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jewly hight

jewly hight

Music critic and journalist Jewly Hight has been based in Nashville for two decades. Often, she's interpreted developments in Nashville's music communities and industries for a national audience. Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine/Vulture, The Guardian, Billboard, The Oxford American, Slate and numerous other outlets, and she's lent her expertise to a number of podcasts and documentaries. Hight landed her first book deal while studying religion, gender, sexuality, music and the South at Vanderbilt Divinity School, she was the inaugural winner of the Chet Flippo Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism and she helped launch WNXP as its Editorial Director in 2020. Now Senior Music Writer for Nashville Public Radio, and working with a diverse Nashville audience in mind, she's created the organization's first limited podcast series focused on music, "Making Noise."

Key Changes: The CMA Awards rock the show

By jewly hight

November 21, 2025

Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Wilson Jr.; photo credit: Acacia Evans
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Among the big winners at the 59th annual CMA Awards are names you’d expect, but others in the mix are newer to the spotlight, and their growing success points to trends potentially reemerging in the genre.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: CMAs, Key Changes

For country music traditionalists, Grammy changes promise a brighter spotlight

By jewly hight

November 7, 2025

Zach Top, performing at CMA Fest 2025 in Nashville, Tenn. in July 2025, is among the musicians who may benefit from the Grammy Awards' decision to introduce a "traditional" country award

Starting with this year’s nominations, the Grammy Awards will split its prize for country album of the year into two distinct categories: traditional and contemporary.

Filed Under: WPLN News Tagged With: country music, Grammys, Morgan Wallen, Sunny Sweeney, Zach Top

2’LiveBre champions his Nashville community wherever he goes

By jewly hight

October 24, 2025

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2’LiveBre is a ubiquitous presence at cultural events all over his city and he’s demanding respect from New York and Music Row executives alike.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: 2LiveBre, Daisha McBride, hip hop, music industry, Tim Gent

Bigger rooms and indie music realities

By jewly hight

October 18, 2025

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Tracking how trends in the tech and entertainment landscapes can alter the fortunes of an entire musical market, and how these trends can disproportionately impact independent music-makers. 

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music Tagged With: music business

Out of the Box: Gospel Music Hall of Fame gets a new home at the Museum of Christian and Gospel Music

By jewly hight

October 2, 2025

Photo image of the Museum of Christian and Gospel Music
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The Gospel Music Association established its hall of fame in 1971. But for 50-plus years, it’s been without a physical location. That’s finally changing with the museum’s Oct 3 opening.  

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: gospel, Gospel Music Association, Jackie Patillo, Lipscomb University, Mike Curb, music

VibeOut’s ‘grown people music’ took years to arrive — for good reason

By jewly hight

September 26, 2025

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VibeOut went from being a young music head who didn’t envision himself as a music-maker to releasing his debut album, “Good Things Coming Soon,” at age 35.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: hip hop, Mike Floss, Southern Movement Committee, VibeOut

Key Changes: Stylistic blending brings on shifts in awards show and market boundaries and more

By jewly hight

September 19, 2025

Changes to the Grammy categories, an insight from Americana Fest, and a preview from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: Americana, Country Music Hall of Fame, Grammys, Key Changes

Key Changes: Artists skirting Spotify, and Americana’s expanding appeal

By jewly hight

September 5, 2025

The latest music news, from artists’ changing approach to Spotify, to the upcoming Americana Music Festival.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: Americana Music Awards, garth brooks, Julien Baker, Key Changes, Shelldhn, Spotify

After a decade away, Alabama Shakes return with a new song, ‘Another Life’

By jewly hight

August 29, 2025

After making two critically acclaimed, musically adventurous albums in the early 2010s, Alabama Shakes went on a hiatus that stretched nearly a decade, while lead singer Brittany Howard (center) released solo work. Now, Howard and guitarist Heath Fogg (left) and bassist Zac Cockrell have reunited to tour and release new music, starting with the song "Another Life."

“Not everything powerful is loud,” Brittany Howard says when asked what the reunited band members wanted to explore with their new music. “Not everything quiet is vulnerable.”

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: Alabama Shakes

Key Changes: Awards decisions and homegrown country rap interventions

By jewly hight

August 22, 2025

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The music industry evolves at a dizzying pace. Jewly Hight helps make sense of the “Key Changes” in quick-hit roundups of music new analysis.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: 2LiveBre, Academy of County Music, Mike Floss, music awards, music business, Rissi Palmer

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