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Willie Nelson will celebrate his 92nd birthday this April with his 77th solo studio album, as the country legend has announced his latest LP Oh What a Beautiful World.

Due out April 25 — four days before Nelson’s 92nd birthday — the 12-song album is a collection of songs either written or co-written by fellow country great Rodney Crowell, who also guests alongside Willie on the first single and title track, “Oh What a Beautiful World”:

Nelson handpicked the Crowell-penned tracks for the album, spanning songs that Crowell himself performed...

Quick LinksWho Is Steve Earle and What Is 'The Revolution Starts Now?'Why Is 'The Revolution Starts Now' Used In the Andor Trailer?How The Song Ties Andor to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

When AndorSeason 1 premiered, the show was unlike anything fans had seen before. Andor is Star Wars for adults. This doesn't mean it's full of sexy Twi'leks or gory dismemberment with lightsabers or other such TV-ma fare. Rather, the series is an unflinching look at the way in which a rebellion gets underway. These are not the pure, moral heroes fans saw in the Original Trilogy. Cassian Andor, Saw Gerrera and Luthen Rael made their minds a sunless place and share their dreams with ghosts.

Rather than blowing up the Death Star, Andor and company are up close and personal with their enemies. They look in Imperials' eyes before sending them to the Force. This is...

Chris Stapleton returns to Austin City Limits to help celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary. In a performance set to premiere Saturday, the country vocalist and songwriter takes the stage to perform a set of country gems including Higher standouts “South Dakota” and “It Takes a Woman,” the current Grammy-nominated song for Best Country Solo Performance.

For the occasion, Stapleton was accompanied by his wife and frequent collaborator Morgane Stapleton, and a six-piece band including Willie Nelson and Family band harmonica player Mickey Raphael. Earlier this week, Stapleton and Morgane...

On Jan. 9, country singer Chris Stapleton announced his extended All-American Road Show tour dates in the summer of 2025.

The summer tour is slated to kick off in Greenville, South Carolina, on June 4. Stapleton will make stops across the U.S., performing in Michigan, New York, and Utah, among others, before concluding the tour in Hollywood, Florida, on Oct. 10.

>Get Chris Stapleton Concert Tickets Now!

The tour follows and supports the November 2023 release of Stapleton’s album, Higher.

Accompanying Stapleton on the tour is a long list of artists, including Maggie Rose, Brittney Spencer, Marcus King, Nikki Lane, Allen Stone, Grace Potter, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs, The War & Treaty and Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives.

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Ever since 2017, Stapleton has gone on a nationwide summer tour, and is known to always feature many other country artists at his shows.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016, on rollingstone.com.

When the Highwaymen recorded “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” written by visionary songwriter Guy Clark, who died in 2016, the supergroup of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson landed on their most poignant song. While Jimmy Webb’s “Highwayman” may have been the foursome’s signature, Clark’s “Desperados,” released on their 1985 debut album, dovetailed with their own outlaw legacy: that of aging icons who indulged the young guns their bravado while still beating them on the draw. They...

Miranda Lambert recently won big at the People’s Choice Country Awards, and the singer had plenty to say about it. So, what did she tell her followers on the back of her latest big win?

Miranda Lambert Coming Back Strong With New Album

Lambert has been hard at work promoting her brand-new record, Postcards From Texas. Along with being her first major, full-length release since Palomino in 2022, Miranda is hard at work promoting the new record. This includes playing shows, in addition to doing various interviews and talk shows. So, she has gone back fully into promotional mode.

Miranda Lambert opened up recently about how this latest record is deeply personal for her. She reflected on things like her decades in the industry, and all the fans who still support her and allow her to do what she does every day. After the wild ride she has been on,...

