Blake Shelton Has Third Consecutive No. 1; Dwight Yoakam: Better Actor Than Guitarist; 5-Year-Old Sings Caitlin Rose
- For the first time in his career, Blake Shelton hit No. 1 three consecutive times. The latest single to top the charts, and Shelton’s eighth overall, is “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking.”
- Studies show that Nashville is a major force in popular music…
- Jewly Hight on the track “Chances Are,” from Hayes Carll‘s new record:
[...] the finest true-blue country ballad in Carll’s catalog to date. With mournful steel guitar backing him up, his antihero pines for a woman so close and yet so out of reach; the hurt is that much worse because he’s sabotaged himself. George Strait Carll is not, but the way his frayed drawl catches on the notes really drives home the heartbreak.
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New releases for the week of February 22, 2011 include:
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Johnny Cash – Bootleg, Volume 2: From Memphis To Hollywood
Amazon | iTunes -
Rachel Brooke – Down In the Barnyard
iTunes | Artist Website -
Ralph Stanley – I’ll Wear a White Robe (Digital Reissue)
Amazon | iTunes -
Ralph Stanley – Something Old, Something New (Digital Reissue)
Amazon | iTunes -
Riley Puckett – Country Music Pioneer
Amazon
- Music for the Bill Monroe biopic Blue Moon of Kentucky has already begun to be recorded. T Bone Burnett and Ronnie McCoury are at the helm, with McCoury’s dad and former Monroe protege, Del McCoury, set to sing the Monroe songs on the soundtrack. As for actors:
Actor Peter Sarsgaard is set to play Monroe. His wife, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, has told reporters that she will play Bessie Lee Mauldin, Monroe’s lover who often toured with the Blue Grass Boys and played bass on stage and in recordings.
- The Bellamy Brothers are exploring legal action in regards to Britney Spears‘ latest single, “Hold It Against Me.”
- Here’s a cover of The Carter Family song “Dixie Darling” from Rachel Brooke. (via Facebook)
Recentconcertgoer on finding out Dwight Yoakam was playing nearby:
“I saw that and said, ‘we gotta watch Dwight Yoakam for sure,’” Adams said. “Dwight Yoakam is a phenomenal guitar player — but he’s probably an even better actor. Oh my God. He is THE guy in ‘Panic Room.’ ”
What did he think of Yoakam’s Saturday night performance?
“I was kinda hoping he’d have more sequins,” Adams said of the country — and Hollywood — legend’s simple red shirt. “But his backup singers are making up for it.”
- Most of the lineup for the six-week Bluegrass at the Ryman Mondays series has been unveiled.
- Hayes Carll on becoming a songwriter in the new issue of Texas Monthly:
The first song I ever wrote was inspired by Pat Frank’s science fiction novel Alas, Babylon. It was a school project, probably seventh or eighth grade, and I wrote a song to the tune of Hank Williams Jr.’s “A Country Boy Can Survive” about a postapocalyptic world. It was terrible.
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Here’s video of a five-year old girl performing the Caitlin Rose song “Own Side.” (via Nashville Scene)
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Current Discussion
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February 6, 2011
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February 22, 2011 at 11:47 am
That five-year old is precious. Very amazing that she could stay on tune and follow the guitar accompaniment. Thumbs up for this one.
February 22, 2011 at 11:53 am
A 5-year old Caitlin Rose stayed on key more than 21 year old Taylor Swift does.
February 22, 2011 at 11:56 am
I first had the same confusion Dr.; that’s not Caitlin, but a singer who, at 5, shows better phrasing and clarity than most American Idol oversinging competitors , singing a Caitlin song.
February 22, 2011 at 12:01 pm
The Yoakam article is a bit dated don’t you think? Nonetheless, a phenominal entertainer.
February 22, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Barry,
Oops! Thanks for the correction!
February 22, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Yikes, it is a bit dated. I don’t know why it popped up in my alerts, but I probably should have checked the date anyways.
February 22, 2011 at 12:26 pm
@Brody – No biggie – Anything referring to Yoakam, Marty Stuart, and the other renaissance cool cats is always welcome!
February 22, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Really excited to see some attention for Rachel Brooke here. Her new album is worthy of attention.
Caitlin Rose astounds again.
February 22, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Love that video of the little girl… so cute, and pretty impressive!
February 22, 2011 at 2:27 pm
If The Bellamy Brothers get anywhere with a lawsuit, I think the estate of Groucho Marx should sue them.
February 22, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Groucho Marx didn’t write a song.
Songwriters have always lifted lines from other sources as the basis for songs. Didn’t Chesney have a big hit with “You Had Me From Hello” which came from the Jerry McGuire movie? And country songs used to lift lines/take inspiration from TV commercials: like “I’ve Got a Tiger By The Tail,” “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and the ridiculous classic “Please Don’t Squeeze My Charmin.”
But it certainly appears that the Brittney Spears song lifted the core lines from the Bellamy Brothers song. I don’t follow Spears’ type of music so I have no idea how big her song was. But if it was a big hit and made a lot of money, why shouldn’t the Bellamys hire a lawyer and try to get a tiny piece of it? The guy who wrote “He’s So Fine” sued George Harrison for “My Sweet Lord”–and won!
(Actually, the Bellamys can’t lose. Even if they never file or never collect, just having the discussion gets their names all over the Internet and gets them more publicity than they’ve had in years. I’d be willing to bet that the number of downloads of the Bellamys’ “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body” this year will be double what they were last year.)
February 22, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Travis Tritt has a song called “Nothing Short of Dying,” which line was lifted directly out of Sunday Morning Coming Down.
February 22, 2011 at 8:22 pm
While it isn’t country, one can never forget that Kurt Cobain lifted the title of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from a women’s deodorant commercial.
