Music. According to Kim.

I've talked about how lucky I've been in that I've genuinely liked most of the things I've reviewed so far. That might be a little hard for some of you to believe - after all no one likes everything, right? But I don't know, there's been a lot of great music coming out lately. 2012 has been such a strong year for country music. So many artists are on the very top of their games, but even the ones who aren't are still putting out good music. Have I liked every single thing that's been released? No. But I have liked most everything I've written about. I've talked about Edens Edge before and if you saw those posts, you know I like them. So what about the album? Did I like it? No. I adore it. Seriously, I realize that that might be an odd word to pick and it's not one I use all that much. In fact it's one I really don't use at all. So when I say that I adore this album, that's saying something. That's truly the best word to sum ...

Steady. Consistent. Solid. Traditional. Class. These are just some of the words I would use to describe Alan Jackson and his music. He knows what his sound is and he knows what his fans expect of him and he delivers. Every single time. I've been reading a bunch of other reviews of this album and the general consensus seems to be that if you're an Alan Jackson fan, you won't be disappointed. I would absolutely agree with that. I'd also add that if you're a fan of traditional country music and haven't already purchased this album, than you need to do so. I have to say that I love that we have artists like Alan Jackson keeping this sound alive and well. It's very important that there's always some artists making straight up traditional country. Now I'd like you to do me a favor and refer back to the five words I used at the beginning. In addition to all of them, I would say that this album feels very polished and familiar. Thirty Miles West  is very m...

So if you somehow have made it this far and never listened to Randy Houser, I would strongly urge you to start. Why? Because he's among the best male vocalists in country music today. And one of the most underrated. For some reason he seems to fly right under the radar of a lot of country fans and that's a shame. He signed on with Stoney Creek Record, sister label of Broken Bow Records, earlier this year and "How Country Feels" is his first single with them. If I'm not mistaken, this was released a couple of months ago and seems to be making an impression. I've seen a bunch of good comments from other fans and can't help but feel that this song could do some very good things for Randy. Why do I think so? Well, keep on reading and I'll tell you.

I'm going to start off this review by saying something that could very well make Lauren Alaina fans want to throw virtual tomatoes at me, so I'm going to ask that you all stay with me and keep on reading until the end. Because in order to fully appreciate this review, you should know where I'm coming from. I've always said I want to be honest and so I'm going to admit that they jury has been out on Lauren Alaina for me. I can't quite pinpoint what it is, but I just haven't known what to make of her. It's not her voice. I've always thought she had a very good voice and it seems to get better all the time. I've watched various clips of her from the My Kinda Party tour, particularly of her singing "Don't You Want To Stay" with Jason Aldean and was impressed by how much she's grown as a singer. It seems like there's notes she's hitting a lot more easily and she seems more confident in her vocal ability. I love seeing growt...

I'll be getting to my review momentarily, but first I decided to take advantage of my ability to add pictures and include one of the man of the moment: Josh Turner, with his wife Jennifer, at the Grand Ole Opry in April. I unfortunately didn't get a lot of pictures of him, but if you'd like to see the ones I did get you can find them  here  on my Facebook page. Check them out and if you haven't already, I'd love for you to like the page while you're there. Now. Punching Bag. This CD was released in the beginning of June and if there's one thing I can say about Josh Turner, it's that he's very consistent. This is his fifth studio album and is done in typical Josh  fashion. He knows who he is as an artist and stays true to that. Something I find admirable. You pretty much know what you're going to get with him: traditional country music with an emphasis on relationships and faith. All of the songs on this album fit very nicely with the re...

You know, there are times when I can't help but get a feeling that an artist is about to reach a new level in their career. Their songs start doing better and better, more and more people start talking about them - there's a lot of signs that it's going to happen.  And if you ask me, this is exactly where Katie Armiger is right now. Her last couple of singles have done pretty well and "Better In A Black Dress" is the fastest rising single in her career to date. That next level is right within her reach and this could very easily be the song to get her there.  Yeah, I really like this song. Find out why after the cut.

This post marks what I hope will be the beginning a new ongoing series. In this post I'm introducing you all to a group of guys who are based in Virginia who call themselves Steelshot. I've been listening to and reading about them a lot lately in preparation for this post and in doing so it made me think of all the bands and artists out there who are trying to make it in the music business. There's a ton of them out there and that's putting it mildly. I've noticed that I have several up and coming people following me on twitter, all at different levels in their careers. Some have music out and available for purchase, like the band I'm going to be talking about now. Others haven't gotten to that point yet. Some have been at it for years and others are just starting out. It's a hard road to choose, a tough dream to chase and it can be so hard for people to get themselves out there. And I've decided that I'd like to try and help these people out as ...