Music. According to Kim.

You can find Part 1 directly under this post or right  here  if you're feeling lazy. No judgement here. I'm going to keep up the pattern I started in part 1 meaning that we're kicking things off with...

Merry Christmas everyone! Last Christmas, I  wrote about my favorite versions of Christmas  carols ,  standards  and  lesser known originals . This year, I knew I wanted to do some kind of Christmas post, but couldn't pinpoint exactly what that would be. Then it hit me: this would be a good opportunity to promote the artists that I support on Patreon. I've written a fair amount about a couple of them, but not all. That's about to change. I know some of you are familiar with Patreon, but others of you aren't. So first things first: Patreon is a crowdfunding platform that helps content creators create content on a regular basis. It's not about funding one big project; it's about helping them make multiple projects over time. This is done through the use of subscriptions. You choose your level of support and each level comes with its own perk. You also have the option of not receiving any perks, if that is your preference. Worth nothing that you can change your l...

Yes, it's another post about Home Free. What can I say other than my name is Kim and I am a Home Freeaholic. Not only can I admit that, I do so with pride. Good thing too since I'm pretty positive that there is no cure for this. Now, I first wrote about these guys back in March. You can read that post in its entirety here if you wish, but here's a rather pertinent excerpt: " Home Free is also like Little Big Town in that they favor more intricate harmonies over basic ones and said harmonies are rock solid. Neither of these groups would work anywhere near as well if anyone was missing. Each person is great on their own, but their true strength lies in the combined sum of their parts. I truly believe that if you like one of these groups, you'd probably like the other as well. Especially if you enjoy any of the LBT albums that Wayne Kirkpatrick produced. Just because Home Free sounds closer to how LBT did then. I also believe that Home Free needs to cover at least...

September 17th, 2014. Unbeknownst to me, a group that I had never heard of uploaded a video that I wouldn't come across until sometime in January of this year. The group? VoicePlay. The video? Their ACA Top 10 Broadway countdown. Confession: I originally started this about a month or so ago and was going to use it as a way to explain my love of musicals. Upon realizing that the one year anniversary of its release was approaching, I determined that this would become more of a tribute. One in which I'm going to dissect a bit in an effort to explain why I like it so much. Now this countdown was not my introduction to VoicePlay; that was "Survivor", their collaboration with Home Free. That video made me like VoicePlay enough to watch their other videos. Starting with this one. The one that made me love them. It remains my favorite of all their videos, which is saying something since I like all of them. Seeing it performed live was worth the price of the tickets to the Sin...

A few months ago I thought the Home Free fan universe might explode when Home Free and the Oak Ridge Boys started teasing about a possible collaboration. Now understanding that these things don't always come to fruition, it was even more exciting when we found out this one actually would. Both groups very graciously kept the fans up to speed on all developments. We knew when they were going to record. We knew when they were going to shoot the video. And then we had to wait for what felt like forever. Well.  Guys. Girls. Men and woman of all ages.  The wait is over. The video is here. It is here and it is glorious. The stars aligned and brought us a collaboration that country music didn't know it desperately needed. Country music royalty joining forces with country music's first a cappella band to bring us "Elvira". How could it not have been "Elvira"? One of country music's most iconic songs, of course  it was going to be "Elvira...

Here we are in the middle of August. It's been crazy hot in some places and there's been days where the humidity has been practically suffocating. There's people longing for fall to arrive and I'm one of them. Bring on the cooler temperatures and beautiful foliage. You know what else happens in the fall? The return of hockey. Yep, I recognize that people are generally a lot more excited about football, but I'm much more of a hockey girl. In any event, summer isn't going anywhere just yet. So with that in mind, I'd like to tell y'all which songs I'm currently loving. Songs that were made for these summer months. You know the kind I mean. Songs that make you want to crank the volume up and roll the windows down. The songs that make you want to dance, possibly like an idiot. Maybe especially like an idiot. It's okay. You do you. No judgment here. These songs are more about fun than anything else. Most of them are country; a few are not. Some are c...

It makes me chuckle when people talk as if there aren't that many women in country music. It's amusing because that's so far from the truth. There are so many up and coming female artists out right now. Not even getting into women who have been in the public eye for years and are still putting out great music. We'll talk about some of them later on. Today it's all about an up-and-comer. Namely...

Full disclosure: a while back I decided that I was going to stop doing album reviews. Out of everything I write, album reviews take me the longest to complete. Plus there's been some debate about whether album reviews are still relevant or not that factored into this decision. I've clearly changed my mind on this issue. This album being one of the reasons why - this is honestly one of the best albums I've heard in a while. I knew I had to write about it. Even more so in reading all of the responses to what is now being referred to as SaladGate. I'm not going to waste time getting into all of that right now, except to say that I feel like Keith Hill's comments were blown out of proportion and that most people completely missed the valid point he was making. We need to do a better job of supporting female artists. Period. If you ask me, there are three key ways to do that. Buy their music. Go to their shows. Talk about them. So with those things in mind, I'm g...

