Guest Contributor

Country Music Awards of Australia

January 30, 2009 Guest Contributor 2

Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson cleaned up at the 37th CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia this past week. The couple acquired five Golden Guitar trophies, winning Album of the Year (Rattlin’ Bones), APRA Song

Discussion: Down on the Farm

January 29, 2009 Guest Contributor 32

Songs about the family farm are a dying breed, with wide open spaces now making way for sprawling suburbia. This shift in society is gracefully handled in Trisha Yearwood’s “Dreaming Fields,” (“And the houses they

Ben Kweller, Changing Horses

January 29, 2009 Guest Contributor 0

Ben Kweller Changing Horses He’s gone country, back to his roots.With Changing Horses, Ben Kweller shifts gears into a new groove, adding a touch of twang to his earnest tales of yearning. The Texas-bred bard,

Review: Sugarland, “Love”

January 28, 2009 Guest Contributor 13

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” -William Shakespeare

Review: Carrie Underwood, “I Told You So”

January 27, 2009 Guest Contributor 43

When Randy Travis invited Carrie Underwood into the Grand Ole Opry last spring, the sprightly young maiden had fully arrived as the new torchbearer for the house of twang. Her reign as the genre’s princess

Review: Montgomery Gentry, “One in Every Crowd”

January 26, 2009 Guest Contributor 4

A decade into a middle-management career, Montgomery Gentry scored back-to-back No.1 singles last year, “Back When I Knew It All” and “Roll with Me,” a testament to their enduring popularity with radio programmers nationwide. However,

Pat Green, What I’m For

January 26, 2009 Guest Contributor 8

Pat Green What I’m For Coming from a seemingly endless string of Texas singer-songwriters, Pat Green spent the late ’90s racking up regional hits and filling college-town arenas across the Lone Star state. When “Wave

Recommend a Track: High Energy

January 24, 2009 Guest Contributor 17

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2009 was to get back into shape. I’ve been working non-stop the last couple of years and it was definitely time. Of course, I thought getting back into

Review: Rascal Flatts, “Here Comes Goodbye”

January 24, 2009 Guest Contributor 14

Rascal Flatts begins the new year with another overwrought, regret-filled ballad that sounds like a Casey Kasem countdown dedication, a wimpy attempt at meaningfulness that will tug at the hearts of young women well into

Discussion: Stepping Out…To The Cinema

January 23, 2009 Guest Contributor 13

This week, given the wide variety of views and superb taste of our readership – and yesterday’s Oscar nominations – I thought it would be fun to step away from country music for a minute