Music

Jason Isbell may the quintessential Americana artist — introspective, deliberate, never a wasted lyric or note — but on Saturday night at the penultimate show of his six-show Ryman Auditorium residency, he embraced his inner go-for-broke guitar-shredder, both as headliner and as surprise guest of his hand-picked opening act, Diarrhea …

Nearly 75 years ago, in January 1944, Billboard magazine published its very first country chart, topped by pop crooner Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters trio’s bubbly version of a song called “Pistol Packin’ Mama.” On Thursday night, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, that song played on the P.A. system to …

Dierks Bentley has frequently spoken of his enduring love for bluegrass and how it shaped his early days in Nashville, even as his fortunes swelled as a mainstream country performer. On Wednesday night, Bentley put his bluegrass appreciation front and center as the host of an all-star tribute to late …

Mariah Carey has outlined the North American leg of her Caution World Tour, a 2019 trek in support of the her upcoming 15th studio album Caution. The 22-city run begins February 27th at Dallas, Texas’ the Pavilion and works its way through the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada before …

When Maddie Marlow and Taylor Dye burst onto the scene in 2014 with “Girl in a Country Song,” the duo were often highlighted as part of the next chapter for country music. That breakout hit, along with the biting “Shut Up and Fish,” helped to get them placed in the …

My Brightest Diamond examines self-discovery through communal groove on her new song “It’s Me on the Dance Floor.” The whirlwind track previews singer-songwriter Shara Nova’s upcoming fifth studio album, A Million and One, out November 23rd via Rhyme & Reason Records. The single opens with an eerie organ section and …

Amerie will unveil her first LP since 2009 on Friday. The double-album 4AM Mulholland and After 4AM will be an independent release from the “1 Thing” singer who parted ways with Def Jam in 2010. “I love my projects to be very sonically cohesive,” she told Billboard about the double …

Kenny Chesney, Thomas Rhett and Jason Aldean will headline the three-day 2019 Tortuga Music Festival. The annual beachside event, which launched in 2013, is set for April 12 through 13th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Officially titled Rock the Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival, the concert doubles as a conservation effort for …

Dierks Bentley wrapped up his Mountain High Tour at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles this weekend with a surprise appearance from Dwight Yoakam, who showed up to perform “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” and then “Fast As You” with the help of Brothers Osborne. Bentley, playing on Yoakam’s home …

More than a decade ago, Tyshawn Sorey, then best known as a rising-star jazz drummer, informed listeners that he had no intention of playing it by the book. “The usual expectation of a recording of compositions by a drummer is that the drums will be featured throughout,” Sorey wrote in …