Free Republic

Country music icon Morgan Wallen was allegedly arrested and charged with three felony counts early Monday morning after an incident at Eric Church’s Nashville bar. Wallen, 30, was reportedly arrested in downtown Nashville after witnesses say he threw a chair off the sixth-story roof of Church’s Broadway-based Chief’s Bar, according to Billboard. Wallen’s attorney, Worrick Robinson allegedly confirmed his client’s arrest, saying that “At 10:53p Sunday evening Morgan Wallen was arrested in downtown Nashville for reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. He is cooperating fully with authorities.” Two Metro Nashville Police Department officers were standing on the street below the bar...

March 17, 1973: A special evening with country music legend Merle Haggard in the East Room of the White House on St. Patrick's Day, 1973. Includes performances and a reading of a poem Haggard wrote for First Lady Pat Nixon on the occasion of her birthday. The program was filmed and produced by the Naval Photographic Center. The Naval Photographic Center White House Motion Film Unit Collection consists of motion film coverage of selected official activities of President Nixon filmed between 1969 and 1974.

On March 8, 1965, U.S. Marines landed on the beaches of Da Nang, sparking the first official engagement of American involvement in the Vietnam War. As the military presence escalated, hundreds of thousands of Americans protested. As television brought home images of war, a counterculture began to emerge. Just as the Beat Generation, or Beatniks, had rejected the prevailing social norms, this new breed, the hippy, saw themselves as “freaks” and were open to drugs and free love. Time magazine reported in July 1967 the hippie movement was “blooming in every major U.S. city from Boston to Seattle, from Detroit...

On this day fifty years ago, November 10th, 1973, Stringbean Akeman frailed his final phrases on a Vega #9 five-string banjo, did his signature hand wave and hat flip one last time, and stepped off the Opry stage and into the history books in what would come to signal a change for the Opry itself, country music as an industry, and even country music as an institution. Before the night was out, Stringbean Akeman and his wife Estelle (Stanfill) were shot by two 23-year old cousins who’d come to know of Stringbean’s habit of keeping large amounts of cash on...

Patsy Cline was born on the 8th of September, 1932, in Winchester, Virginia. As her words attest, she is a country music great: “You want me to act like we’ve never kissed, you want to forget; pretend we’ve never met , and I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I haven’t yet… You walk by, and I fall to pieces.” “I’m gonna walk a little bit of dog.” “Oh, I offended you with my opinion? You should hear the the ones I keep to myself.” “Carnegie Hall was real fabulous, but you know, it ain’t as big as the Grand Ole...

Country music often expresses the heart of America. The left hates the heart of America ("the fruited plain," as Rush Limbaugh used to call it), so the left hates most country music. The woke mob's attacks against Jason Aldean and his hit song "Try That in a Small Town," as country superstar Lee Greenwood has noted, have "struck directly through the heart of country music." Greenwood added: "Cancel culture mob attacked Jason Aldean. They came for 'God Bless the USA.' But they can't cancel all of us."Jason's song has been denounced as "racist" by the progressive elites. The New York...

A new blue-collar political anthem is taking the Internet by storm just days after hitting the web. Virginia native Oliver Anthony's song, "Rich Men North of Richmond," is a twangy, soulful bluegrass song detailing the frustration of a blue-collar man fed up with the leadership in Washington.

The addictive track would become Williams’ first hit soon after it was released in June 1947.There are a lot of moments packed into Hank Williams’ too-brief career when the singer and songwriter would change country music forever. But the first, the one that divides the genre (and American music history) into its pre- and post-Hank eras, took place on April 21, 1947, when Williams recorded “Move It On Over,” his debut single for MGM. The addictive track, which seamlessly blended a velvety Western swing with the visceral Deep South blues that formed Williams’ musical backbone, would become Williams’ first hit...

A pivotal album for Bobbie Gentry, ‘Fancy’ caused controversy but found the country icon reconnecting with her songwriting muse.The year is 1969. Rick Hall, maverick record producer and owner of the FAME studio in Muscle Shoals, is working with Bobbie Gentry for the first time. He asks her: could she write a song for this new album – which would be released, in April 1970, as Fancy – to compare with “Ode To Billie Joe”? “I don’t know, Rick, but I’ll try,” Bobbie replies. Two weeks later, she presented “Fancy” to him. It certainly did live up to “Ode To...

