charts

Texas Music From Oklahoma: A Look at the Texas Music Chart (September 7th)

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After taking a week off to move offices, the Texas Music Chart has returned…and Wade Bowen has finally been defeated.

Texas Music Chart

1. Pat Green–“While I Was Away” (up 1)
2. Cody Canada and the Departed–“Easy” (up 2)
3. Matt Kimbrow–“Livin’ the Good Life” (up 3)
4. Cory Morrow–“Old With You” (up 3)
5. Turnpike Troubadours–“Down Here” (up 4)
6. Reckless Kelly–“Real Cool Hand” (up 6)
7. Granger Smith–“Back Road Song” (down 2)
8. Wade Bowen–“Sun Shines on a Dreamer” (down 7)
9. Whiskey Myers–“Shelter From the Rain” (up 1)
10. Curtis Grimes–“Smile That Smile” (up 5)
11. Kyle Park–“What Goes Around Comes Around”
12. Bart Crow–“Life Comes at You Fast” (up 1)
13. Kevin Fowler & Deryl Dodd–“Damn This Ol’ Honky Tonk Dream” (up 3)
14. Prophets and Outlaws–“Texas Home”
15. Rich O’Toole–“Talk About the Weather” (down 7)
16. Miles Williams–“Teasin’ Me” (up 8)
17. JB and the Moonshine Band–“Shotgun, Rifle, and a .45” (up 1)
18. The Statesboro Revue–“Undone” (up 3)
19. Mike Ryan–“Girls I Date” (up 6)
20. Josh Grider–“You Dream I’ll Drive” (up 9)
21. Stoney LaRue–“Easy She Comes” (down 1)
22. Uncle Lucius–“Don’t Own the Right”
23. Casey Donahew Band–“Loser” (up 15) [biggest gainer]
24. Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen–“Lady Bug” (up 9)
25. Josh Ward–“Highway” (down 22) [biggest loser]
26. TJ Broscof–“Phone Calls” (up 5)
27. Aaron Einhouse–“I Could Fall” (down 1)
28. Callahan Divide–“Happy” (up 9)
29. Saints Eleven–“I Don’t” (up 6)
30. Tori Martin–“Woman Up”
31. Mario Flores–“Beer Time” (up 10)
32. Jason James–“I’ve Been Drinkin’ More” (up 11)
33. William Clark Green–“Sticks and Stones” (down 10)
34. Caleb McIntire–“Ozark Mountain Stomp” (up 2)
35. Chance Anderson Band–“245 Miles” (down 1)
36. Zane Williams–“She Is” (up 11)
37. Dalton Domino–“Jesus & Handbags” (up 5)
38. Jon Wolfe–“Don’t it Feel Good” (entering top 50)
39. Luke Robinson–“Roses on the Radio” (up 6)
40. Judson Cole Band–“Time to Run”
41. Scott Taylor Band–“By Now” (down 13)
42. American Aquarium–“Losing Side of Twenty-Five” (up 8)
43. Bri Bagwell–“My Boots” (entering top 50)
44. Casey Berry–“Blood of the Lamb” (entering top 50)
45. Thom Shepherd–“Little Miss Everything” (down 1)
46. Cody Jinks–“Loud and Heavy” (up 3)
47. Cody Joe Hodges–“One More Drink” (re-entering top 50)
48. Ray Johnston Band–“Small Town Square” (entering top 50)
49. Breelan Angel–“She Made Your Bed” (entering top 50)
50. Cody Johnson–“Proud” (entering top 50)

  • new #1: “While I Was Away”
  • next week’s #1 prediction: “While I Was Away”
  • seven new songs enter the chart this week

Source: Texas Music Chart

Reviews

Single Review: Dierks Bentley’s “Riser”

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Rating: 10/10

As a fan, Dierks Bentley has always been one of my favorites. He seems to really care about his fans and the quality of music he releases. This is why “Drunk on a Plane,” a “radio-ready” novelty song, was still miles better than much of what you will find on mainstream radio. Dierks is somewhat underrated in my opinion, but that doesn’t seem to bother him, and he still continues to release great music. His latest single, the title track from his album Riser, only reinforces this; he has chosen quality over airplay once again.

“Riser” is about a man who is strong enough to protect and provide for his woman. He says, “If we ain’t got no money, I can make it,” “I’ll pray until Jesus rolls away the stone,” etc. In short, this is the kind of narrator I can connect with in a song. This is a real person speaking of real love, not some guy trying to get a girl to hook up with him on a tailgate. “An army couldn’t keep down my desire”–that is a classy line, and I don’t hear anything about sugar shakers. It also paints life as it really is–“The hard times put the shine into the diamond, I won’t let that keep us in the ground.” From listening to country radio these days, I would think life didn’t have hard times at all. It sounds like one cornfield party after another, with a “house party” every now and then to mix it up.

