High School Senior Scored Date With Taylor Swift to Prom
- Hillcrest High star-quarterback Whit Wright thought he would be going to senior prom solo. Fortunately for him, he was chosen as a finalist for MTV’s reality show “One Upon a Prom.” Taylor Swift, who missed her own senior prom, pulled his name from a hat and attended the prom with him this past weekend. The local news outlet posted some video.
- Snoop Dogg’s pursuit of country music fame continued over the weekend when he filmed a video with Willie Nelson in Amsterdam.
- Steve Earle on his son Justin Townes Earle in an interview with Peter Cooper:
Lately, you’re watching your son, Justin, as he makes his entry into the record-making business with an album that’s getting a lot of praise. Did you have much advice for him during the process of making an album?
Justin doesn’t listen to me. I’m the last person he’ll listen to, and I can’t complain about that because that’s how I raised him. It’s a horrible, painful thing to go through, watching your kid having to walk through the fire.
- Taylor Swift landed on the cover of the latest Rolling Stone — being billed as “The Best of Rock 2008″ issue — and got a nice write-up, too.
- In a Q&A with Versus Magazine Randy Rogers says be on the lookout for a new single in the next few months and a new video as the band gears up for the release of their sixth album.
- Austin American-Statesman writer Michael Corcoran associated each letter of the alphabet with a Willie Nelson fact, for instance “K” stands for Koepke, Connie. “Willie’s third wife — and Paula and Amy’s mom — was a statuesque beauty from Houston. Connie helped Willie come up with the concept for “Red Headed Stranger” on the drive from a ski trip in Colorado to Austin in January 1975.”
- Matchbox Twenty guitarist Kyle Cook says the one element of music that unites all the members of his band is country music.
- James Otto is enthusiastic about his first week of sales for Sunset Man. USA Today has more on his past, his affiliation with the MuzikMafia, and collaborations with his brother-in-law Jay DeMarcus.
- Dolly Parton has scheduled an ambitious world tour and Ray Waddell wrote a five page piece detailing her past, current and future projects, and her status as an icon. Here’s a nice quote about Porter Wagoner:
“Porter and I were always like family, or a husband and wife in a way,” Parton says of Wagoner, who died last year. “We fought all the time but we loved each other deeply and truly. We were both so stubborn and so much alike that we couldn’t get along. We had our differences, but there was always that bond, and the last several years we had become really close again.”
- Several of Ray Charles‘ children are suing his long-time maganer, Joe Adams, claiming he exercises too much control over Charles’ estate while excluding them from business dealings.
- Billy Ray Cyrus enjoyed himself so much at Country Thunder on Saturday night that he left Arizona Daily Star writer Cathalena E. Burch wondering if he’d have to be yanked from the stage.
- Ed Crowell says the last act to see for many at the Old Settler’s Music Festival was Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives.
Stuart even consented to an afternoon acoustic demo inside the Salt Lick Pavilion on the fest grounds. He wrapped that up, as he did for his Saturday night set, with Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” This is indeed a nice guy who knows good music knows no audience or authorship bounds.
He goes on to say that “what makes Old Settler’s soar repeatedly is the organizers’ willingness to put wings on the genre, from the gospel rock of the Jones Family Singers to the John-Paul-George harmonies of Beatlegras to the country command of Marty Stuart.”
- Little Dog Records is offering another free download if you answer a few questions.
- Here’s a Miranda Lambert photo gallery to accompany the OK! Magazine Q&A I posted about last Friday.
- Joe Diffie made three previously unheard tracks that he’s dubbing the “basement tapes” available for download on his MySpace. If you purchase all three he’ll send you a fourth one for free, and he’ll periodically replace the tracks to make room for new ones.
- Theresa N., Dylan, Stephen H., Jason Bleau, and Heidi are the winners of our Chris LeDoux giveaway. Congrats and be sure to look out for more giveaways, particularly towards the end of this month (ya’ know, somewhere around Willie’s birthday). We’ve got some special stuff lined up.
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Billy Ray Cyrus // Country Thunder // Dolly Parton // James Otto // Joe Diffie // Justin Townes Earle // Marty Stuart // Miranda Lambert // Old Settler's Music Festival // Porter Wagoner // Randy Rogers // Ray Charles // Steve Earle // Taylor Swift // Willie Nelson
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22 Comments
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April 21, 2008 at 10:30 am Permalink
It would have been fun to be in that Amsterdam coffee shop with Willie and Snoop Dogg filming the video. I guess their security guys were kept busy keeping the curious out.
I am not bothered by any artists singing country music, like some are. Country artists try to jump genres all the time. Musical tastes change, too. I never really started liking country country until Willie toured with the Dead.
April 21, 2008 at 10:58 am Permalink
I actually like Snoop Dog and I love Willie- but please, please, please don’t let this be another “Willie Smokes Pot” song. If anything ever has been done to death, it’s the “Willie Smokes Pot” song. We get it. It was funny 10 years ago when he did a cameo in “Half-Baked” and then it was over. Willie Smokes Pot. I get it. Good for him.
April 21, 2008 at 11:08 am Permalink
But how about a Willie and Snoop Dogg both smoke pot song?
No, it’s not a pot song.
April 21, 2008 at 11:50 am Permalink
Thanks for the cd! I can’t wait to get it :)
Interesting about James Otto and Jay DeMarcus being in-laws. I bet that happens often in Nashville.
April 21, 2008 at 12:22 pm Permalink
Putting all the pot smoking aside for a minute, CNN says The 9513 kicks ass.
