Dealing Blind: Clint Black Files Lawsuit Against His Manager
- Clint Black filed a lawsuit against his manager/accountant, Charles Sussman. Black asserts that Sussman and his firm “repeatedly engaged in self-dealing, negligence, and/or gross negligence” in steering his finances. Part of the dispute involves Little Big Town. Black believed the band was signed to a long-term deal with Equity Records, the independent record label in which both Sussman and Black have minority ownership, but the band left for Capitol Records shortly after the release of A Place to Land. He alleges that Sussman kept him in the dark about the terms of their contract.
- For her fourth appearance on Mountain Stage, Patty Loveless performed six of the songs from her new album, Sleepless Nights. Listen on NPR Music.
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New albums for the week of 11/18/2008 include:
- On top of releasing a new album, iTunes made Randy Houser’s “Anything Goes” the Discovery Download of the week, which means you can download it for free. (iTunes)
- In his review of Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, And Country Music by Dana Jennings, David Cantwell claims, “Jennings writes like a dream.” He continues by comparing the book to many country songs: “beautiful, but very, very sad.” And if there’s one qualm with the book, it’s the darkness that consumes the subject matter.
It focuses on the Carter Family’s dark and stormy side of life to the near exclusion of the bright and sunny. For me, the cumulative effect of this choice is that the book infrequently reads as unwitting caricature, like an Erskine Caldwell novel. This is not, I stress, because the stories Jennings tells feel false. Rather, it is because those stories feel incomplete; they cherry-pick the tawdry and miserable from orchards that surely must have grown their share of joy.
- Country Universe’s Kevin J. Coyne has a rundown of what you can expect to find on the Marty Robbins and Tammy Wynette Legendary Performances DVDs issued by Shout! Factory in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
- Luke Bryan landed a sponsorship deal with Miller Lite.
- For episode 14 of Nashville at Nite, host Ashlie Kolb snagged interviews with Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Bucky Covington, Chuck Wicks, Lee Brice, Jason Michael Carroll, Josh Turner, Jeffery Steele, Sarah Buxton, Kristy Lee Cook, Trent Tomlinson, Heidi Newfield, Songwriter of the year Casey Beathard, Little Big Town, Randy Owen, and Ira Dean on the BMI Awards red carpet (you can also watch artist specific interviews on their YouTube channel).
- Lucero frontman Ben Nichols elaborates on the background and recording process for his new solo project in an interview with Samuel Duke.
- The new Randy Travis Vault features classic merchandise for sale, from a 1991 tour jacket to out of print t-shirts and vintage truckers hats. (via NashvilleGab)
- Hal Ketchum explains his decision to record live to 2-track for his latest album, Father Time, in an interview with Americana Roots’ John Walker:
It was just conversations that I had with my friends talking about how they really missed being together and creating a record. The human element was disappearing almost. Also, everyone seems to be striving for perfection, and the equipment has got to be so good that you could actually tune a fart if you wanted. It was not a boastful endeavor by any means, I only wanted to give it a shot and see how it went.
- Scott Matthews‘ claim in the latest “Off the Cuff” feature from Galleywinter that San Antonio-based Jeremy Parsons (MySpace) has a “real Johnny Horton thing going” piqued my interest. After taking a listen, he definitely has an appealing traditional quality to his voice.
- Watch the new video for “Start a Band,” the song featuring Keith Urban from Brad Paisley’s instrumental album, Play.
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We've labored long and hard to come up with our list of the Top 10 Country Albums of 2008. Click here to see who claimed the honor of the year's top album, as chosen by The 9513's staff and writers.
Don’t confuse disappointing with worst, as that list would most likely be dominated by obscure indie knockoff bands along with a couple of mainstream releases. There has to be a modicum of expectation that’s dashed upon the release of an album for it to qualify for the year’s most disappointing.
Join host Kelly Dearmore as he shines the light on several noteworthy album releases you might have missed and interviews various artists, from Sarah Borges to Trent Willmon and Reckless Kelly to Wade Bowen, in the first two episode of The 9513 podcast.
