2013 – Page 4 – Country Universe

Single Review: American Young, “Love is War”

September 8, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 8

There’s a country radio station in NYC proper for the first time in nearly twenty years. The last one went off the air before I was old enough to drive, so when I found out it existed, I immediately checked it out.

Then I immediately checked out. It’s not listenable to me. It’s playing all of today’s hits and those from the past couple of years, and sometimes a song that I like will come on, but it’s always sandwiched between filler that hurts my ears.

Single Review: Chris Stapleton, “What Are You Listening To?”

August 31, 2013 Tara Seetharam 8

Best known as the former frontman of The SteelDrivers and a prolific songwriter, Chris Stapleton is carving out an impressive niche on country radio, far from the band’s bluegrass sound. His first single blends blues and soul, nodding to the record era with Tony Brown’s subdued, crackling production.

Album Review: Tammy Wynette, The Essential Tammy Wynette

August 28, 2013 Ben Foster 2

Tammy Wynette
The Essential Tammy Wynette

The legendary First Lady of Country Music is the subject of a generous new forty-track double-disc career retrospective in Legacy Recordings’ Essential series.

Single Review: Kellie Pickler, “Little Bit Gypsy”

August 27, 2013 Ben Foster 8

I concluded my previous Kellie Pickler review with the conjecture that “Someone Somewhere Tonight” “would seem to confirm that Pickler’s pandering days are indeed over.” Now, with the aforementioned single having missed the Top 40 entirely, here comes her new single “Little Bit Gypsy” to make me eat my words.

CU Archives: Linda Ronstadt

August 25, 2013 Ben Foster 16

We at Country Universe were very saddened to hear of Linda Ronstadt’s recent announcement that she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight months ago, and that the disease has resulted in the total loss of her ability to sing.

A Conversation with Zane Williams

August 23, 2013 Ben Foster 3

Country music singer-songwriter Zane Williams had his first taste of mainstream success in 2006 when Jason Michael Carroll took his song “Hurry Home” into the Top 20. Having already made inroads in the regional country market of his home state of Texas, the Abilene native is currently attempting to break through to a national audience with his fourth album Overnight Success. Amid preparations to embark on his first nationwide radio tour (in an RV with his wife and two children along for the ride), Williams found the time to call Country Universe to chat about his current single and album.

Single Review: The Band Perry, “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”

August 22, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 9

For any other artist, “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” would be just as forgettable as it is for the Band Perry. But given the unhinged creativity they usually show, it’s befuddlingly conventional.

Single Review: Sara Evans, “Slow Me Down”

August 17, 2013 Ben Foster 12

Sara Evans launches her seventh studio album with the Marv Green-penned “Slow Me Down,” in which a relationship is on the rocks, and Evans’ narrator is just about ready to walk out – but she looks back in hopes that her man will give her one good reason to stay. (Lorrie Morgan’s 1990 chart-topper “Five Minutes,” written by Beth Nielsen Chapman, is probably one of the song’s closest lyrical relatives.)

Single Review: Laura Bell Bundy, “Two Step”

August 13, 2013 Ben Foster 13

Laura Bell Bundy made a distinctly memorable impression when she blew into Nashville fresh off Broadway four years ago. Of all the major label country albums released in 2009, few were more polarizing than Bundy’s genre-bending Mercury Nashville release Achin’ and Shakin’. Maybe you thought it was brilliant. Maybe you thought it was atrocious. But there was one thing that it definitely wasn’t – boring.

Single Review: Blake Shelton, “Mine Would Be You”

August 11, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 8

What a twist!