Don Williams Misses Hall of Fame Induction; Opry Titles Newest Song “Blake Shelton”; And Taylor Swift News
- Jimmy Dean and Don Williams were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame last night. Unfortunately, neither inductee was present at the ceremony: Dean passed away earlier this year and Williams was suffering with bronchitis, but is expected to resume his tour on Tuesday. Peter Cooper has a recap.
- A new TV show based on a Funny or Die video in which Jewel disguised herself for a karaoke contest has been ordered by TBS.
- Club 21, the oldest continuously operated dancehall in Texas, burned to the ground early Sunday morning when a speeding car crashed into the front of the building. The owner says the 117-year-old club won’t be rebuilt.
- To Blake Shelton, the Grand Ole Opry is an artist and he’s proud to be one of its songs, or more literally, one of its members — a designation that was made official Saturday night with his induction ceremony.
- Garth Brooks has a news conference scheduled for Thursday. There’s no word on what announcement he has planned.
- The Dixie Chicks, Randy Houser, and Dolly Parton‘s breasts are among the targets for this month’s collection of parody album covers at Farce the Music.
- Writing for the Y! Music Country Blog, Chris Willman calls “Dear John” the best song of the year. He also calls “Dear John” the worst song of the year. He’s actually referring to two different songs, the first was written by Taylor Swift and the second by Jessie James, who also has a little history with John Mayer.
- Guitars, costumes, handwritten lyrics, and other personal effects belonging to Johnny Cash will be up for auction on Dec. 5.
- Country California: Quotable Country – 10/24/10 Edition
- Lady Antebellum performed a gig at a Wisconsin gas station.
- Chet Flippo on Taylor Swift‘s new reality:
Taylor belonged only briefly to Nashville and to country music. She now belongs to the world, and the world will treat her accordingly. She’s only going to face more intense scrutiny and more vitriol than she has ever known before.
It’s getting scary when a middle-aged music commentator such as Bob Lefsetz writes a lengthy blog on why he is sure that he’s the subject of Taylor’s song “Mean.” (Note to Bob: I actually did have an artist write a similar song about me, but much nastier and much more graphic, and I didn’t tell the whole world about it at the time and I see no need to pontificate on it now.)
- Charleston, SC 1966 is only Darius Rucker‘s second country album, but The New York Times‘ Jon Caramanica says he’s already fluent in the modes and poses.
- For their Mountain Stage debut, Whitey Morgan and the 78‘s performed two songs from each of their albums, which include 2008′s Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels and their recently-released self-titled album.
- Music Fog: Sara Petite – “Bootleggers”
- Music City Roots kicked off its second season last week with the Harpers, the Huntley Sisters, Next Best Thing, and Rhonda Vincent. It was also the show’s first night with its new radio home at Lightning 100.
- There are a lot of articles on Taylor Swift today, many of which are multi-page profiles. After reading a few, they begin to bleed together, so for sanity’s sake I’m leaving out summaries and just linking those that crossed my path: USA Today (Brian Mansfield), Los Angeles Times (Randy Lewis), Los Angeles Times (Ann Powers), The Boston Globe (James Reed), The Wall Street Journal (Christopher John Farley), The Tennessean (Peter Cooper), The New York Times (Jon Caramanica), and more.
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Here’s Joey+Rory‘s new video for the song “That’s Important to Me.”
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Blake Shelton // Country Music Hall of Fame // Darius Rucker // Dixie Chicks // Dolly Parton // Don Williams // Garth Brooks // Grand Ole Opry // Jewel // Jimmy Dean // Joey+Rory // Johnny Cash // Lady Antebellum // Randy Houser // Rhonda Vincent // Sara Petite // Taylor Swift
Current Discussion
- Jack Hanford: For those who are interested, there is a new 90-minute documentary video about Tompall & the Glaser Brothers on DVD ...
- joe morris: how come nobody mentions his fan club which started 1950 and was called the " the penny pushers " which ...
