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Howard Stern Responds To Dolly; Says Bring It On
- Howard Stern’s response to the allegations that Dolly Parton is contemplating a lawsuit: “I can’t even imagine someone thinking they have an actionable case, but bring it on.”
- Last month I called attention to the story behind Marty Robbins‘ epic western ballad “El Paso,” where the hero’s love for a woman named Felina becomes his downfall. Check out the video Country Mike posted where Marty Robbins sings about the life of that wicked Felina.
- Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift co-wrote “The Best Days of Your Life” which will appear on Pickler’s new album this fall. (via CMT Blog)
- The Austin Chronicle’s Doug Freeman describes Heybale’s The Last Country Album as “mostly original tunes that play like a country music primer,” and continues with:
Gary Claxton leads “California Wine” with a Haggard highway desperation, and Ball’s “Livin’ in a Cheap Motel” rings both playful and poignant. Volkaert gives Willie Nelson’s “Mr. Record Man” a solid spin with Cindy Cashdollar on steel, and Claxton invests Tom T. Hall’s “That’s How I Got to Memphis” with a smooth ache, but the group shines on Erik Hokkanen instrumental “Heybalin’.”
- Tracy Lawrence plans to record a Christian pop album this summer. (via ggcolumn)
- Cory Morrow has a new video for the song “He Carries Me” from his recent Vagrants & Kings album. The small church he sings inside of looks a lot like the one from the movie There Will Be Blood, in fact the whole town looks Marfa-esque, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie.
- Elizabeth Cook shares a couple of thoughts on the ACM Awards in her MySpace blog: “the pitchtuner was working so hard on the Taylor Swift performane she sounded like C-3-PO. And if Garth Brooks didn’t sing he’d be an ax murderer cause what else can you do with all that passion?”
- Blake Shelton sucking on a pacifier.
- As we enter into the Memorial Day weekend, revisit Jim Malec’s playlist counting down the “20 Top War and Soldier Songs.”
- Alison Bonaguro says there is a rumor that Keith Urban will be releasing a song called “You Look Good in My Shirt” from his 2002 album Golden Road as his next single. She asks the question, why now, and wonders whether other artists might follow suit in releasing songs from previous albums as singles. I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not, but if it were to happen, what are some songs that were never released as singles that you thought should have been?
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In Memory of Don Helms (1927 - 2008) Helms dated back to a time when an excellent four or five piece band and a good singer were all that were needed to make great country music. No drums, no light shows, no production tricks in the recording studio–just good music.
Don’t look now, but Darius Rucker, lead singer of 90s rock group Hootie & The Blowfish, has a country hit on his hands. What you probably haven’t heard is that Rucker is the first black artist to chart a single in the country top 20 since Charley Pride last did it in 1988.
News that former Sugarland member and co-founder Kristen Hall is suing her ex-mates, to the tune of $1.5 million, goes a long way towards providing a bit of context regarding the Atlanta singer/songwriter’s sudden departure from the group.
Josh Gracin - “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” Despite initial marketing that touted the album as deep and personal, “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” is anything but deep or personal.
Josh Turner - "Everything Is Fine" Turner is the rare example of an artist who records material that’s both quality and trademark.
Darryl Worley - "Tequila On Ice" A groovy mid-tempo that sways, a refreshing reprieve from the exhausting pace of a format that clamors for loud music and swelling choruses.
Blake Shelton - "She Wouldn't Be Gone" It’s all about nailing the melody rather than providing a legitimate interpretation that accentuates the lyrical content, although Shelton does do a pretty good job of injecting what limited emotion he can.
Forgotten Artist: David Rogers David Rogers (1936-1993) is proof of the adage that it’s great to be on a major label, but only if the label is truly behind you.
Forgotten Artist: Charley Pride For the ’70s, Billboard has Charley listed as its third ranking singles artist behind only Conway Twitty and Merle Haggard. 
In this exclusive interview with The 9513, the Show Dog Records trio talks about growing up around Waylon and Jessi Colter, and about how those experiences have helped shaped their music as they set off on their own country music journey.
