Country Universe

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,

Recommend An Album

January 28, 2009 Leeann Ward 43

Perhaps I’m entirely too critical, but I’ve recently realized that there are precious few albums on which I can say I love every song. Even most of my favorite albums seem to contain one or

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: Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, “Hesitation Blues”

January 27, 2009 Dan Milliken 1

The lead single from Willie Nelson’s forthcoming Western Swing collaboration with Asleep at the Wheel (titled Willie and the Wheel, natch) offers lots of reasons to expect that the album’s February 3rd release will signal

You Say You Want an Evolution

January 26, 2009 Kevin John Coyne 23

I found this video recently on YouTube. It’s a chronological collection of all of Madonna’s music videos from the past 26 years. I’ve mentioned a few times that Madonna is one of my favorite artists. She’s

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

Grammy Flashback: Best Female Country Vocal Performance

January 25, 2009 Kevin John Coyne 23

Revised and Updated for 2009 While the Grammys have honored country music from the very first ceremony in 1959, they did not begin honoring by gender until 1965, when the country categories were expanded along