The 9513 - Country Music Blog

Songwriter: Hank Williams Jr.

The Grascals are no strangers to the rowdy side of country music, having covered Waylon Jennings’ “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” on their last album, Keep On Walkin’. Even so, their collaboration with Hank Williams, Jr. on his new single, “All the Roads,” is a pleasant surprise. Not only is it a catchy little number, it–along with several other tracks from Junior’s recent album 127 Rose Avenue–is some of the strongest material the man’s put out in nearly 20 years.

Though banjo and fiddle kick off the song and feature prominently during the next three minutes, “All the Roads” isn’t bluegrassy enough to frighten away the unbelievers–there are no Monrovian high lonesomes, and there are thumping country-rock drums to pound out the beat–but it might lead a few converts over to the Grascals and their irresistible sound. The sextet’s picking is in fine form, with new addition and current IBMA banjo player of the year Kristin Scott Benson delivering some tasty licks on the five string. Singing about waiting for his gal to return to him, Bocephus sounds better than he has in some time: engaged, playful, even downright youthful. Best of all, he’s not rehashing “All My Rowdy Friends” for the millionth time.

The raucous chorus (the best part of the song), on which Hank is joined by the Grascals, details the easy path back to him as the gang sings “I’m gonna keep all the roads open to my heart/Just in case you ever want to come back this way, sweetheart/The gate’ll be open and the door unlocked, so bring your horse and cart.” Where else do these roads lead? Junior’s “cave of love,” in which he is waiting like a hungry grizzly and you, young lady, are his Timothy Treadwell.

“Love caves?” Montana snowstorms? Horses? Dogsleds? At times it’s tempting to wonder just what the hell Bocephus is talking about, but “All the Roads” is so dang catchy that it doesn’t really matter. Turn it up and sing along.

Listen: Hank Williams Jr. and The Grascals – “All The Roads”

• Pop & Hiss’ Ann Powers on Taylor Swift’s opening performance:
  

  Swift started things out with a version of “Forever and Always” that was glitzy and high-concept — and off-tune, a consistent characteristic of Swift’s live outings that gave the lie to her one undeserved triumph, for best female vocalist. The prize should have gone to Carrie Underwood, country’s most powerful young singer and the evening’s co-host with Brad Paisley.

• Vince Gill, pre-CMA Awards, commented on the likelihood of Taylor Swift winning entertainer of the year:
  

  “I’ve been around a long time, and I know people are predicting early that she’s going to win, but I would be surprised if she did.”

  Jack Ingram, pre-CMA Awards, commented on the likelihood of Taylor Swift winning entertainer of the year:

  “I think she’s going to be the surprise of the night,” he said. “I think the entertainer category is going to have a lot people talking. I don’t want to call it a changing of the guard, but that’s what it is, regardless of what happens tonight. Tonight is going to stir things up.”

• Ingram isn’t the only one calling last night a changing of the guard, The New York Times‘ Jon Caramanica noted that the “coming sea change” could be seen in several categories.
• That Nashville Sound created its own categories (The Hell Hasn’t Frozen Over After All Award, The Dry Cleaners Appreciation Award, etc.) to honor the best and worst of last night’s awards show.
• EW.com’s Ken Tucker rounded up is own list of best and worst moments.
• If you haven’t claimed your free download of a CMA Awards nominated artist from Amazon yet, may I suggest “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Zac Brown Band, which was performed last night. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, perhaps the karaoke version of Taylor Swift’s song “Fifteen” will.
• KNBT FM has an audio interview with Darrell Scott on the subject of his latest album, Modern Hymns, his skills on the guitar, an upcoming project, and thoughts on Americana.
• Music Fog: BettySoo – “Whisper My Name”
• Wine, Women & Song — the tour featuring Gretchen Peters, Suzy Bogguss, and Matraca Berg — is heading to the Atlanta area, which also gives me the excuse to link to their MySpace again.
• CMT’s Edward Morris recapped Tuesday night’s BMI Country Awards.
• John Rich confirmed that he and wife Joan are having a baby boy and that his name will indeed be Cash.
• Johnny Burke’s new EP The Long Haul EP is currently available for free on Internet Archive. (via Alt-512 Music Musings)
• Richard Elliott believes the new Rosie Flores record, Girl of the Century, suffers from the briefness of the majority of the tracks.
• Self.com has video interviews with Kellie Pickler before her acoustic performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Miranda Lambert while she was getting ready for the red carpet.
• Listen to Mac Leaphart’s song “Confederate Roses” at The Gobblers Knob.

