Carrie Underwood Dazzles Halloween Audience

No hair is ever out of place, and every moment of banter is perfect and polite. Maybe that’s the attraction. She’s inoffensive, middle-of-the-road fun for moms, dads, daughters and boyfriends to love. But it makes for almost no edge or spontaniety. Every moment is precisely, visibly choreographed — from the audience participation to the “intimate” song section on stools at the end of the runway (Don’t Forget to Remember Me and a solid cover of the Randy Travis tune I Told You So).

Opening act Little Big Town, who almost made Underwood seem like Loretta Lynn, didn’t fare any better.

For years Mr. Keith has been reliably blustery, but today his chest is no longer puffed. This album continues a genteel streak that he’s been cultivating lately, perhaps as a corrective to his public persona of swagger and jingoism. This is gentleman country, and what’s surprising is how natural it sounds. While these vocals lack his characteristic robustness, his gift for melody is intact. And shockingly, his heart is wide open.

If you’re going to give me a honky-tonker, give me a real man that’s actually worked a job and doesn’t have French nails. Give me boots and pearl snap shirts. I mean George Strait, he looks tough compared to most of these guys (on mainstream country music videos), and he’s like 117 years old right now.

When I saw you performing at Nissan Pavilion, I just about spit out my beer when you raised your arms and revealed a pair of clean-shaven pits. Manscape much?
On those summer tours, you get so hot and sweaty. When I come off the stage, I have to dump water out of my boots. You just want to shave your head and get down like a swimmer, you know what I mean? I think it’s funny that you noticed that. You don’t have a man-crush, do you? You want to know if I shave anything else?

We already revealed the new podcast last week (which you should check out if you haven’t already). It’s hosted by Kelly Dearmore whose voice is like “sipping sweet tea on the front porch while listening to Dale Watson on the radio.” Not every episode will take on the same format as we try to introduce new segment features and focus in on various artists, but we have some exciting episodes planned for the future.

In a bit of sad news for The 9513, and as some of you may have already noticed, Matt C is no longer writing for us. The demands on his time had become too much and rather than allow it to affect the quality of his writing, he made the decision to step away. We’d just like to express our gratitude for his contributions to the The 9513, helping to improve its quality and steer it in the right direction during his tenure. Behind the scenes, he was an invaluable contributor and it hurts to have to let him go.

Moving on, we’ve promoted Jim Malec to Managing Editor of The 9513. Jim was the second writer we brought on board and during his time, he’s proven to be a worthwhile asset that any publication would be lucky to have. In addition to his behind the scene duties which will help maintain a seamless publication schedule, Jim will be able to spend more time contributing his own writing, so expect to see more from him.

We’d also like to thank our other writers for their contributions: Ben Cisneros for his great insight and excellent editorials and Paul W. Dennis for his awesome historical knowledge and willingness to share it with everyone. C.M. Wilcox will contribute on an occasional basis as he continues his estimable blog at Country California. And don’t be surprised if you start seeing a few more guest pieces.

Another announcement that we’re excited to make is the launch of the first annual The 9513 Country Music Awards. We’ve been planning this for awhile to figure out the best way to go about it and we’ll reveal all the details in a few weeks, but suffice it to say, our regular commenters (greater than 50 comments in the last year) will play a greater role in determining the winners.

- Brady Vercher

The 9513 has been featured in various regional and national publications including, among others, Country Weekly, the Austin Chronicle and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and our writers have been published in Country Weekly, American Songwriter, Denver Westword, Houston Press, St. Louis Riverfront Times, and many other print publications. If you’re interested in writing for the web’s most widely read independent country music blog, email me.

- Jim Malec