I thought these things went without saying, but some recent comments and happenings around the site make me think there could be value in spelling them out, so here goes: 1. Good people sometimes make bad music. I don't know any of the artists I write about personally, but I get the impression that I'd get along pretty well with the vast majority of them. I don't doubt that country music is home to some of the most genuine, levelheaded people in show business. But the fact that Carrie … [Read more...]

Country California is looking to add one or two contributors to its team. Typically, joining a music blog means writing reviews. If you want to write reviews, there's always stuff to review; I usually only get to a fraction of the material that comes in, so I won't turn up my nose at a little help in that department. But since reviewing isn't as much a focus here as it is on many other blogs, I'm just as interested in finding people with fresh new ideas and a willingness to collaborate on our … [Read more...]

Between the end of the month and the short holiday week, it's been pretty slow around here these last few days, but things will be picking back up again next week/month. Even without a whole lot of new content to speak of, traffic this week brought us to a milestone I've been eying for the past month or so: 100,000 hits. In terms of traffic, here's the breakdown of the site's growth: After one month: 1,000 hits After four months: 10,000 hits After eleven months: 100,000 hits I … [Read more...]

There aren't many people in my area reading this blog, but for those few who are: I've set up a Concert Calendar to help keep track of upcoming country shows in Northern California. Surprisingly, there are a lot of them, so it will be a good way for me to keep the dates straight even if nobody else cares. I've been getting a lot of search engine referrals from people Googling "What country is California in?" For the past 150 years or so, the correct answer has been the United States. You are … [Read more...]

Just wanted to point out for those of you who might not have noticed that you can now connect with Country California on some of your favorite social networking sites: Myspace, Twitter, Last.fm, and Facebook (just added). Links are in the sidebar, so check 'em out and we can be friends. And not even the kind of friends that ask each other for loans to buy booze all the time. Real bonafide internet friends. Sounds fun, right? In other news, the Country Questionnaire will be back later this … [Read more...]

A design overhaul wasn't planned, but I sort of messed up the other one last night and took it as a sign that it was time to try something new (plus it would have taken more time to get the old one back than it took to set the new one up and it was the middle of the night, so I was tired). So, here we are. What do you think? It will take some getting used to, but there's more of the latest stuff on the front page and it's hopefully displayed in a manner that will allow you to find what you … [Read more...]