Songwriters: Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip.

When an artist capable of transcendent moments like “An Old Friend of Mine” and the note-perfect rendering of Dement-via-Haggard heartbreaker “No Time to Cry” that graces Revelation sets out to have a radio hit, it’s usually pretty obvious. That’s the curse of being an adept interpreter of weighty material: when you opt for lighter fare, it’s clearly a matter of choice rather than a symptom of all-around incompetence.

Enter “Gimmie That Girl,” an inoffensive little ditty all about how beautiful a woman can be in those unguarded moments when she’s not even trying. It’s a nice enough sentiment, and one that certainly resonated with women and their adoring men alike when delivered by Sammy Kershaw as “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful.”

But there’s an important (if subtle) difference between Kershaw’s 1993 hit and Nichols’ latest: where the former focuses on the woman and what she don’t know, the latter filters the same idea through a language of “gimmies.” In fact, the song is virtually swimming in gimmies: Nichols himself repeats the phrase 15 times, while back-up singers add repetitions of “gimmie gimmie gimmie that girl” behind the choruses.

The most straightforward reading is that he must really want her. Upon further examination, though, the repetitions of the request reveal a deeper truth: the song is ultimately more about the gimmie than it is about the girl.

So that when Nichols sings “Give me that girl with her hair in a mess/Sleepy little smile with her head on my chest/That’s the you that I like best/Give me that girl,” it seems less like a tribute to the woman herself and more like wishful thinking–a far-flung fantasy of compartmentalizing a person. He wants all the good, none of the bad. In truth, however, the girl who’s sweet in the morning is the same one that sometimes comes home like a raving lunatic after a difficult day at work. Nichols registers his request (15 of them, actually) for “the you that I like best,” but he can’t pick and choose. He has signed on for the whole woman.

At least, that’s the way relationships work in the real world. When you pretend otherwise, you’re ultimately just being selfish.

Gimmie a little more verisimilitude next time around, Joe.

Listen: Joe Nichols – “Gimmie That Girl”

It’s only a couple hours ’til show time, folks, and we at The 9513 are all abuzz with questions. Will Tim McGraw’s return to the CMA stage (he last performed at the 2005 awards) be a successful one? Will Taylor Swift stymie Kenny Chesney’s attempts to bring home a fifth Entertainer of the Year award? And what to make of host Brad Paisley’s recent tweet regarding his co-host’s dress, which allegedly doubles as a festive scarf?

Now, maybe you tune in to the CMAs because your favorite artist is nominated or because there’s a performance you want to catch. Maybe you’re just waiting for an onstage trainwreck so you can revel in the sweet, sweet, schadenfreude. Whatever your reasons for watching, watch it with us.

If you’re on the West Coast, check in on the live blog anyway, just so you know what you’re not missing. And East Coasters, should you decide to flip over to Glee or that History Channel special on Jack the Ripper, we’ll keep you filled in. For viewers of legal age, feel free to take part in the always entertaining award show drinking game, in which you imbibe every time someone on your television cries, changes his/her outfit, thanks a religious figure of his/her choosing, or woodenly reads from the teleprompter. But please exercise some caution: after all, it’s a three hour show, and you don’t want to be rushed to the ER with acute alcohol poisoning before Kid Rock sings.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll roll your eyes at the copious amounts of filler…it’s CMA time!

The 9513’s 2009 CMA Awards Predictions

Live Blog below the fold.

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• Kris Kristofferson was named a BMI Icon at last night’s BMI Country Awards and Bobby Pinson took home the award for songwriter of the year. Visit The Tennessean for a full list of winners.
• In light of today’s holiday, revisit The 9513’s playlist “20 Top War and Soldier Songs.”
• George Strait’s publicist confirmed that the singer will have a “very limited role” in the film A Pure Country Gift, which will star singer-songwriter Katrina Elam and is being billed as a “feature film sequel.”

