Audio Premiere & Web-Exclusive Interview Musician: PAIGE KING JOHNSON Video Premiere: “SOMEBODY’S GOTTA DO IT” COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER-SONGWRITER PAIGE KING JOHNSON SHOWS THE LIGHTHEARTED, FUN SIDE OF LOVE WITH “SOMEBODY’S GOTTA DO IT” Country music singer/songwriter Paige King Johnson writes songs that explore every facet of her life. Her songwriting highlights all the stages of life—faith, love, empowerment and the beauty of life’s... 

LACY J. DALTON “Summerland” Video Premiere – with Web-Exclusive Interview    Musician:  LACY J. DALTON   Video Feature:  SUMMERLAND     BLACK SHEEP IN “SUMMERLAND” LACY J. DALTON AN AMERICAN OUTLAW   Lacy J. Dalton’s blonde spiky hair is an extension of the singer-songwriter’s professional and theological peregrination, every lock representative of crossroads, intersections and a path not obscured by superficial... 

Video Premiere & Web-Exclusive Interview   Musician:  SHANE OWENS   Video: “You Go Good”       COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER-SONGWRITER SHANE OWENS RELEASES HIS LATEST SINGLE “YOU GO GOOD” Shane Owens delivers a catchy summertime love song with all the references that make a country song loveable. Owens is notable for being one of the few country artists who delivers modern-day sounds while honoring his traditional... 

Video Feature & Web-Exclusive Interview Musician: PAIGE KING JOHNSON Video: “American Beauty” COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER-SONGWRITER PAIGE KING JOHNSON KNOWS IT TAKES INNER STRENGTH TO BE AN “AMERICAN BEAUTY” Country music singer-songwriter Paige King Johnson’s upbeat song “American Beauty” highlights all the stages of finding confidence in taking your own path even when it looks different from the rest. Johnson’s strong vocals shine... 

Book Review Behind the Boards: Nashville By Jake Brown [Music Square Media/Baker & Taylor] Intimate. In-depth. Superbly satisfying. Behind the Boards: Nashville is a treasure trove for aspiring engineers and producers. Anyone who loves Country music and the craft that has gone into making some of the greatest songs the world has ever known will find this book an undeniable must-have for their collection. Practical, as well as entertaining, award-winning... 

VIDEO FEATURE & WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Songwriter:  WIL NANCE Musician:  BRAD PAISLEY Music Video:  “She’s Everything” Wil Nance hit the top of Radio & Records and Billboard with his Number 1 Brad Paisley smash “She’s Everything,” a song on Time Well Wasted, the multi-platinum 2007 CMA Album of the Year. He also landed on Troubadour, George Strait’s platinum-selling, Grammy-winning 2008 CMA Album of the Year with a song... 

VIDEO FEATURE & WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW   Musician:  BILLY RAY CYRUS Video: “Thin Line” featuring Shelby Lynne Songwriter: Billy Ray Cyrus Billy Ray Cyrus is a singer-songwriter, actor and philanthropist—helping many charities, including veterans and military families. We talked with Cyrus about his new album two days after his performance of the 1992 hit “Some Gave All” at the Tennessee Titans’ opener on Sunday, 9/11/16. Before... 

VIDEO FEATURE & WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Artist:  BRENT MOYER Song: “Tennessee Tears”   Songwriters: Brent Moyer & Bernie Nelson Video Editor: Jim Jensen Videographer: David Swift Grip: Cindy Nicholson Recording features: Ottar Johansen, Tore Andersen, Joe Sun   BRENT MOYER Web-Exclusive Interview with M Music & Musicians magazine publisher, Merlin David Known as the Global Cowboy, Brent Moyer loves exploring the broad... 

PHOTOGRAPHER NORMAN SEEFF CHOSE “A FUNKY little hotel” in downtown L.A. to shoot this session for Merle Haggard’s 1981 album Big City. “With wry humor, Merle said, ‘This is what you learn in jail’ as he peeled the apple in one cut,” recalls Seeff. “He didn’t try to hide his past.” As the session progressed, a different facet of the country legend emerged. “He had a kind of duality,” explains Seeff. “One part was rough and... 

MERLE HAGGARD Okie From Muskogee Anniversary Edition Anniversaries. The 20th anniversary of the notorious Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding relationship, as celebrated by two specials coinciding with last month’s Winter Olympics, caught me by surprise. So I had my own celebration by reposting Loudon Wainwright III’s transcendent tribute to the bygone days of women’s figure skating and sportsmanship, “Tonya’s Twirls,” which eventually surfaced... 

MERLE HAGGARD After beating lung cancer, “The Hag” still is who he is Merle Haggard’s new album is called I Am What I Am, but that title could have been affixed to almost anything he’s recorded during his nearly half-century as one of America’s most stubbornly self-possessed singers and songwriters. He has built a body of work unequaled in the country genre, one created on clear-eyed slice-of-life classics like “Okie From Muskogee,”... 

ROD MELANCON HOMETOWN: Wright, La. INFLUENCES: Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard ALBUM: Mad Talkin’ Man EP, out now WEBSITE: rodmelancon.com As a boy in the bayou country of southern Louisiana, Rod Melancon was a faithful disciple of playwright Tennessee Williams. Committed to pursuing a career in acting, he moved to Hollywood in his early 20s. However, he changed course one Christmas when his parents gave him an acoustic guitar. “That...