CMA Provides Boost For Nashville Schools To the Tune of $1 Million

Brody Vercher | March 4th, 2009 Email Share

For the third year in a row, the Country Music Association is donating proceeds from the CMA Music Festival to Nashville area schools. Only this year the total amounts to over $1 million, more than the past two years combined. Thirty-one schools will benefit from the donation and twenty-one of those schools will receive instruments for the first time.
Twang Nation’s Baron Lane reviewed Hank III’s concert at the Grand Ballroom in San Francisco, Cali. on February 28, and if one thing is readily apparent, it’s that a Hank III show isn’t like other country shows.

9:30 sharp the stage goes dark and a recorded dirge like you might typically find opening a Slayer performance booms. The capacity crowd begins to flail, stomp and scream like some Pentecost tent revival simmering in the Southern heat.

Hank III and the Damn Band … walked on the stage and lurched into “Straight to Hell” knowing just what the crowd wanted. All hell breaks loose and my prime spot 5 feet in front of III’s mic becomes ground zero for a swirling vortex of moshing frenzy.
Without knowing the histories and credits of all the 1,800 acts descending upon Austin for SXSW, Michael Corcoran feels confident in his assumption that Jefferey Steele is the only one who has co-written a song with Miley Cyrus. Read his interview with the country songsmith and soulful rocker at Austin Music Source.
PopMatters‘ Ben Child digs the new Buddy and Julie Miller album Written in Chalk.
Inversely paraphrasing the title of The Flatlanders first album, Paste magazine’s Steven Rosen says the trio are “now more a band than a legend” with their third album, the primarily acoustic Hills and Valleys, on the horizon.
If you’re a frequent reader of these daily news roundups, then I expect a high score from you in Dan Milliken’s first country quiz for the month of March at Country Universe.
After absorbing the Phosphorescent tribute album to Willie Nelson, succinctly titled To Willie, for a few weeks, HearYa blogger Oz, who was originally skeptical, says his “oh shit” turned to an “oh wow.”
Farce the Music parodied Jake Owen’s top 10 hit “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You” with … wait for it … “Don’t Think I Can Doo Doo.” Nice.
People magazine seems to be all up in Carrie Underwood’s bidness.
Three of the original 24-track analog recordings of a Johnny Cash concert on July 28, 1990 at the Paramount Theater, Asbury Park, N.J are being auctioned on eBay with a starting bid of $4,999.
By the time Ray Wylie Hubbard, Charlie Robison, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Robert Earl Keen had finished celebrating Texas Independence in New York City on Saturday, Jim Allen says “it felt as if Texas had not only re-declared its vaunted independence but somehow annexed the Empire State.”
Dave Alvin has an album lined up with his new band, The Guilty Women, to be released May 26, the same day the tribute to his friend and former bandmate Chris Gaffney is scheduled to be released.
On March 17, Warner Bros Records will release I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits of Randy Travis. The 32-track album will feature two previously unreleased tracks titled “Love’s Alive And Well” and “You Ain’t Right.”
Kellie Pickler launched her own official fan club.
The Misery and Gin blog recently recommended the live album Keepers to any new Guy Clark fan. I heard there’s three-discs worth of outtakes from the live shows that were compiled to make Keepers floating around somewhere.
The Houston Chronicle’s Joey Guerra on Rascal Flatts‘ kickoff concert at RodeoHouston:

Rascal Flatts was a perfect choice to kick off the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, which now boasts a glitzy new stage, multiple video screens and busy laser effects.

Perfect — because the boy-bland trio relied on those additions to make its underwhelming musical catalog soar beyond its woeful limitations.

And that’s just the tip of the put-down iceberg.
My Kind of Country asks, what songs that you don’t like get stuck in your head?
Two of George Jones’ signature Billy Sherrill-produced albums, A Picture of Me and Nothing Ever Hurts Me, will be reissued as a single CD by American Beat Records on April 7. (via press release)
Jamey Johnson’s concert at The Stage in downtown Nashville on Thursday will be streamed live on his website.
Ninebullets.net claims that the new album titled Hiram and Huddie will easily be the best compilation of the year (preview several tracks on the site). It’s a two-disc tribute album to Hank Williams and Huddie William Ledbetter, or Leadbelly, although both discs can be downloaded individually.