In March 2020, when a lethal twister tore through East Nashville just days before an even more devastating pandemic, the storied Woodland Sound Studios — home to the likes of Tammy Wynette’s Soft Touch, Indigo Girls’ Swamp Ophelia, Jimmy Buffett’s A1A, and scores of cherished others — stood tall in the eye of the storm. Its roof was blown clear off, yet its foundation was preserved as if in the protection of divine powers. On hand to pick up the pieces were its owners, the Grammy-winning folk duo, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Throughout their first decade of record-making, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed, they’d joke, as “a two person band they called Gillian Welch.” There was a spine-tingling profundity and a solemn intensity to the universe of sound created when Rawlings and Welch stood around a single microphone and sang songs like “Acony Bell” (from 1996’s Revival) or “Caleb Mayer” (from 1998’s Hell Among the Yearlings) or just about anything from their 2001 masterpiece Time (The Revelator).

Then, beginning with 2009’s Friend of a Friend, the duo shook up the formula,...

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Abigail.

Abigail's phenomenal score & unique blend of horror and comedy set it apart in the vampire genre. The movie draws inspiration from Dracula's Daughter and Ready or Not, possibly sharing a universe with the latter. The eerie and suspenseful music, along with select songs, enhance the gory and enjoyable viewing experience.

The 2024 horror film Abigail includes a phenomenal score plus select songs that help build the mood and characterizations. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillette (who go by the name Radio Silence when working together), Abigail is an original play on the movie Draculas Daughter from 1936. The movie also takes inspiration from a movie made by the same directors, Ready or Not. In addition to sharing the same blend of comedy and horror, Abigail and Ready or Not may exist in a shared universe. Part of what makes these movies so successful is that theyre high concept.

Reba McEntire, the undisputed Queen of Country, replaced Blake Shelton in his big red chair for the 24th installment of “The Voice,” which aired in Fall 2023. She is a three-time Grammy winner who has a history on the singing show, as she previously served as the mega mentor for every coach in Season 23 and Season 8, and helping out Team Blake during Season 1. Now that the Season 24 blind auditions, battles and knockouts have concluded, can Reba prevail on her first coaching stint on NBC’s reality TV show?

Tour our gallery above (or click here for direct access) for a closer look at Team Reba McEntire on “The Voice” Season 24, including photos, bios and artist rankings. Also see our features for Team Niall Horan, Team John Legend and Team Gwen Stefani.

See‘The Voice’ coaches ranked worst to best

1. Jordan Rainer (4-chair turn) — Top 12

Hometown: Atoka, Ok

Jordan got off to...

Every April growing up in East Texas, Vincent Neil Emerson and his family traveled to Louisiana for their tribe’s annual powwow. For that one weekend of the year, the future singer-songwriter was immersed in the culture of his mother’s people, the Choctaw-Apache. He was dazzled by the spectacle of the dances, the drums and song, which were performed, at times, in traditional regalia, jewelry, and beadwork.

Those memories were seared into his mind.

“It’s always been a huge part of my life. It’s how I was raised,...

Kenny Chesney, whose own beach-forward country songs owe a debt to the tropical vibes of Jimmy Buffett, paid tribute to the “Margaritaville” songwriter with a solo performance of “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” Buffett died Friday at 76.

Seated on some island beach before dawn with only his guitar, Chesney sings the first verse and chorus of Buffett’s reflective 1974 ballad about a life well lived. At the end, he looks at the camera, blows a kiss, and says, “We miss you, Jimmy Buffett. Thank you for your friendship.”

View this...

The first time Grammy-winning Americana/bluegrass act Steep Canyon Rangers played the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, the group was adorned in full suits and encircling a lone microphone.

“It was probably around 2004,” Rangers singer-banjoist Graham Sharp tells Rolling Stone backstage at the recent Suwannee Spring Reunion festival. “We’ve been able to trace our band and its evolution through this festival, from being a traditional bluegrass band to being whatever the hell we are now — this place is a natural home for that.”

Sandwiched...

For Rolling Stone’S Third annual Icons & Influences feature, we asked eight of our favorite artists and entertainers to pay tribute to the women who have inspired them, in life as well as in their careers. Not only is Emmylou Harris one of Miranda Lambert’s major songwriting influences, the country star also views the legendary singer as her primary model for what it means to have a long, meaningful career.

