Country Music Hall of Famer Carl Smith Passed Away; Tom T. Hall to Headline WCRS Live!; Stream Patty Griffin
- Country Music Hall of Famer Carl Smith passed away in his home on Saturday at the age of 82.
“From the minute he came out, I wanted to look like him, tried to comb my hair like him and learned every song he ever recorded,” Waylon Jennings once said of Mr. Smith, who retired from music in 1978 and bred champion cutting horses for decades.
[...] Radio exposure on WSM and on the Opry helped Mr. Smith to gain notoriety, as did his tours with Hank Williams and others. Beginning in 1951, he launched a streak of 21 straight Top 10 country hits, including “Loose Talk,” “Hey Joe!” and “”Let’s Live A Little” and eight-week No. 1 “Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way.”
- T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham won a Golden Globe last night for their collaboration on “The Weary Kind,” only Bingham wasn’t around for the critical announcement.
- Tom T. Hall is scheduled to headline the annual WCRS Live! acoustic showcase at CRS 2010 with fellow singer-songwriters Wynn Varble and Easton Corbin on February 25. (via press release)
- Karla Davis was named winner of the 28th Annual Colgate Country Showdown. (MySpace)
- Country Haiku:
Uh oh, I just learned
The McGee girl was really
Bobbi with an i - The British band No Comebacks reinvented songs of the silverscreen cowboys for its album Back In The Saddle Again. I challenge you to listen to “Here Pussy Pussy” and not crack a smile. (via No Depression)
- Miranda Lambert resolves to not use profanity in 2010.
- Performing rights organization SEASAC is developing a web-based delivery system, named Ruby DS, for watermarked audio files to improve the ability to track performances for music licensing and royalty distribution.
- Preview “Today Was A Fairy Tale,” Taylor Swift’s new song from the upcoming movie Valentine’s Day. The song will be available to download on iTunes starting tomorrow.
- American Songwriter Senior Editor Michael Kosser on the fading prominence of songwriting mentors:
The songpluggers are concentrating on their hottest writers, all a sweat to get enough cuts to keep their jobs for another year. And major publishers tend to hire pluggers who have demonstrated their ability to get a cut, not for their song-mentoring skills. They see songs as ready or not ready for demos, ready or not ready for pitches, not almost ready as in, “If you do this, this and that to the third verse, I think you’ll have a hit.” In fact, I’m not sure that songpluggers get as emotionally involved with songs as they used to, as in, “I love this song and I won’t stop pitching it until it’s a hit single.” Let a promising song go through a month or two of rejection or languish on an album without being considered for a single slot and the pluggers may forget about it.
- The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance received a low-interest federal loan of $2.5 million for the construction of a Cultural Heritage Center in downtown Bristol. (via That Nashville Sound)
- Country Universe wrapped up its list of the best country albums of 2009.
- In the first of a two-part CMT Insider interview Toby Keith talks about altering his set list for his first European tour, audience reactions, and his penchant for manipulating the press.
- After quickly selling out its first date at the Ryman, Lady Antebellum added a second.
- Bluegrass band The Grascals took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday for a new RV park named in its honor. The Grascals Bluegrass Hollow RV Park is located just outside of Dothan, Alabama where the country music entertainment center Country Crossing was opened over the weekend.
“This is really a great honor for us,” says band member and guitarist Jamie Johnson. “We grew up going to RV parks and bluegrass festivals as kids and these places are a part of the lifeblood of live bluegrass music. To have an RV park named after us is something we don’t take for granted and that we are so excited about!” he adds.
- Country Weekly’s Jessica Phillips weighed in on albums from Bekka Bramlett, Zane Williams, Blue Highway, and Deric Ruttan.
- Country Haiku:
On Sunday morning
I had two beers for breakfast
Barley’s good for you - How much is too much Cash? Washington Post contributors tackled the issue in a recent edition of Taking Sides.
- Listen to Downtown Church, Patty Griffin’s new album, in its entirety on NPR.
