The busiest man in the country music business stays… busy. It’s hard to argue that there is a more prolific artist in country music than Charley Crockett right now. Continually operating at pace that few can match, Charley has released a whopping 17 studio albums since his 2015 debut, A Stolen Jewel, as well as a live album, a mixtape, and two EPs. But tonight’s release, on a random Tuesday night, might be his most surprising. Actually, if you’re old enough to remember, back when Whiskey Riff first started, nearly all new music came out on Tuesdays rather than Fridays. It might not have the same ring to it, but I liked New Music Tuesdays better. I digress… Just a few weeks removed from the release date of Age Of The Ram, the third album in his Shooter Jennings-produced Sagebrush Trilogy, Charley surprised fans with another album titled Clovis. Charley recently wiped his Instagram clean, which has become a pretty universal sign in the music industry that new music is coming, but not even a month after your last album? Not as common. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was some kind of mistake or fraudulent leak (it’s not an Apple Music yet), but then to accompany the surprise release, Charley dropped a video on Instagram where he simply says:  “You can drop a f-***** record whenever the f*** you want. And what’s more important to me is dropping all this really good art right now.” View this post on Instagram Fair enough. Shortly after the release of Age Of The Ram, Charley confirmed that he and Shooter had already finished his next project, saying: “In a country music scene full of frauds they been dying to get me hung. Ain’t never been more proud of a record than ‘Age Of The Ram.’ 3 albums in 12 months. Me and Shooter Jennings sure figured out how to tie one on. Guess I might as well tell y’all, the next one’s already done. I know cowboys who pay to stay off the bull I’m riding. To the folks who get what I’m putting down, thanks for listening. I can’t do it without you.” And then recently in a sit-down with PBS, he confirmed that he and Shooter were recording at the iconic Norman Petty Studios, which Charley said he had been trying to get into for years: “This is my first time playing like outside Amphitheater there, and then after the show, the bus is riding up to Clovis, New Mexico, and there’s this old studio there that I’d been trying to get into for years, it’s been closed down where they only do… It’s kind of like a tourism museum. And it was the first place that Waylon Jennings ever recorded, and it was where the early Buddy Holly recordings came from with a Recording Engineer/Producer named Norman Petty. And I’m doing those recordings with my friend, Shooter, Waylon Jennings’ son. The 14-track album features a number of originals co-written by Charley and Shooter, as well as a Johnny Cash cover, “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town,” and a handful of other co-writers. Clovis was released via Charley’s own (presumably) $10 Cowboy label, a departure from Island Records (UMG), where the albums of the Sagebrush Trilogy were released. It would appear that Charley is going full indie, which means we might see even more music from him this year without a label holding him back. Clovis Tracklist: 1. The Hallelujah Trail 2. Down by Law 3. One Eyed Jack 4. Image of a Woman 5. Eagle and the Crow 6. Top Hand 7. Country Music 8. Last Night at the Alamo 9. Clovis 10. Don’t Take Your Guns to Town 11. Albuquerque Lights 12. I Ain’t Riding Anymore 13. Honky Tonk Philosophy 14. Waylon Rides AgainThe post Charley Crockett Drops Surprise Album, ‘Clovis’ first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

I already know this is going to be my favorite. Kacey Musgraves’ sixth studio album Middle of Nowhere, will feature the highly anticipated duet with Miranda Lambert called “Horses and Divorces,” and it marks not only a huge moment in the country genre from a purely musical standpoint, but a turn around in their personal relationship, too. The two had a years-long feud that stemmed from Miranda’s song “Mama’s Broken Heart,” which was released as the fourth single from Lambert’s 2011 Four the Record album in 2013, and was written by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and of course, Kacey Musgraves. The song peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart and has since been certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved over 1,960,000 units. The story goes that Miranda really wanted the song, and Kacey was reluctant to give it up, clearly knowing that it was a hit, and it was apparently pitched to Miranda without Kacey’s knowledge. She ended up giving it to her (though she does sing background vocals on it), mostly for the sake of her co-writers because Miranda was the much bigger artist at the time, but it created some resentment, understandably, that lasted for years. Their beef also led to an iconic internet moment, which resulted from Miranda’s 2013 speech at the CMA Awards, when she won Female Vocalist of the Year, a category Kacey was also nominated in. That same year, Kacey won the CMA Awards for New Artist of the Year, and they were both also nominated for Single of the Year and Song of the Year with the aforementioned “Mama’s Broken Heart.” During the speech accepting her trophy for Female Vocalist of the Year, Miranda congratulated Kacey on her New Artist win, and it the camera panned to a young Kacey looking very much less than thrilled by that comment: “Kacey, congratulations on New Artist, that was awesome.” You’ll still see this meme online from time to time, and if you scroll to the second slide, you can see Kacey’s very funny reaction to that which I’m sure was because she was not happy with whatever had transpired that led up to this moment with Miranda and her song: View this post on Instagram After years of keeping their distance, Kacey decided it was time to bury the hatchet, so to speak, and in speaking with NPR Music’s Jewly Hight, Kacey explained what went down back then and how the two of them ended up working together for this album. Ultimately, Kacey said it all worked out because she went with “Merry Go Round” as