Jewly Hight

After a decade away, Alabama Shakes return with a new song, 'Another Life'

Jewly Hight

"Not everything powerful is loud," Brittany Howard says when asked what the reunited band members wanted to explore with their new music. "Not everything quiet is vulnerable."

In a year of blockbuster crossovers, the CMAs double down on country continuity

Jewly Hight

The three-hour show was an ode to the robustness and stability of country music. But the genre dominated charts and discourse this year thanks to pop superstars Beyoncé, Post Malone and Shaboozey.

Brittany Howard is going to make her dreams come true

Jewly Hight

The Alabama Shakes singer exploded preconceptions with her 2019 solo debut. On What Now, a follow-up born from a few years of life-quaking resets, she's ready to leave any remaining limits behind.

History was made at the Country Music Awards in Nashville

Jewly Hight

Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's 1988 hit "Fast Car" won single of the year. Chapman got song of the year — making her the first Black songwriter to win in that category.

Loretta Lynn performs on stage in California in 1972.

Loretta Lynn, country music icon, has died at 90

Jewly Hight

The country singer brought unparalleled candor about the domestic realities of working-class women to country songwriting over the course of her 60-year career.

"Some of the work is deliberately remaining outside of the structure," says musician and advocate Lilli Lewis of the efforts of Black musicians to make it in country and roots music industries. "We want to center different values and it's really difficult to do that from inside." Lewis just released a new album called <em>Americana.</em>

New roots: Black musicians and advocates are forging coalitions outside the system

Jewly Hight

The mostly white country and folk music industries remain frustratingly difficult for Black musicians to enter. During one of Nashville's biggest events, one group envisioned a new pathway in.

Bluegrass Band Sister Sadie Embodies Tradition, But Bends It Too

Jewly Hight

This fall, the bluegrass supergroup Sister Sadie became the first all-female band ever to win the top prize at the International Bluegrass Music Association awards.

Nashville's music industry has never given homegrown hip-hop the support it deserves, so the city's artists and entrepreneurs are creating their own institutions.

Hip-Hop In Nashville Is Making Its Own Way

Jewly Hight

Rap from Nashville isn't new, nor is the city's tendency to overlook the creators and entrepreneurs behind that music – despite country artists borrowing liberally from the genre over the past decade.

Hot Country Knights is Dierks Bentley's loving parody of '90s country. The band released its debut album <em>The K Is Silent</em> May 8.

Riding 'The Mullet To Success': How Hot Country Knights Parodies The '90s

Jewly Hight

Dierks Bentley and his band tapped into a long tradition of comedy and country music when they created a parody group to open for them on tour. Now, Hot Country Knights has a debut album.

"This story isn't unique to us. There's a lot of parents and kids going through this same thing," Katie Pruitt says of confronting her sexuality and her mother on her debut album, <em>Expectations</em>.

A Debut Album That Confronts Ingrained 'Expectations' With Emotional Clarity

Jewly Hight

Singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt grew up in a conservative Catholic family in Georgia. On her debut album, she sings about the pressure she felt growing up to hide her sexuality from her family.