Little Big Town Breaks a Record; Luke Bryan Apologizes to Jessi Colter; Rest in Peace, Tom Skinner

Video of young actress Alyvia Lind receiving the news that she got the part of young Dolly Parton in a made-for-TV movie… via a surprise visit from Parton herself.
Via Gretchen Peters: “Culture Isn’t Free: Expecting artists to work for free hands the reins of cultural production to ruling elites” by Miranda Campbell (Jacobin magazine)
Via Carolyn Dixon: “Is it even still possible to ‘sell out’?” by Chris Richards (Washington Post)
If you’ve been dying to see Scotty McCreery sing “The Grand Tour,” you are in luck.
That Nashville Sound has details on Jewel’s upcoming album on Sugar Hill Records.
According to his Facebook page, Billy Joe Shaver has been forced to cancel all appearances through July and August to undergo an emergency hip replacement surgery.
Tom Skinner, a founding father of the Red Dirt movement, passed away at 61.
Farce the Music ran a guest-written review of Jason Isbell’s Something More Than Free.
The Country Universe gang outdid themselves again, counting down the 20 best albums of 1993 in two parts. Female artists are well-represented.
Pitchfork’s David Sackllah on the gentrification crisis in Austin.
Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for an eleventh week, besting a record for longest run at the top by a group that had been held by The Browns’ “The Three Bells” since 1959. “Girl Crush” is also the most-downloaded country song of 2015 so far, with sales approaching 1.4 million.
Radio.com interview with Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris, including quick Emmylou shout-outs to Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, and Ashley Monroe.
Shooter Jennings tells the Los Angeles Times that Luke Bryan phoned the Jennings family, including Jessi Colter, to apologize for his widely-reported comments about outlaw country: “He said some [stuff] and because of the Internet it came back on him. But he went above and beyond and manned up and apologized. In the long run I believe his image has improved.”
Country Perspective’s Josh Schott grades Canaan Smith’s Bronco 1 out of 10, calling it “spectacularly bad.”

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