Tag Archives: country music

Ten years ago this week the Dixie Chicks controversy erupted: I’m still not ready to back down

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. ― Theodore Roosevelt On March 10, 2003, at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire theatre in London, Natalie Maines stepped to the microphone and said this:

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What the hell happened to country music?

Friend: Hey, Yogi, I think we’re lost. Yogi Berra: Yeah, but we’re making great time!  It’s probably clear to anybody who pays attention that I’m a rock & roll guy. But I was raised by my grandparents, two country folks who were born in 1913 and 1914 respectively and grew up through the Great Depression. There were two kinds of

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TunesDay: The Lost Patrol’s epic retro-futurism

Here’s how the blurb at CD Baby puts it: Cinematic ethereal, spaghetti western flavored retro-futuristic music with powerful female vocals. // A sweeping, cinematic, wide-screen journey that combines ethereal sound scapes with surf-tinged guitar. Perfect for those late night rides across the desert with the top down. … Uniquely original retro-futurism. Yeah, that’s fair. But there’s a lot more to

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Real heroes refuse to shut up and sing

A few weeks ago I watched The US vs. John Lennon, a documentary chronicling the extraordinary lengths the American government went to in order to silence an artist who had the audacity to speak out against corruption and injustice. Of course, Lennon came from an age when artists did that sort of thing, and he wasn’t the only musician to

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