her debut single, and in my humble opinion it’s one of the greatest country songs of all time, but still, there were hard feelings considering how everything went down: “Yeah. It was two singers from two nearby, small Texas towns. There’s a lot that comes with that. Then we each take our own different paths, both leading us to Nashville at different times. There was all this excitement behind ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ for me and it was gonna be my first single and I loved the song so much. I had been a staff writer for years at that point writing for other people and had finally felt like I was collecting songs that felt like me that I didn’t wanna pitch to anyone else. Then, the song gets pitched to her without my consent or knowledge. It was a tricky situation. She ended up loving the song and she really wanted it. And I had other co-writers to consider. I knew I would have to go back to the drawing board. And ultimately, I’m really glad that I did, because it forced me to write ‘Merry Go Round,’ which ended up making way more sense for me anyways, aesthetically and lyrically, to kick my whole thing off, versus ‘Mama’s Broken Heart.’ And that ended up going number one for her. So in the end, everyone won because I was able to let go of something.” They lost touch at that point and definitely “wouldn’t consider each other friends,” but when Kacey saw a photo of Miranda riding one of her horses on Instagram one day, it sparked an idea… because they have two things in common: “horses and divorces,” and a song was born. Kacey says she randomly reached out and asked Miranda if she wanted to write it with herself and Shane McAnally, and Miranda was eager to do it. She said it was a “very full circle” moment, adding that they aired out any past laundry, had some laughs, and wrote the song in a matter of hours. And in speaking with Texas Monthly recently, Kacey explained that she and Miranda have known each other since 2000, and she once again confirmed that “Mama’s Broken Heart” was the start of the feud, because it was supposed to be the lead single of her debut album, which is a huge moment for any young artists. As is often the case with hindsight, Kacey realizes now that they “both won” because of that: “There were some bumps along the way… that ended up making way more sense for me aesthetically than ‘Mama’s Broken Heart,’ so we both won in the end.” And Kacey was also asked about that meme, saying simply that she “can’t hide” her facial expressions and she was clearly not happy with the whole Miranda situation in that moment: “I can’t hide my expressions when I feel like something’s fake or it rubs me the wrong way.” But thankfully, it’s all water under the bridge now, so to speak, and Kacey says her idea to write a song with Miranda was sparked after seeing a photo of Miranda riding her horse: “Flash forward to last fall, I’m in Australia, and I saw a video of her riding one of her horses or something, and I thought, ‘Well, at least we have two things in common: horses and divorces.'” Kacey said that there was real tension there for years, and this is not some contrived duet they’ve come up with to get media attention… it’s a simple as the fact that they’ve both just gotten older, and decided to “bury the hatchet” by talking it out and writing what I have no doubt will be a bad*** country song: “We wrote it in one afternoon. At one point there really was tension there, so it’s not a contrived duet. It’s real. We’re older now and don’t have the energy for dumb  s***  like that. But it was nice that we got to talk about it and kind of therapeutically bury the hatchet. We talked about it all, even my face at the CMAs.” It’s an example for us all, really, and what both of them did for country music can’t be understated… they were bold when it wasn’t cool, said what they wanted when it wasn’t popular in the least bit, and kept authentic, honest country alive in an era that was mostly filled with guys, many of whom were much less talented than them in my humble opinion, singing about trucks, girls and beer. I just can’t hardly wait to hear what they’ve come up with, and it means everything to me that “Horses and Divorces” actually exists. I’m counting down the hours… usually, a duet like this that’s so hyped up like this one can tend to disappoint, but there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening with this song. “Mama’s Broken Heart”: Middle Of Nowhere is due out this Friday, May 1st. Middle of Nowhere Tracklist: 1.Middle of Nowhere 2.Dry Spell 3.Back on the Wagon 4.I Believe in Ghosts 5.Abilene 6.Coyote feat. Gregory Alan Isakov 7.Loneliest Girl 8.Everybody Wants To Be a Cowboy feat. Billy Strings 9.Horses and Divorces feat. Miranda Lambert 10.Uncertain, Texas feat. Willie Nelson 11.Rhinestoned 12.Mexico Honey 13.Hell on MeThe post “It’s Not A Contrived Duet… It’s Real” — Kacey Musgraves Says There Was Actual Tension With Miranda Lambert For Years & “Horses And Divorces” Buried The Hatchet first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

This one’s quite a doozy. This morning, New York Times dropped their “30 Greatest Living American Songwriters” list. As the outlet describes in the sub-headline, the list was compiled by more than 250 music insiders and six NYT critics. Despite the fact that there are supposedly an large number of highly reputable albeit unnamed insiders and critics aiding in the list, there are some INCREDIBLY questionable names throughout. Starting out with the positives, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson come in representing country music, as did Josh Osborne, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally… who were for some reason named as a trio. Those were named as the three representatives of country music of the thirty songwriters. You could argue that Lucinda Williams falls, at least in part, under the greater country music umbrella as well. Personally, I think this list would have been even more laughable without the inclusion of Parton and Nelson. I don’t think I really need to tell you how much of an impact the two have made on country music over the course of the last seven decades. With Nelson, he’s