My dad introduced me to Emmylou, John Prine, Guy Clark, David Allan Coe, that whole era. When you hear...

Even with his most successful work, Rodney Crowell knows there’s always room for revision. In 2018, the celebrated singer-songwriter took another crack at the lyrics to “Shame on the Moon,” a 1982 cut recorded by Bob Seger, long after he’d excised it from his own setlists. These ongoing efforts and others are chronicled in Word for Word, a new coffee-table book featuring Crowell’s song lyrics, enhanced by images of the in-progress compositions from the author’s personal notebooks and a lifetime’s worth of photos.

At 72, Crowell is a...

“I have a love/hate relationship with the term ‘outlaw,'” Eric Church says in the opening moments of the the trailer to They Called Us Outlaws: Cosmic Cowboys, Honky Tonk Heroes And the Rise of Renegade Troubadours, a six-part documentary due next year.

Executive produced by country music luminaries Jessi Colter, Ray Benson, and Jack Ingram (who narrates), the 12-hour film, released in association with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, will feature interviews or performances from names like Church and Miranda Lambert to contemporary singer-songwriters Tyler Childers and Charley Crockett,...

Sterlin Harjo, co-creator of FX’s Reservation Dogs, discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mekko (2015)

Boy (2010)

Cool Hand Luke (1967) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Being There (1979) – Alan Spencer’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Husbands (1970) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Stand By Me (1986)

Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986)

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Princess Bride (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Friday (1995)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Dead Man (1995)

Powwow Highway (1989)

Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai (1999)

Stalker (1979) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Come And See (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

A Clockwork Orange...

“I’m trying to get songs on country radio,” says Steve Earle. It’s not what anyone would expect to hear from Earle these days, especially when we’re supposed to be discussing Jerry Jeff, his new tribute album to Seventies Texas legend Jerry Jeff Walker.

But even if the idea of a mainstream country hit makes him chuckle, Earle is completely serious. Of the endless creative projects the 67-year-old singer-songwriter is juggling after the end of his nightly appearances in the off-Broadway play Coal Country — prepping for a tour with the Dukes,...

Miranda Lambert’s 2021 collaborative album The Marfa Tapes, with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, was a stripped-down set that helped resituate the Texas-born Lambert in the tradition of Lone Star singer-songwriters like Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen. It also further cemented the country star’s reputation for stylistic risks — following 2019’s more conventionally fantastic Wildcard, and released in the same year she dropped a tropical house remix of “Tequila Does.”

Palomino, Lambert’s eighth solo album, is full of departures too. Lambert and her collaborators (including co-producers Randall and...

The unusual bond between the three musicians is the focus of a new documentary Without Getting Killed or Caught, a story of romance, creativity and tragedy

When director Tamara Saviano decided to make a film about the Americana songwriter Guy Clark, she knew she couldn’t tell his story without covering the lives of two other creative souls – his wife, the songwriter and painter Susanna Clark, and his best friend, the fellow Americana star, Townes Van Zandt. “They influenced him so much, and he influenced them too,” said Saviano to the Guardian. “You can’t separate them.”

At the same time, their entwined lives endured deep fractures and brutal hurts. The story Saviano tells in the new documentary Without Getting Killed or Caught, named after a lyric from one of Clark’s best-known songs, LA Freeway, traces a wide arc of personal traumas and creative triumphs. It involves a violent suicide,...

Chris Stapleton was the musical guest on Wednesday night’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, performing the song “Worry B Gone” from his 2020 album Starting Over.

A shuffling, blues-influenced rocker penned by Guy Clark, Gary Nicholson, and Lee Roy Parnell, “Worry B Gone” has a bit of Zz Top’s Texas boogie in its DNA and a generous dose of Thc in its blood. “People ain’t treatin’ one another like they oughta,” Stapleton sings, decrying the sorry state of the world and his need to escape. “So...

From 1978 until her retirement in 2013, Nanci Griffith, who died August 13th at age 68, included numerous cover songs in her repertoire from writers as diverse as Nick Lowe and Paul Carrack (“Battlefield”) to Guy Clark (“Desperados Waiting for a Train”) and Julie Gold, whose “From a Distance” had been roundly rejected until Griffith became the first to record it. She even once covered the Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations” on Austin City Limits.