The summer of 2005. The first time I ever heard Little Big Town. It was during CMA Fest or whatever it was called then and we were sitting pretty far from the stage and off to the stage so we really couldn't see them all that well. It was a few months before they would release The Road to Here . Little did I know that this group was going to end up making a huge impact on me. I had no idea how many roads I would drive on, how many Little Big Town miles I would tack onto my car over the next few years. Thousands. It has to be in the thousands. I've seen many acts more than once, but none anywhere near as much as I've seen them. I didn't know back then that I would end up meeting them time and time again and how much those meetings would mean to me. How much these four people would mean to me. Little did I know how frustrated I'd end up getting, wondering why they weren't more popular than they were then. Things have changed a bit. I've watched these ...

One of the biggest mistakes we can make as fans is assuming that the songs that get released to radio are the best songs that an artist has to offer. Now don't get me wrong. There are plenty of instances where the best songs on an album become singles. It does happen, just not all the time and not often enough. What people need to keep in mind is that most of the songs that get released as singles are ones that the record label believe will do well on radio. Now there are times where an artist will feel strongly enough about a song to fight for it to get released even if it's not the kind of song that normally gets played. But the truth of the matter is that some of the best songs never make it to radio. Speaking for myself, many of my favorite songs are album cuts. This leads me to yet another of my musical pet peeves which is when people think that they can properly determine who an artist is strictly by the songs of theirs that go to radio. Now I understand that if you don...

Quick heads up: this post will be fairly media heavy. There's some of my pictures from the show and there will be some of their videos included for your viewing pleasure. Please be advised that one or more of these songs might end up stuck in your head and could stay there for quite a while. Infectious music is infectious. If you missed part 1, it's just some thoughts I have about a cappella music in general. You do not need to read that in order to read this, but if you want to check it out you can find it here . Now.  The Exchange. VoicePlay. Street Corner Symphony. They are what this post is about, but before we get to that I'm afraid that I have a serious confession to make. My name is Kim and I am an a cappellaholic. Yes, I have what you might call an aca-addiction. I'd say I suffer from it, but that would be a lie. The truth is that I enjoy it. Which is good since I'm pretty sure I'm beyond help by now. If I've learned one thing lately it'...

Sometimes you think you know what you're going to write about and other times you end up going in a different direction that planned. That's what happened with this post. It was originally going to be me talking about what I thought of this tour and then it kind of snowballed into something else. I've long since learned that it's better to just go with it when it happens since it doesn't happen a lot. See, seeing this show made me realize a few things about a cappella music and I started off intending to just list a couple of those things. And ended up with practically a full post just talking about those things. So I decided it'd be best to split it up. This part being more about a cappella music in general and the second being about the three main groups on the tour. We had a couple of groups open the show here in Nashville and my thoughts about them will be included in this one, Now. I was lucky to grow up with parents who were both able and willing to ta...

Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to do something different. See, as much as I love me some country music, I listen to and enjoy all kinds of music. I've always had a hard time understanding people who really only listen to one style and one style only, whether that be country or something else. Why would you ever want to limit yourself like that when there's so much great music out there to discover? I truly believe that every genre has something worthwhile to offer. You can have your favorites. In fact, you will have favorites. Nothing wrong with that. But it's good to branch out every now and then. It's good to keep an open mind. So in saying that, I'd like to introduce you to what will be an ongoing thing around here. This is, and will remain, primarily a country music blog. It's just that every now and then I'm going to pick an artist from another genre to focus on. This was something I wanted to do back when I started this bl...

Earlier this year we lost one of country music most beloved artists. Little Jimmy Dickens was truly one of a kind. A great artist, he had a special talent for delivering both a lyric and a story. He was so funny that you could hear him say the same joke more than once and it would be just as funny as the first time. Even when you knew what was coming, he would still make you laugh. Every single time. What made Little Jimmy so special, however, was not his musicality or his sense of humor. What made him special was the way he cared about and loved other people. People don't say nice things about Little Jimmy Dickens; they say wonderful and beautiful things about him. People light up when they talk about him. You didn't simply like Little Jimmy Dickens, you adored him. I never had the privilege of meeting him in person, but I was fortunate enough to see him perform on the Grand Ole Opry several times. It didn't matter who else was on the line up. Little Jimmy Dickens was al...

The musical thunderbolt. Partly inspired by an episode of The Golden Girls , this is what I've taken to calling those times when you basically love a singer or band from the very first time you hear them. I don't know about the rest of you, but it generally takes me a while to love an artist. Even if I like them from the beginning. The love usually comes in later. Usually. My assumption is that it's like this for most people most of the time. Which makes getting hit by the musical thunderbolt so powerful. It's like the stars have perfectly aligned themselves to bring you the perfect act at the perfect time. To date I have had this happen six times. Rascal Flatts was the first. Little Big Town, Eric Church and Chris Young were the next three. Then there was Parmalee and now? Now there's Home Free. I've always said I was a sucker for harmony and I think this kind of proves it. It's been about a month since I first found out about Home Free, but they've a...