obviously wrote country standards such as Patsy Clines’ “Crazy,” “On The Road Again,” “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” “Funny How Time Slips Away” and countless of more classics throughout his career. Like Willie, Dolly has a songwriting career few can match. In addition to writing arguably the most iconic ballad in all of American music, “I Will Always Love You,” she’s obviously penned standards in the genre such as “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” and more. The Osborne, Clark and McAnally pick is undoubtedly confusing one (but not close to the worst pick on the list). Beyond the fact that they are the entry on the list to be named as a group and not predominantly writing as a unit, personally, I don’t think their work truly holds a candle critically compared to many writers on this list. Of course, you cannot ignore the sheer commercial success the trio has had over their years in Music Row. Combining their writing credits into one, the trifecta has written the following smash hits: Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Backroad” (McAnally, Osborne & others), Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” (McAnally & Clark), “Drinkin’ Problem” (Osborne, McAnally & others), Kenny Chesney’s “Come Over” (McAnally, Osborne & Hunt), Morgan Wallen’s “Sand In My Boots (Osborne, Ashley Gorely & HARDY) and Morgan Wallen’s “7 Summers” (McAnally, Osborne & Wallen). Regardless, it feels like they weren’t well-known enough to the average NYT reader to stand on their own and got lumped in together into a trio. Which would sorta preclude them from making the list, right? Some of the obvious, respectable picks on the non-country side of things include the likes of the legendary Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen (regardless of your political leanings, you cannot deny his songwriting prowess), Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Outkast. In the “understandable given their popularity” category (in my opinion), include Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie. For Swift, you cannot really understate her popularity and influence she’s had on the current generation of women in songwriting. Is she quite the writer many dedicated Swifties think she is? Definitely not. With that being said, however, she’s proven throughout her career that she can weave together incredibly solid, interconnected stories within a record (see 2020’s folklore for example). Del Ray, in a similar fashion, is a solid songwriter and, in many ways, more consistent from album-to-album than Swift. With that being said, is she really a Top 30 living American songwriter? As much as I love a majority of her work, I can’t say she is. Now it’s time for the downright baffling picks. Starting us off incredibly strong is Young Thug. Yes, that wasn’t a typo. While he’s certainly maintained his status as being one of the better mainstream rappers of the last two decades, it feels a bit egregious to have him here. The same can be said about Jay Z as well. It feels a bit egregious to have these two on the list while ignoring the work of Kanye West. While there’s no defending his actions (and obvious mental illness) over the past few years, you can’t tell me an artist such as Kanye, who has proven to be one of the best lyricists in his genre (and even won a gospel Grammy), is missing on this list for anything other than biased reasons. Arguably the two most egregious picks on this list is none other than the most recent Super Bowl halftime performer, Bad Bunny, and Fiona Apple. You can feel any type of way about the pair, but to me, the fact that they have a limited collection of songs should have opened up more artists to be featured. For Apple, she’s only released 56 songs in 30 years. Bad Bunny, on the other hand, has more songs but has only been around for eight years. Give me a break… Of course, this list is clearly biased, especially considering the fact that Kanye was left off this list in favor of the likes of Young Thug and Jay Z. When you truly take a look at some of the songwriters left off, you really begin to scratch your head. Immediately, I said to myself, “Where the hell is Jason Isbell?” Like Springsteen, you can vehemently disagree with his politics, but there is simply no argument that can be made against him being one of the most prolific and influential songwriters in the Americana scene with classics such as “Cover Me Up,” “If We Were Vampires,” “24 Frames” and many, many more underrated gems. Keeping with that theme, why isn’t Tyler Childers, Kacey Musgraves, Turnpike Troubadours’ Evan Felker on this list potentially? Again, I can admit my country bias is showing here, but I simply don’t see a reality where the likes of Young Thug, Apple and Bad Bunny can hold a candle to either men’s songwriting prowess. Hell, if we’re looking at this from a commercial success lens, you might as well throw in Ed Sheeran too over some of these aforementioned names given his undeniable proficiency. Maybe John Mayer as well? Seems like the entire rock world was largely ignored. I could keep listing names, but I think you get the point I’m trying to make here. While it’s great to see Willie and Dolly on here — though I think this list would have been even more of a joke if they were somehow left off — it’s an incredibly flawed, slightly bias showing from NYT. You can take a look at all thirty songwriters below. New York Times’ 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters (Unranked) Nile Rodgers Lucinda Williams Stevie Wonder Jay-Z Paul Simon Taylor Swift Brian & Eddie Holland Missy Elliott Lionel Richie Dolly Parton Young Thug Diane Warren Josh Osborne, Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally Fiona Apple Babyface Stephen Merritt Romeo Santos Carole King Outkast Mariah Carey Willie Nelson Kendrick Lamar Valerie Simpson Bob Dylan Lana Del Ray The-Dream Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Bad Bunny Bruce Springsteen Smokey Robinson The post Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton Highlight The New York Times’ Ridiculous ’30 Greatest Living American Songwriters’ List first appeared on Whiskey Riff.