photo by Leslie Paczosa
Tampa country radio station WQYK is reporting that “According to a spokesperson for the USF Sundome, Church had to cancel his show because of a scheduling conflict, his website states that he will be in Charleston, SC on December 13th.” As of now, Eric’s website has the Charleston, SC date with the shows in Jacksonville & Sunrise happening as scheduled.
Heartland, best known for their smash hit “I Loved Her First,” has a new single coming out on October 1st under R&J Records. The song is titled “The Sound a Dream Makes,” and you can take a sneak peak listen to it by clicking here.
Here’s some info from the Press Release announcing their return:
Heartland members Jason Albert, Charles Crawford, and newest addition Chad Austin all come from small towns in the heartland of America. They return to the country scene with their brand new music, produced by famed producer James Stroud. Armed with a new member, a collection of great new songs, and a fresh, new energy and excitement, Heartland is ready to once again make its mark on the country scene. And “The Sound a Dream Makes” is just the song to do it with. The sentimental ballad written by Shana Canada, Gary Duffey and Gordon Jamesis from a father’s perspective looking back over the precious moments of life with his daughter, and while the song’s message treads into familiar musical territory for the band, this time, it looks back at the relationship from a different, nostalgic perspective.
Since releasing their debut single and subsequent album in 2006, Heartland has continued to record and perform, weathering a few label and personnel changes along the way before taking a hiatus several years ago. Though they pursued separate individual projects and interests for a time, the members recently restructured, and the core sound and solid country values on which they base their music continue to remain the same.
“I believe the time is right for us to bring some new music to our fans,” adds Crawford. “I Loved Her First” has left its mark on our career, but we’ve also been able to move on since then. We’ve have some great new songs now that I feel certain fans will love. This is going to be a whole new chapter for us as a band and we are all looking forward to our future.”
The Oak Ridge Boys will be releasing a new Christmas album on September 25th titled Christmas Time’s a Coming. It will be their sixth holiday album, and will be supported by their annual Christmas tour that kicks off in November.
You can get an exclusive version of the CD now at Cracker Barrel, with two bonus tracks without having to wait until the 25th.
“The Oak Ridge Boys love Christmas music. For us, Christmas is about family, home, singing, happiness, love, kids and gifts. But, the main thing Christmas is about is the birth of Jesus Christ; when time quit numbering backwards and started counting forward. No other man has ever walked this Earth who reversed time. So, although we love singing the fun songs, the spiritual songs about “the birth” are very real for The Oak Ridge Boys,” says lead singer Duane Allen.
“We are so excited about our new album, Christmas Time’s A-Coming. As usual, we have a nice mix of songs that we are looking forward to adding to our Christmas show and tour starting in November. Once again working with the youthful acoustic driven mind of producer Ben Isaacs and our own Duane Allen, we have come up with, perhaps, our greatest Christmas collection yet,” says member Joe Bonsall. “From classics like ‘Here Comes Santa Claus,’ ‘Joy to The World’ and the title cut to incredible brand new songs like ‘Peterbilt Sleigh,’ ‘Getting Ready For A Baby’ and ‘Glorious Impossible,’ we seriously think that folks everywhere will continue to celebrate the holidays with The Oak Ridge Boys,” he adds.
The album will be available through retail stores nationwide, as well as on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Tracks on Christmas Time’s A-Coming
1. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
2. Peterbilt Sleigh
3. Here Comes Santa Claus
4. Christmas Time’s A-Coming
5. White Christmas
6. All I Want For Christmas Is You
7. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
8. Getting Ready For A Baby
9. Joy To The World
10. Mary, Did You Know?
11. Mary Had A Little Lamb
12. Glorious Impossible
album cover
Old School, New Rules starts off by kicking you in the mouth with the song, “Takin’ Back the Country,” a song that features a chorus of, “Don’t tread on me, don’t you tread on me…hey are you ready for some good news, we’re gonna take back our country!” His father, the legendary Hank Williams Sr. has a few old recorded lines mixed into the song for a neat duet feature, then the song culminates with the parting line of “Hey Barack pack your bags, head to Chicago, take your teleprompter with you so you’ll know where to go.”
From there the CD temporarily gets back on track as a traditional Hank Williams Jr. album with a duet with Brad Paisley titled “I’m Gonna Get Drunk and Play Hank Williams,” a song featured on the CMT Awards back in June.
“Three Day Trip” has an island feel to it, as Hank gets in touch with his inner Jimmy Buffet.
“Old School” is a homage to the “old school” way of doing things in the music business in a classic country-style of a song.
Hank gets back into the politically charged theme that is intertwined throughout this album with the next song, “We Don’t Apologize for America.” The highlight of the song is when Merle Haggard joins him for the final verse, “When you’re running down our country, hoss, you’re walkin’ on the fighting side of me.”
“The Cow Turd Blues” has to be one of the most make-me-spit-my-drink-out song-titles I have ever seen. In one verse, he dedicates the song to Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, and President Harry Truman, who once said, “Never kick a cow turd on a hot day, or you might get some poo on your pants leg.” Despite the title, it’s actually a fun, upbeat and fast-tempo song.
The politically charged theme is driven home in the the final half of the album with songs such as, “Who is Taking Care of Number One,” “That Ain’t Good,” “Keep the Change,” and “Stock Market Blues,” before closing with a duet with Merle Haggard on Haggard’s hit, “I Think I’ll Just Sit Here and Drink.”
Overall I’d give this album a score of 6.5 out of 10. There are some good songs on it, but with half of the songs being political in nature, he should’ve borrowed a title from Toby Keith and called it The Angry American instead. While I personally agree with a lot of what he sings about, it is hard to settle in and enjoy the vibe of one song just to have it disrupted by getting fired up by the next one.
photo by Leslie Paczosa
You gotta love the age of Social Media. We found out last night that there will be a new 40-song album coming out from Martina McBride the same way Martina McBride found out about it…on Twitter!
“Wow! Kinda sucks that I had 2 find out on twitter that RCA is releasing a cd of 40 of my songs. #hopeIatleastgetafreecopy” is what she tweeted upon finding out about it. She went on to say in her next tweet, “Having said that I’m not mad about it. Just would have been cool to get a phone call. #iwonderwhatthecoverlookslike?”