See Nanci Griffith Cover the Rolling Stones’ ‘No Expectations’

But it was Griffith’s original material that helped boost the careers of Kathy Mattea,...

Nanci Griffith, the Grammy-winning folk and country songwriter whose popular recordings include “Love at the Five and Dime,” “Once in a Very Blue Moon,” and “Outbound Plane,” died Friday, her manager confirmed to Rolling Stone. No cause of death was given. She was 68.

Born July 6th, 1953, in Seguin, Texas, and raised in Austin, Nanci Caroline Griffith began her performing career as a teenager, playing at clubs and festivals around Texas. She attended the University of Texas and began a career as a teacher, but then switched full-time to music in 1977. Around the same time,...

“I knew the night we met that you get it all,” Hayes Carll sings in his new song, a simple declaration of love and all the good and bad that comes with it. “All my lows and all my highs/all my truth, all my lies/all my rights and all my wrongs,” Carll drawls in the verses. He throws in some concrete examples of his baggage too, from Guy Clark cassette tapes to beat-up cowboy boots that he leaves lying in the hall.

Carll co-wrote the song with Nashville...

M. Night Shyamalan’s self-financed “Old” is the director’s seventh film to open at #1. It made $16.5 million, about 40 percent of the openings earned by his last two films “Glass” and “Split.”

That 40 percent also reflects this weekend’s overall performance (about $66 million) compared to 2019 ($163 million). That reduces the rolling four-weekend comparison to 52 percent, down from 58 percent last week.

“Old,” made for a thrifty $18 million (before marketing costs), will likely be a financial winner for the director. Unlike other Universal genre titles, this one will not have an early PVOD release. Since the public probably isn’t aware of that decision, it’s possible that the presumption of early home viewing contributed to what is Shyamalan’s lowest-grossing opener. Increased Covid anxieties may also be a factor.

The other wide debut, “Snake Eyes,” opened to $13.25 million. It’s an origin film starring Henry Golding from Paramount’s “G.I. Joe” franchise...

Vincent Neil Emerson was watching Edward Norton portray both a rhapsodizing stoner and his straitlaced brother in 2009’s Leaves of Grass when the actor began singing a Townes Van Zandt song onscreen. Emerson, a native of East Texas, hadn’t yet discovered the tragic songwriter at the time and he dutifully studied the film’s closing credits to see who was responsible for writing “Rex’s Blues.”

“I found the name Townes Van Zandt, went to YouTube and just typed it in, and the first video was of him playing ‘Waiting Around to Die,...

American Aquarium released a new album early Friday morning, a record that represents a solid pivot for the longtime roots-rock band. On the heels of Bj Barham’s homespun livestream covers series, the North Carolina singer-songwriter convened his players in an Asheville, North Carolina, studio last November to record a full record of Nineties country tunes.

The result is Slappers, Bangers and Certified Twangers: Vol. One, a straight-forward if loose collection of covers by artists like Trisha Yearwood (“She’s in Love With the Boy”), Sawyer Brown (“Some Girls Do...

This year’s South by Southwest Film Festival has showcased several documentaries about successful musicians, including Tom Petty, Charli Xcx and Sparks. But you could argue that they haven’t had one about a better songwriter than “Without Getting Killed or Caught,” Tamara Saviano and Paul Whitfield’s affectionate and lyrical film about Texas-born songwriter Guy Clark, which finally premiered at SXSW last week, a year after being booked for the canceled 2020 edition of the festival.

A plainspoken poet whose first album, 1975’s “Old No. 1,” contained more classic songs than most people can muster in an entire career, Clark racked up hits for people like Jerry Jeff Walker, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill and the Highwaymen, but rarely showed up on the charts himself until they started measuring the Americana genre, which he pretty much epitomized. He was a songwriters’ songwriter, the mentor to many and the focal point of a...

