Country Universe

Album Review: Blake Shelton, Bringing Back the Sunshine

January 13, 2015 Jonathan Keefe 2

Blake Shelton Bringing Back the Sunshine He’s been coasting on his celebrity status and his brand of aw-shucks humor for years, so it’s encouraging that Blake Shelton’s Bringing Back the Sunshine seems less phoned-in than

Album Review: Angaleena Presley, American Middle Class

January 13, 2015 Jonathan Keefe 0

Angaleena Presley American Middle Class Presley’s upbringing in the hollows of Eastern Kentucky provides her with an endless well of believable first-person details that she uses to create the quirky, cockeyed fictions on American Middle

Album Review: Brad Paisley, Moonshine in the Trunk

January 12, 2015 Jonathan Keefe 0

Brad Paisley Moonshine in the Trunk Paisley’s last four albums have established a pattern of something slightly progressive or challenging (American Saturday Night, Wheelhouse) followed by a course-correction back toward baseline (This is Country Music,

Single Review: Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”

January 12, 2015 Jonathan Keefe 21

“Girl Crush” Little Big Town Written by Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, and Liz Rose Beyond their lush four-part harmonies and their incorporation of Fleetwood Mac’s influence into the country idiom, perhaps Little Big Town’s greatest

Single Review: Miranda Lambert, “Little Red Wagon”

January 11, 2015 Jonathan Keefe 25

“Little Red Wagon” Miranda Lambert Written by Audra Mae and Joe Ginsburg The bizarre handling of the singles from Miranda Lambert’s Platinum continues unabated with the arrival of “Little Red Wagon.” After leading off with

Artist Spotlight: Ronnie Fauss

January 10, 2015 Sam Gazdziak 0

If you were listening to New West Records’ An Americana Christmas sampler over the holidays, you would have heard tracks from the likes of Dylan, Cash, Emmylou and other Americana legends. Tucked in alongside those

In Memoriam: Little Jimmy Dickens (1920-2015)

January 3, 2015 Kevin John Coyne 7

2015 is off to a sad start for country music as a whole, and the Grand Ole Opry in particular. From the Tennessean: Country Music Hall of Famer Jimmy Dickens, the Grand Ole Opry’s most

The Best Albums of 2014

December 31, 2014 Kevin John Coyne 9

2014 was a banner year for country music albums. In addition to the predictably solid entries from the Americana, folk, and bluegrass scenes, some excellent albums also surfaced from the unlikeliest of sources: mainstream, radio-friendly

The Best Singles of 2014, Part 2: #20-#1

December 30, 2014 Kevin John Coyne 15

The countdown concludes with our top twenty singles of 2014. Check out the first twenty entries here, and look for our countdown of the year’s twenty best albums tomorrow. #20 “The Devil is All Around”

The Best Singles of 2014, Part 1: #40-#21

December 29, 2014 Kevin John Coyne 11

Does failure to reach a consensus indicate a year that lacked quality, or a year that had enough interesting singles that subjective taste is enough to prevent a consensus? This was the dilemma faced by