First DVD Drawn From Johnny Cash’s TV Show Coming Soon

Just for fun, try singing the words from “9 to 5″ the next time you hear “Heart of Glass” by Blondie.

Actually, it can be argued Ben, as it was by this year’s Hall of Fame inductee:

“Regardless of the controversy, they made a great record. You can analyze this thing into dirt, but at the end of the day, they’re a great act with great songs. To me, you look like a fool arguing they don’t deserve it.”
- Vince Gill

As for Kanye, he shouldn’t be shocked that Gnarls Barkley didn’t win Song of the Year, since they weren’t even nominated.

They did lose Record of the Year to the Chicks, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they came in second in the voting. But I imagine that some voters who would’ve chosen them went with Mary J. Blige instead, and vice versa. Sure, country voters had the Chicks song and “Jesus, Take the Wheel”, but what about the rest of the voting body? “You’re Beautiful” was already so played out by that point, and slight to boot, that the Chicks song was probably the only credible thing to vote for.

He’s also wrong, the Chicks did acknowledge the other nominees collectively both in their acceptance speeches and the press conference backstage. Why should they single out Gnarls Barkley over Mary J. Blige, James Blunt, Justin Timberlake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.? It doesn’t make sense.

Kevin C.

you are very well informed regarding the goings on of the Grammys this year, well done.

And I happen to disagree with ol Vince Gill on this point. Furthermore, I don’t think he has a very persuasive argument. First of all I don’t share his enthusiasm for the Chicks and would probably substitute “good” or “alright” (but certainly not bad) for every time he said “great”, but even putting that aside, I don’t think that one would be a “fool” or even more condescendingly that one would “look like a fool”, to argue that the political controversy surrounding their act (which, by the way, was a major promotional tool for them i.e. the first single, the dvd “shut up and sing”, the interviews that found them hostile and dismissive towards the country music audience) was coincidental to their sweeping the Grammys.

I think that Vince, or anyone else, would be the one “looking like to fool” to confidently assert that minus the political controversy that found the Chicks looking like the victim of a right-wing smear campaign, that they would have swept the Grammys (which have been no great friend of country music up to this point)

How do you compare Toby Keith to a thug, whiney, rapper like West? I just saw Toby Keith’s show last week for the first time, and Toby is one hell of a country entertainer. He is good to his fans and his music can still be counted as “country.” He does not deserve to be compared to West, especially when the people making the comparison aren’t citing any similarities to back their statements up. Which leads me to believe that it’s just criticism with no foundation whatsoever, generated because some people might not like his politics, music, or whatever.

My point was actually that Kanye and Toby — despite the consolations of wealth and success — are both extraordinarily fixated on the industry awards they win or don’t win, as if such things are actually meaningful.

Also, not every rapper is a thug.

Mike is mistaken - the “Western” in Country & Western Music never did stand for cowboy music. Back when the term was coined the two dominant strains of modern Country Music were Honky-Tonk and Western Swing (Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, Tex Williams)and hybrids of the two forms such as Merle Travis, Ted Daffen, Al Dexter and later Hank Thompson. The Sons of the Pioneers were about 30% Western Swing so they got some airplay, but few other western acts ever got much radio airplay on C&W radio.

It was always possible for a really good cowboy song to get some airplay (and the really great vocalists such as Billy Walker and Marty Robbins managed some major hits) but cowboy songs never were a significant part of the mix, except perhaps in parts of the west