Grammy Nominees; Jack Cooke & Big Bill Lister Passed Away; Dixie Chick Lawsuit Dropped; CMA CEO Resigns

people are crazy nominated for best country song…..shoot me now

The news about Cookie left everyone, including host Jim Lauderdale (who produced Jack’s one solo album a few years ago), a bit down in the dumps at last night’s Music City Roots; in his honor, Jim called “Sitting On Top Of The World” as the cluster number at the end of the show. You can hear (and sometimes see) Jack singing it with Ralph’n'em here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uKUL5Zj72Y . He’s singing some stout baritone here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4adxe5N6Ato ), though regrettably, no one who’s posted clips from this 1977 KET appearance saw fit to post his featured number on that show. And he got some decent face time here, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOo2mDRPE7c . None of the obits I’ve seen really do justice to his career and contributions, and he was a great guy, too. RIP Jack Cooke.

It’d be a great song if it wasn’t so lame.

I hope the Grammy’s will be true and think about that Female “Vocal Performance” and pick one of the 4 true singers in that category over big sales and world domination of the other.

Kinda surprising that Brad Paisley wasn’t in the male vocal performance category. Didn’t Trace’s song just come out like 2 weeks ago?

Good on the Zac Brown Band for getting so many nominations.

Nice to see ‘High Cost of Living’ getting a few nods.

I would honestly rather listen to pokerface than people are crazy. At least pokerface has in interesting beat. Plus that whole question of whether or not she has a penis.

After the CMA travesty, I’m having a feeling the Grammys would want to join the pathetic ride to acknowledge mediocre songs and out-of-tune singers. Listeners now actually think there is something real about singing out of tune and train wreck performances. The CMAs used to be called the Oscars of Country Music because it used to be quality over quantity hence Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts despite being a massive, commercial and radio success got snubbed. Quality over quantity. Another good example of that was Shania Twain’s case where she couldn’t win any female vocal award at the CMAs despite her larger than life success worldwide because she couldn’t keep up with Martina McBride’s vocals. Now it’s no more different than the Teen Choice Awards. It’s about money and the teen sensations. Watch how the Grammys will join the ride.

I’m pleased to see Lee Ann Womack nominated for her performance on “Solitary Thinkin’”.

Can anyone shed some light on why they chose to nominate Taylor in the country categories specifically for her performance on “White Horse” rather than “You Belong With Me” or “Fifteen”?

BUT Arron you do need a singer that sings in tune and with more than a limited range. I admit, I love “White Horse” as a song. It’s very well written ..

Not every song has to have perfect tone and pitch…white horse is raw and truthful and honest because shes singing about heartbreak, like she is actually going through it in real time during the song

“Not every song has to have perfect tone and pitch…white horse is raw and truthful and honest because shes singing about heartbreak, like she is actually going through it in real time during the song”

Considering that one of her nominations is for vocals, I wouldn’t agree. Someone who wins the highest honor in music SHOULD have perfect pitch, and have the ability to stay on key. Granted, Taylor does fine on some songs (“White Horse,” “Fifteen,”) her singing is atrocious on most of her songs. Someone who wins this award should be on point all the time; Taylor isn’t.

Taylor is a talented writer and she has a great artistic vision, but I think most people know she shouldn’t be able to win any vocalist awards.

Aaron, watch how Carrie Underwood pulled a flawless and emotional performance of Temporary Home at the Opry or Martina McBrides jaw-dropping pitch-perfect performance of Anyway at the CMAs. If you are actually saying being out of tune makes the song more emotional then every person in the world is as talented as Swift when it comes to singing.

“Perfect pitch” is the ability to identify the pitch of a note without a reference, not the ability to sing in tune; it’s an auditory skill, not a vocal one. And since the Grammy awards are for recordings, not live performance, the ability or inability to sing in tune (which is, in any event, highly contextual for just about everyone) is irrelevant. Just sayin’…

What I see is a gifted girl who won contests for poetry and literary works. She also did a lot of Theater Arts growing up. She’s a gifted full rounded arts person. You put that together and that’s an explosive combination. She writes her songs from that gifted beginning, she’s an actress, and can express herself quite well in public. Put music to her words by a gifted musician and it’s the phenomenon she is. The one area that she is not gifted in, is singing. She sing speaks, has limited range, and she’s frequently out of tune on notes in live performances. But that doesn’t matter as her words are so powerful, along with the music and how pretty she is, and the actress she is. Those other gifts overpower the weaker areas. I see Taylor continue to write great songs, but be in a great breakout movie acting role too. She will do TV specials etc. But what can any music genre do now with someone like Taylor? Most people are gifted in one or two areas. I think Taylor needs to be in her own genre by herself so that others in the genres of country, pop, rock, alternative, etc have a chance. There are more gifted singers out there by far, but they don’t have the overall writing/acting/showmanship that Taylor has. The male singers are thanking their lucky stars that they were born a man.