PlayStation 2 Hopes to Cash In on Country

  • Cindy Watts at the Tennessean posts about SingStar, a new Playstation 2 karaoke-type game which will include country music starts Faith Hill,  Willie Nelson and Brad Paisley….also Taylor Swift for some reason. Troy Gentry from Montgomery Gentry tried SingStar and is quoted as saying “singers could use the game to help fine-tune their vocals.” I’m just ready for Grand Theft Auto – Hazzard County, Georgia.
  • Pitchfork.com posts that there are message board and blog rumors that “Silver Jews” leader David Bermanwill call it quits and that “the band’s January 31 performance at McMinnville, Tennessee’s Cumberland Caverns (to be broadcast on Nashville’s famed WSM radio station), will be their last. “

Miss Leslie and Her Juke-Jointers Offer Free CD to Fans

Texas Honky-Tonk angel  Miss Leslie Anne Sloan and Her Juke-Jointers are giving away copies of  their new release, “Between the Whiskey and the Wine” (released July 15, 2008) from their newly relaunched website. (Postage outside the US will cost $4.00)

Gobbler’s Knob has some great things to say about Austin’s own The Gourds’ release Haymaker. You can hear cuts from  the new album on the band’s MySpace page.

Craig Shelburne  at CMT.com blog shines a spotlight on his personal favorite album out of Texas, Kelly Willis’ 1999 release What I Deserve.

Go vote for my buddies the 9513.com the best music blog at the 2008 Weblog Awards. I say this because they do a great job covering the whole spectrum of country music, and because I wasn’t nominated…

Gene Autry and Brenda Lee to be Awarded the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement

The 9513 posts that Gene Autry and Brenda Lee will be presented with the Grammy for the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony on Feb. 7 and will be acknowledged during the Grammy telecast the next evening. Other honorees for the award this year are the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Four Tops, Hank Jones, Dean Martin and Tom Paxton.

The Dallas Observer’s  Noah W. Bailey, has done this native Dallasite (well, Irvingite) proud by publishing what I consider to be one of the best, and most innovative, best of 2008 Americana lists I’ve seen.

Chris Parton  at the CMT blog posts that the excellent SteelDrivers‘ self titled debut was the most downloaded Americana/Bluegrass album of the year on iTunes.

NineBullets.com has posted a nice complitation of some of the covers the Drive By Truckers have recorded on tour over the years (including my personal favorite Alice Cooper’s Eighteen.)

Popmatters Picks Bests

Over at PopMatters.com, the always excellent Juli Thanki had the fortunate,
if challenging, duty of picking the top Bluegrass Albums and best Country Music of 2008, and Andrew Gilstrap also does a great job of picking the best Americana releases of 2008.

the great thing about Chritmas is being with family…er…I mean gettig cool stuff! Get over to the 9513, those guys have tons of stuff the’re giving away for the holidays with thier 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway.

Twang Nation – Acting Naturally

The fine folks at The 9513 have some good taste in country music blogs but somehow they’re also reading mine and for that I’m much obliged. They’ve put together a nice collection of blogs they read and assigned each a country hero personality. They’ve chosen some great site and assigned some true country pioneers so it’s hard to squabble with
Twang Nation being associated with Bakersfield hillbilly rocker  Buck Owens. It’s all just so…damn…give me a moment here folks.

Sites represented:

Big Rock Candy Mountain
Search for the Last of the Hard-core Troubadours
City Girl, Country Girl
Twangville

Go show ’em some love!