Country Pop
Song of the Week: Shania Twain Kicks the Dust Up with “Giddy Up”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, say yee-haw to a new track from Shania Twain. In the ’90s, Shania Twain was the undisputed queen of pop country. No one was doing it like her — Shania commanded airwaves and international attention with her blend of catchy hooks, pop culture relevance, incredible fashion, playful music videos, and great vocals. She cranked out hit after hit and sold over 100 million records, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history. To this day, just the utterance of “let’s go girls” can send a ka...
Noah Cyrus on Writing with Ben Gibbard and Living Out Her Legend of Zelda Fantasies
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Noah Cyrus talks her debut album, The Hardest Part, on the latest episode of Kyle Meredith With. Advertisement Related Video The singer-songwriter discusses making an album of goodbyes; telling her story of addiction, mental health, and recovery; and duetting with her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus. Speaking of guests, Noah also digs into what it was like to write and sing with her musical hero, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, on “Every Beginning Ends,” as well as having singer LP on the LP. Cyrus also talks about how she was able to live out her The Legend of Zelda dreams with the album’s visual...
Kelsea Ballerini’s Best Is Yet to Come
Seated in a sunny suite in downtown Nashville, Kelsea Ballerini starts the conversation like we’ve known each other for years and are meeting to catch up over lunch. “Where are your earrings from? Do you need a water? What part of town did you come in from?” Some of that energy is the Nashville way, and some of that is a window into Ballerini’s warm and incredibly open nature. The pop-country singer-songwriter — arguably the preeminent female artist in that space at the moment — is on the verge of releasing her fourth studio album, SUBJECT TO CHANGE, available Friday, September 23rd. She’s barefoot and wearing a bright blue dress that she explains is the same color palette as the album artwork. “Because I’m a crazy person,” she jokes. The album is a cyclical journey of fifteen tracks, all ...
LeAnn Rimes on Making Up with Her Past, Texting in Rage Against the Machine Lyrics, and Honoring Taylor Hawkins
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS LeAnn Rimes joins Kyle Meredith to talk about her new album, god’s work, how it was influenced by her 2020 chant record, and sonically digging into world and ancient rhythms. Advertisement Related Video The musician/actress tells us about the many guests that help out, including Ziggy Marley, Sheila E, Ben Harper, and Stephan Lessard from Dave Matthews Band. She then touches on what the word “god” represents within this work and the fractured existence that women face. Rimes also recounts how she’s been texting in Rage Against the Machine lyrics with her bandmates and crew, tying her past and presen...
Going There with Jewel: Knowing the Tide of Mental Health Will Always Come Back In
Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Stitcher | Google | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Jewel joins the Going There podcast to discuss her personal mental health journey and how she learned to except the changing tides of wellness. Advertisement The iconic singer-songwriter shares that the cornerstone of her approach to mental health is what she calls the concept of emotional impermanence. Jewel explains that one of the most difficult issues we face on our mental health journey is that oftentimes when we experience depression, anxiety, or addiction, there is such a powerful feeling that our emotions and behaviors are permanent. But her concept of “emotional impermanence” suggests that we are dyna...
Maren Morris on Taking Inspiration from Jack White and the Future of The Highwomen
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Maren Morris sits down with Kyle Meredith to talk about her latest album, Humble Quest, and how it tells the story of her road to success using specifically personal stories in the vein of classic ’60s and ’70s country. Related Video The Grammy-winning artist also discusses finding her way to happier songs after coming out of a depression, taking inspiration from Jack White as a way to kick her writing into gear, and adding a little darkness to her romantic musical moments. Morris also talks about the future of The Highwomen, the supergroup that includes Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby. Advertisement E...
Song of the Week: Taylor Swift’s 10-Minute Version of “All Too Well” Is Lush Heartbreak, Extended
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Taylor Swift takes us down an emotional path that we know all too well. There’s no denying that “All Too Well” has always been the broken heart and mended soul of Taylor Swift’s Red. The song became an instant fan favorite when the album was released back in 2012 — its flashbacks of a romantic trip upstate with a lost love crystallized in amber and wrapped in a long-lost scarf, tucked away in a drawer for safekeeping. But in the months and years following the album’s release, whispered rumors began circulating within the annals of...