These are heady times for music documentaries. Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” won the audience and jury prizes at the Sundance Film Festival; docs about the Beastie Boys, Taylor Swift, the Bee Gees, the Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Billie Eilish, Britney Spears and many others have gotten attention lately; high-profile narrative directors Peter Jackson, Edgar Wright and Todd Haynes have made recent or upcoming docs about the Beatles, Sparks and the Velvet Underground, respectively; and films on Tom Petty, Charlie Xcx, Guy Clark and Poly Styrene are on the bill at the South by Southwest festival.

One advantage of docs like those has always been that they have a built-in, passionate audience of fans for the subject’s music – and in many cases, filmmakers aim their work at the devotees who will savor every detail and sing along with every word. I might embrace each nuance in “Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You,...

After coming to prominence as a sardonic folkie in the tradition of Todd Snider on albums like 2015’s In the Blazes and 2016’s Silver Tears (see that LP’s “12 Bar Blues”), Aaron Lee Tasjan, like many of his East Nashville contemporaries, has in recent years moved away from country-roots music and toward a more expansive pop-rock. 2018’s Karma For Cheap was a transitional record, swapping in electric guitars for acoustic, and folkie stoner wisdom for a more open-hearted curiosity.

Enter Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!, the singer-songwriter’s latest album, and his most compelling to date.

“Well, this may seem like déjà vu…” wrote filmmaker Tamara Saviano on her Facebook page this week, alerting friends that her documentary about musician Guy Clark, “Without Getting Killed or Caught” was being announced Thursday as premiering at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival… just as it was announced for last year. The good news is, this year’s SXSW, being virtual, can’t get canceled (at least short of dire societal circumstances even worse than a pandemic), so the doc is virtually certain to meet its premiere date this time.

Saviano made the tough decision last March to wait it out a year and submit it again in hopes that the festival screening committee wouldn’t have a change of heart. If a film about some of the most celebrated singer-songwriters to ever come out of Texas — Townes Van Zandt also being a primary subject — couldn’t premiere at SXSW,...

Allen v. Farrow

HBO is releasing an investigative documentary film on the accusation of sexual abuse against Woody Allen involving Dylan, his then seven-year-old daughter with Mia Farrow. Using home videos, court documents, police evidence, and never-before-released audio tapes, the film goes deeper than the headlines ever have, to examine the fractured family’s trauma. (February 21st)

Coming 2 America

In the latest trailer for the sequel to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 comedy, King Akeem (Murphy) is facing a threat to his leadership. However, his rule can be stabilized if only...

Last October, Texas lost two of its biggest musical legends: Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver. Walker wrote some of country music’s funniest, most heartbreaking songs, including 1968’s “Mr. Bojangles.” Shaver pioneered outlaw country, writing classics like “Georgia on a Fast Train” and “Ride Me Down Easy,” recorded by Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and more — all while living up to his outlaw reputation in real life.

Those two artists are celebrated on Austin City Limits this weekend, with a show featuring highlights from their multiple appearances on Acl.

When most major stars with a music career retire, proper announcements are in order, if not farewell tours or tribute shows. But when Kris Kristofferson made the decision to retire last year, there were no such fireworks set off, and the public didn’t learn about it until it was tucked deep into a press release Wednesday about a management change, as if everyone already long since knew or assumed it. That may speak to Kristofferson’s unassuming nature: He really didn’t think that his withdrawal from public performance and recordings was the stuff of headlines.

“It wasn’t any big stake in the ground, like ‘I’m retiring! I’m not doing this anymore!,” says Tamara Saviano, Kristofferson’s longtime manager. “It was an evolution, and it just felt very organic. There was no big change — it was this sort of slow ‘What should we do now? What’s next?...

