Sep 5, 2018
Sep 2, 2018
Sep 1, 2018
Aug 31, 2018
Confetti, Choreography, Coors: The New Chris Stapleton Concert Experience
Performing his second show in as many nights Saturday in Gilford, New Hampshire, beloved country superstar Chris Stapleton unveiled a completely different concert experience from the previous night. Responding to Twitter criticism that his shows aren't entertaining enough, Stapleton put on a wild and immersive event filled with hip-hop references, lasers, and screaming guitars.
At past shows, Stapleton simply walked out with his band to start the show, but tonight he exploded out of the stage with pyro and concussion bombs. "What up? Y'all ready to get this party started?!" hollered the bearded troubadour, and the crowd ate it up.
"Well, throw your hands in the air and let's do this damn thing!" he shouted, pacing the stage to the cadence of a piped-in trap beat. Explosions rocked the stage, and fire shot from the mouths of metal scarecrows at the sides. Chris then launched into Thomas Rhett's Stapleton-penned smash, "Crash and Burn."
While some in attendance seemed confused at the new Chris Stapleton, the rest of the crowd lost their minds. No longer standing behind a mic with guitar in hand, the singer danced and jaunted across the glittery stage, mimicking the steps Rhett performed in the song's video. He never missed a note as he whipped the fans into a frenzy.
Next, Stapleton's band started into the bouncy Rascal Flatts album cut "Vandalized," Chris saying "Y'all might not have heard this song but my homies Gary Levox and the crew killed it and I'm proud to do my own take of my song tonight!" The re-imagined version amped up the bass and Chris actually rapped most of the verses. It was shocking to hear the traditionalist favorite dropping bars, but he was surprisingly adept.
The bulk of the rest of the show was songs from Chris' three album releases, but many of them were rocked-up renditions with producer and guitarist Dave Cobb showing off his shredding chops. During a power ballad take on "Fire Away," the entire band stood side by side as a backing track played and did the old 80s hair metal synchronized head bang. Confetti cannons blasted the crowd as Stapleton hit the final chorus.
For the encore, Luke Bryan's hit "Drink a Beer" (also written by Stapleton), Chris asked a couple in the audience to throw him a couple of tall boys. They complied and he caught them both and smashed them above his head, pouring the Coors Light into his mouth like former WWE superstar, Stone Cold Steve Austin. The crowd popped huge. It was an exciting end to this impressive showcase of Stapleton's new direction.
When reached for comment after the show about the huge shift in vibe and persona, Stapleton told us "Cheryl in Topeka said on Twitter that I didn't deserve a nomination for Entertainer of the Year because I'm so boring. Well, that didn't sit well with me, so from now on we're taking it to the next level, keeping it lit, and burning the f**king house down every night."
Stapleton doesn't perform again until September 22, and it will be interesting to see how the Farm Aid crowd responds to his hip new high-octane show.
Aug 30, 2018
Viral Videos: Country Reaction Gifs
Can't complain about country radio if you don't listen to it
When a Kane Brown fan says they've been listening to country music for "4 Century's"
When you hear Walker Hayes' new song "90s Country" which is not country in any way
When you see somebody in line at Walmart with lube, cigarettes, baby food, and a FGL CD in their cart
When Trigger posts any article about a female singer, this is me on Twitter
One look at the country chart and I'm like
When somebody says Old Dominion is making country music great again
When mom only listen to SiriusXM The Highway in the car
If somebody talks shit about Waylon in my presence
Aug 29, 2018
Shooter Jennings is Back With His Best Record in Years
By Robert Dean
It takes a lot of time, patience, and mistakes to realize who you are as a man. From the way we get knocked down, to what we do next when the dust settles, all of those moments matter, they say something about us, what stock we’re built from.
Throughout Shooter Jennings career, he’s made it a point always to turn left when his peers go right, to duck and dodge, when everyone else is out there trying to sing a little ditty to sell a few Dodges. He’s a man you cannot put a label on, because the minute you try, he’ll outwit you and drop a surprise you never saw coming.
On his latest record, Shooter, Jennings has done it again. He’s made the album no one expected, except this time, some ghosts are lingering of a different variety. Shooter isn’t a record Jennings could have made when I first met him almost ten years ago, instead, that Shooter Jennings was channeling his inner Trent Reznor, he was finding new and beautiful ways to fuck with anyone who thought they knew him.
On Black Ribbons, Shooter Jennings wrote a concept record that has flashes of brilliance that hit harder today than we could have foreseen at the time. The fact that that album lies dormant in a lot of rock and roll minds is a crime, but hopefully, history will be on Jennings side, and he’ll get the credit he deserves.
Following that record, Jennings stayed close to country, writing records like Family Man or The Other Life, which are strong genre records, but they still had a flavor of angst, a shadowy, “can I crank up the gain a little here”, or “can I try this concept on them” there. Straight ahead country records, they were not. While solid, that era of Jennings career wasn’t his most pure; it was a time of growth and personal observation, which in the greater catalog, we can see the direct impact of.
On Shooter though, everything feels different. There’s no way, the guy who wrote Black Ribbons could have sat down and written “Born to Git Down” – Shooter is a portrait into a man who’s come to terms with his abilities, goals, and what he’s after. You can’t write a bunch of feel-good tunes that go hard with the beers, without a sense of purpose, and humility, otherwise, it comes off contrived and douchey, AKA most of the garbage pop country radio pedals.
Collectively, Shooter is Jennings best record. It’s fun, it’s loud, and it’s carefree. There’s elements of boogie-woogie, Motown, pure rock and roll, and a lot of heart. “Do You Love Texas” should be a new Lone Star anthem given it’s unabashed, bold, and in your face, which are all things Texans love. My new hobby is to pull the song up on a TouchTunes jukebox, and then watch people walk up to see the track, and immediately put it on their phones.
“Denim & Diamonds” calls back to Hank Jr’s “Outlaw Woman” a solid beer tune, good for the dark bar, and those drinks you have alone when the day’s been just a little too long for small talk.
I appreciate and applaud Shooter Jennings for reaching inside of himself and owning his legacy and his past. I hope the world around him, and the country radio program managers take a risk and add a few of the tunes off Shooter, if anything, as an effort to save their souls, because Shooter is fun, it’s reckless, and it’s pure country music that is without false pretense. If you can’t kick up your heels to “D.R.U.N.K,” you need to take those boots right off the dance floor, mate.
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Shooter is available everywhere you ingest fine music.
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