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Album Review: Terri Clark, <i>Classic</i>

November 20, 2012 Ben Foster 9

A great covers record, no matter how sincere the artist’s intentions, must provide a satisfactory answer to one question: Why should we listen to this artist’s versions of these songs when the originals are still there for us to enjoy?

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iPod Check: Most Played Song by Twenty Country Artists

August 12, 2012 Kevin John Coyne 24

Since bringing back Recommend a Track proved so popular, I’m resurrecting another CU oldie but goodie: the iPod check.

I’ve only recently discovered the Most Played feature on iTunes, since it never had any relevance until iPods were large enough in memory to sync all of my music. So going back to early 2011, I have a lengthy list of the songs I’ve played the most.

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Single Review: Joey+Rory, &quot;When I'm Gone&quot;

July 20, 2012 Ben Foster 9

No doubt, Mr. and Mrs. Feek are very busy people these days as they host their very own variety program The Joey + Rory Show on RFD-TV, while also preparing to release their third studio album His and Hers on July 31. The first single from the project is the piano-driven ballad “When I’m Gone” – a narrator’s wistful meditation on her future death, as well as its effect on the one she holds dear.

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Donna Summer: The Country Connection

May 17, 2012 Kevin John Coyne 9

Donna Summer, disco legend, passed away today at the age of 63.

Much like my earlier post on Whitney Houston’s untimely passing, writing about Summer’s death isn’t completely foreign to our topic of country music.

Whereas Dolly Parton wrote a #1 pop hit by Whitney Houston, Donna Summer wrote a #1 country hit for Dolly Parton.

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Retro Single Review: Tim McGraw, "Something Like That"

April 18, 2012 Ben Foster 18

1999 | #1

You know what’s one of the best ways for a contemporary country song to worm its way into my heart? To display a mature and insightful perspective, or to tap into some universal truth, while dressing itself up with the catchiest of melodies and hooks.

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Pop Goes Country – A Cover Song Report Card

November 15, 2011 Ben Foster 40

Cover songs can be a hot topic at just about any given time. We recently got to hear a somewhat underwhelming OneRepublic cover by Faith Hill, which Kevin recently reviewed. Other recent attempts include Sara Evans’ pop-country reworking of Rod Stewart’s “My Heart Can’t Tell You No,” as well as last year’s polarizing Beyoncé cover by Reba McEntire.

Since cover songs are so much fun to talk about, I thought I’d weigh in on a few well-known cover songs from the past few years – the good ones, as well as a few that we would rather forget. My criteria is simple: A good cover song should bring something new to the table, and the song should be treated in a way that is well-suited to the artist as well as the genre. This list focuses specifically on country covers of non-country songs.

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100 Greatest Men: #80. The Everly Brothers

October 4, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 5

100 Greatest Men: The Complete List

Their fraternal harmonies saturated stations across the radio dial in the fifties and early sixties, and today they’re best remembered as founders of both rock and country music as we know it.

Brothers Don and Phil Everly were born two years apart in the late thirties, and grew up listening to music that transitioned out of the depression and into the second world war. Their father, Ike, was a traveling musician and had his own radio show out of Shenandoah, Iowa.

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