"The best music and the best whiskey come from the same part of the country." Gather 'round and revisit this classic country music documentary film Heartworn Highways. Rarely screened, the beloved 1976 documentary portrait of the outlaw country movement will be re-released nationwide in virtual cinemas on February 5th this winter. In the mid-'70s, filmmaker James Szalapski documented the then-nascent country music movement that would soon become known as "outlaw country." Inspired, in part, by newly-long-haired Willie Nelson's embrace of hippie attitudes and audiences, a younger generation of artists including Townes Van Zandt, David Alan Coe, Steve Earle and Guy Clark popularized and developed the outlaw sound. This kind of seems like the anti-country music film about country music, which means it might be worth a watch even if you don't care much for country music. As usual, this is the best time to catch up with the film.

Austin City Limits marks the first six years of its Hall of Fame induction ceremonies with a special retrospective featuring performances by Kris Kristofferson, Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash, Los Lobos, and more. The 14-song episode culminates in a salute to Stevie Ray Vaughan with an all-star rendition of “Texas Flood” by Willie Nelson, Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, Lyle Lovett, Lukas Nelson, Robert Randolph, and Doyle Bramhall II.

Acl Hall of Fame: The First 6 Years premieres January 2nd at 9 p.m. Et on PBS. It streams at pbs.org beginning Sunday,...

K.T. Oslin, a multiplatinum country singer-songwriter who won three Grammys including one for her breakout single “’80s Ladies,” died today. She was 78. She had been battling Parkinson’s disease and living in an assisted care facility for several years and recently was diagnosed with Covid-19. No official cause of death was announced.

Oslin was a rare female late bloomer in the country music industry. She finally hit in 1987 with the top 10 country tune “’80s Ladies.” She was 45 and had made her first record 23 years earlier. Oslin also had the chart-topping country smashes “Do Ya” and “I’ll Always Come Back,” all of which were from her RCA album ’80s Ladies. That disc topped Billboard Country LPs chart and peaked at No. 68 on the pop albums chart.

She followed up with another platinum LP, 1988’s This Woman, which featured the country chart-topper “Hold Me” and No. 2 hit “Hey Bobby,” and the...

Steve Earle has announced details for his album of songs dedicated to his late son, the singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, who died this past August at the age of 38.

Following in the traditions of tribute albums Earle has recorded to honor close friends like his son’s namesake, Townes Van Zandt, with 2009’s Townes, and Guy Clark with 2019’s Guy, Earle will release J.T. on January 4th — what would have been his son’s 39th birthday.

“The record is called J.T. because Justin was never called anything else until he was nearly grown,...

With his quadruple-platinum 2015 album, Traveller, troubadour Chris Stapleton established himself as a Nashville superstar who could interpret country songs with the touch of a great R&b singer. Stapleton’s gravelly voice, outlaw look, and earnest storytelling made him a bearded paragon of roots tradition. But that role didn’t really fit an artist who has written tunes for pop-aware country guys like Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett and collaborated with everyone from Pink to Justin Timberlake.

But unlike his authenticity-branded contemporary Sturgill Simpson, Stapleton has never appeared tortured by...

On Saturday, Todd Snider used his regular quarantine livestream session to pay tribute to his foremost mentor and influence, Jerry Jeff Walker, who died Friday at 78 after a battle with cancer. For more than two hours, Snider told stories of the Texas country legend and played a deep variety of his songs, from his most famous tune “Mr. Bojangles” to classics like “The Stranger (He Was the Kind),” “Charlie Dunn,” and “Leavin’ Texas.”

“What a year we’re having,” an emotional Snider said toward the beginning of the show, which...

Jerry Jeff Walker, a Texas favorite country singer who crossed over to the pop charts by writing the hit Mr. Bojangles, has died at age 78. He had cancer, according to family spokesman John T. Davis.

“He had battled throat cancer for many years, and some other health issues,” Davis said Saturday.

Walker came out of New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, where he became a founding member of the band Circus Maximus. He moved to Texas in the 1970s and had a hit in 1972 with his version of the Guy Clark song, L.A. Freeway.

In 1973, Walker and the Lost Gonzo Band recorded a live album in Texas called Viva Terlingua that became a classic of the country-rock scene. He went on to release more than 30 albums, including on his own Tried & True independent label. Walker revealed his throat cancer in a 2017 interview. “I guess I took my singing for granted,...

