Country Cutler Conversations

Bryan C. Parker, executive editor of Austin Monthly and creator of the Honky Tonk Fest, joined me for a great conversation about the history and future of honky tonk music in Austin, the festival on Sat. Nov. 14 at the Star Hill Ranch and much more for this latest edition of Country Cutler Conversations.

General admission and VIP tickets are still available, but Parker expects the tickets to sell out before the event. I got my ticket a few weeks back and I’m thrilled to be joining a large contigent of Los Angeles-based honky tonkers for this incredible day of music, dancing and honky tonk activities.

The Line Up:

* Rattlesnake Milk

* The Deslondes

* Summer Dean

* Pat Reedy

* Honky Tonkin’ in Queens

* Hannah Juanita

* Kristina Murray

* Hayden Butler

* Kathryn Legendre

* Sentimental Family Band

Until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

I’ve given in and started a new podcast. Welcome to Country Cutler Conversations: The Podcast. I hope you subscribe and enjoy this fine broadcast and the many more that are to come.

Stay tuned.

And until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

It’s rare that you get to look far behind the scenes of some of the largest projects in the music industry on opening night, but then again, there is nothing ordinary about Shaboozey.

During his album release party in Los Angeles, he introduced his favorite song on the forthcoming album, “Coyotes Point,” and shouted out the songwriter, who happened to be standing about three feet behind me at the event. In my opinion, this song represents a significant departure in tone and style — while still being a “Shaboozey song.” Which is something, among other aspects of this unique project, Wesley Sodie Orr, the songwriter in question, and I go into at great length in this Country Cutler Conversation.

We also discuss the overlap in hip hop and country music, in the area of songwriting, which I found really interesting. Both genres lean heavily on authentic lived experiences as a shibboleth for belonging. This topic is what made me really want to talk to Orr again, and I’m glad we got deep into it here.

Be sure to follow Orr on the socials (@wesleyorrwhat on most platforms), and I hope you enjoy this Country Cutler Conversation.

And until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

Please send this to your friends & tell them to subscribe, or at least to listen to great country music.

Early this morning, Devyn Brnsfield dropped his first full-length album, Dreamers & Losers, and he stopped by to chat with me for another Country Cutler Conversation. We touched on his love of Pink Floyd and how that fits perfectly into the Bakersfield Sound tradition. It’s said that Buck Owens loved Chuck Berry as much as Bob Wills.

We chat about his influences, his style and how he got started. Dreamers & Losers is out now wherever you stream your music.

Until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

I sat down with Trever M. Keith to discuss his path from pop-punk stardom with ‘90s mainstay Face to Face to venturing into solo work in the Americana and country music spaces.

We got into his long history with country music, his exposure to the broad world of Americana after moving to Middle Tennessee, and how he sees the differences between punk and country songwriting.

His album, We Drank From a Poisoned Well, is out July 10 and will stream on all the usual platforms. Click here to listen to the singles out now and pre-save the album or pre-order the physical media.

Until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

Earlier this week, I sat down with Nashville-based multimedium artist and South Texas native Veronique Medrano to talk all about her role in cementing Freddy Fender’s legacy in the halls of country music history.

For years, Medrano has been pushing the Country Music Hall of Fame to induct him into what Fedder called “Hillbilly Heaven.” Next month, she will be in Fender’s hometown of San Benito, Texas, for the grand reopening of the Freddy Fender Museum, something she’s been working on with his family for some time.

The event will include a $1,000 Freddy Fender Look-a-Like Contest, bike show and songwriter showcase. The headlining event is a tribute show featuring Los Texmaniacs, featuring Rick Treviño.

Until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

I was a few minutes late for my interview with Brit Taylor. Clutching a mug of something warm throughout the conversation, Taylor smiled understandingly as I fumbled with the mic and botched the interview's opening lines.

It was fitting that I was having trouble balancing things as we discussed her upcoming album, Land of the Forgotten, which drops on March 6 on Ridgetone Records. Dealing with the duality of life — and how to take the good with the bad — is a major theme of the 11-song effort.

Blending traditional string and some of her favorite styles of late ‘80s and early ‘90s country music, this album is what Taylor says was “the music she’s always wanted to make.” And it works really well. Without slipping into nostalgia, this collection provides a new experience steeped in tradition.

Our conversation rolled through these influences, the impacts of being a parent, and, importantly, how to deal with the fact that more than one thing can be true at the same time.

Empowering Women With Reality

This last week, Taylor released “Warning You Whiskey,” a thoughtful and fun “modernized version of ‘Stand By Your Man.’” (I think of it more as a slowed-down version of Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City.”)

The song treats whiskey as the other woman, and Taylor has some strong words about leaving her man alone. Interestingly, she shot the music video about two weeks before her daughter was born, which added another dimension to the video.

Looking back, she said, it was a point of pride “to continue to work and dream” so late into her pregnancy. It got us talking about the place of women in country music and about empowerment through a more realistic view of the lives we all live.

“An underlying lonesome”

Even though she now lives in Nashville, Taylor clearly still calls Eastern Kentucky home, and there is a lot of her home in this record. Kentucky has played a massive role in the development of country music, and continues to do so, giving fans a wide range of artists making incredibly diverse country music.

But even though these songs and artists sound so different, it’s clear to a careful listener that these songs come from the Bluegrass State.

Taylor explains that music from this place has “an underlying lonesome” to it — something about the shared experience of hardship coupled with natural beauty shapes how Kentuckians make music and how fans hear it. More than one thing can be true at the same time.

I hope you enjoy our interview. Please share it with someone you think may find it interesting.

Give Taylor’s latest singles a listen and be sure to pre-save the full album now on your streaming platform of choice. Or do one better and pre-purchase the physical album.

Until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

Country Cutler is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

As the saying goes: new year, new newsletter features! We will have a number of new features for newsletter subscribers this year; several of them will be for paid subscribers only, so jump on the bandwagon now.

But before we get any deeper into the year, please join me in offering a hearty congratulations to Breenen Leigh and Kevin Skrla on their recent marriage. May they find matrimonial and musical harmonies, forever.

I’m thrilled to introduce 50 States of Country Music — details in the video and more to come throughout the year. But rest assured, this one will be fun!

Until next time, keep on listening to great country music.

Today, I gave this video thing, a go. Moving forward these videos will be for paid subscribers, so please consider increasing your subscription to the paid level.

Here I’m talking about a record I didn’t buy.

I’d love to hear your story of the merch, record or ticket that you let get away. Send me a note or leave a comment — I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks,

Donnie