Recent posts: country

Perusing the 2025 NAMM Show schedule, my eyes immediately locked into musical trio, The String Revolution’s name. Coming across their Grammy Award-winning blazing phenomenal cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” last year, I knew I needed to connect with the group’s fascinating mastermind Janet Robin. Setting forth on her musical path early on in North Hollywood, California, being taught for four years under the tutelage of none other than future guitar legend Randy Rhoads, she’d eventually live many musical phases, moving on to serve as lead guitarist in Precious Metal, working with Heart, Poison and Cheap Trick.

As 2025 kicks off, the natural year reset and hunt for new music begins yet again. Coming across legendary musical vet Ringo Starr’s new country, rock and bluegrass-tinged album ‘Look Up’, co-written and produced by fellow musical icon T Bone Burnett, this latest project arrived at the perfect time, featuring Nashville’s best and brightest. Assembling an all-star group of collaborators like Billy Strings, Allison Krauss, Larkin Poe, Molly Tuttle and Lucius, the 36 minutes of the album fly quickly by. Ringo’s solo record return to country after releasing ‘Beaucoup of Blues’ in 1970 adds another welcome chapter to a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s already storied career. To mark Look Up’s release, Ringo and T Bone recently gathered another Avenger type live concert special lineup featuring the likes of Jack White, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Brenda Lee and more.

Anyone who’s listened to Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” featuring newcomer chart topper Shaboozey or recently watched the Christmas halftime show featuring Compton Cowboys and the first black rodeo queen, knows black country music hit the mainstream cultural zeitgeist in a big way in 2024. One person who knew its potential and always understood its cultural roots and significance is Black Opry founder Holly G. After not seeing herself being represented within the country music scene, she’s broken-down racial barriers since 2021 for black country artists in Nashville, a place with a documented history of racism and a storied rep for not being welcoming to those in the genre with brown skin.