Tom's Country View

There is no doubt, that songwriting done right, is an artform! With its typically limited time in song length it has to use words in the most efficient way to put emotions and pictures in the listeners hearts and minds. Thoughtful videos typically build upon the lyrics and evolve the stories to create actual pictures to the words. And as we know, sometimes they say more than a thousand words. Country music is about life and it os telling the stories that happen when life happens, like no other genre. But once in a while a song comes along, that is exceptional in the way it creates a story. One such song is ' Pony Express ' and I need to call it a 3-dimensional song! 'Pony Express' can be found on the 1986-album by Alabama called ' The Touch ' and it closes the album as a true story song with a length of almost 8 minutes (7:53). It was written by Buddy Cannon, Ken Lambert, Dean Dillon and Alabama bass guitarist and singer Teddy Gentry . On all ea...

If you have never heard of Sam Hunt , don't worry! However chances are, this will definitely change this year, as his name is traded as one of the next big things coming from Nashville. Sam Hunt was born in 1984 in a small Georgia town, where he started to pursue College Football. However when it seemed that his successes there would be limited, he moved to Nashville as a songwriter. In September of 2013 he independently released a first single ('Raised On It') and a month later a 15-track digital album via his website, called ' Between The Pines - Accoustic Mixtape '. Early in 2014 he was eventually signed by MCA Nashville with the first official single ' Leave The Night On ' currently receiving good radio airplay. So while we still have to wait for the official major label debute album to be released, the self-produced 'Between The Pines' gives hugely exciting insights into what hopefully to expect! Sam Hunt seems to come at the ri...

When I had the pleasure of attending the Phoenix show in 2010 on their final " Last Rodeo Tour ", I knew they would be missed! According to some sources, the second most successful musical duo in music history behind Simon & Garfunkel: Brooks & Dunn had quit their highly successful career after 20 years and some 28 million albums sold. Naturally music would be part of their life after Brooks & Dunn. When Kix Brooks tried one album, that wasn't really that successful, he more successfully switched to 'American Country Countdown' show host and other ventures (acting, running a winery). Ronnie Dunn , the significant voice in B&D and heard on the majority of their songs as lead vocal, started also with a solo project, in which he obviously put a lot of heart and blood, as documented by the excellent ' Making Of ' video he did for the self-titled album. In addition there were a couple of highly professionel videos produced for so...

It has been over 2 years now (April 24th, 2012), that one of the most exciting new albums in recent years was released. ' Up All Night ' was the debut album by a new artist named Kip Moore . While the album cover was so ugly, it would have been overlooked in vinyl record bins, if they were still around, the musical content goes to prove, 'Never judge a book by its cover'! Kip brings a very unique voice that is both raspy and earthy along with a talent in writing deep songs about life which create big emotional pictures in the listeners mind. He had a hand in writing all 11 songs on the album and I would say, each one of them goes to prove, that country music lyrics have not (all) turned dumb in the wake of bro-country. The musical style walks the line between country and some heartland rock touches with a great feel for hooks and melodies without getting hung up in repeat-loops of the chorus. Already the first single from the album ' Somethin'...