• Below are a couple of new releases I missed in yesterday’s roundup:

  • Jerry Lee Lewis – Mean Old Man EP
    Amazon MP3 Exclusive

  • Josh Thompson – Josh Thompson – EP
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Steve Wariner – My Tribute to Chet Atkins
    Amazon | MySpace

• It’s time for another country day at Farce the Music, where album covers are parodied and no one is too sacred.
• San Antonio Express-News Hector Saldaña on the new, self-titled Jessie James record:
  

  Country music’s been going in this direction for a long time, but it’s still a shock to hear hip-hop loops, samplers and triggers on these pop numbers, or to hear so little twang in James’ Avril Lavigne impression on I Look So Good (Without You). It’s no surprise to see that [Katy] Perry and Kara DioGuardi have hands in the songwriting.

• Charlie Robison performs brother Bruce’s song “My Brother and Me.”
• The CMT New Video Evaluation Team reviewed Darius Rucker’s video for “History in the Making,” Randy Houser’s “Whistlin’ Dixie,” Jason Aldean’s “The Truth,” and Justin Moore’s “Backwoods.”
• Eric Brace and Peter Cooper performed “Sheboygan” (drunk again, drunk again!) for the Music Fog crew.
• Must Read: A boy, who happens to have autism, meets his hero, Dierks Bentley. (via @galleywinter)
  

  “Bud, look,” I said. “Who’s that?”

  Bud glanced up, then turned his back to Dierks, stared down at the ground, and said “That’s Dierks.”

  I looked back at Dierks, who motioned to me – Should I come out?

  I shrugged and nodded (I don’t know; I think so.), and in a flash he was with us. “Hey, Bud! It’s nice to meet you!”

  Bud kept his eyes down, but lifted his hand and said to the ground, “Hey, Dierks!” I wasn’t sure how to read him. Was this moving too fast? Did we need to slow down?

  I put my head next to his and asked, “Hey, Bud, what do you think about this?”

  He answered softly, but clearly: “I think it’s really cool.”

• Carrie Underwood’s Opry performance this Saturday will stream live on MySpace, marking the first time an Opry performance has been offered as a live video stream.
• Julianne Hough and Chuck Wicks quit each other.
• Country Haiku:
  

  Take a look at this
  I have a hillbilly bone
  Right here IN MY PANTS

• Despite his comments last week, George Jones wants people to know that he isn’t against anyone, particularly not Carrie Underwood, who posed for pictures with Jones at a Dolly Parton CD/DVD release event on Monday.
• EW.com’s Chris Willman listed 25 country albums you need to hear.
• Free Download: Download a song from a CMA Award nominated artist for free courtesy of Amazon. Be sure to use the code before it expires on Nov. 22, and if you need some help choosing a song, The Raconteurs’s “Old Enough,” featuring Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe, is well worth downloading. There’s also Miranda Lambert’s “California,” which was available as a bonus track on Me and Charlie Talking, or Brooks & Dunn’s take on the Merle Haggard standard “The Fightin’ Side Of Me.”
• Be sure to join Jim, Juli, Karlie and Pierce (with special guest appearances by…) starting at 7:30 pm EST for our CMA Awards Live Blog.

• Watch the new video for, and find out the inspiration behind, Caroline Herring’s song “Tales of the Islander.”

Juli Thanki

One More For The Road by Adam Steffey

The past few months have been pretty rough on the wallets of bluegrass fans, with stellar releases coming from the Del McCoury Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Ricky Skaggs. But for my money, the best bluegrass record of the past few months—maybe all year—is Adam Steffey’s One More for the Road. Steffey, a mandolin player who’s been a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station and Mountain Heart, and who has contributed to dozens of other artists’ albums, is currently with the Dan Tyminski Band. He’s got a lovely deep voice as evidenced on the title track and a few others and guest vocalists Alison Krauss (covering the Bluegrass Cardinals’ “Warm Kentucky Sunshine”), Ronnie Bowman (”Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends”), and Tyminski (”Let Me Fall”) are their usual superb selves. A handful of instrumentals including “Durang’s Hornpipe,” which features wife Tina Steffey on banjo, and rollicking closer “Barnyard Playboy” round out the must-listen album.

