



Album Review: Alan Jackson, <i>Thirty Miles West</i>
Alan Jackson
Thirty Miles West
Jackson does so many basic things right on his new album that it’s tempting to award him five stars right off the bat.
The production is clean, his singing get in the way of the song, and those songs have complete ideas and actual structure. It’s the first mainstream country album in a long time that isn’t overrun with production tricks, or kicking up the loudness to eleven, or playing an exaggerated personality type that’s condescending to its audience.

Single Review: Lauren Alaina, "Eighteen Inches"
Lauren Alaina’s “American Idol” legacy can be summed up in one phrase: failure to meet potential. The Season 10 runner-up kicked off her “Idol” run with a fiery display of vocal talent, but she was never able to match that confidence or sense of identity in subsequent live performances. Worse yet, her “Idol” catalogue stood in stark contrast to that of winner and fellow country artist Scotty McCreery, whose best strength was his firm grasp of self.

100 Greatest Men: #51. Sonny James
100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
Decades before Taylor Swift found her way from country to pop radio, Sonny James scored the first teenage love crossover hit, setting up a long-running career that would eventually earn him a slot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.


100 Greatest Men: #52. Keith Whitley
100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
Some of the greatest artists in country music left the scene just as they reached staggering artistic heights, leaving fans to forever wonder what might have been.

Single Review: Trace Adkins, "Them Lips (On Mine)"
This will make a great commercial for Pringles potato chips or something.
Just animate the chips to dance and sing. It’ll be the California Raisins all over again.


100 Greatest Men: #53. Brooks & Dunn
100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
The very definition of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, two struggling solo artists came together in the nineties and became the most c0mmercially successful duo in music history.