pplpod

John Michael Montgomery's voice was one of the most commercially powerful instruments in 1990s country music. 'I Swear' crossed over to become a global pop phenomenon, and his string of hits made him ...

14 Jun 23min

Connie Smith never wanted to be famous. Bill Anderson discovered her at a talent contest, handed her a hit song called 'Once a Day,' and watched it spend eight consecutive weeks at number one—the long...

14 Jun 22min

Western swing—the genre that fused big band jazz, fiddle breakdowns, and Texas dance hall energy—got an unlikely upgrade when a Princeton-educated engineer applied analytical precision to its freewhee...

14 Jun 19min

Before inventing a genre that didn't have a name, this artist spent their days teaching five-year-olds their ABCs. The jump from kindergarten classroom to creating folkabilly—a raucous fusion of folk ...

14 Jun 19min

Midland didn't emerge from the Texas honky-tonk circuit or a Nashville writer's room. The band's origins trace back to the fashion and modeling world—a background so improbable for a country act that ...

14 Jun 18min

Before becoming one of country music's most compelling storytellers, this artist was standing in front of a classroom teaching English literature. The transition from grading papers to writing chart-t...

14 Jun 22min

Keith Whitley had the purest country voice of his generation—a tone so natural and emotionally transparent that it made everything around it sound processed by comparison. He was also fighting an addi...

14 Jun 18min

Terri Clark moved to Nashville as a teenager and spent years singing for tips at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, the legendary bar next to the Ryman Auditorium. She was a hat-wearing, boot-stomping Canadian ...

14 Jun 18min