Kelly Dearmore

Too Much Living by Danny Balis

Returning to the musical roots of his childhood, Dallas music-scene veteran Danny Balis channels his inner-Don Williams without imitating the gentle giant. An album that is simply and expertly Country. No “posts,” “alts,” “neos” or other narrow prefixes are required for this collection of tales that were created while Balis resided in a personal hell following the sudden loss of his best friend and gifted collaborator, Carter Albrecht. While the album isn’t solely about tragic loss, there is a steady stream of heartbreak and dissolution that is evident throughout, even in Balis’ choice of which artist he covers for one of the album’s songs, the tortured Townes Van Zandt. That direction is somewhat telling, as it fits in with the originals that make up the rest of this stellar album.

Pierce Greenberg

The Wreckage by Will Hoge

Will Hoge could have let a brutal car accident—followed by numerous surgeries—derail his career. Instead, he rebounded with The Wreckage, an appropriately titled album given the circumstances. The result is a lyrically dark but musically pleasing album that is more rock than anything else. The comparisons to Springsteen and Petty are pretty easy to make, but Hoge describes himself best on “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” with the lyrics “Way back on the radio dial/A fire got lit inside a bright-eyed child/Every note just wrapped around his soul/From steel guitar to Memphis all the way to rock and roll.” That steel guitar influence is clear on “Goodnight/Goodbye” which finds Hoge teaming up with Nashville buddy Ashley Monroe. The song paints a picture of a painfully frustrating relationship and Monroe’s aching back-up vocals drive the point home.

Sam Gazdziak

I And Love And You by The Avett Brothers

While we saw Miranda Lambert, Radney Foster and Corb Lund put out some of the strongest work of their careers, the best thing I’ve heard in a long time comes from the Avetts. This should serve as Exhibit A on how to make the transition to a major label without totally screwing up your sound. Yes, the banjo is largely absent, but the heartfelt lyrics, the strong vocals from Seth and Scott and the genre-bouncing are all intact. They can swap effortlessly from a simple piano/cello-driven ballad like “The Perfect Space” to something more raucous and wild like, well, the middle part of “The Perfect Space.” And the title track is the best song of the year.

Ken Morton, Jr.

When The Money’s All Gone by Jason Eady

It’s important to give shout-outs to outstanding efforts by Chris Young, Miranda Lambert, Rachel Proctor and Bryan White, who all had extremely worthy releases. There has been a gluttony of great product in the last 60 days, but my choice goes out to Jason Eady’s When The Money’s All Gone. The album is a delicious recipe of blues, soul, r&b, Cajun, plenty of country, a pinch of gospel and a hint of rock and roll. It includes one of my favorite tracks of the year in a classic story-song “Promises In Pieces.” Filled with fiddle and steel guitar, the song tells the confessional and somberly haunting tale of someone who shoots a teller during a bank robbery and whose friend, the only friend that continues to give him second chances, takes the fall for the crime and is hanged. Like many of the songs, it’s positively and hypnotically captivating. But nothing on the album is as emotionally charged as “Cry Pretty,” a conversational song about the awkwardness and rush of emotions about unexpectedly running into an ex-girlfriend.

Brady Vercher

When The Money’s All Gone by Jason Eady

Probably more Americana than strictly country, Jason Eady draws from various influences on his latest, When the Money’s All Gone (revealing, I know). From the opening romper, “God Fearing Blues,” which has already led to more than one rowdy road trip sing-a-long featuring the horribly out of tune Vercher brothers, to the appropriate closer, “Traveling Show,” it’s an incredibly cohesive collection that finds Eady in a constant struggle for redemption despite shooting himself in the foot every step of the way–it may not be solid country gold, but it’s damned good.

