Blake Shelton

Lady Antebellum and Brandy Clark Headline a Night of Country Concerts

Better Than: This divided by two. Let it go into record that for once, on the night of May 7 in the year 2013, Manhattan had too many good country—country referring to popular country, as imported from Nashville—shows to attend, overlapping bookings that could have both been the highlight ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 4/19/13

Chose for you, by us, with love.

FASTEST GIRL IN TOWN

The world’s worst couples counselor plays Nassau

Blake Shelton Wants to Nail You in a Nice-Guy Sort Of Way: Rating the Top Country Hits

Every couple weeks, we take a hard listen to the music in which millions of Americans soak. Questions raised by this round of top country music singles: Did you know country stations are the only radio home for new songs (like Blake Shelton's) built on Babyface-style slow-bump R&B heartbeat rhythms ... More >>

Zac Brown Band Stretches Country's Limits (And Its Legs) On Uncaged

Country music has never had a simple relationship with Mexico. While outlaws like Waylon Jennings once warned that there "ain't no God" on the other side of the border, Tim McGraw more recently took the opposing position, suggesting that God in fact created the country, but only as a place for trapp ... More >>

Live-Blogging The 2012 Grammys: Tributes, Tribulations, Skrillex, And The Return Of Adele

via Cats Who Look Like SkrillexWill this cat win Best New Artist?​Welcome to Sound of the City's liveblog of the 54th Annual Grammys, coming to you live from a couch in Astoria. There are quite a few questions lurking around tonight's ceremony. Will Adele sweep the three major categories in wh ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Best Country Solo Performance, Where Ludacris's Stamp Of Approval Makes A Difference

As part of this year's larger reduction in genre-specific awards, 2012 will see the country portion of the Grammys streamlined to just four categories: Best Solo Performance (which swallows Male and Female Vocal Performance), Best Duo/Group Performance (which swallows Best Duo/Group Vocal Performanc ... More >>

Live: Miranda Lambert Gets Sassy At The Izod Center

Miranda Lambert w/Chris Young, Jerrod Niemann Izod Center Saturday, January 28 Better than: Being a good girl. At around 9 p.m. on Saturday, the lights went down at the Izod Center and Beyoncé's "Run The World (Girls)" began blaring from the speakers. Loretta Lynn's image came up on the screens ... More >>

TEARDROPS 
ON HIS GUITAR

Glen Campbell says goodbye to NYC

The Band Perry, Taylor Swift Win Big At Last Night's Country Music Awards

Last night, country music's biggest stars (not to mention welcome outsiders like Lionel Richie and Kenny Loggins, who joined Male Vocalist of the Year Blake Shelton for a performance of "Footloose") convened in Nashville for the CMA's annual awards show. By the time hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Un ... More >>

Footloose 2011: There is Still a Time to Dance

The American Music Awards Nominations: Hey, Did You Know Adele Sold A Lot Of Albums This Year?

Have you bought your copy yet? (Give it time.) ​You can have your Grammys and your Mercury Prizes and your Polaris Prizes and whatever other musical prizes honor things like "talent" and "artistry"—the most honest awards show in pop music, though, is undoubtedly the American Music Awards ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Reality TV Propels Aging Stars Back Into The Top 40

​ When I heard that Jennifer Lopez was leveraging her new position as an American Idol judge to launch her new single, premiering the video for "On The Floor" on one episode and performing the song on another, I rolled my eyes at what I thought was her hubris. It'd been less than two years sin ... More >>

What The Lineup For Clear Channel's iHeartRadio Music Festival Says About Radio Formats In 2011

Lady Gaga.​Today the radio behemoth Clear Channel announced a festival celebrating the relaunch of its online service iHeartRadio, which currently allows listeners to tune into the chain's terrestrial-radio outlets from all over the country (as well as about 150 digital-only stations) and whic ... More >>

The Voice Trots Out The Biggish Names, Crowns Its First Champ

Here we are, at the end of The Voice's almost shockingly successful debut season, one that may have actually turned around NBC's abysmal fortunes. There's not a ton of internal drama in The Voice's reality, and I can't say I cared too terribly much which of the four finalists would win. But the jou ... More >>

