Music Country

This fall, Kinky Friedman will be releasing Resurrection, a new studio album of original songs produced by Larry Campbell. After all but retiring from songwriting for three-plus decades, Friedman’s latest album follows in the wake of last year’s Circus of Life, a meditative collection that rejuvenated the Texas singer-songwriter’s drive …

Little Big Town will welcome in the new year with Nightfall, the multi-award-winning quartet’s ninth studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s The Breaker. In advance of the forthcoming LP, the group has unveiled “Over Drinking,” a delightfully woozy and defiant honky-tonk number that aims to redirect the narrator’s alcohol …

While he may not have had the name recognition of some of the artists with whom he played, guitarist Neal Casal was revered across all music genres. He recorded with country stars Willie Nelson and Shooter Jennings, played slippery leads as a member of Ryan Adams’ Cardinals, advanced the blues-jam …

Allison Moorer will release her first new solo album since 2015’s Down to Believin’ this fall. Titled Blood, the LP, out October 25th, will be followed four days later by the release of Moorer’s memoir of the same name, published by Da Capo Press. Moorer’s most recent recording project was …

Hunter Hayes builds his new song “Wild Blue” around a percussive groove, singing over subtle piano about how the 27-year-old songwriter is undergoing a personal sea change. “Funny how you don’t know you can fly until you finally catch the wind,” he sings. “You think you know the part you …

Kacey Musgraves is pissed off. The Grammy-winning country singer and native Texan offered an exasperated plea to end gun violence during her performance at Lollapalooza on Sunday, a day after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, left 29 people dead. “I don’t know what the answer is but …

Singer-songwriter and activist Chely Wright made her first appearance at the Concert for Love and Acceptance on Thursday night, performing a pair of her hits as the event celebrated its fifth year. One of those was “Shut Up and Drive,” a 1997 hit for Wright that got a huge cheer …

The CMT Music Awards — country’s version of MTV’s VMAs — have long had a reputation as the genre’s most relaxed, anything-can-happen awards show. They also have an extensive history, with their origins stretching back to 1967, when the country publication Music City News began presenting honors to the genre’s …

While in town to perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at the end of April, Steve Earle joined Preservation Hall Jazz Band for an intimate late-night gig at the group’s namesake venue in the French Quarter for one of their annual Midnight Preserves shows. In a new …

Two albums into their career as a band, Old Dominion have become popular largely on the basis of upbeat material like “Break Up With Him,” “Snapback” and “Hotel Key” that plays as well at parties as it does over arena speakers. But on Friday, the Nashville band threw a curveball …