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Zach
March 4, 2009 at 11:10 am Permalink

Jamey Johnson news is exciting!!
Jon
March 4, 2009 at 11:38 am Permalink

That Guilty Women lineup looks to be mighty fine. I’ve not been a big Dave Alvin fan heretofore, but I’ll be checking that one out.
Michael
March 4, 2009 at 11:43 am Permalink

I’ll probably pick up this Randy Travis compilation. I don’t buy too many CDs these days but this seems like a compact way to get most of his hits. I love that “Are We In Trouble Now” is included… but wish they wouldn’t have left out “Point of Light”, “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart”, or had included a couple of his later Dreamworks singles (”Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man” and “Out of My Bones”)
Paula_W
March 4, 2009 at 11:47 am Permalink

Jeffrey does put on a good live show. And in spite of his ‘country’ hits, he is a rocker at heart. He’s got a helluva band backing him too.
J.R. Journey
March 4, 2009 at 12:09 pm Permalink

From the Houston Chronicle review: “Rascal Flatts has yet to meet a cliché it didn’t like…” Ha ha ha! And you guys should definitely read some of the comments to that review too – hilarious.

Almost as hilarious as the Farce the Music parody of the Jake Owen song.

And thanks for the link!
nm
March 4, 2009 at 12:59 pm Permalink

Jon, did you like the Christy McWilson album Alvin produced? If so, I think you’ll enjoy the heck out of the Guilty Women.
Roger
March 4, 2009 at 1:17 pm Permalink

I just got back from a free lunchtime jamey johnson show in downtown nashville…great crowd with all of the country radio broadcasters in attendance…hopefully they saw how many people enjoy real country music and find room on their playlists for more!
Jon
March 4, 2009 at 1:37 pm Permalink

“Jon, did you like the Christy McWilson album Alvin produced?”

You know, I heard one or the other of them, but it didn’t leave much of an impression. But I’m pretty intrigued by the particular combination of musicians in the Guilty Women.
Dave S
March 4, 2009 at 1:50 pm Permalink

I’m actually surprised that it has taken this long for Kellie Pickler to launch her own fan club. It is so crucial to the success of a new artist, and this is just one of many reasons why she’s receiving an apathetic radio response post-Small Town Girl. In my opinion, this is just too little too late.
Rick
March 4, 2009 at 5:17 pm Permalink

Due to Hank III’s split musical personality, I think he should do two separate shows everywhere he performs. He could do the “traditional country show” first and after us old timers cleared out bring in the moshing punk music lover types to behave as described in the above review. Just a suggestion…

Would some of the new Johnny Cash ass cream recently announced over at CountryCalifornia help Jake Owen with his doo doo problem? Hmmm….

I like Kellie Pickler (and her music to a point), but she just doesn’t have a strong enough voice to compete head to head with Carrie Underwood and the other pop diva belters that dominate Top 40 mainstream country these days. (An exclusion is made for Taylor Swift as her singing ability seems unrelated to her astronomical success.)

Its nice to see LA local artist Amy Farris as part of the Guilty Women. Hopefully they will perform here in LA so I can see Cindy Cashdollar do her thing live on stage since I never caught Asleep at the Wheel when she was still with them.

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Billy Sherrill // Carrie Underwood // Charlie Robison // Chris Gaffney // CMA // Country Music Association // Cross Canadian Ragweed // Dave Alvin // George Jones // Guy Clark // Hank III // Hank Williams // Jake Owen // Jamey Johnson // Johnny Cash // Kellie Pickler // Phosphorescent // Randy Travis // Rascal Flatts // Ray Wylie Hubbard // Robert Earl Keen // The Guilty Women // Willie Nelson

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CMA Provides Boost For Nashville Schools To the Tune of $1 Million

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