Music Country

Country traditionalist Joe Nichols has launched an online performance series titled “Merle Mondays,” in which the Arkansas native pays tribute to the music of country legend Merle Haggard. The first edition premiered Monday, April 20th, and featured the “Brokenheartsville” singer’s rendition of “You Take Me for Granted.” This week’s installment …

This is the fourth installment of Rolling Stone’s Music in Crisis series, which looks at how people all across the music industry are coping with the coronavirus pandemic. The Bluebird Cafe is one Nashville‘s most important and idiosyncratic venues: an impossibly tiny listening room where songwriters and surprise guests like …

At a January photo shoot for the cover of her self-titled new album, Shelby Lynne was instructed by renowned photographer Amanda Demme to pull the collar of her white turtleneck up over her mouth and nose, never expecting that bit of artistic inspiration would result in an image that’s both …

Morgan Wallen offers another preview of his upcoming second album with the new song “More Than My Hometown,” released overnight on Friday. The “Whiskey Glasses” singer’s follow-up to If I Know Me is due via Big Loud Records later in 2020. With a mix of clean guitar sounds that suggest …

John Prine loved Christmas. When he recorded what would be his final studio album, 2018’s The Tree of Forgiveness, he dragged a lit-up Christmas tree that he kept in his office year-round to the recording studio in the middle of July. “I don’t like to see Christmas trees torn down,” …

On Sunday night, Amanda Shires continued her daily I So Lounging livestream series with a three-song set that included a moving cover of Joe Diffie’s 1993 hit, “John Deere Green.” Diffie died that same day due to complications related to COVID-19. “Heard this one a lot when I was a …

In March 1973, Merle Haggard and the Strangers released a new single called “The Emptiest Arms in the World,” a boozy, forlorn honky-tonk ballad from the soon-to-be-released I Love Dixie Blues LP. The country song’s lonely main character, however, might well have been positively giddy compared to the actual country’s …

Singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews will release her new album Old Flowers on June 5th via Fat Possum Records. In advance of the LP, the Phoenix native premiered the brooding track “If I Told,” a vulnerable five-minute ballad that recalls a pivotal night on Venice Beach in Los Angeles. “Tell me …

Fresh off her two wins at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, Tanya Tucker appeared on Ellen and performed “Hard Luck” with Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, the producers of her Grammy-winning album While I’m Livin’. “Hard Luck” was first recorded by Southern-rock band Josefus, and Tucker maintains the original’s tough vibes, as …

Despite steps forward to level the playing field by CMT, AppleMusic, and the Change the Conversation org, gender imbalance in country music remains a problem. It’s even caught the eye of Samantha Bee, who devoted an entire segment to Nashville’s lack of women on country radio on this week’s Full …