Jim Malec counts down the top 20 country music news stories of 2008. How many times do you think John Rich will be mentioned?Tagged In This Article
Ben Nichols // Blake Shelton // Brad Paisley // Bucky Covington // Chuck Wicks // Clint Black // Hal Ketchum // Heidi Newfield // Ira Dean // Jason Michael Carroll // Johnny Horton // Josh Turner // Keith Urban // Kristy Lee Cook // Lady Antebellum // Little Big Town // Luke Bryan // Marty Robbins // Patty Loveless // Randy Houser // Randy Owen // Randy Travis // Tammy Wynette // Taylor Swift // Trent Tomlinson // Zac Brown Band
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[...] If you’ll recall, Equity Music is the record label that Clint Black helped start in 2003. Black recently filed a lawsuit against his manager/accountant Charles Sussman, who is also a minority owner in Equity Music, for [...]
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November 18, 2008 at 11:17 am Permalink
I dug that interview with Hal Ketchum. His album seems to be getting overlooked, but it’s one of the best ones of the year in my book.
November 18, 2008 at 11:18 am Permalink
Jeremy Parsons’ “Happy Place” track on his Myspace page made me chuckle. I bet that was a fun show.
November 18, 2008 at 11:30 am Permalink
I may have to give the Ketchum disc another listen. I went through it once and was really underwhelmed. “Past the Point of Rescue,” “I Miss My Mary,” “I Know Where Love Lives,” and “Small Town Saturday Night” are tracks I still listen to all the time. I’m not sure what it was that turned me off in Father Time, but the lyrics came off as bland- which seemed totally uncharacteristic of Ketchum’s earlier work.
November 18, 2008 at 11:53 am Permalink
I may totally disagree with the political slant of the NPR/PBS talk shows but man do they feature some fine music on a regular basis. Prairie Home Companion features live music of the highest quality weekly and makes the Grand Ole Opry seem like a Branson vaudeville show in comparison. Mountain Stage also consistently delivers great qulaity music from diverse artists. I just miss the early days when Austin City Limits featured mostly country music related artists.
I can’t see Jeremy Parsons doing well outside of Texas with a Johnny Horton thing going on. Although Johnny was a top act in the 1950’s, these days he belongs on one of Paul Dennis’ “Forgotten Artists” features here at The 9513. I will admit that back in the 60’s I was diggin’ on Doug Kershaw’s cajun version of “the Battle Of New Orleans”.
November 18, 2008 at 1:57 pm Permalink
Love the Brad and Keith video.
November 18, 2008 at 2:00 pm Permalink
I liked the Brad & Keith video…I didn’t know they made a video, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw it posted here.
November 18, 2008 at 7:24 pm Permalink
The Nashville At Nite interviews are awesome…so many of my favorite artists were featured. Very cool!
November 18, 2008 at 7:46 pm Permalink
I swear! If my entire Christmas haul isnt comprised of items from Randy Travis’ Vault, than I dont wanna have Christmas!!
The “I’m Diggin’ Up Bones w/ Randy” shirt may be the coolest thing I have seen since the “I’m Getting a Perm w/ Conway” shirt…
November 18, 2008 at 9:39 pm Permalink
Too bad about Clint’s manager. I bet the lawsuit could be pretty large since he did seem to mess up the deal with Little Big Town on purpose. But from what I heard in Nashville it didn’t seem like Equity had the money to even put out another album on them until they got a few new investors.
November 18, 2008 at 10:56 pm Permalink
LOL! Now that’s a great line and true-to-form statement from HK! You can even modify your farts. How clever is that…something tells me he’s been listening to Larry The Cable Guy a bit. :P As for BP + KU…they are awesome talents, but somehow I think their superstardom doesn’t work completely…their stuff overshadow one another, but the video idea is definitely props to BP and his antics.
November 19, 2008 at 12:10 pm Permalink
I picked up Zac Brown’s new album yesterday. In my opinion it’s the kind of album that attracts Grammy attention; top shelf.
November 19, 2008 at 12:14 pm Permalink
SW, I agree. I’ve got the CD in its little frame on display on my coffee table, and I think it’s gonna stay there for awhile. I did a little happy dance when it came in the mail yesterday. :D
November 19, 2008 at 12:46 pm Permalink
There is little in life more aggravating than trying to get a pick out of your guitar.
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