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Pieces Of The Sky: The Legacy Of Gram Parsons

(Photo: Robert Altman) Gram Parsons is often credited with the creation of country-rock, and his influence hovers over a huge cross section of songwriters and musicians today – from those who worked with him like Emmylou Harris and Chris Hillman, to modern rock and rollers like Ryan Adams and Jeff Tweedy. “Every single generation has [...]

Punch Brothers: American Pickers

(PHOTOS: Danny Clinch) Imagine what Bill Monroe might be doing today if he were 30. Just as he did some 70 years ago, he might be revolutionizing the role of the mandolin in modern music, and sometimes singing in a falsetto, while fronting a modern quintet featuring only the best musicians on mandolin, guitar, banjo, [...]

Essential: The Best Songs Of Tim McGraw

“Red Ragtop” The debut single from McGraw’s excellent 2002 album Dancehall Doctors drew controversy for its references to premarital sex and abortion, and was even banned at some country radio stations. But the song is more than just a firebrand. Written by indie singer-songwriter Jason White, “Red Ragtop” beautifully chronicles the rise and fall [...]

This Is Country Music: Building The Perfect Playlist

What do country musicians listen to when they want to be inspired? We asked a handful of artists (and a few record execs for good measure) to create a list of their top 5 favorite country songs – and they compiled the perfect playlist. Blake Shelton Top Five ‘80s Country Hits “My Baby’s Got Good [...]

This Is Country Music: Bonus Tracks

Check out playlists from Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Marty Stuart and more here. The Farm Songs About Driving We have been spending so much time on the road lately promoting our new single “Home Sweet Home,” that we thought it would be appropriate to come up with our Top 5 Favorite Songs About Driving. “Drivin’ [...]

Behind The Song: “Long Black Veil”

“Long Black Veil” Written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins “The scaffold is high and eternity near.” Those words, perhaps the most chilling from “Long Black Veil,” one of the most haunting murder ballads you’ll ever hear, have been sung by a whole lot of folks over the years, including iconic voices like Burl Ives, Jerry [...]

Measure For Measure: The Truth About Those Three Chords

“All you need to write a country song is three chords and the truth.” – Harlan Howard As a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Harlan knew his chords. But his often-quoted formula glosses over a couple of key questions: Which three chords, and when do you use them? This column will offer [...]

Andrew Combs: Diamond Cuts

The view from first base is pretty clear: Andrew Combs was never meant to be a major league pitcher. It’s an unseasonably warm late-winter afternoon in East Nashville and Combs has just taken the mound. His team, which includes American Songwriter, members of his band and a cross-section of friends and acquaintances, is down by [...]

Tim McGraw Earns His Freedom

(PHOTOS: Danny Clinch) Explore the May/June Issue On the day he moved to Nashville, Tim McGraw stepped off a Greyhound bus with a guitar and a suitcase. He arrived inauspiciously around 3 a.m. on May 9, 1989, and checked into small room at the Hall of Fame hotel, a few blocks off Music Row. The [...]

Sarah Jaffe: The Body Wins

Sarah Jaffe The Body Wins (Kirkland Records) Rating: The 20-something Texan Sarah Jaffe could have played it safe on her sophomore album, and remained a singer-songwriter strumming her tunes on a guitar. Jaffe isn’t a typical Lone Star State troubadour. She comes from Denton, which also home to such genre-shifting bands as Midlake and Centro-matic, [...]

Role Models: The Civil Wars

After playing more than 300 shows last year, bandmates Joy Williams and John Paul White are finally spending time at home, while Williams prepares to have a baby and the band works on new songs. We caught up with The Civil Wars several days after the Grammy Awards, where they took home two trophies, to [...]

The Flying Burrito Brothers: Behind The Songs

“I think Gram did his best work in co-writes,” says Chris Hillman, who wrote a number of classic songs with Gram Parsons while in The Flying Burrito Brothers. “Sometimes when you’re working with one other person, it’s such a magical thing. You’re editing each other and you’re trying to create that one spark.” Hillman remarks [...]

Writing For McGraw: Craig Wiseman

My old friend I apologize For the years that have passed since the last time you and I Dusted off those memories But the running and the races The people and the places There was always somewhere else I had to be And time gets thin my old friend. – “My Old Friend,” Tim [...]

Dierks Bentley: Red, White And Bluegrass

(PHOTO: James Minchin III) The first time, he called from Nashville, just before rehearsal with his band. And he happened to mention he was wearing a t-shirt broadcasting his musical taste: “My Grass Is Blue.” He did part two of the interview on his tour coach in Milwaukee, noting with pride that the bus’s odometer [...]

American Icons: Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass

Back in 1954, when producer Sam Phillips released his newest Sun Records discovery, a young boy from Tupelo, Mississippi with the unlikely name of Elvis Presley, singing a raw, charged and tremendously soulful version of Bill Monroe’s classic “Blue Moon Of Kentucky,” he assumed Monroe would be offended. He was wrong. Not only did Monroe [...]

Guitar 101: Studio Guitar Legends, Nashville

In the early history of recorded country music, the recordings were done in places other than Nashville. Country guitar players in the 1920s included Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, and the legendary songwriter Jimmie Rodgers, but there was no such thing as a “session player” back then. Maybelle Carter and The Carter Family recorded the classic [...]

Rodney Crowell and Mary Karr: The Songwriter and the Memoirist

Any seasoned songwriter would’ve backed Rodney Crowell up on this one. “When I originally came up with the verse, I was singing, ‘When our feet were tough as nails,’” he recounts from Nashville. “I got it to Mary, the idea in its infant stages, and she said ‘No, our feet were tough as horns.’” The [...]

Makin’ Stuff Up: Mr. Bojangles

(Doak Turner) As competitive as the songwriting/music-publishing game is (and, it gets more so every day), Nashville remains a place where songwriters can find real community. While continuing to develop his or her song craft, every tunesmith’s next job is to make friends. Whether or not your songs climb the charts will eventually depend on [...]

Lucero: Barroom Soul

Lucero recorded their seventh studio album, Women & Work, at Memphis’ Ardent Studios, where Big Star, Leon Russell, and Isaac Hayes made records in the 1970s. In addition to being a world-class studio with a great history and great feel, Lucero frontman Ben Nichols makes a more pragmatic point about the studio: “We love recording [...]

Review: Bright Eyes’ Early Albums, Revisisted

A Collection of Songs Written And Recorded 1995-1997 Rating: Letting Off The Happiness Rating: Every Day And Every Night EP Rating: Fevers And Mirrors Rating: Oh Holy Fools: The Music Of Son, Ambulance & Bright Eyes Rating: There Is No Beginning To The Story EP Rating: Before he matured into an even-tempered troubadour, Conor Oberst [...]