Country singer Kelsea Ballerini opened the CMT Music Awards with a tribute to victims of a school shooting while sharing in that community’s grief, then danced alongside drag artists as states across the country consider legally limiting drag show performances.

Country singer Maren Morris joined a host of Tennessee drag queens Monday night in Nashville to protest recent state legislation aimed at barring children from drag shows. Morris used the occasion to dare local authorities to arrest her, saying she took her toddler to meet some drag queens earlier that day.

Love him or loathe him, country music superstar Morgan Wallen has a dedicated following, and with the recent release of his new album, One Thing at a Time, his fans have made their devotion known. The album, which has a whopping 36 tracks, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 album charts, and Wallen set a record with every single one of the 36 tracks appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.To put it in perspective, the previous record holder, rapper Drake, placed 27 songs on the chart at once in 2018, while Taylor Swift had 26 songs on...

The track and its crossover brought him to a whole new level of fame and influence.Perhaps Hank Williams’ most covered song, “Cold, Cold Heart” also brought the singer/songwriter huge success soon after it was released in early 1951. The plaintive ballad didn’t take long to become a cross-genre hit, in spite of its unabashedly folksy style: a young Tony Bennett released a plush, orchestral take on the tune the same year that nearly matched the original in reach and acclaim, prompting everyone from Louis Armstrong to (much later) Norah Jones to follow suit. Williams’ ode to his wife Audrey and...

Maren Morris got emotional Friday after fulfilling her “decade-long dream” of appearing as a guest on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and apologized for the way the country music world treated the LGBTQ community, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve done some cool s–t. #DragRace is rivaling it all. Getting my jacket framed next to my Grammy. It is DONE,” tweeted the star. In the post-episode “Untucked” clip, Morris, 32, got teary as she spoke to the contestants of the reality show. “Coming from country music and its relationship with LGBTQ+ members, I just want to say I’m sorry,” said Morris. “And...

Gazi Simelane (Dusty) and Linda Msibi (Stones) are country music singers from the Kingdom of eSwatini. The 22-year-old band of two boasts of being the only African band to participate in the Texas Sounds International Country Music Awards, clinching the Duo of the Year Award 2017. Photo: Supplied On 17 November, Dusty and Stones, a feature-length documentary by filmmaker Jesse Rudoy, had its world premiere at New York’s NYC DOC festival, the United States’ largest and most influential documentary festival. Gazi Simelane (Dusty) and Linda Msibi (Stones) are country music singers from the Kingdom of eSwatini. The 22-year-old band of...

Oklahoma country music artist Jake Flint died unexpectedly over the weekend, according to a social media post from his manager. Making the news even more tragic is that Flint, 37, passed away just hours after his wedding.

Haggerty, frontman of the queer country band Lavender Country, has died at the age of 78 CBC Radio · Posted: Nov 01, 2022 5:47 PM ET | Last Updated: November 1 An elderly man with long white hair and a black cowboy hat with feathers smiles in front of a bookshelf filled with books of photos and a poster with two cowboy hats that reads: "Lavender Country." Patrick Haggerty, the founder and lead singer of the band Lavender Country, at his home in Bremerton, Wash., in February. Haggerty died on Monday. (Ted S. Warren/The Associated Press) Patrick Haggerty, the trailblazing...

A new music video for a Chinese historical drama, "Love Like the Galaxy." One of the best dramas I've seen this year. Nothing quite like country and western for a good historical.

Country music legends Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings were almost in Heartworn Highways, the cult-classic 1976 documentary about the outlaw country music scene directed by James Szalapski and starring Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, David Allan Coe, and other founders of the movement. 46 years after the documentary first premiered, it played to an enthusiastic audience on Saturday at the first annual Pioneertown International Film Festival in Pioneertown, California. The film’s original producer, Graham Leader, gave a Q&A after the screening during which he revealed the little-known tidbit about Nelson and Jennings’ near-miss with the film. “Willie Nelson and Waylon...

Ray Charles and The Judds joined the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday in a ceremony filled with tears, music and laughter, just a day after Naomi Judd died unexpectedly. The loss of Naomi Judd altered the normally celebratory ceremony, but the music played on, as the genre’s singers and musicians mourned the country legend while also celebrating the four inductees: The Judds, Ray Charles, Eddie Bayers and Pete Drake. Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill and many more performed their hit songs. Naomi and Wynonna Judd were among the most popular duos of the 1980s, scoring 14 No....