One of an emerging wave of artists empowered by decreasing production costs and a rapidly changing distribution landscape, Kelleigh Bannen has taken a do-it-yourself approach to her debut album, Radio Skies.Tagged In This Article
ACM Awards // Blake Shelton // Cory Morrow // Dolly Parton // Elizabeth Cook // Garth Brooks // Heybale // Keith Urban // Kellie Pickler // Marty Robbins // Taylor Swift // Tom T. Hall // Tracy Lawrence // Willie Nelson
Current Discussion
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- leeann: I *did* mention the Lauderdale song in my review. I really liked it. He sounds...
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[…] Watch Jason Isbell perform “Dress Blues” live at Stubb’s in Austin, TX, then go read the story of Matthew Conley, the Marine the song was written about. (thanks for the link, Jarheaddad) […]
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May 23, 2008 at 9:36 am Permalink
Sadly, Dolly would be doing well to just let it alone. Howard feeds on negative publicity and the man who sold his own wife’s miscarriage out for laughs isn’t going to apologize to Dolly.
I saw your list of best soldier songs and it was lacking Dress Blues by Jason Isbell.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=dress+blues&hl=en&sitesearch=#
May 23, 2008 at 10:41 am Permalink
I’d marry that Elizabeth Cook, if we both weren’t already married that is.
May 23, 2008 at 11:15 am Permalink
There’s a Casey Beathard/Jay Knowles song called “She Don’t Love Me” that was on Billy Ray Cyrus’ ‘Time Flies’ album in 2003 and popped up again on Blake Shelton’s ‘Pure BS’ last year. I’ve always thought that could be a hit.
May 23, 2008 at 11:27 am Permalink
I don’t know which is worse, Howard Stern or the people who actually enjoy listening to him. What a vile and disgusting human being, well his radio/media persona anyway. Dolly should just say she feels sorry for any person who would stoop so low and move on…..
Thanks for the Marty Robbins video link. Here in Los Angeles in the late 50’s and early 60’s there was a country music TV show on a local station named “Town Hall Party”. Fortunately the episodes were filmed and some wise business types dug them out of a vault somewhere early this decade and committed the best performances by well known artists to DVD. The Marty Robbins Town Hall Party concert DVD filmed in 1959 is a delight as are the interview segments.
I’m convinced Elizabeth Cook writes among the most entertaining of MySpace blogs out there. What a talented and zany gal, and opinionated I might add. She has put out four fine “real country” albums and yet remains obscure and broke thanks to mainstream country radio having its head up its ass. Elizabeth and her pal Sunny Sweeney are too good for the Americana realm in my book…..
Are you mentioning Alison Bonaguro just to torture me….And no, the vast majority of radio singles will always be current songs off the newest albums to spur sales of those albums. Also radio wants the latest and newest material to stay on the cutting edge (of commercial mediocrity…)
May 23, 2008 at 12:04 pm Permalink
The song that I’d love to hear on the radio is Dierks Bentley’s “I Wish It Would Break”. He’s never made a secret of the fact that wanted it to be a single. The fans voted to have the live track included in his recent “Greatest Hits” album. If it weren’t for the new tracks (which I love) I would have predicted that he could have released IWIWB as a single now. Kind of like Kenny did with “The Tin Man” off his Greatest Hits album.
May 23, 2008 at 12:23 pm Permalink
I saw Keith Urban at the Opry last week and he played a song called “A New Sunshine” that he said would be his next single.
May 23, 2008 at 12:25 pm Permalink
Rick: I have Hey Y’all, Balls and This Side of the Moon–which one am I missing?
As for too good for Americana, I think she fits in rather well on stations that play The Derailers, Hayes Carrl, Justin Earle and Kelly Willis. I think she would be really out of place with the Carrie Underwoods and Kenny Chesneys.
May 23, 2008 at 1:00 pm Permalink
Love Blake’s take on She Don’t Love Me. But an old, old, old Tim McGraw song called “Give It To Me Strait” would have to be my pick. He rarely claims George as one of his influences anymore, but this song does it for him. There are also about 10 Dixie Chicks songs I wish they’d go back and relsease.
May 23, 2008 at 1:06 pm Permalink
I don’t know that you will hear The Dixie Chicks on mainstream radio again.
