Archive for December, 2010

Watch: Garth Brooks Rocks Nashville For Flood Benefit

Watch: Garth Brooks Rocks Nashville For Flood Benefit

Check out this video of Garth Brooks’ roof-raising encore from his first night at the Bridgestone Arena, part of a nine-date concert series he’s playing to raise money for flood relief for Nashville. The crowd, who stood on their feet throughout the entire show, go crazy for “Ain’t Going Down (Til The Sun Comes Up),” [...]

NPR Examines The Ins And Outs Of Country Music Songwriting

NPR Examines The Ins And Outs Of Country Music Songwriting

Do you have to “sell your soul” to write a hit song in today’s country music market? That’s the question posed by a new NPR blog examining songwriters who strive to make a living in Music City, USA. “When those thoughts come in, and surely they do, I think you have to discipline them out,” [...]

Buried Treasure: Ben Kweller and Conor Oberst Team Up

Buried Treasure: Ben Kweller and Conor Oberst Team Up

Two of our favorite singer-songwriters on the same stage? It doesn’t get much better than this. Thanks to TwentyFourBit for unearthing this video, in which Ben Kweller adds harmonies to Conor Oberst’s “Another Traveling Song,” from I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. It’s a little like seeing Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen team up to sing [...]

Rock In The Country: Nashville’s Secret History

Rock In The Country: Nashville’s Secret History

The stories behind how Music City got its name.

Behind The Song: “Stairway To Heaven”

Behind The Song: “Stairway To Heaven”

The epic cornerstone to the Zepplin rock legacy.

Songs You Need To Hear: R.E.M., “Discoverer”

Songs You Need To Hear: R.E.M., “Discoverer”

“Hey baby, this is not a challenge,” R.E.M.’s first single in two years begins. “It just means that I love you as much as I always said I did.” Musically, “Discoverer” has what can be referred to as “that R.E.M. sound.” Astute listeners may find snatches of “Turn You Inside-Out” and “Believe” in its shifting, [...]

Under The Radar: Lia Ices, Luke Winslow-King, Siljes Nes

Under The Radar: Lia Ices, Luke Winslow-King, Siljes Nes

Lia Ices Grown Unknown (Jagjaguwar) On Grown Unknown’s opening track “Love Is Won,” rarely have drums, piano, and guitar sounded so spacious. Elsewhere on the album, Lia Ices explores the darker sonic textures of Peter Gabriel’s first few solo records, as evidenced by the foreboding horns on “New Myth.” On “Daphne,” the Brooklyn songwriter undertakes [...]

MTV Creates “Music Meter” To Track Emerging Artists

MTV Creates “Music Meter” To Track Emerging Artists

Following in the footsteps of the Big Champagne Ultimate Chart and Billboard’s “Social 50” chart, MTV this week introduced MTV Music Meter, which will rank artists by their social buzz. After launching on Tuesday, the major label singer/producer Mike Posner debuted at Number 1, while Utah rockers Neon Trees, rappper Waka Flocka Flame, ten-year-old Jackie [...]

Street Smarts: The Patsy Cline Trilogy

Street Smarts: The Patsy Cline Trilogy

Kosser on what makes a song a ‘classic.’

Nashville Songwriter Series: Carson Chamberlain

Nashville Songwriter Series: Carson Chamberlain

(Carson Chamberlain with Billy Currington) Carson Chamberlain has had one cool career. As a songwriter he penned the number one singles “Love’s Got a Hold On You,” “Everything I Love” and “Between the Devil and Me” for Alan Jackson, as well as George Strait’s “The Best Day,” and songs for Don Williams, Billy Ray Cyrus [...]