Brody Vercher

When The Money’s All Gone by Jason Eady

Some of my favorite records of the year have been released in the past couple of months. So much so, that I almost feel paralyzed with choices. But for the sake of this feature, I’ll mention the one that’s received most of my attention–Jason Eady’s When the Money’s All Gone. A religious warmth informs a lot of Eady’s writing, as he explores sin (theft, betrayal, murder) and ultimately forgiveness and redemption. Download the entire record, or at the very least, download these: “God Fearing Blues,” “Cry Pretty,” and “Promises In Pieces.”

Karlie Justus

The Man I Want To Be by Chris Young

Nashville Star alum Chris Young is giving Jamey Johnson a run for his money in the race to bring traditional-sounding country music back to mainstream radio, and his album The Man I Want To Be is a more than solid example of neo-traditional country at its commercially viable best. Standouts “Gettin’ You Home,” “Rainy Night in Georgia” and “Rose in Paradise,” a duet with Willie Nelson, are worth the album price alone, but the rest of the record is strong enough to hold its own. Here’s hoping the popularity of the Little Black Dress song will pave the way for more successful singles to come.

CM Wilcox

Trailer II by Chris Knight

These were the months that will define 2009, seeing the release of excellent albums by Terri Clark, Rosanne Cash, Miranda Lambert, Adam Steffey, Patty Loveless, Claire Lynch, Radney Foster, and James Hand, plus worthy latter-day efforts from Guy Clark and Kris Kristofferson. In all the hubbub, Chris Knight’s Trailer II–which would have stolen the show in many other months–went virtually unnoticed. That’s a shame, as this second collection of Knight’s early demos makes a strong case for the unfiltered brilliance of the tough-voiced, roots-rocking Earle acolyte. Recorded in the singer’s sweltering Kentucky singlewide in the summer of 1996, the collection includes raw, impassioned performances of nine songs that would become Knight classics (“It Ain’t Easy Being Me,” “Summer of ‘75”) and three others heard here for the first time (“I’ll Be There,” “Speeding Train,” “Till My Leavin’s Through”) that are every bit as good. This is sort of like hanging out at the Bristol sessions. Don’t miss it.

Jim Malec

Revolution by Miranda Lambert

September and October were so chock-full of outstanding releases that Patty Loveless’ second roots effort Mountain Soul II dropped with hardly sound, while wonderful discs from Lorrie Morgan and Joe Nichols barely amounted to a blip on the radar. Jason Eady, The Avett Brothers and Tom Russel led the charge of left-of-center masterpieces, but the album that has stuck with me the most is the slightly more mainstream disc from Miranda Lambert. Revolution is packed with outstanding, substantive songs that continue to be satisfying after their newness wanes. While the album lacks much of the bravado that has defined Lambert’s image to date, Revolution finds an artist growing more comfortable and confident with herself, a fact which allows her to open up and lay down the finest and most emotionally compelling vocals of her career. Who cares if she’s not blowing things up when she so brilliantly connects with the nostalgic tone of “The House That Built Me,” which is, for my money, the best song of the year.

Depending on your point of view, the Country Music Association may be the organization responsible for broadening the reach of country music and its artists throughout the nation and around the world, the organization responsible for transforming the genre into a musically homogeneous mass-market commodity, or both. Either way, there’s no denying that both the industry and the fandom will have all eyes turned to Nashville’s Sommet Center tomorrow night as the association doles out the genre’s most significant, coveted and respected awards.

Sorry ACM and CMT–the CMA telecast is country music’s version of the Academy Awards, the one night when almost everyone who is anyone is in the building, all done up in the finest black-tie dress a country bumpkin can muster. Nominated and voted by industry peers, winning a CMA Award is one of the major defining moments in any artist’s career, the stuff that brings typically stage-honed superstars to genuine tears.

And for all it’s faults–lack of diversity and bloc voting among them–we’ll all watch the show and hope that the association will hand off this year’s batch of trophies to the right names (yes, sometimes the Association gets it right).