May 23, 2008 at 1:23 pm Permalink
McGraw’s “I didn’t ask (and she didn’t say)
Big and Rich’s “Live this Life”
A lot of different Brad Paisley songs…
I know this isn’t common practice, but it’s not unheard of is it? “Ridin’ for a Fall,” “Wild Horses,” and “Tin Man” were all released to radio well after their original albums hit the discount bins. I guess the difference would be that these were on new albums/greatest hits packages as well.
May 23, 2008 at 1:53 pm Permalink
I second the “Live This Life” mention … but it’s too different from anything on radio, AND anything else they’ve done, for it to be successful, unfortunately.
May 23, 2008 at 3:02 pm Permalink
I’ll second Dierks and “I Wish It Would Break.” That’s a beauty.
May 23, 2008 at 3:29 pm Permalink
I agree with Stern. The Dolly Parton parody is so obviously fake (he all but says its fake) that nobody could believe Parton said these things. Its hard to see how this hurt her reputation, her career, et cetera.
Howard’s bit is gross, in bad taste, and generally offensive. But Larry Flynt was protected from liability when he printed a an ad parody suggesting that Reverand Falwell’s “first time” was with Falwell’s mother, and in an outhouse. Considering that, it seems unlikely that Parton has much of a case.
May 23, 2008 at 5:45 pm Permalink
The entire point of the Stern segment is that the audio has so clearly been faked. That’s the whole joke.
The standard in the Flynt case was, I believe, that no reasonable person could see that parody ad and believe it was true. If a similar standard is applied here, it seems unlikely any reasonable (or at least marginally intelligent) person could hear the Stern bit and think it was authentic audio.
May 23, 2008 at 6:14 pm Permalink
Let’s see what you have to say when he pulls a stunt like this with Carrie. Somehow I expect your reaction will be different.
May 23, 2008 at 9:47 pm Permalink
All she can do now is help is ratings or not. His BS has a short shelf life if left unstirred.
May 23, 2008 at 10:27 pm Permalink
I believe that Trent Willmon did the best version of “She Don’t Love Me” on his debut, “Trent Willmon” album. I agree that it could be a huge hit.
Another Dierks Bentley song that could have been a smash is “So So Long” from his modern day drifter album. GREAT SONG, and would have been a great single.
Toby Keith’s “Pull My Chain” from the album of the same name would have been a huge hit.
Brad Paisley’s “Waitin’ on a Woman” I thought should have been a single.
George Strait “I Can’t Leave Her Alone” would have also been wonderful from his It Just Comes Natural Album.
What do you all think?
May 23, 2008 at 11:08 pm Permalink
I assure you, I’m a much bigger fan of Dolly than of Carrie.
May 23, 2008 at 11:51 pm Permalink
Stormy, the fourth Elizabeth Cook album I alluded to is her self titled debut which is also referred to as the “Blue Album”. About half the songs were re-recorded for Hey Y’All (I prefer the originals across the board for the simple production) and the other songs never appeared on Elizabeth’s other albums. I rate the Blue album her best overall and not just because its rare, and all of the E.C. fans I’ve shared it with have agreed with me. They turn up on ebay on occasion with the sellers usually based in England but sometimes Australia too.
I didn’t mean to slight the great country artists you’ve mentioned that got shuffled off to the Americana realm after being rejected by mainstream country radio. Its just that the Americana format has so little penetration outside of Texas (and excluding satellite radio) it has been properly labelled a musical ghetto (or at least cul-de-sac) by staff writers here at The 9513. It seems most of the current country artists I really like wind up in the Americana doghouse when they should be on “country radio” dag gum it! (lol)
As for an older song I’d love to hear released as a single, I nominate Dierks Bentley’s “She Won’t Choose Me”. Available only as a bonus track on the deluxe version of “Modern Day Drifter”, its about time someone apart from Brad Paisley had a great humor song on country radio!
