Jan
17
Keith Urban photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.
Keith Urban’s third annual All for the Hall benefit concert has been rescheduled for April 10 after having to be postponed while Keith underwent and recovered from successful vocal cord surgery. The concert, which benefits the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s All for the Hall fund, will feature performances by Keith, Vince Gill, Alabama, Alison Krauss & Union Station, The Band Perry, Blue Sky Riders, Diamond Rio, Exile, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, The Oak Ridge Boys, Pistol Annies, Rascal Flatts and Thompson Square.
“My goal for the concert, is really the same as the halls,” Keith said. “To help country fans connect the dots – to find out where their music came from, how its evolved and is still evolving and to hear the artists that have influenced their favorite artists. Country music is like a big beautiful strange family tree and nowhere is that more honored than at the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum.”
“The first two We’re All for the Hall concerts have been landmarks for this institution,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “They have been the most successful fundraisers in the museum’s history, together raising roughly $1 million. And they have not only set a new standard for fundraising and event coordination, but also brought together an entire community and helped us to see what can be done by individuals when there is a collective passion for a cause. Continue Reading
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Apr
12
Alison Krauss & Union Station's 2011 CD, Paper Airplane. Photo courtesy of Rounder Records.
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Paper Airplane
It’s hard to believe that Paper Airplane is the first Alison Krauss & Union Station studio album since 2004’s Lonely Runs Both Ways. That’s probably because Alison herself has remained in the spotlight and been extremely busy in recent years through projects like her high-profile collaboration with Robert Plant on 2007’s Raising Sand (which yielded platinum album sales and six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year). Yet, despite the hiatus, Union Station returns with an evocative collection that in one measure honors tradition and in the other illustrates the timeless storytelling of bluegrass music. Continue Reading
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Oct
1
Dailey & Vincent photo courtesy of Rounder Records.
Dailey & Vincent continued their winning ways during the 21st annual International Bluegrass Music Awards Thursday at the Ryman Auditorium. The act collected five trophies, including its third consecutive Entertainer of the Year honor.
Dailey & Vincent also won Vocal Group and Recorded Event of the Year, the latter shared with Larry Stephenson for “Give This Message To Your Heart.” Dailey & Vincent Sing The Statler Brothers, recorded for Cracker Barrel, led the band to two additional victories: Album of the Year and Best Graphic Design for a Recorded Project.
Appropriately, they performed “Elizabeth” during the awards show with a guest appearance on the third verse by Jimmy Fortune, who wrote and sang lead on the Statlers’ original 1984 release.
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Jun
3
Emmylou Harris photo by Rocky Schenck, courtesy of Nonesuch Records.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Emmylou Harris and superstar Faith Hill both paid a visit to the White House on Wednesday, performing in front of President Barack Obama as Paul McCartney was honored with the Library of Congress’ third annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Faith sang “The Long And Winding Road,” according to the Associated Press, while Emmylou turned in a version of “For No One,” a song that originally appeared on the Beatles’ Revolver album in 1966. Emmy recorded it for her 1975 release Pieces Of The Sky, her first album to appear on the country chart.
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Mar
17
Steve Wariner at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009 & Rubin Media. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.
Four country acts that launched a series of hits in the 1980s and ‘90s — Steve Wariner, Patty Loveless, John Michael Montgomery and the late Keith Whitley — are set to enter the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame when it holds its next induction ceremony in April 2011 in Lexington.
They’ll be joined as new members by bluegrass duo the Goins Brothers; gospel singer Larnelle Harris; and Molly O’Day, a country vocalist who left a critically acclaimed body of work in a short five-year recording period in the late 1940s.
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Feb
25
Josh Turner photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.
“I never had so many people open for me!” Josh Turner exclaimed Wednesday at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. “Wow!”
Indeed, 14 artists preceded him in that legendary venue, though another three sang after him as well as the Universal Music Group Nashville showcased its talent for Country Radio Seminar registrants in a unique format that provided a microcosm of the wide net that contemporary country represents.
Sugarland, David Nail, Jamey Johnson and Vince Gill were particular standouts as the acts performed just one song apiece. Collectively, the music ranged from bluegrass influences to blue-eyed soul; the acts stretched from brand new artists who haven’t yet released a single to one member of the Country Music Hall of Fame; and their backgrounds ran the gamut from Broadway to TV performer to Texas troubadours.
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Dec
28
On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Brad Paisley performed for the President, First Lady and family, members of Congress and White House staff in the historic East Room of the White House. Photo credit Ben Enos.
#4 on GAC’s Top Stories of 2009 | View all »
The inauguration of Barack Obama put an emotional start on 2009 as America installed its first African-American president, and country had a role in that event. But it was just the start of a relationship between country and the new commander in chief: Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Charley Pride and Alison Krauss + Union Station would also sing for the world’s most powerful man as the year unfolded.
Garth Brooks and Jennifer Nettles had high-profile moments in January when they performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration.” Garth delivered several of his hits, including “We Shall Be Free,” a song that was inspired by the 1992 Los Angeles riots in the wake of the racially divisive Rodney King verdict. Jennifer teamed with James Taylor and John Legend for a version of “Shower The People,” performed in front of a row of American flags.
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Oct
2
Dailey & Vincent at the 2009 IBMA Awards. Photo by Dan Loftin, courtesy of Karen Byrd Public Relations.
Dailey & Vincent didn’t take home quite as many trophies as they did in their first year of eligibility, but the duo still played a strong hand at Thursday’s International Bluegrass Music Awards, taking home three honors. Their collection included a repeat as the genre’s Entertainer of the Year. The act also claimed Vocal Group of the Year and went home with Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year for “On The Other Side.” Dailey & Vincent earned seven awards at the 2008 ceremony.
“We’ll do our best to take [bluegrass] to the masses,” Darrin Vincent told the audience this week at the Ryman Auditorium, according to the Associated Press. Continue Reading
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