The North East Magazine
From the inception of The Sage Gateshead, the country fan has been treated to a plethora of stars from the country music world. Names like Glen Campbell, Marty Stuart, Don Williams, Lyle Lovett, Gretchen Peters, Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg, Rosanne Cash, Raul Malo, Nanci Griffiths and a whole host more which also includes another country [...]
I suppose being in bands for a good part of my life gives me that extra leaning to take notice when a new band release surfaces. For me past brilliance has shone from Alabama, Highway 101, and Exile and more recently the Zac Brown Band, The Band Perry and Little Big Town. As for Little [...]
Outside the country music world she is known as the Celine Dion of country music. She is a four time Country Music Association Female Vocalist Of The Year and apart from her Grammy Awards has also clocked up a staggering eighteen million album sales to date. Perhaps her most well know song would be ‘Independence [...]
In her fourth grade at school, she won a national poetry competition with a three page poem called ‘Monster In My Closet’, at the age of ten a repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar and at the age of eleven she had written her own songs and made her first [...]
A couple of year ago when I was presenting a country show on a North East radio station I decided to take a look back over all of the CD’s released and give personal awards for the best of the year. The best female album of the year was awarded to Canadian artist Michelle Wright and [...]
As we head into another New Year I thought it was probably appropriate to take a general look back over the last twelve month relating to the country music world. There were some great releases from some stompin’ new artists and memorable offerings from some well established names. Prolific releases on the Humphead record label [...]
Over the years I’ve often mentioned the fact that many country songs crossover into the pop genres and many of the other genres cross over into country. That to my mind is why ‘country’ music should not be dismissed by many ‘none appreciators’ as trite. If you are one of those ‘appreciators’ and you’re also [...]
You certainly do not just have to be a singer and songwriter to be part of the country music world. You can also be a published writer, a political activist, a playright and director and also be cited as the new Bruce Springsteen. How Steve Earle views the latter I’m not too sure, he has [...]