February 22, 2011 at 9:51 pm
I have to say, the discussion here of the Bellamy Brothers item appears remarkably untainted by any awareness, much less consideration of any of the issues raised in the story the item linked to.
February 22, 2011 at 10:57 pm
I’m sort of on the side of Spears/etc. on the “Hold It Against Me” flap. The statement brings up Dr. Luke’s “lifting” problems in the past, but using “Girlfriend” as an example, while the case was indeed settled (which usually means that some wrongdoing was involved), the original songwriters of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” ended up “exonerating” all involved of wrongdoing. I don’t hear any more similarity between “California Gurls”/”California Girls” (Beach Boys version) than I hear between “California Girls” (Beach Boys version)/”California Girls” (Gretchen Wilson version). I’m not as familiar with the “Feels Like Tonight” situation. I can see the similar phrases/similar intent legal argument (the “dog” example), but more so if the Bellamys were the originators of that phrase, which they aren’t.
On a side note, the similar-use-of-similar-words-or-phrases-for-similar-intent argument in that article makes me surprised that Mark Chesnutt/Roger Springer/Slugger Morrissette never went after Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon for “It’s a little too late/I’m a little too gone” (as opposed to “she’s”).
February 22, 2011 at 11:21 pm
“On a side note, the similar-use-of-similar-words-or-phrases-for-similar-intent argument in that article makes me surprised that Mark Chesnutt/Roger Springer/Slugger Morrissette never went after Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon for “It’s a little too late/I’m a little too gone” (as opposed to “she’s”).”
I always wondered that too. That one’s pretty egregious.
February 23, 2011 at 7:45 am
Jon: The problem is that “If I said _____ about your body would you hold it against me” isn’t unique to the Bellamy Brothers and Spears’ song does not contain the same line, nor it is especially similar.
February 23, 2011 at 8:46 am
@Stormy Aren’t you the person who thought that the Cranberries’ “Dreaming My Dreams” was the same song as Allen Reynolds’ “Dreaming My Dreams With You?”
February 23, 2011 at 9:30 am
The Willie-Cash-Waylon-Kris ’80s-’90s group was once sued by a ’60s folk-singing group for expropriating their name, “The Higwaymen,”
Waylon came up with the idea of having the “Michael-Row-Your-Boat-Ashore” group–which had been inactive for several years–get back together and open some shows for the country legends group. It actually worked out–and they settled the dispute that way.
I think the Bellamys are angling for an invitation to open for Brittney Spears.
February 23, 2011 at 12:19 pm
LuckyOldSun: On The Highwaymen (the song and not the folk group), I think that Jimmy Webb would also share credit for it since he wrote the song and it was first recorded by Glen Campbell in 1979 so I probably believe that Jimmy may have known about the 60′s group even before he wrote the song. But then again did he ask the people in Phoenix, Wichita and Galveston before Jimmy wrote songs about the people there?
February 23, 2011 at 12:29 pm
The Bellamy Brothers have always used cliches or popular sayings in their music. “Let Your Love Flow” uses a bunch of those as does “Do You Love As Good As You Look”, “Old Hippie”, “For All The Wrong Reasons”, “Sugar Daddy”, etc.
Do You Love As Good As You Look uses phrases like “Judging from the cover, I’d love to read your book.” and “The answer to the question on my mind.”
Another song that used words from a celebrity was “Help Me Make It Through The Night” which was written by Kris Kristofferson after watching an interview on TV with Frank Sinatra after him saying to the effect “What helps me make it through the night are sex, booze and women.” so it’s nothing new either that someone saying something has been used in a song.
February 24, 2011 at 10:51 am
Lewis:
You cannot copyright or trademark song titles. Neil Sedaka had a song called “Stairway to Heaven” before Led Zepplin did. And there may be hundreds of obscure songs with titles like “Love” or “I Love You” or “I Will Always Love You.”
But you can trademark group names. You can’t call your group the “Beatles” or the “Turtles” or the “Highwaymen”–because those names are taken.
The Jimmy Webb song was called “Highwaman.” The initial albums and song were credited to Willie, Waylon, Cash and Kris–with no mention of “Highwaymen”–because Columbia was well aware of the trademark issue. The second album was called “Highwayman 2″
Since “Highwayman” was their signature song, the group became popularly known as the “Highwaymen”. When they started to tour, they did use the name “Highwaymen” in their promotional materials–and that finally caused the conflict with the “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” group.
After the case was settled,they were able to call themselves “Highwaymen” on their third and final album.
March 3, 2011 at 3:06 pm
To conitune the debate Lukasz Gottwald (Dr. Luke) is counter suing the Bellamy Brothers.
Dr. Luke has claims the Brothers’ attack was “a publicity stunt aimed to increase their record sales … and to combat their dwindling relevance”
March 3, 2011 at 6:03 pm
@Jon: That’s not a story, it’s a press release. One of SEVERAL I have received on this topic. If they’re really going to sue, they should just do it and stop announcing over and over again that they’re thinking about it.
There’s a terrific (post-reunion) Lynyrd Skynyrd song called “Born to Run,” btw. I don’t recall Springsteen raising hell about it.
March 3, 2011 at 7:06 pm
@Chris N. OK, but that doesn’t really affect the content of my comment.
March 4, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Just nitpicking you like you nitpick everyone else, sir.
March 4, 2011 at 5:01 pm
OK, but it could have been more timely nitpicking, don’t you think, sir?
March 4, 2011 at 5:54 pm
He who nitpicks last nitpicks best.
March 4, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Watch this site for the exciting debut of the new band The Timely Nitpickers, famous for their lengthy give-and-get improvisations. (Followed by The Bluegrass Commissars.)
March 4, 2011 at 6:22 pm
I’m pretty sure that should be “bestest.”