Chris Hansen Orf

There is a Nashville-style knock-knock joke going around that lets you make any what-the-hell-ever-happened-to country singer of the past the punchline. Because Clint Black is hitting town, we'll use him. It goes like this: "Knock knock. Who's there? Clint Black. Clint Black who? Hmmmph, tough town." Nashville radio is known...

While the lasting image from the Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? may be a mustachioed, overall-clad, hicked-up George Clooney lip-synching "Man of Constant Sorrow," the film's multi-platinum soundtrack reignited interest in America's earliest roots music. It was inevitable that musicians devoted to Americana would look beyond...

When rap was coming into the national consciousness in the '80s, there was a pretty lame joke going around that went something like "Did you hear about the guy who crossed country with rap? They call it crap." It may have taken almost 30 years, but a former professional golfer...

Alt-country hero Dale Watson has a tune called "Nashville Rash," in which he bemoans the pop crossover changes in Music City and sings "I'm too country now for country, just like Johnny Cash / Help me, Merle, I'm breakin' out in a Nashville rash." The condition has begun to afflict...

Kenny Chesney seems like a fun guy to hang with. You know, the dude who always has a fresh batch of margaritas chillin' in the blender at his beach pad in the Virgin Islands, a bevy of bikini-clad babes at his beck and call, and enough money to keep the...