As far as instrumentation, it’s a good balance between being radio-friendly and being traditional. I hear beats and steel guitars–who knew you could have balance in this world? Mainstream country artists, take note: this does not sound like Hank Williams, and it is getting a ten from me. Dierks Bentley seems to have figured out how to connect with both sides. This is what happens when you care about your fan base and the quality of your music. “Riser” is the best song on country radio right now; let’s all hope it has a nice long chart run and gives Dierks Bentley another #1 hit.

Female Fridays

Female Fridays: Featuring Brandy Clark

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Brandy Clark is known more for her songwriting, but she is also a talented singer who has received much critical acclaim. I am excited to feature her on this Female Friday.

How You Might Know Brandy

She’s known for her songwriting, often in connection with Kacey Musgraves and Shane McAnally. These three have co-written many of Kacey’s songs, but perhaps their most notable success is the Miranda Lambert hit “Mama’s Broken Heart.”

Bio

From Brandy Clark’s Web site:

“I get my inspiration from real people who are just surviving their life and getting through their day. That’s who I write songs for,” Clark explains. “I want to write songs for somebody who is working at a bank — if that person could write a song, what they would write. That’s my goal.”

Brandy Clark (born October 9, 1977, from Morton, Washington), was interested in music at an early age. She grew up with and was influenced by the music of Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, and Merle Haggard. After college, she began taking her music career more seriously. She enrolled at Belmont University in 1998 and studied commercial music. After graduation from Belmont, Brandy got a job with Leadership Music and eventually received a publishing deal.

Brandy has written many notable songs over the years. I already mentioned “Mama’s Broken Heart,” but she also co-wrote The Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two,” and Kacey Musgraves’s “Follow Your Arrow.” Brandy is cited on songs by Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Wade Bowen, and Sunny Sweeney, just to name a few. In fact, it is worth noting that Brandy was a co-writer of Sunny Sweeney’s “Bad Girl Phase,” which I mentioned in Sunny’s
Female Friday as being the first #1 single by a female artist on the Texas Music Chart. Since this column is about promoting females, it is also worth mentioning that Brandy Clark and Kacey Musgraves became two of only fourteen women to win a CMA for Song of the Year when “Follow Your Arrow” received this distinction in 2014. in Between all the writing for others, Brandy wrote several songs that eventually turned into an EP in 2012 and later into her debut album, 12 Stories, in 2013.

“I was just writing songs. But with titles like ‘Take a Little Pill’ and ‘Day She Got Divorced,’ artists wouldn’t cut those songs. However, they are some of my favorites and, artistically, I fit them,” says Clark , who decided to record her own album after playing “Get High” for her songwriting partner Shane McAnally. “Shane said that I could write a whole record of songs from that woman’s perspective and make an album that no one has ever made. That’s kind of what we did.”

And that’s what her debut album is–an album no one else would make, full of real “stories” of real people. 12 Stories was named by many critics as 2013’s best album–in fact, there are many who would argue that Brandy Clark deserves more recognition than her friend Kacey Musgraves (I am not touching that debate.) Brandy Clark is currently working on her second album; it is due out in 2016.

Why Brandy Belongs on Country Radio

She belongs there for the same reason that Kacey Musgraves does–she’s singing and writing real, relatable songs, and she’s not afraid of the truth. Radio won’t play Kacey for all of these reasons, and also she is too “country.” Brandy is too “country” for country radio too, and the fact that I have to even write this sentence is ridiculous. Brandy Clark was partly responsible for “Mama’s Broken Heart,” “Better Dig Two,” and “Follow Your Arrow,” but country radio can’t give her own music a fair chance? I don’t even know how to explain why she belongs on country radio–because in a world where country radio played country songs, Brandy Clark would be on the radio and making #1 hits.

Tracks I Recommend

I hesitate to pick apart what many consider to be the best album of 2013, but these are my personal favorites.

1. What’ll Keep Me Out of Heaven–12 Stories
2. Hold my Hand–12 Stories
3. Pray to Jesus–12 Stories
4. Stripes–12 Stories
5. Hungover–12 Stories

Listen to 12 Stories

The song that made me a fan of Brandy Clark.

charts

Billboard Country Airplay and Country Albums Chart (September 12th)