The Voice Feels The Pressure Before Its Big Finish

via Rickey​ Already, The Voice is just about over. Tomorrow, the field of four contestants gets wiped away and we get a winner. This show could've kept going for another three months or so if it followed a less fucked-up elimination schedule, but maybe NBC didn't realize they had an actual hit ... More >>

The Voice: The Dominance Of Javier, The Rise Of Vicci

via RickeyVicci Martinez performs "Dog Days Are Over."​I wish Game of Thrones was still on. It isn't. But hey, The Voice is still on! On last week's show, it seemed pretty obvious which four singers would make it through and which ones wouldn't. On Team Cee Lo, for instance, it was absolutely ... More >>

The Voice Keeps The Niceness Quotient High

via Rickey​After the first of its live shows, some real problems have emerged with The Voice. Similar to the last season of American Idol, none of the celebrity panelists is willing to say anything remotely critical, although that reluctance at least makes more sense here because they're suppo ... More >>

The Voice Battles Over Reality-Show Staples

The Voice is now a month or so in. It's a massive hit. It's the show NBC's putting on after the Super Bowl. It's out of American Idol's shadow. And it's a week away from becoming a live show and really launching into its season. It has arrived. So someone should really say something about Christina ... More >>

The Voice Battles On

​On the same night that American Idol rumbles on to its inevitable conclusion, it's pretty great to switch the channel over an hour later and catch one of these zippy, not-too-serious battle-round episodes of The Voice. This show has its problems, and it's still very early on, but right now it ... More >>

The Voice: Let's Keep The Neon Boxing Ring Lit Up Forever

​I'm going to be sad when all the duet battles on The Voice end. I honestly can't tell you how much I love the idea of duet battles. They're such an awesome hook for a reality show like this one, and the show pulls off every goofy thing they do with them. The neon-and-glass boxing ring is tota ... More >>

The Voice Gets Ready To Rummmmbllllleeeeeee

Lewis Jacobs/NBCMichael Buffer might have sold that a little better, dude. ​ A couple of weeks in, The Voice is already turning out pretty great. The singers, at least thus far, can all actually sing, the coaches all have sharp and productive things to say, and the show's setup provokes more a ... More >>

The Voice: Blake Shelton Is Unimpressed, Xtina Likes To "Woo"

​A week into The Voice, and some problems are starting to materialize. During backstage interviews, Carson Daly doesn't just stand there; he hovers. I can't imagine ever feeling comfortable around that guy. Christina Aguilera's mentoring style, right now, seems to be limited to raising both he ... More >>

Coming To The Local Sheds This Summer: Lots Of "Heritage Acts" And Country Stars (And Yeasayer)

Yeasayer. Here's hoping things are a bit warmer than this for their shows this summer. ​Today Live Nation announced a slew of shows at Long Island's Nikon at Jones Beach Theater and New Jersey's PNC Bank Arts Center, and in addition to the many classic rock acts (with "classic rock" now being ... More >>

"The Voice" Closes Its Eyes And Takes On "American Idol"

​So: The Voice. The big challenge. American Idol has been the dominant ratings force in American TV for a full decade now, but none of the other networks has really managed to do much with that show's format, which seems like a relatively easy thing to steal. (Or they haven't made a big singin ... More >>

The Fame Cookie: 2011 Grammy Awards Live Blog

It's the return of the most talked-about Grammy Awards live blog--a collection of quips, blips, and arguably insightful observations that dares to match the actual Grammy telecast in terms of pure spectacle and Justin Bieber mentions. Please join our hosts Tom Breihan and Ryan Dombal below, and keep ... More >>

Live: Miranda Lambert Praises Campfire Culture, Shows Off Engagement Ring at Terminal 5

Mikey AyersiPhone paparazzi Miranda Lambert Terminal 5 Wednesday, September 29 Better than: a sixpack of Miller after gettin' that first buck of the season Of all things to prop up a mike stand, a simulated shotgun works pretty well, as country music's current queen Miranda Lambert showed off du ... More >>

Country Songster Explains Why the Country Life Sucks

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