Taylor Swift Withdraws Re-Recorded Fearless from Grammy, CMA Awards Contention
Taylor Swift won’t have to compete with herself at the Grammys or CMA Awards this year, as she’s decided to pull Fearless (Taylor’s Version) from contention. A representative for Republic Records confirmed to Billboard that the re-recording of Swift’s 2008 sophomore record won’t be submitted “in any category at this year’s upcoming Grammy and CMA Awards.” As the statement went on to note, “Fearless has already won four Grammys including album of the year, as well as the CMA Award for album of the year in 2009/2010 and remains the most awarded country album of all time.” It’s certainly fair of Swift not to try and repeat her wins with essentially the same songs. But it also means that she won’t be competing with herself, as the Republic rep added that the singer’s ninth LP, December 2020’s ...
At Miley Cyrus’ Intimate Pride Concert in Nashville, Love and Rainbows Were in the Air
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-06-09T14:30:47+00:00“>June 9, 2021 | 10:30am ET On Tuesday night (June 8th), the church pews of the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee were rumbling with all the energy of a revival: service was in session, hosted by one of the city’s most famous exports, Miley Cyrus. A true homecoming, Cyrus spent the evening taping a Pride-themed special both grandiose and intimate in scale thanks to the venue’s capacity, which was just shy of 2,500 guests. The no-phone/camera show was ticketed via lottery exclusively to vaccinated residents of Music City — and Nashville came ready to dance. Cyrus’ connection to the LGBTQ+ community is longstanding and well-documented. Her Happy Hippie...
Taylor Swift Honors Her Own Vision on Fearless (Taylor’s Version): Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-09T21:50:09+00:00“>April 9, 2021 | 5:50pm ET The Lowdown: “For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Taylor Swift wrote in a 2019 social media post after her longtime label, Big Machine, sold her master recordings without her consent. Swift had been unable to gain control of her first six albums through contract negotiations, and then Scooter Braun, who’d demonstrated public enmity with the singer-songwriter, was collecting the checks. (Braun’s company has since sold the masters to Shamrock Holdings for $300 million.) What’s one of the world’s brightest superstars and the preeminent pop poet of a generation to do? The answer: Do it all again. Swift has begun to re-...
Taylor Swift’s folklore Dismantles Her Own Self-Mythologizing: Review
The Lowdown: Born of isolation, Taylor Swift’s eighth album, folklore, interrogates the pop star’s self-mythologizing and turns her gaze outward. Created during the ongoing pandemic, Swift collaborated remotely on 11 songs with Aaron Dessner of The National, who shared orchestrations composed inside his own quarantine. The results lean toward modern folk and glitchy experimentation, abandoning pop bombast but not the drama of swelling strings or anxious percussion. The accompanying visuals depict a gloomy summer, and listeners can imagine Swift watching storms barrel across the Atlantic horizon and wandering old-growth forests in half-done braids, alone or with a companion socially distanced beyond the frame. Dropped on 24 hours’ notice without her typically painstaking roll-out, the 16 mo...
The Chicks’ Gaslighter Galvanizes The Trio’s Long-Awaited Return: Review
The Lowdown: The most infamous act in country music, The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks), stopped releasing new music 14 years ago, after their seventh album, Taking the Long Way, netted five Grammys. These included Album of the Year, plus Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Not Ready to Make Nice”, which settled any lingering questions about whether they regretted their 2003 criticism of George W. Bush (they did not). Gaslighter marks the trio’s official return, and a lot has changed, both in the surrounding world and in the sound of The Chicks’ music. But some crucial elements remain the same: their attention is firmly focused ahead of them and on the things they care for. In the songs that focus on deteriorating relationships, and notably lead singer Natalie Maines’...
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