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Donna Beasley – Under the Rushes (Album Review + Giveaway)

July 15, 2010 by 9 Comments
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On the opening track of Under the Rushes, Donna Beasley characterizes herself as "a hillbilly singer in a town of pop stars," but the album that follows settles just as frequently, and just as effectively, into a sort of slinky Americana territory, country instrumentation mingling with an untwanged voice that could just as easily veer pop. As a songwriter, though, her sensibility is firmly country. On "Just What I'm Looking For," sung with Elizabeth Cook and Tim Carroll somewhere in the … [Read more...]

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Succinct Album Reviews: Trailer Choir, Tailgate

July 7, 2010 by 3 Comments
trailer choir

At long last, the full-length debut from Trailer Choir is available. Fake Jamey Johnson was first in line to buy it at the store, but he found it an exhausting listen for the mixed feelings it aroused in him. … [Read more...]

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The Country Throwdown Tour Concludes in Mountain View, CA (Photo Review)

June 22, 2010 by 11 Comments
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I spent Sunday at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA - where, as I discovered, you can't have both a cheeseburger and a bottle of water for $10 - for what happened to be the very last day of the first annual Country Throwdown Tour. Billed as the first traveling multi-stage country music festival, the tour is sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink and brought to you by Kevin Lyman, the same guy who does the Vans Warped Tour. The upside to the corporate tie-ins is that Lyman is able to bring … [Read more...]

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Succinct Album Reviews: Chris Young, Voices EP

May 27, 2010 by 1 Comment
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Fake Jamey Johnson weighs in on the new Chris Young EP at iTunes. … [Read more...]

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Highlights of Golf and Guitars 2010

May 20, 2010 by 2 Comments
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I spent Tuesday afternoon at the Golf & Guitars charity event at Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento. It was a generous lineup for the cost of a $25 ticket, with three or four acoustic songs apiece by Jack Ingram, Mark Wills, Chris Young, Josh Gracin, Justin Moore, Chuck Wicks, Chely Wright, Emily West, Radney Foster, BOMSHEL, Bryan White, One Flew South, John Berry, Love and Theft, The Band Perry, and Brian Sizensky. Here are some of the highlights from the cheap seats: My uncanny … [Read more...]

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Album Review: Hellbound Glory – Old Highs and New Lows

May 4, 2010 by 6 Comments
hellbound glory

What's the deal with the young guys sounding like old guys? And it's not just the voice. Sure, Hellbound Glory frontman Leroy Virgil sings like Ryan Bingham with a Hank Jr. fixation, but he also writes (11 of 12 tracks on this, the Reno band's sophomore outing) like a man who cut his teeth on the best of Johnny Paycheck and Waylon Jennings. Old Highs & New Lows, the follow-up to 2008's Scumbag Country, is a drug-addled party of a record that succeeds by marrying boozy roadhouse charm with an … [Read more...]

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Succinct Album Reviews: Lonestar, Party Heard Around the World

April 27, 2010 by 2 Comments
lonestar succinct

Upon hearing the new Lonestar album, Fake Jamey Johnson became inarticulate with anger. (I think he may still harbor some ill feelings about being passed up as Richie's replacement.) … [Read more...]

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