Joshua Hedley | |
|---|---|
 With Justin Townes Earle Knoxville, Tennessee January 28, 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | January 20, 1985 Naples, Florida |
| Genres | Country, folk |
| Occupation(s) | musician |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, violin, vocals |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Third Man Records |
| Website | http://joshuahedley.com/ |
Joshua Hedley, born and raised in Naples, Florida, is a country music singer-songwriter, violinist, and guitarist. His debut album Mr. Jukebox was released in 2018 through Third Man Records.
Joshua "Josh" Hedley was born and raised in Naples, Florida. He felt "inexplicably drawn" to the fiddle as a child, requesting one by name from his parents at 3. [1] He got his first violin at 8. By 12, he was playing with "middle-aged pickers" at the local VFW. Hedley credits the "ear training" he received through learning the fiddle early in life has helped him become a better singer. [2]
When he turned 19, he moved to Nashville where he became an "in-demand sideman" at Robert's Western World and other venues. He became known around the Lower Broad district of Nashville – where he developed his sound. "I always thought Josh was the best thing going on down on Broadway," says Margo Price, who used Hedley's fiddle on All American Made. "No one carries on the tradition the way Ol’ Hed does. He grew up in it, worked on his chops and earned his place in that world. Now the world gets to hear it." [1]
He became known as "Mr. Jukebox" while playing down on Broad "thanks to Hedley's pristine vocals, unrivaled musicianship, and truly encyclopedic knowledge of country music." [3] He's toured with artists such as Jonny Fritz, Justin Townes Earle, Willie Watson, and others. He was featured in the 2015 documentary Heartworn Highways Revisited . [4] Hedley was listed as one of ten country music acts to watch by Rolling Stone magazine in November 2016. [5]
Hedley was featured on an online variety show hosted by Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show on YouTube Live. The series has also featured Charlie Worsham and Molly Tuttle. [6]
Hedley "maintains a Monday night residency" at Robert's Western World in Nashville, performing there weekly. [7] Margo Price's version of "Ragged Old Truck", featuring Hedley, was released November 2022 on Live Forever: A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver by New West Records. Also contributing to the 12-song set were Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Nathaniel Rateliff, Steve Earle, and Rodney Crowell. [8]
Hedley started writing his own songs after getting sober. As he says of this change in his life: [9]
Sobriety led to ideas. Before that, I really wasn't interested in anything other than getting drunk. And the idea of writing a song never even crossed my mind. I had written a couple of them on the spur of the moment. But once I got sober, it opened up a door in my brain to where all these ideas were. They just kept coming. I couldn't write them fast enough.
On March 17, 2020, Hedley and his group the Hedliners, together with Dave Cox, played their first livestreamed show at Robert's Western World, where he'd performed "thousands of times" since 2005. Playing to an empty dance floor, after area bars and music venues were shut down in response to the COVID-19 virus threat, Hedley and his musicians made more in virtual Venmo and PayPal tips from fans worldwide than they would on a regular night at the venue.
The performance garnered 53,000 views online within a few days, far more exposure than the 200-fan maximum venue could generate on a given night. [10]
Hedley headlined the ISOL-AID festival with Leah Flanagan and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy in May 2020. [11] He appears September 2022 at AmericanaFest in Nashville, sharing stage with such acts as Lukas Nelson, Taj Majal, and Lori McKenna. [12]
Hedley released his debut album Mr. Jukebox in 2018. It was named for his "uncanny ability to perform nearly any classic-country song thrown his way." [1]
Hedley is driven by a similar goal: to make music that honors tradition in a personal and heartfelt way. [2]
— Ann Powers, NPR
Hedley's got a voice that could sing the phonebook and make it sound like a Sixties gem straight from Billy Sherrill's lost 1960s archives . . [13]
Hedley, an old-school country singer, songwriter and fiddler whose sound recalls Johnny Paycheck and Merle Haggard, has spent years paying his dues in Nashville. Now it's time for the rest of the world to take notice. [14]
Mr. Jukebox . . positioned Hedley as an unabashed revivalist, crafting a meticulous, loving re-creation of the heyday of the Nashville Sound, layering supple strings and vocal harmonies over the steady clomp of tic-tac bass. [15]
— Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Pitchfork
Hedley released his second album Neon Blue in 2022. He has said that Neon Blue sounds like a mid-‘90s honky-tonk anthem. "The last bastion of country music was the early 1990s, roughly 1989 and 1996," Hedley said. "You could turn on the radio and immediately know you’re hearing a country song. You could still hear steel guitar and fiddle." [16] Joe Diffie's death from COVID-19 in 2020 was the primary inspiration for the album, according to Hedley, who says of the effort: "After these last couple years we’ve had, I felt like I didn’t want to hang my sad-sack, typical brand on people. I wanted to make a record that people could party to." [7]
Where modern country music is designed to be pumped out of high-end systems at anonymous, brightly-lit sports bars, Hedley is making music for dives. No top shelf liquor or sleek product placements for Hedley: He’s down at the corner beer joint, drinking whatever’s on tap, in the can or in the bottle. [15]
— Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Pitchfork
Hedley has said that country music was perfected in 1965, a statement he admits "was a bit hyperbolic." He continues: [2]
Honestly, it's just my favorite era. Country music seems to change every 10 years or so and that Nashville Sound being pioneered by guys like Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Billy Sherrill just really speaks to me. But there are things I like about all eras of country music from Jimmie Rodgers to Ronnie Milsap. And my favorites change all the time, I just seem to be firmly planted in the Nashville Sound lately.
Alan Eugene Jackson is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as penning many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studio albums, including two Christmas albums, and two gospel albums, as well as released three greatest-hits albums.
