Delightfully Spirited Dolly Parton Will Grace SXSW Audience
- If you plan on attending SXSW this year the area shows just got a little sweeter with the announcement that Dolly Parton will be playing at the Austin City Music Hall.
- With no Golden Globes to attend Tim McGraw and Jimmy Fallon hit the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills for a late night karaoke session. They performed “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Always On My Mind” for an audience of four women. It’s not exactly a honky tonk, but it’s nice to see McGraw isn’t opposed to playing more intimate shows than the stadiums he regularly fills.
- Chris Neal’s mix CD playlist deserves a lot more love than it’s receiving. The playlist, cleverly titled “Woman Enough: 20 Reasons to Take the “O” Out of Country“, was inspired by the gender inequity at country radio. I’ll let Chris do the rest of the explaining:
My mix CD is meant as an argument that women, unbound by the expectations placed on men to hew to a set of non-negotiable country clichés, are producing more interesting work in mainstream country than their bepenised counterparts. A few of the year’s best country albums were made by guys, but women cornered the market on the kind of emotional complexity that has always been the genre’s most underappreciated resource.
- Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town says the intensity the band felt opening for George Strait in Austin made them feel like they had never opened for anyone before.
- The country music star search television program Nashville Star will be moving to NBC this summer.
- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founding member John McCuen sat down to do an interview with Mary L. Duval last month at Threadgill’s in Austin, TX. He feels like he’s making some of his best music but is frustrated with how hard it is to get attention for it, specifically his Acoustic Traveler album. The interview provides an interesting perspective of the different experiences from throughout his career.
- If you missed last year’s series of Garth Brooks concerts do no fret. On January 25 CBS plans to broadcast an hour from one of his shows in L.A. The live airing will be from his first of five performances that will benefit wildfire relief in California.
- While we’re on the subject of Garth, he thinks a solution to the sales crisis in the music industry is price structuring, whereby a popular artist could sell a single for more than the industry standard (99 cents). On the prospect of recording a duet album with Trisha Yearwood he says “the door is open,” and his solution for solving piracy–internet police.
- The Gobblers Knob has an Official Gobblers Knob Public Service Announcement for those of you who love to download but can’t bring yourself to do the illegal thing: visit the SXSW website, which provides mp3 files from different bands, click and “save target as” like a mad man!!
- Apparently Miley Cyrus and her achy-breaky daddy have been having some creative differences over how she should be performing certain songs.
- Standing at a burly 6′5″ James Otto knows that he and his teacup Chihuahua make an odd pair, so feel free to laugh, he’s a confident guy.
- Toby Keith still owes his former label an album, so he’ll be releasing a hits album that encompasses his career to fulfill that obligation. On top of that he’ll be releasing a soundtrack for his movie Beer For My Horses and topping it all off with a new studio album.
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January 18, 2008 at 10:21 am Permalink
Moving to NBC is a huge, huge deal for Nashville Star. That move transforms the show into something that has the ability to more viably launch artists.
January 18, 2008 at 10:24 am Permalink
I wonder if that will trick up the guest judge roster even more than in years past. I think Velvet Revolver is looking to promote another album….Trent Summar would be awesome at that, but he isnt as big as ol Phil….Vassar.
January 18, 2008 at 1:27 pm Permalink
There’s one other major change for Nashville Star this year. Instead of holding one set of auditions at the Wildhorse Saloon, they’ll be mounting a 20-city audition tour. I wonder if that means they’ll televise them American Idol style?
January 18, 2008 at 1:40 pm Permalink
Oooh, if they hit Dallas, I might just have to shave my head, put my navy suit on and do my best Phil Stacy impression….
January 18, 2008 at 2:28 pm Permalink
So basically “Nashville Star” graduates into what is always should have been–a country version of American Idol.
There are some positive and some negative points in that regard…
January 18, 2008 at 2:31 pm Permalink
I’m not sure what Garth means by “… stricter licensing deals for artists whose music ends up behind the credits on television shows or in commercials.”
The licenses are pretty clear-cut by themselves. Does he think that the artist whose music is used has to be chyroned all the time, or that the brand necessarily has to do more than pay the artist/label, and publisher(s) invovled their respective negotiated fees?
January 18, 2008 at 2:37 pm Permalink
RE: “Nashville Star” – the writer’s strike just paved the way for so many reality shows to get green-lit for the major networks. They just aren’t going to be held hostage without new programming to schedule. I wonder if a reprise on “Nashville” on FOX is in the offing as well.
Let’s hope the 20-city tour also goes outside the U.S. borders to Canada or Australia where so much Country talent has emerged from in the last 10-15 years.
January 18, 2008 at 3:02 pm Permalink
If I remember correctly the original season of Nashville Star did have auditions???
January 18, 2008 at 6:02 pm Permalink
Yes, Laniburg, you are correct. There were regional auditions and the regional winners advanced to the national show.
January 18, 2008 at 6:11 pm Permalink
Thanks for the love!
January 18, 2008 at 9:11 pm Permalink
The “Woman Enough” article is a delight and right on the money. Since the author writes for “Country Weekly” (I’m almost embarrassed to admit I subscribe), I’d like to see this article in that publication as its normally full of puff pieces. What’s sad is the large influx of new female listeners to country radio, ie “adult contemporary” and “teeny-bopper pop” types who love Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, will only exacerbate the troubles Chris Neal pointed out. Targeted demographic profiles by mainstream country radio programmers is hollowing out the heart and soul of country music (at least as far as new female artists are concerned)….
As for Nashville Star, I’ve watched the previous seasons and hope some of the professionalism of American Idol rubs off on NS. The featuring of other established artists for marketing reasons should stop and last season’s show when songs were assigned to the contenders was pitiful. And most importantly they need judges who actually have something to say worth listening too. Brett Michaels was soooo out of place and the country artist judges rarely had anything funny or constructive to say. Anastasia Brown and Jewel can stay around though. (wink) Unfortunately I expect the contestants selected to be mostly Carrie and Taylor clones/wannabees…..
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