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will put to use some of the most iconic instruments in the genre’s history for its upcoming “Big Night” fundraiser, set for Wednesday, October 28th. Included among the newly announced instrument and artist pairings are guitars once owned by Johnny Cash, Mother Maybelle Carter, and Jimmie Rodgers.

The artist lineup for the event, which will be hosted by Marty Stuart, runs the gamut from contemporary stars like Miranda Lambert and Kane Brown to Americana favorites like Keb’ Mo’ and Lucinda Williams,...

Steve Earle has announced plans to record an album of songs written by his son Justin Townes Earle, who died August 20th at the age of 38.

Backed by his longtime band the Dukes, Steve is expected to begin recording the album in October with a target release date of January 2021 — Justin Townes Earle would have turned 39 on January 4th. Earle will donate 100 percent of advances and royalties from the project to a trust for Justin’s daughter, Etta St. James Earle.

The younger Earle spent some time as a touring...

Chris Stapleton looks ahead to a brighter future in the new song “Starting Over,” the title track to his fourth studio album, due November 13th.

“Well, the road rolls out like a welcome mat/to a better place than the one we’re at,” he sings in the shuffling number, written with his frequent collaborator Mike Henderson. Though completed before everyday life was upended by the pandemic, “Starting Over” speaks to our moment of unrest and uncertainty: “This might not be an easy time/there’s rivers to cross and...

Justin Townes Earle, the singer-songwriter known for his mix of old-timey roots music and modern-day Americana, has died at age 38. A rep for Earle’s label New West Records confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, though a cause of death was not immediately revealed.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin,” a post on Earle’s Instagram page read. “So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we...

For nearly two decades, Hayes Carll has been making consistently great singer-songwriter records, influenced by the back-porch songcraft of Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. While off the road in Nashville for his longest stretch in years, Carll had the chance to revisit some of his best material — which he reimagines on a new acoustic album, Alone Together Sessions, out September 4th on Dualtone.

“It’s probably good to pause every now and then, to take stock of everything,” Carll said in a statement, talking about returning to his older material in the studio.

Well before Jimmy Buffett became king of the Parrotheads, he was a highly regarded singer-songwriter with an obvious gift for storytelling — and among his admirers was Bob Dylan. Dylan first made his fandom known in 1982, when he rendered a surprise appearance with Joan Baez even more shocking by launching into Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at 40.” Then, in a 2009 interview with Bill Flanagan, Dylan named Buffett as one of his favorite songwriters (along with Gordon Lightfoot, Warren Zevon, Randy Newman, John Prine, and Guy Clark). As Buffett discusses in the...

Douglas Corner Cafe, a premier Nashville venue that has hosted performances by artists as varied as Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Guy Clark, Kevin Costner, Jon Bon Jovi, and Neil Diamond, will close its doors for good after 33 years. A key destination in the city’s Eighth Avenue South neighborhood, the club has been shuttered since March 15th due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Nashville’s subsequent stay-at-home order.

Douglas Corner owner Mervin Louque, a one-time recording engineer who initially partnered with businessman Rick Martin to open the cafe in...

Antebellum

The thriller’s trailer clocks in at only 42 seconds, but despite its brevity, it’s enough time for reality to seriously blur. Veronica (portrayed by Janelle Monáe) is a successful, 21st-century author. Until she’s also a pre-Civil War era slave. How these two realities reconcile remains a mystery, but the clip suggests Veronica is trapped by destiny. Between glimpses of the alternating time periods, a message flashes: “What if fate chose you to save us from our past?” She will soon find out. (April 24th)

Atlanta’s Missing...

An under-appreciated period of Johnny Cash’s lengthy recording career will be reexamined with the April 24th release of a seven-disc box set, The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991, and a 24-cut “best of” collection representing highlights from this period. The CD set also includes several rare or previously unreleased tracks and an additional 20-track collection titled Classic Cash: Hall Of Fame Series (Early Mixes), featuring material mastered from tapes newly discovered in the Mercury vaults. While the vinyl version does not include this LP, it will be available as a...