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Bekka Bramlett // Blue Highway // Carl Smith // Colgate Country Showdown // Country Music Hall of Fame // Deric Ruttan // Easton Corbin // Hank Williams // Lady Antebellum // Miranda Lambert // No Comebacks // Patty Griffin // Ryan Bingham // T. Bone Burnett // Taylor Swift // The Grascals // Toby Keith // Tom T. Hall // Waylon Jennings // Wynn Varble // Zane Williams
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January 18, 2010 at 11:07 am Permalink
Preview “Today Was A Fairy Tale,” Taylor Swift’s new song from the upcoming movie Valentine’s Day. The song will be available to download on iTunes starting tomorrow.
Okay, so now she’s just going to skip a step and write the jokes for us.
January 18, 2010 at 11:30 am Permalink
This is another very good song from Taylor Swift. The movie also looks like it might be good – a great ensemble cast anyway.
January 18, 2010 at 11:42 am Permalink
I’m more interested in hearing Jewel’s contribution to that movie; I can’t wait for her next country album!
January 18, 2010 at 11:55 am Permalink
That new Swift song is garbage. Hope it doesn’t find its way on any album other than the movie’s OST. And I already know I’m going to like the new Patty Griffin album after hearing its lead-off track, a great rendition of Hank’s “House of Gold”.
January 18, 2010 at 12:47 pm Permalink
R.I.P. Carl Smith. One hell of a singer and artist.
January 18, 2010 at 1:32 pm Permalink
The Jewel contribution is pretty awful. The Patty Griffin album sounds great.
January 18, 2010 at 1:57 pm Permalink
Could this be the country version of “Glitter”?
January 18, 2010 at 2:18 pm Permalink
I don’t know what you’re talking about; “Glitter” was awesome.
[/sarcasm]
January 18, 2010 at 3:54 pm Permalink
Here’s a link to the new Jewel song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ix75n-EAqE&feature=player_embedded
January 18, 2010 at 4:39 pm Permalink
Hey, what’s with Jessica Phillips writing Country Weekly album reviews rather than Chris N.? Jessica was a regular contributor to the Country Standard Time blog but when she announced she was heading to Country Weekly I had no idea it was to be their primary album reviewer! Crikey!
Carl Smith was one of the best male singers in the 1950’s, a period which to me stands as the greatest decade in country music history. I love to listen to his songs and am sorry to hear of his passing. Almost none of today’s most popular male country artists can hold a candle to Carl’s vocal abilities.
Well I guess naming an RV Park after The Grascals beats naming a highway rest stop after them….
January 18, 2010 at 4:46 pm Permalink
Chris left CW to be one of the founders of M Magazine.
January 18, 2010 at 4:55 pm Permalink
The one thing that I applaud Taylor Swift for is her writing ability, the words she uses to create the story. I can tell she must have wrote this one the same day she did her quick run through on the movie. Not much effort or thought at all. But it will be #1 on the soundtrack.
January 18, 2010 at 8:08 pm Permalink
I was very pleased with “The Weary Kind”’s win at the Globes.
That first Haiku is hilarious.
I don’t care for Taylor Swift’s new song.
That is all.
January 18, 2010 at 8:12 pm Permalink
It’s all true. I left CW in November.
January 18, 2010 at 11:04 pm Permalink
Only 2 comments on Carl Smith thats the sad shape of the world to day RIP Carl Smith
January 18, 2010 at 11:45 pm Permalink
Great to see Deric Ruttan get a review in US media. Not an overly favourable review, for an album that I’m diggin’ on right now (haven’t listened to the whole thing yet – just got it at work today) but still nice to get some buzz. DR is one of our best songwriters up here, and a hell of a nice guy. He’s written some beautiful pieces of work for his own albums and done a lot of good work with others, both Canadian and American. I’ve heard stories about the infamous “Houseboat Songwriting Sessions” on Dierks’ houseboat, along with Church, the Beavers Bros., and Deric. That would be an interesting time…
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