- jane: I'm reading this article in 2013 and I've yet to hear anything from the album played on the radio.....
- Catwandy: I guess Matt C. is eating his well-deserved crow 'bout now. Critics....gotta love 'em , bless their little hearts.
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29 Comments
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October 25, 2010 at 11:02 am
FYI. If you missed it, last week’s edition of Music City Roots is now available as a podcast on iTunes. (I’m hoping that all future shows will be available as podcasts.)
October 25, 2010 at 12:15 pm
People might well want to see the take on Jimmy Dean’s “Big Bad John” by Trace Adkins and the Jordanaires at that Medallion ceremony lats night. (The performances in general were excellent; this one’s up as video online at the lower left, here:
http://countrymusichalloffame.org/
October 25, 2010 at 12:35 pm
“Garth Brooks has a news conference scheduled for Thursday.”
Oh goody!! A news conference from the original hype master himself. What else is new?
October 25, 2010 at 1:11 pm
“Jimmy Dean and Don Williams were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame last night. Unfortunately, neither inductee was present at the ceremony: Dean passed away earlier this year and Williams was suffering with bronchitis, but is expected to resume his tour on Tuesday”
Me: Perfect opportunity to let Williams accept at the CMA’s like the old days.
October 25, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Treacle:
Good luck with that. Sad but true.
October 25, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Don Williams – A class act who found an excuse not to be in the limelight again – Gotta love it.
CMA’s- There is no time to rightfully honor the Hall of Fame inductees since time has to be given to acts like Paltrow who this will be her FIRST live singing gig – Talk abotu throw-up.
Garth Brooks – Yet another major announcement. He is getting to be a bore.
Swift & Flippo – We all know he has a thing for her. Scary.
Rucker – Pure pop/country. Or is this the reinvented country Kristian Bush keeps talking about?
October 25, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Waynoe, Darius may be pure pop country but as far as pop country goes, isn’t it good stuff?
October 25, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Oops. In that area Matt, I would say he is decent. His talent is not to be underrated but we have a plethora of pop-country acts now. Maybe it is the new or reinvented country that Kristian Bush talks about that we have to get used to.
October 25, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I think Darius is just boring country.
October 25, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I don’t know if country will go the way Sugarland or Taylor are going. I think there’s actually more people wanting it to go a bit more twangy than it is right now.
October 25, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Waynoe: Garth will probably be announcing yet another announcement that he’ll be retiring yet again to be followed in about a year or less with another comeback.
October 25, 2010 at 3:51 pm
It appears the country format has become the landing place for those who have nowhere else to go with their music. In the old days, Top 40 radio could accommodate country, think Rogers, Denver, Rich, Fender, Parton, Gayle, et al (70′s style). Today, there is no Top 40, per se. It’s techno/rap stuff. It’s interesting that Swift has crossed over so well, yet Keith Urban, who is pure pop these days, rarely makes that transition.
October 25, 2010 at 4:17 pm
As far as Darius Rucker, I think it’s absolutely wonderful that a black guy can rise to the top of the country charts by making bland, lousy records. Certainly, enough white guys have done that.
October 25, 2010 at 4:20 pm
It appears the country format has become the landing place for those who have nowhere else to go with their music.
Rumor has it we are about to get Rod Stewart.
October 25, 2010 at 4:27 pm
…i look forward to the thread when we’re going to discuss, whether we think he’s sexy…
October 25, 2010 at 4:28 pm
JeffT
October 25, 2010 at 3:51 pm Permalink It appears the country format has become the landing place for those who have nowhere else to go with their music.
Actually, there’s nothing new about that. Everyone from Bing Crosby to Connie Francis to Dean Martin to B.J. Thomas has “gone Country” when they were having trouble continuing their success in the pop market.
And artists like Kenny Rogers, Ann Murray and, of course Conway Twitty “went country” so successfully that they’re now mainly considered country artists.
And if an artist finds himself/herself being blockaded from the pop AND country charts, then they “go Christian.” That’s been done by everyone from Tennessee Ernie Ford to Pat Boone to Randy Travis.
