By Michael McCall Photo by Michael Alan GoldbergTwo
young blondes with toothy smiles and hard-core work ethics, Taylor
Swift and Carrie Underwood, helped country expand its fan base in these
years of shrinking music sales. Meanwhile, Kenny Chesney, Rascal
Flatts, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and George
Strait kept filling arenas and at least maintaining their popularity on
the road, if not with record sales. But as has often been the case, the
best country music has little
It's probably an oddity that Columbus, Ohio had a reputation for producing quality country music for so long, but that's what spawning Dwight Yoakam does for you. But whatever country cred the giant-Applebee's-of-a-city had through Yoakam was quickly squandered in 2004 when Rascal Flatts' "Mayberry" undid it all as quickly as you can chug an ice cold cherry.... coke.The Rascal boys are coming to Cricket Wireless Pavillion with Jessica Simpson on March 12. Tickets are $34.25 to $78.75 plus fees a
The annual Country Thunder festival at the dusty Canyon Moon Ranch just outside of Florence is country music's version of a cattle drive, where over four days some of the bigger names in country music are herded on stage to bleat their biggest hits, then lassoed off to make way for the next artist. Country fans get a lot of bang for their buck, beer flows like the Colorado River, and despite their reputation as a boozin' and brawlin' fanbase, country fans are all about the "let's get drunk and h