April 21, 2008 at 1:15 pm Permalink
Can you give a little insight please???
April 21, 2008 at 1:20 pm Permalink
Sadly it’s just a joke. CNN has a feature on their homepage where you can turn some of their headlines into t-shirts. The headline is in the url, so you can basically change that to whatever you want.
April 21, 2008 at 2:07 pm Permalink
Nice to see MTV pimping out Taylor Swift. Opens up her career options when people finally figure out she can’t carry a tune on pitch.
April 21, 2008 at 2:53 pm Permalink
Funk, but she’s got the look. And she’s got the guitar. And she’s on-the cover-of-the-rolling-stone.
April 21, 2008 at 3:03 pm Permalink
Speaking of Taylor Swift, how many of you have heard the pop remix of “Teardrops on My Guitar”? I must say I think the song works much better in the remix version. The thing that makes many of Taylor’s songs so hook-y is the rhythmic syncopation of the way she delivers the lyrics, and that is her true gift as a songwriter. I kinda wish Taylor would completely transition over to the pop realm and stay there…..
Also, I remember when Chely Wright went to a high school prom a few years ago just because a young male fan wrote and asker her! I think Kellie Pickler should auction herself as a prom date for charity and then wear the same pink harem outfit she wore to one of her own high school proms……
April 21, 2008 at 3:16 pm Permalink
Rick, I agree 100% about the Teardrops remix. That track always seemed too sparse to me. Pop or not, I thought it needed to be filled out a bit so it wasn’t so dreary.
April 21, 2008 at 3:24 pm Permalink
I actually like that idea of her taking a guy to prom. I DON’T hear Taylor being out of tune and I’ve seen her live, but I’m not saying she’s Reba either… because only Reba is. Even Trisha and Wynonna aren’t Reba, and lord knows I LOVE their sound. So much more goes into an artist other than their voice. It’s like Garth Brooks said “If the world was fair and the best SINGERS were the most popular, Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett would be untouchable”… that wasn’t the direct quote but it was something pretty darn close. Taylor’s great in my opinion. It makes sense for her to go on MTV, which I can now accept because of her fan’s ages.
Here’s my message to Snoop Dogg, STAY OUT OF COUNTRY – but if you want to do something with Willie, sounds like fun! I have no problem collaborating cross-genres, but that won’t make somebody a country singer. Exploring boundaries with Willie might turn out better than we think, who knows. Willie can make anything good – the man writes a song like McDonald’s makes hamburgers, no matter how many complain, he’s still the best. How’s that for an analogy! ;)
April 21, 2008 at 3:35 pm Permalink
Lucas, if you dont hear taylor being out of tune ever, then you havent watched any of her award show performances. She isnt only out of tune, but seems to almost be out of breath when she sings.
April 21, 2008 at 4:08 pm Permalink
I guess I’d have to go back and listen, but from what I’ve heard – she’s good. The awards always throw me with their sound, they even make Strait sound off-tune.
As far as her being pop country, that’s pretty obvious. I like her brand of pop country but that might just be because I relate to her through age. From what I’ve been told by a radio friend of mine, if she was a traiditionalist it wouldn’t be realistic to how she was raised.
April 21, 2008 at 4:19 pm Permalink
Brody, that’s a funny thing about the CNN link.
April 21, 2008 at 4:32 pm Permalink
Kelly, almost EVERYONE is out of tune on award show productions. ‘Tis why they sometimes/used to lipsync on most of them
April 21, 2008 at 5:14 pm Permalink
if everyone is out of tune on award show productions (and they probably are), then one of two things is going on (or maybe a combination of both):
1. no one can sing worth shit anymore;
2. the monitor guy needs to be fired. no one can hear themselves.
or both. i’ve noticed it, too, though.
April 21, 2008 at 5:44 pm Permalink
I wonder if they’re getting audio directly from the mic or picking it up with the camera too, that may have something to do with it.
April 21, 2008 at 5:54 pm Permalink
Well, then there are levels to how out of tune one can be on awards shows, because she is noticeable above and beyond the others when it comes to the last couple of her performances that I have seen on awards shows.
April 21, 2008 at 7:56 pm Permalink
Its true about the bad sound at award shows. The best artists can come across sounding pretty average then when you go see them live on their owns shows they sound just fine. Those productions put alot of effort into the visual image and damn little into getting the sound right
April 21, 2008 at 10:50 pm Permalink
Yep, the audio is of little importance to award shows when really, it should be as important since it’s THAT audio that the show is based on/celebrating.
April 22, 2008 at 6:14 am Permalink
TS sounds good live and recorded? I want some of what you’re smokin’! And yeah, I’ve seen her live. I’m going to see Keith and Carrie this weekend so I’ll get back to you and compare!
Kellie Pickler is doing a high school thing for promotions Rick. She is doing concerts for high schools that send the most texts or something in certain areas. There’s a local promotion on our country stations right now. Send in enough votes and win a Pickler concert. Heh!
I’ve watched a bazillion video performances that have been reworked of award show performances and even then they can’t clean them up but so far. Still, some artists sound a whole bunch better than others. Wonder why that is?
BTW, there’s a lot of Texicans on here so I was wondering why this hasn’t been promoted: http://www.playforfreedom.com/ Mark Chesnutt is headlining the first show. All they have listed so far. If this has been posted and I missed it my apologies but Algore hasn’t let me on his internets much lately ’cause I didn’t vote for him! Plus with the price of fuel I haven’t been able to run my gas powered 1953 ‘puter modem much. I’m rationing. ;-)
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