Charles Kelley

2016 Grammy Awards: Staff Picks & Predictions

February 14, 2016 Kevin John Coyne 19

The good folks at NARAS know how to keep things interesting, producing yet another diverse crop of nominees in the general, country, and country-adjacent fields.

Here are the personal picks from some of our contributing staff, along with who we predict will take home the gold tomorrow.

2016 Grammy Nominations

December 8, 2015 Kevin John Coyne 3

Country music is well represented in the major categories – numerically, at least – and the overall nominee list proves once again that NARAS voters have the widest, most diverse, and yes, best taste of all industry award voters.

Here are this year’s nominees in the big four and all country and country-related categories. It’s worth noting that because Miranda Lambert won Best Country Album last year for Platinum, nothing from that set was eligible in any of the Country categories.

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Album Review: Lady Antebellum, Own the Night

September 13, 2011 Ben Foster 39

Lady Antebellum

Own the Night

Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” is a once in a career kind of hit. That drunk-dialer ballad became a such a huge cross-genre smash hit that is was virtually inescapable no matter which radio format you tuned into. The Grammy-winning hit pushed Lady Antebellum to instant add status on country radio, which is where they stayed even as their single releases gradually slid downhill in quality.

The downward slide continues on the trio’s third album Own the Night – an uninspired effort that savors strongly of an act coasting along on their superstar status, while resting on their laurels artistically. One could present the easy-out criticism that the album is not country, and indeed it makes little effort to sonically resemble country, but the real issue is not simply that these are pop songs. The issue is that, pop or country, they’re just flat-out not good songs.

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