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Billboard Country Airplay

1. Sam Hunt–“House Party” (up 1)
2. Dustin Lynch–“Hell of a Night” (up 1)
3. Thomas Rhett–“Crash and Burn” (up 1)
4. Chris Janson–“Buy Me a Boat” (up 1)
5. Keith Urban–“John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” (up 1)
6. Frankie Ballard–“Young and Crazy” (down 5)
7. Brett Eldredge–“Lose My Mind” (up 1)
8. Kenny Chesney–“Save It for a Rainy Day” (up 1)
9. Maddie & Tae–“Fly” (up 3)
10. Florida Georgia Line–“Anything Goes” (up 1)
11. Eric Church–“Like a Wrecking Ball”
12. Chase Rice–“Gonna Wanna Tonight” (up 1)
13. Luke Bryan–“Strip It Down” (up 3)
14. Cole Swindell–“Let Me See Ya Girl” (up 1)
15. Zac Brown Band–“Loving You Easy” (down 8)
16. Old Dominion–“Break Up With Him” (up 1)
17. Dan + Shay–“Nothin’ Like You” (up 1)
18. Blake Shelton–“Gonna” (up 4) [biggest gainer]
19. Jake Owen–“Real Life”
20. Lady Antebellum–“Long Stretch of Love”
21. Kip Moore–“I’m To Blame”
22. Carrie Underwood–“Smoke Break” (up 2)
23. Cam–“Burning House”
24. Chris Young–“I’m Comin’ Over” (up 1)
25. Big & Rich–“Run Away With You” (up 1)
26. Brothers Osborne–“Stay a Little Longer” (up 1)
27. Tim McGraw–“Top of the World” (up 2)
28. Parmalee–“Already Callin’ You Mine”
29. Jason Aldean–“Gonna Know We Were Here” (up 1)
30. Kelsea Ballerini–“Dibs” (re-entering top 30)

  • new #1: “House Party”
  • next week’s #1 prediction: “Hell of a Night”
  • Michael Ray’s “Kiss You in the Morning” fell out of the top 30, only to be replaced by Kelsea Ballerini’s “Dibs”
  • hope for country music exists, as Maddie & Tae are inside the top ten with “Fly”

Billboard Top Country Albums

1. Luke Bryan–Kill the Lights [please, someone take this slot back from this horrendous album]
2. Kip Moore–Wild Ones [debut]
3. Elvis Presley–Elvis Presley Forever
4. Sam Hunt–Montevallo
5. Zac Brown Band–Jekyll + Hyde
6. Eric Church–The Outsiders
7. Florida Georgia Line–Anything Goes
8. Alan Jackson–Angels and Alcohol
9. Little Big Town–Painkiller
10. Brantley Gilbert–Just as I Am
11. Jason Isbell–Something More Than Free
12. Jason Aldean–Old Boots, New Dirt
13. Luke Bryan–Crash My Party
14. Kacey Musgraves–Pageant Material
15. Various Artists–Now That’s What I Call Country, Volume 8
16. Michael Ray–Michael Ray
17. Zac Brown Band–Greatest Hits So Far…
18. Kenny Chesney–The Big Revival
19. A Thousand Horses–Southernality
20. Chase Rice–Ignite the Night
21. Pat Green–Home
22. Kelsea Ballerini–The First Time
23. Cole Swindell–Cole Swindell
24. Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard–Django and Jimmie
25. Chris Stapleton–Traveler

  • Luke Bryan remains at #1…I don’t think I need to explain how thoroughly depressing this is
  • Kip Moore’s pretty good rock album Wild Ones debuts at #2
  • after a debut at #5, Pat Green’s Home falls all the way to #21
  • A Thousand Horses moved up from #29 to #19 with Southernality

Source: Billboard

news

Steven Tyler and Kelsea Ballerini To Reveal CMA Award Nominees

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I don’t know which of these names is more telling: Steven Tyler, the Aerosmith frontman who recently followed the trend of rockers “going country” with his single “Love is Your Name,” or Kelsea Ballerini, the label-made singer of straight pop “Love Me Like You Mean It” and female-bro-country single “Dibs.” Together, these two names perfectly sum up the current state of country music, and these two have been chosen by the Country Music Association to reveal the 2015 nominees for country music’s most prestigious honor. Tyler and Ballerini will announce the nominees in five categories live on Wednesday, September 9th, in New York City. The announcements will air on ABC’s Good Morning America, and Steven Tyler will perform the aforementioned “Love is Your Name.”

“When I was asked to announce the nominees for the ever-so-prestigious CMA Awards this year, I actually whispered, ‘They really want me?’ I’m just humbled by the open arms of the Country community and am honored to take part in this BIG moment,” said Tyler.

“I’ve grown up watching the CMA Awards and am such a fan of everything CMA does and represents,” said Ballerini. “To be able to announce the nominations for the Awards this year with THE Steven Tyler makes me beyond excited.”

First of all, Steven Tyler is right: it’s ever-so-prestigious, and having one country single should hardly qualify him for this. Secondly, I wonder if Kelsea Ballerini would be just as excited if she were to announce the nominees with THE George Strait…but I digress. The 49th annual CMA Awards will air live on ABC on Wednesday, November 4th.

The Most Destructive Criticism is Indifference