Since I don't listen to a lot of radio, the internet is the main way I keep up with new country music, news, etc. For quite a few years I've been checking out CMT.com and then GACTV.com. Strangely enough, on the net I prefer CMT but on TV I'm more likely to watch GAC. Why? They play a lot more music videos. A few years ago I found Roughstock.com which has a lot of good reviews and articles and I generally check out ACCTOP40.com each weekend for the weekly top 40. They've gotten a lot better recently at updating the survey. In the past, it would usually appear by Monday afternoon however some weeks it wasn't updated til Tuesday or later. Now it's generally available by Saturday morning. There seems to be a pattern to the top 40. On alternating weeks, there will be a lot of movement with some songs moving up or down a half dozen or more slots or very little movement with no song moving more than 3 in either direction.
A few weeks ago I was looking to see if anything had been written about a Matraca Berg song, "The Dreaming Fields" and I stumbled upon a country music blog called Country Universe (It can be accessed at www.countryuniverse.net). The blog was started in 2004 by one of the six writers at CU, Kevin Coyne. They have a lot of good reviews on a wide variety of country artists, interviews, most recently on Joey & Rory, and special articles such as their current series on artists of the 90's. So far they've covered Joe Diffie, Travis Tritt, Mark Chesnutt, Brooks & Dunn, Lorrie Morgan, Pam Tillis, Collin Raye, Diamond Rio, Wade Hayes, Rick Trevino and the Mavericks, among others. They provide a short writeup about the artist and then give you a "starter kit" usually with what the writer feels are their 10 best songs which they call essential tracks plus two "hidden treasures", songs that were not hits. For those with just a few hits, they write up a "6 pack" of songs. You can send in comments easily and it's very interesting to see what others think, what songs they like, etc. and the writers at CU often join the discussion with their comments. So far I'd have to say it's about the best country music blog around. I guess they're not worried about competition since they provide links to other country music blogs. Check out the surprising bios of the writers in the About Us part of the website - not what you'd expect.
What's great about all these sites is that it alerts you to new artists and songs you may have missed by established artists. Then you can go to the artists website or MySpace and listen to some of their music or hear the 30 second snippets on I-Tunes or other source. I no longer buy a cd by a new artist based on their debut single. I try to hear as much as I can online before plunking down any cash. I'll still buy cds by my favorite artists without making such an effort as long as they put out good albums. Some do run out of ideas after a while.
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