Mickey Guyton has yet to release her first album but she already has a country hit on her hands with today’s SOTD, ‘Better Than You Left Me.’
An early cut on American Idol (released just before the live shows), she is now an American Country Music Award nominee for New Female Vocalist of the Year.
Margo Price is one of those overnight sensations whose “overnight” lasted more than a decade. A Nashville singer-songwriter originally from Illinois, she has lived a life worthy of the traditional country songs that inspired her.
Price lost one of her twin newborns to a fatal heart condition, then turned to drinking and spent some time in jail before cleaning up her act and recording an album independently. She pitched the record to Jack White’s country label and the White Stripes frontman snatched it up for a proper studio release.
Miranda Lambert’s sixth album, The Weight of These Wings, comes out this Friday. It’s been two years since her brilliant last record, Platinum, and during that time she went through a very public split from Blake Shelton.
A break-up album from one of my very favorite artists — can’t wait!
But I have to wait, of course, so I figured this would be a good week to feature some up-and-coming female country singers who no doubt were inspired (professionally if not creatively) by Ms. Lambert.
Here’s my first Tom Waits song since February of 2013, when another track from Rain Dogs popped up as a Random iTunes Weekend selection. As usual, this is the first time I’ve heard a song from that album since that earlier post.
I’ve never paid much attention to Waits, though he’s clearly worthy of it. He’s particularly effective as a poet of the streets, a role Bruce Springsteen rode to much greater heights.
Meghan Trainor is an appropriate artist to help us recover from the painful election hangover. We can all use a little bubble gum right now, and Trainor is human Hubba Bubba.
Trainor’s throwback pop sound is as refreshing as her cheeky advocacy for issues tied to body image and female empowerment. There’s no guilt in this pleasure.
