for Jimmie Allen, the accusers, the public, or the country music industry. It will still leave open questions about what actually happened, and potentially, a...
It nears the realm of impossibility to put enough emphasis on how monumentally important the seismic shifts occurring in the music business at the moment are, and how they're reverberating throug...
Started in 2019, the Grand Ole Opry's NextStage program looks to highlight rising talent by featuring them more regularly on the Opry stage, and across the Grand Ole Opry's various programs and p...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/oprys-2024-nextstage-class-features-surging-independent-talent/
As you can imagine, the news of the #1 has been met with with praise for Beyoncé breaking down barriers and shattering glass ceilings in country. But this is more about a megastar worth $800 mil...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/why-beyonces-1-in-country-doesnt-really-matter/
In 2024, everything that Dale Watson must have dreamed up as his ideal fantasy of what the Ameripolitan Awards could become was finally realized when it returned to Austin where it was originally...
On Monday, February 19th, Wyatt Flores announced that he would be cancelling his upcoming show in Oxford, Ohio. Other upcoming shows in Detroit and Toronto will also be rescheduled to a later dat...
Maybe Beyoncé's new songs are country, or at least, they may be more country than they are anything else. But these are decisions that need to be determined irrespective of the noise already sur...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/on-this-beyonce-going-country-business/
Country music is on a winning streak. And though it may have been the Kansas City Chiefs who hoisted a trophy at the end of the 2024 Super Bowl, country fans scored a victory too as the steel gui...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/how-steel-guitar-made-its-way-into-the-super-bowl/
In 1974 while a sophomore in college at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Reba McEntire performed the National Anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, or NFR. The post Super...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/super-bowl-national-anthem-brings-reba-mcentire-full-circle/
The misconception that Toby Keith helped launch Taylor Swift's career comes from a now viral clip taken from a Channel 4 WSMV news story shot in 2005 that features a 15-year-old Taylor Swift sing...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/did-toby-keith-really-help-launch-taylor-swifts-career/
Rapper T-Pain recently made some statements that have the music world in a stir. T-Pain claims he's helped to write some country songs in the past, but left his name out of the credits due to rac...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/on-t-pain-claiming-racism-kept-his-name-off-of-country-songs/
If you know the Turnpike Troubadours, then you know Lorrie. You may have never met her, not be sure if she's real or just a figment of songwriter and frontman Evan Felker's imagination. But she l...
Some moments, and some songs are bigger than genre, or even era. They resonate with the audience irrespective of age, race, creed, gender, or anything else. They're universal, regardless of the s...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/on-luke-combs-tracy-chapman-singing-fast-car-on-the-grammys/
By most all accounts, the late 2022 Showtime limited series George & Tammy was a major success. The opening episode was the most-watched debut episode in Showtime's history. Ratings remained stel...
It's good that Chris Young has been cleared of all charges. But it's not before his mug shot was distributed all across the internet, he had to spend time behind bars, he had to post a bond, and ...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/chris-young-fought-the-law-and-won/
Nobody needs to be told how incredibly awesome this 2024 Bourbon & Beyond Festival lineup is. Announced on Wednesday (1-24), the lineup set to transpire at the Highland Festival Ground in Louisvi...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/about-this-massive-2024-bourbon-beyond-fest-lineup/
Almost immediately as the news spread and outlets started reporting on King's drunken performance, some came forward to claim that the criticism Elle King was receiving constituted a double stand...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/there-is-no-double-standard-to-elle-king-criticism/
Fans love Elle King for her "devil may care" attitude and over-the-top presentation. She's a lot, and that's fine. But the Grand Ole Opry stage is supposed to be a family friendly environment, an...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/elle-king-owes-opry-dolly-apology-after-drunken-performance/
It’s that time of year again to consider who might be in the running for the precious few spots as the newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. A committee commissioned by the CMA ...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/2024-country-music-hall-of-fame-picks-predictions/
The screenplay writers for the biopic have yet to be revealed, but one hopes that they don't just gloss over or speed through Linda Ronstandt's time in country music at the start of her career. ...
When Maren Morris chose to collaborate with Diplo on the new song "42," she chose to look the other way from Diplo's extremely checkered past when it comes to his treatment of women leading up to...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/clear-hypocrisy-in-maren-morris-collaborating-with-diplo/
Taking a step back and zooming out, it's an entirely different setup in 2024 compared to when Saving Country Music was founded going on 16 years ago. It all begs the question, "Has country music ...
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/has-country-music-been-saved-a-state-of-the-union/