October 25, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Check out this AMAZING Kenny Chesney ‘soundcheck’ performance of “Somewhere With You” from his new album … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JliFxkDcUlE
October 25, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Love the new Joey + Rory video =) Hope this single actually does something on the radio!
October 25, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for the link to the Sara Petite video. We don’t have very many SoCal artists making a dent on the Americana charts these days. Go Sara!
Gee, I liked “That’s Important To Me” just as much on Joey’s solo album! As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like deja-vu all over again!”.
Doesn’t Whitey Morgan realize his first name is not politically correct under our current federal regime? “Cracker Morgan” would be far more acceptable…
Trailer’s album covers rate a solid “4 Hoots” this go round. Dolly’s cover wins this week’s “truth in advertising award”!
I’m really hoping Garth will announce he will never, ever be performing again! (That and his bronze statue at Buck’s Crystal Palace is being melted down and re-cast into Bob Wills).
October 25, 2010 at 9:16 pm
That story about Rod Stewart is a few years old I think. And I’ll say now what I said when i first heard it: Listen to Gasoline Alley or Every Picture Tells a Story and you will hear more country than you will hear on current country radio.
And on a sort of related note, has anyone heard the Leon Russell/Elton John collaboration? I haven’t, but when I first heard about it, I thought that it would be the audio version of the little girl with the curl: either very very good or very very bad.
October 25, 2010 at 9:52 pm
This is out in left field but found out tonight that John Conlee graduated from the high school I work at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OQNeCX4MjM&feature=player_embedded#!
October 25, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Vicki,
John Conlee is one of the real good guys. Thanks for saying his name.
October 26, 2010 at 10:40 am
“I’m really hoping Garth will announce he will never, ever be performing again! (That and his bronze statue at Buck’s Crystal Palace is being melted down and re-cast into Bob Wills).”
Rick, you do realize Bob Wills is all ready cast in bronze at the Crystal Palace?
I find the amount of vitriolic comments about Garth to be boggling when no-one knows what the press conference is about. Shame really that people question every motive even as Garth has proven time and time again that he has simply done what he said he would do. Like him or not he has done a huge amount of charity work that he deliberately stays low-key about. I’ll wait and see what is actually said on Thursday.
October 26, 2010 at 11:42 am
BLL: Garth said at one time that he was going to retire until his oldest daughter went to college and this retirement lasted how long, one year or two? Then he came back with “Good Ride Cowboy” and made his deal with Wal-Mart and then he retired again and then he came back again this time with a bought and paid for #1 with “More Than A Memory” then he retired again and then he came back and decided that Las Vegas was his thing and then he retired yet again. And Garth’s news announcements are nothing new either, he either makes them when someone is close to his record of over 100 million albums or when he is desperate for attention and wants to come back which is very often now. He’s just a plain hype machine that’s all he is.
October 26, 2010 at 11:52 am
…as long as there are still quite a few people willing to pay for a garth brooks concert ticket, if there were any available, why should he not come out of retirement every once in while. i think, this is called a perfect win-win situation. of course, one can look at it in a more dogmatic way, whether that comes across as being smart is a different matter.
October 26, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Is Darius Rucker’s album title a play off of that Radney Foster album (“Del Rio, Texas 1955″)?
October 26, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Yes it is, Colt. Darius used the same basic concept, and replaced it with the city and year in which he was born.
October 27, 2010 at 1:23 pm
“BLL: Garth said at one time that he was going to retire until his oldest daughter went to college and this retirement lasted how long, one year or two?”
When he announced his retirement it was from touring and recording full albums, neither of which he has done. I tire of people taking his actual statements and twisting them, but that’s the media for you. He’s playing Vegas a weekend or two a month with his kids blessings and the understanding that if it interferes he’s done.
October 27, 2010 at 3:26 pm
For Vicki and Waynoe: I ranked John Conlee’s top ten hits in my latest Country ChartBeat. Check it out.