Charles Edward Daniels was an American singer, musician, and songwriter. His music fused rock, country, blues and jazz, pioneering Southern rock. He was best known for his number-one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Much of his output, including all but one of his eight Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, was credited to the Charlie Daniels Band.
Guy Charles Clark was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Kathy Mattea, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith and Chris Stapleton. He won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture of You.
Old Crow Medicine Show is an Americana string band based in Nashville, Tennessee, that has been recording since 1998. They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on September 17, 2013. Their ninth album, Remedy, released in 2014, won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. The group's music has been called old-time, folk, and alternative country. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs.
Coat of Many Colors is the eighth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on October 4, 1971, by RCA Victor. The album was nominated for Album of the Year at the 1972 CMA Awards. It also appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time and at No. 257 on Rolling Stone's 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Parton has cited the title track on numerous occasions as her personal favorite of all the songs she has written.
Kenneth Eric Church is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has released nine studio albums through Capitol Nashville since 2005. His debut album, 2006's Sinners Like Me, produced three singles on the Billboard country charts including the top 20 hits "How 'Bout You", "Two Pink Lines", and "Guys Like Me".
Christopher Alvin Stapleton is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in Staffordsville, Kentucky. In 2001, Stapleton moved to Nashville, Tennessee to get an engineering degree from Vanderbilt University but dropped out to pursue his career in music. Subsequently, Stapleton signed a contract with Sea Gayle Music to write and publish his music.
The singles discography of American country artist, Tanya Tucker, contains 89 lead singles, six featured singles, two promotional singles, one additional charting song, 18 lead music videos and three featured music videos. Tucker's career was launched in 1972 when she was 13 years old. That year, her debut single called "Delta Dawn" was released. It went to number six on the America's Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and number 72 on the Hot 100. It was followed by three consecutive number one Billboard singles in 1973: "What's Your Mama's Name", "Blood Red and Goin' Down" and "Would You Lay with Me ".
Dustin Charles Lynch is an American country music singer and songwriter, signed to Broken Bow Records. Lynch has released six albums and one EP for the label: a self-titled album in 2012, Where It's At in 2014, Current Mood in 2017, Tullahoma in 2020, Blue in the Sky in 2022 and Killed the Cowboy in 2023. He has also released seventeen singles, of which eight have reached number one on Country Airplay.
Jonathan Ryan Pardi is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to Capitol Nashville, he has released four studio albums: Write You a Song (2014), California Sunrise (2016), Heartache Medication (2019), and Mr. Saturday Night (2022). Pardi has also charted fourteen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, of which four have hit number one on the latter: "Head Over Boots", "Dirt on My Boots", "Heartache Medication" and "Last Night Lonely". Pardi's music style is defined by neotraditional country influences.
Benjamin Isaac Hoffman is an American comedian, actor, writer, and musician. Hoffman is well known by his country musician alter ego Wheeler Walker Jr., as whom he has released five studio albums.
John Sturgill Simpson is an American country music singer-songwriter and actor. As of February 2022, he has released seven albums as a solo artist. Simpson's style has been met with critical favor and frequent comparisons to outlaw country.
Bringing Back the Sunshine is the ninth studio album by American country music singer Blake Shelton. The album was released on September 30, 2014, by Warner Bros. Nashville. The album was produced by Shelton's longtime producer Scott Hendricks. "Neon Light," the album's lead-off single, was released on August 18, 2014.
"(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" is a song written by Hank Williams and Jimmie Davis. It became his fourteenth consecutive Top 10 single in 1951.
Margo Rae Price is an American country singer-songwriter, producer, and author based in Nashville. The Fader called her "country's next star." Her debut solo album Midwest Farmer's Daughter was released on Third Man Records on March 25, 2016. The album was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, and was engineered by Matt Ross-Spang. The album was recorded in three days. On tour, she is backed by her band The Pricetags.
Luke Albert Combs is an American country music singer and songwriter. Born and raised in North Carolina, he began performing as a child. After dropping out of college to pursue a career in music, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he released his debut EP, The Way She Rides, in 2014.
Midland is an American country music group formed in 2014 in Dripping Springs, Texas. The band members are Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson, and Cameron Duddy. Through Big Machine Records, the band has released two EPs, their self-titled EP and The Last Resort. They have released three studio albums, On the Rocks, Let It Roll and The Last Resort: Greetings From, which have accounted for seven charted singles on the Billboard country chart: "Drinkin' Problem", Burn Out", "Make a Little", "Mr. Lonely", "Cheatin' Songs", "Sunrise Tells the Story" and "Longneck Way to Go". Midland's musical style is known as neotraditional country.
The Bus Songs is a compilation album from American country music artist Toby Keith. The album was announced July 14, 2017, and was released September 8, 2017. It is a combination of new and older songs written by Keith. The album contains twelve songs: two new, five re-recorded, and five previously released songs. The new songs on the album are "Shitty Golfer" and "Wacky Tobaccy". The songs "Runnin' Block", "Hell No", "The Critic", "Ballad of Balad", and "Weed With Willie" have been re-recorded and are referred to as "fresh takes on old favorites" by Rolling Stone magazine.
Mitchell Tenpenny is an American country pop singer and songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. He has released three studio albums and five extended plays through Riser House Records, with the first being Telling All My Secrets released in December 2018. He charted in 2018 with the single "Drunk Me", released on Columbia Records Nashville. He also co wrote "If the Boot Fits" with Granger Smith and the song made it to the top 10 on country airplay.
Matthew Charles Crockett is an American blues, country, and Americana singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He has released twelve studio albums since 2015, with Lil G.L.'s Blue Bonanza peaking at number 11 on the US Billboard Blues Albums chart and The Man From Waco breaking the US Billboard 200.
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
