Last night, the Country Music Association held its annual CMA Awards in Nashville. The idea was for this to be a “no drama” evening — a regular in-person event, like the kinds we used to get before the pandemic. That’s not quite what happened. Various announced performers — Florida Georgia Line, ...

In a 2014 piece for this website, I wrote that the big country king Eric Church was out greatest working rock star. I was trolling, but I was also serious. Eric Church whomps ass. He's a rare thing: A towering figure in his genre who also pushes on the edges of that genre, challenging received…

For the past decade-plus, the country superstar Eric Church has carved out a niche for himself as a sort of outsider's Nashville insider, a rebel who fills arenas while operating within the pop-country system. That's been working out for him. Church released Desperate Man, his last album, a couple of years ago, but right now…

Last night, the ACM Awards, one of country music's two big annual awards shows, were supposed to go down in Nashville. Obviously, big gatherings are simply not happening right now. The ACM Awards were pushed back to 9/16 -- a date that, if we're being honest, sounds optimistic. And instead of the big awards show,…

Every year, Bruce Springsteen throws his Stand Up For Heroes benefit, a big show that raises money from injured veterans, in New York. And every year, he gets up on that stage and tells dirty jokes. The show is part of the New York Comedy Festival, and it always features comedians performing alongside musicians. (This…