Music Country

I’m never more black than when I talk about country music. By which I mean: I’m never more aware of my blackness than when I’m rambling on about my love of the genre, receiving quizzical looks back. The unspoken onus in the moment is: Explain yourself — how do you …

The Dixie Chicks have postponed their comeback album Gaslighter, originally slated for a May 1st release, but they’re still sharing new music from the LP. On Thursday, the group quietly posted a new track, “Julianna Calm Down,” to IGTV. Produced with Jack Antonoff, the song is a message to young women …

Texas Gentlemen get into spacey Seventies-rock mode in the new song “Ain’t Nothin’ New,” the first offering from the group’s upcoming second album. Titled Floor It!!! — with three exclamation points! — the project will be released July 17th. Taking cues from Little Feat, early Elton John, and even a …

Kentucky-based singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman has issued the new song “Red Bird Morning,” along with its accompanying video. Goodman’s upcoming album Old Time Feeling was co-produced by My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James and will be released July 17th via Verve Forecast. A plaintive acoustic ballad, “Red Bird Morning” shows off …

Joe Diffie, a consistent country-music hitmaker throughout the Nineties, died Sunday due to complications related to COVID-19. His publicist confirmed the death to Rolling Stone. Diffie was 61. With a traditional-leaning voice that drew comparisons to George Jones, Diffie populated his records with honky-tonk ballads and lighthearted novelty tunes, earning …

As nearly every one of us is learning these days, you can get a lot done when you’re by yourself. But that secret is something that Dave Simonett has known for quite some time. The singer-songwriter and leader of the popular roots band Trampled by Turtles lives and creates in …

Don Henley paid tribute to Kenny Rogers — the country star who helped the future Eagles singer land his first record contract — in a statement to Rolling Stone Saturday following the death of “the Gambler” at the age of 81. “In addition to his tremendous talent, Kenny was a …

Luke Combs took to Instagram Live on Tuesday night to perform the first of what he promised will be many Livestreamed shows, as the United States settles into a discipline of social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. “I’ll do one every week we’re quarantined,” Combs said at the conclusion of …

The coronavirus pandemic be damned, Luke Bryan will not be deterred from having a most excellent time with his friends. The country superstar keeps the dark clouds and anxiety far out of reach in the video for his new song “One Margarita,” filmed during his annual Crash My Playa festival …

Two weeks ago, singer-songwriter Caleb Caudle was at Johnny Cash’s rustic cabin-turned-studio outside of Nashville, excitedly gearing up for the April 3rd release of his new album, Better Hurry Up. The North Carolina native recorded the record there during what he calls a “peaceful and joyous” time in his creative …