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Album Review: Courtney Marie Andrews – Valentine 

Sharing memories of 2016 is the social media trend of the moment and ‘Honest Life’ by Courtney Marie Andrews was one of the albums released towards the end of that year which inspired me to start this blog. 

Ten years later she’s still going strong having been one of the most prolific artists I’ve covered on the blog. Between 2016 and 2022 she also released May Your Kindness Remain – a stunning Americana epic, Old Flowers a quieter and darker pandemic era offering and Loose Future a lighter, breezier collection.

In the four years since that album she’s been busy with painting as well as releasing her second poetry collection ‘Love is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared’. 

This new album ‘Valentine’ was self-funded, recorded with only two other musicians – her producer Jerry Bernhardt and drummer Chris Bear. While it doesn’t return to the country-tinged sound of her earlier records, it does offer us a deeply emotional and impressive sounding collection of songs.

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Album Review: Margo Price – Hard Headed Woman

After two albums where she strayed somewhat from her country music roots, Margo Price is back in the genre she started in with the release of this new album ‘Hard Headed Woman’. This week she played the Opry, wearing clothes loaned from Loretta Lynn’s archive, suggesting Margo has come home, all guns blazing, ready to take back the genre once again. 

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Album Review – Kathleen Edwards: Billionaire 

Twelve ago Kathleen Edwards was done with music. She even opened a cafe called Quitters. Then she quit that too. Now she has returned to music with a renewed appreciation of just playing with other people, for other people.  

When Jason Isbell offered to produce and have his band the 400 Unit play on her new record, Kathleen wept. During the recording process she says she learned how to trust herself, and just get it done. ‘Billionaire’ is an enjoyable listen (apart from one notable song, more of which in a moment) and overall it’s one of the strongest Americana albums released so far this year. 

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Album Review: Lola Kirke – Trailblazer

After releasing a fantastic EP called ‘Country Curious’ last year, Lola Kirke followed that up with a book of personal essays called ‘Wild West Village’ which explored her upbringing and life in a bohemian family. By moving to Nashville and leaning towards country music she’s been walking a different path than might be expected from your typical artsy New Yorker.

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Somethin’ Bad: On Carrie Underwood Playing the Inauguration 

One of the reasons I started this blog back in 2017 was because I was sick of the divided, angry online world of politics in the Trump era. Writing about music helped bring me joy and connected me to a range of diverse people around the world who shared a common love of song. 

Strangely enough despite its conservative themes, for a while country music was actually a safe haven for a liberal leftie like me looking to avoid the negativity of politics. After the Dixie Chicks were cancelled for speaking out the genre seemed to have a kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy for both sides of the political divide, which meant most artists remained neutral (in public anyway). Dolly Parton also set the gold standard for how to deal with any potentially divisive discussions – be kind to everyone, judge no one, focus on the music and steer clear of party politics.

So why then would Carrie Underwood, who has spent her career cultivating a very vanilla and apolitical image, agree to sing at the inauguration of Donald Trump – one of the most divisive figures in history? And what does this decision tell us about the state of women in country music right now? 

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