Of course, we’ll have to endure Dave Matthews and Kid Rock (and a whole lot of fluff and filler), but we’ll watch anyway, hoping for one of those magical musical moments, like when Alan Jackson stood up to the powers that be and honored George Jones, or when the publicly unheralded songwriter Matraca Berg brought the crowd to its feet with her stirring “Back When We Were Beautiful.”

The 9513’s 2009 CMA Awards Predictions

In 2008, The 9513 had five staffers weighing in with predictions. We’ve grown a bit since then–so much so, in fact, that we had trouble figuring out how to fit everyone’s picks onto the graphic below.

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I haven’t watched the CMA awards in years. Sometimes I’ve had a gig, but most of the time, there wasn’t anything there to interest me. I would flip channels and land on the awards show, but wouldn’t stay long. In the 80s, I didn’t miss a show. All my favorite artists were on. Country had encountered a “traditional” country revival of sorts and I was head over heels (musically speaking) about Ricky Skaggs and his fiddle player, Bobby Hicks. I wanted to hear Randy Travis and George Strait and Reba McEntire live.

I think my lack of enthusiasm for the current awards show is because I’m not a fan of the artists in general, so there’s not anything drawing me to the show itself. I know that the show gets flak for lip syncing and bad hosting and too much focus on glitz and glam, but honestly, if my favorite artists were a part of it, I could get past all of the frills.

Which is why people watch the shows–they’re fans. And I get that.

But I’m not a fan–I perused the list of nominees and just didn’t see me drawn in. I have a small temptation with Lee Ann Womack and Jamey Johnson, but I can’t endure the whole show for that.

What bothers me the most is the lack of diversity exhibited by the CMA. There’s no bluegrass, no Americana, no Red Dirt, no Hardcore–the show and the music is centered upon the hitmakers. But what is country music? Is it only those limited sounds produced by the Top 10 on Billboard?

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• NewsChannel 5 chief investigative reporter Phil Williams published the results of a seven month investigation into ticket scalping for Keith Urban concerts and more specifically, the recent “We’re All For the Hall” benefit.
  

  [...] our investigation discovered, this year Keith Urban struck a deal with Ticketmaster to, in essence, scalp tickets to his own shows.

  Internal documents show that at stops on his 2009 “Escape Together” tour, Keith Urban’s people instructed the venues to pull out 50 prime seats to be auctioned off to the highest bidders through Ticketmaster.

  Plus, they ordered a hold on another 150 so-called “Platinum” or “TicketExchange” seats. TicketExchange was an area of Ticketmaster’s web site that claimed to have tickets being resold — usually at inflated prices — by other fans.

• Monty Powell, a co-writer behind three of the songs on Keith Urban’s latest album, won songwriter of the year at SEASAC’s 2009 Nashville Music Awards last night. View the complete list of winners at The Tennessean.

• New releases (and quite a few reissues) for the week of November 10, 2009 include:

  • Big Kenny – The Quiet Times Of A Rock And Roll Farm Boy
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • B.J. Thomas

    • I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry/Tomorrow Never Comes
      Amazon | Collector’s Choice

    • On My Way/Young And In Love
      Amazon | Collector’s Choice

    • Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head/Everybody’s Out Of Town
      Amazon | Collector’s Choice

  • Caroline Herring – Golden Apples of the Sun
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed – Me and Jerry/Me and Chet … Plus
    Amazon | Raven

  • Crystal Gayle – Top 10 Country Hits
    Amazon | Micro Werks

  • Dolly Parton – Live from London (CD/DVD)
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Don Williams – Great Country
    Amazon | Micro Werks

  • The Earl Scruggs Revue

    • Bold & New
      Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

    • Family Portrait
      Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

    • Live From Austin City Limits
      Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

    • Strike Anywhere
      Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

  • Earl Scruggs – Nashville Rock
    Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

  • Earl Scruggs & Tom T. Hall – The Storyteller and the Banjo Man
    Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

  • Glen Campbell – Duets
    Amazon | Micro Werks

  • Micky and The Motorcars – Live at Billy Bob’s Texas
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • Shelly West – The Very Best of Shelly West
    Amazon | Varese Fontana

