Dwight Yoakam Faces Changes In the Music Industry

FYI: John Rich’s CD isn’t his debut, it’s his sophomore release after “Underneath The Same Moon.”

Definitely looking forward to anything Dwight turns out. Every album just seems to be so conscientious, you can definitely tell the work he and his crew put into the music.

Made it through the Rich CD. Now I’m off to skinny dip in the outhouse. Maybe that’ll get the stink off of me.

Okay- it wasn’t all bad. And I’ve got to give him credit where it’s due- He’s got to be doing something right in marketing himself. This album full of mediocre and bad songs is probably going to do pretty well.

“everybody wants to be me” and “Drive myself to Drink” were just awful- plain awful.

I was looking forward to Naked Willie. Is that a joke or is NW bad too?

Speaking of John Rich, my friend Travis, who lives over on the west side of town, told me yesterday that a day or two earlier, he’d walked out of his door in the morning to find a Prevost and a couple of trucks parked right outside; turns out they were shooting footage for a video on “Detroit” next door. Most interesting tidbit: Kristofferson’s all up in it.

one of my friends it working on that video….mickey rourke is in it also…

Regarding the United Kingdom crossover question, firstly, it is worth noting that Taylor Swift has just picked up a Top Five hit on the UK Top 75 Singles chart due to heavy digital sales. Whether this is just an isolated instance of something that has generally been characterized as “country” by genre, or the beginning of a potential wider trend of the “country” genre across the Atlantic, remains to be seen, but it is nonetheless interesting, given that many of the UK’s top pop acts (Westlife, Robbie Williams, Take That, Girls Aloud, etc.) have barely even dented the US Billboard Hot 100.

Secondly, while Kings of Leon certainly aren’t a country band, they nonetheless have a lot of that Southern blend to their rock sound that leans rockabilly in many instances and, given the band is currently at seemingly demigod-like status in the United Kingdom presently, I think their success could pique the interest of Brits to increasingly research related Southern rock bands, then from there, who knows, they may unravel some Red Dirt, and then from there, perhaps the wider country genre.

Nickelback aren’t a country band either, but consider that 1) their lead singer Chad Kroeger apparently always relishes characterizing himself a “redneck” in concert, 2) they covered Joe Nichols’ “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” at a Nashville concert not long ago, 3) Kroeger worked with Travis Tritt when he covered the band’s album track “Should’ve Listened”, 4) CMT actually offered “Rockstar” video play on its network, and 5) their new album features a closing track titled “This Afternoon” that certainly sounds like a blatant effort to capitalize on the Country radio market. As it is, Nickelback are also quite popular in the United Kingdom, much on image just like with Kings Of Leon.

At any rate, I don’t expect an overnight gushing of interest in country music overseas, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see more young Brits, fascinated by the image bands heartland-leaning rock bands like Kings Of Leon and Nickelback, signal at least modest curiosity in exploring more “Southern” music in particular, and eventually dig their hands into country turf.