Donald Sutherland, the actor who starred in movies such as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Hunger Games”, passed away at age 88.
Read More‘Pride and Prejudice’ Actor Donald Sutherland Dies at Age 88
Category: Entertainment
Music Spotlight: Jordan St. Cyr
Jordan St. Cyr is from a small town of around 1,200 people located outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As a child, he remembers his dad showing him a few chords on a guitar, and then he took it from there. He attended a youth group at his church, and they asked if anyone was interested in singing and playing guitar. He was soon enlisted to lead worship.
St. Cyr recalled, “My competitive nature took over and I’d spend three, four hours a night just learning these songs and singing. It’s really what helped me learn my craft.”
Read MoreLegendary Musician Peter Frampton Honored with Les Paul Spirit Award
The Les Paul Foundation partnered with Gibson Gives to award Peter Frampton last week with the annual Les Paul Spirit Award. Bob Weir, Nile Rodgers, and U2’s The Edge are previous recipients of this award. Frampton continues to write and perform despite being diagnosed with inclusion body myositis in 2019.
Les Paul was a trailblazer with recording technology, sound effects, and the solid body guitar. He championed music trailblazers, paving the way for rock and roll, metal, punk, country, pop, and all forms of modern music. The Les Paul Foundation inspires innovative and creative thinking by sharing Paul’s legacy through the support of music education, recording, innovation, exhibits about Paul, and medical research related to hearing.
Read MoreMusic Spotlight: High Mountain Breezes
Nashville has no shortage of super-talented singers, songwriters, and musicians. For every hit song you hear, somebody somewhere had to write and play the music, engineer and produce it, and somehow get it to radio or streaming services.
Without these studio musicians, we wouldn’t have the quality of music we have today. High Mountain Breezes (HMB) is a collection of Nashville’s finest studio musicians who create music for other artists. But sometimes, these musicians want to make music for themselves, not just to accompany a famous lead singer.
Read MoreMusic Spotlight: Zach John King
NASHVILLE, Tennessee—Zach John King is from Fayetteville, Georgia, a small town outside of Atlanta with a population of 18,000. His grandparents exposed him to country music, but his dad gave him a preloaded iPod shuffle with everything from Otis Redding to Alabama on it. King took guitar lessons for four years…
Read MoreMusic Spotlight: MaRynn Taylor
When I met MaRynn Taylor at CMT’s Next Women of Country 2023, I knew I would love her music because I immediately loved her personality. And while I covered her at CRS and her music in my Christmas blog, I had not done a full feature on the songstress. When I learned her debut EP, Get To Know Me was being released at the end of May, I knew it was high time that I get to know her.
Taylor grew up in Rockford, Michigan, listening to country music. Although no one in her family was particularly musical, she was obsessed with artists like Hannah Montana, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift.
Read MoreMusic Spotlight: Allie Colleen
Allie Colleen has been around music her entire life. She began writing poetry at age eight and got serious about learning guitar by age 14. Combining these two hobbies, she dove headfirst into songwriting.
Read MoreSmithfield Releases Debut Album, ‘Country with Heart’
I first heard the duo Smithfield in 2018 on Sirius XM’s The Highway when their song “Hey Whiskey” was a big hit. Comprised of vocalists Trey Smith and Jennifer Fielder, they are lifelong friends who grew up near each other.
Read MoreMusic Spotlight: Matt Oakley
Matt Oakley grew up around all kinds of music. His dad was a DJ in the military in Germany.
He recalled, “We always had those little boomboxes going and those old CD players that were like small oval-shaped. We have our home videos. And almost everyone, whether it was on a desk or a kitchen table, or me and my sisters dancing around, we were always around music. And in car rides, when we would go on road trips, we would play music trivia or play the song. The first person to get what the song is and who it’s by gets a point.”
Read MoreThe Dryes Release ‘Dear Heart’ for Mental Health Awareness Month
Last July, when NBC The Voice alums, Katelyn Drye and Derek Drye announced their lead single “Sawdust” off their forthcoming EP, I was keen to feature them because I loved the song so much. Now, after the success of the rowdy Raisin’ Beers & Hallelujahs EP, The Dryes have chronicled a more serious side of the past four years of their lives with their newest EP, Dear Heart.
Even though they are an extremely talented, happily married couple, they still go through struggles like the rest of us. This newest body of work showcases moments of grief, honest questioning, finding relief in moments of hope, and living with a beautiful new perspective. This is especially important now as May marks the highly important Mental Health Awareness Month.
In February, the duo released the first track off of their newest EP, “A Little Longer.” The video for the song, which was played on CMT, features a breathtaking sunset. The couple pic
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