  • Slim Whitman – Greatest Country Hits
    Amazon | Micro Werks

  • Sonny James – Chart Toppin’ Country Hits
    Amazon | Micro Werks

  • The Statler Brothers – Flowers on the Wall/The Big Hits (First two albums reissued on one CD)
    Amazon | Wounded Bird Records

  • Tanya Tucker – Singles and Doubles
    Amazon | Micro Werks

  • Texas Renegade – Bad Dreams & Other Things
    iTunes | MySpace

  • Wynn Stewart – Greatest Country Hits
    Amazon | Micro Werks

• Congrats to Miss Leslie! She’s expecting a baby on March 21.
• Farce the Music: Top 10 Sleazy Songs The Bellamy Brothers Have Yet to Record
• Sarah Borges performed “Me And Your Ghost,” while her band, the Broken Singles, displayed some impressive clapping skills, for the Music Fog crew.
• Austin Music Source’s John T. Davis reviewed the Doug Sahm Birthday Tribute at Antone’s last Friday.
• Ashley Ray’s new song “Dirt Cheap,” featuring Mike Eli of Eli Young Band fame, will be released to iTunes next Tuesday. Until then, you can listen to the song on her MySpace. (via Country Music Tattle Tale)
• Ninebullets.net posted an audio interview with Cory Morrow. The quality is pretty poor, but scroll to the bottom to listen to tracks from a few of his albums.
• Watch the new video for Jason Aldean’s song “The Truth.”

• Free Downloads:

  • The track “Jolene” from the new Dolly Parton live album is free on Amazon.

  • The track “Little Lovin’” from Lissie’s album Why You Runnin’ is free on Amazon.

  • The Gene Watson and Rhonda Vincent duet “Staying Together” is available for free for a limited time.

  • Shawna Russell has made her song “Rumor” available for free for the month of November. (via Roughstock)

• Scott H. Biram has a fairly new video for “Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue.”

Chalk Rodney Atkins’ up as one more Nashville overnight success story. That is, if nights are measured by decades.

Although he had never even played a guitar until well into high school, Rodney’s passion for music through his Tennessee Tech college days was clear to anyone who knew him. As he was working towards his psychology degree, he spent nights playing in bars and honky tonks and spent every free minute commuting to Nashville to do the same. Those Nashville appearances caught the eye of Curb Records, who signed the newcomer in 1997 and quickly released his first single, “In a Heartbeat.” It made it all the way up to number 74 on the Billboard charts, and would take five more years until radio heard another single from Atkins.

His next big push came in 2002 when he released his first album, Honesty. The first two singles off of the album flirted with the charts and it wasn’t until the third, “Honesty (Write Me a List)” that Atkins finally made it into the top 10. But a follow-up single from the album failed to perform.

But nearly ten years after being signed by Curb, things finally clicked for Atkins. With the 2006 release of “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)” (the first single from his sophomore album) he scored his first #1.

Since then, he’s continued to score big hits with four additional (and consecutive) chart toppers, including “Watching You,” “These Are My People,” “Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy),” and “It’s America.”

The ACM award-winner for Top New Male Vocalist released a brand new album earlier this year that has spawned two hit singles, and his most recent release, “Chasin’ Girls,” is about to enter the charts. The 9513 had a chance to catch up with Atkins in person after an intimate California radio show at a local bar and grill for a quick interview.

KEN MORTON, JR.: There is a brand new brick building in Greenville, Tennessee, with your name on it, I hear.

RODNEY ATKINS: That was amazing. I didn’t know my name was going to be on the building. It’s on the children’s home that I was adopted from–the orphanage that my parents got me from. I was born in Knoxville, but that is where I ended up. I went through foster care and went through three sets of adopted parents before I wound up with my Mom and Dad. Our goal a few years back was to raise about a million dollars to update that place. It had been there since the 50s, and the building had gotten run down. We wound up raising over five million dollars and they built two new youth homes and a lot of new places there. When we went to the building dedication, they named one of the buildings The Rodney Atkins Youth Home. It’s truly unbelievable. Charles Hutchins, the gentleman that still works there, was the guy that placed me with my family. The whole thing was bigger than I ever dreamed it could be.

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