PS - Off Topic Alert: I’m not a fan of Rascal Flatts but check out the gal who wrote their latest single!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=27309935
Maybe they aren’t completely evil after all!!!! (Yes, I’m joking. Sheesh…)
May 24, 2008 at 5:10 am Permalink
Brad, your right. Trent Wilmon’s version of “She Don’t Love Me” is great. I wish the industry could figure out what to do with him. Really great live-a ton of energy. Seems like a good guy personally. Easy on the eyes, too. (C’mon, from a marketing standpoint…)
Howard Stern has become nothing but a dirty old man. When he was married, some of his stories about married life really resonated with people - I think that was his true talent. Now he’s nothing but creepy.
May 24, 2008 at 9:07 am Permalink
I would love to hear Brad Paisley’s “Time Well Wasted” on the radio, and also “Love is Never Ending.” I do love me some Brad Paisley. :)
May 24, 2008 at 9:37 am Permalink
Stormy said: “All she can do now is help is ratings or not. His BS has a short shelf life if left unstirred.”
I expect will all blow over soon and nothing more will be said about it. The parody was just so offensive, I think Dolly felt the need to disassociate herself from it in the strongest terms possible — just to be sure that everybody knew she had nothing to do with it. Even if the editing was obvious, a lot of people won’t hear the parody for themselves; they’ll get it second-hand via TV news reports and the internet.
May 24, 2008 at 9:57 am Permalink
Rick: So why, exactly, is Elizabeth “too good” for Americana?
There is a twofold thing here:
1. Mainstream country has winnowed their audience to an extent that people who now listen to mainstream country are not looking for Elizabeth Cooks style of music.
2. Not to go off two far on a money tangent again, but can Elizabeth really afford a million dollars to get a single played on mainstream radio?
Most NPR stations play at least some Americana. But the bottom line is, and here is the flaw with 9513’s article on Americana, you cannot change mainstream country by complaining about Americana. If Americana did not exist, Elizabeth Cook would get played no where.
May 24, 2008 at 10:10 am Permalink
The fact that Trent Willmon has not broken through is a shame. I really thought “On Again, Off Again” was going to do it for him, but the song did not get that high on the charts. EVERY one of his albums have been Fabulous. His new one, “Broken In” is wonderful. To me, he does a great job at balancing a Nashville Sound and a Texas Sound.
I think he has accepted his independent role which is fine with me. It will lead to better music. As long as he keeps putting out CDs, I am happy.
May 24, 2008 at 10:15 am Permalink
Another song that would have been a great, successful single for Tim McGraw(Like he needs one!) is the Brett James cut, “Telluride”, off his Set This Circus Down album(In my view, his best CD)
I am not even a big McGraw fan, but this is a great song and it is now on Josh Gracin’s CD.
May 24, 2008 at 3:16 pm Permalink
I thought, from the moment I heard it, that “Easy Silence,” from the Chicks’ Taking The Long Way record, was a song that should have been a massive, massive hit. I’m not sure why a song like “Everbody Knows” was chosen in its place.
May 24, 2008 at 5:02 pm Permalink
Other songs I would have liked to have heard on Top 40 country radio:
Gretchen Wilson’s “Skoal Ring” from “All Jacked Up”.
Blake Shelton’s “Cotton Pickin’ Time” from the “Barn & Grill” album.
The Jason Michael Carroll and Jewel duet “There’s No Good In Goodbye” from Jason’s debut CD.
The first two were likely considered way “too country” for Top 40 country radio, but I’ve never understood why Jason didn’t release the Jewel duet as an early single other than it didn’t rock enough…
PS to Stormy - I grant that Americana radio is better than nothing, but until its terrestial radio coverage gets to a level comparable to Top 40 mainstream country radio it will remain a second class format in my opinion…
May 24, 2008 at 7:48 pm Permalink
Jim, you are right: “Easy Silence” is outstanding.
May 25, 2008 at 9:49 am Permalink
Both “Skoal Ring” and “Cottin Picking Time” are great choices.
I also loved “Your Love Still Gets in the Way” from the Blake Shelton Barn and Grill album.
May 25, 2008 at 10:18 am Permalink
There are too many to list as ’should be hits’ but I think that Shelton needs to release “Back There Again.” It’s a hit. A massive hit.
May 25, 2008 at 11:26 am Permalink
Rick: Do you really think that terrestrial radio has much longer?
May 25, 2008 at 12:35 pm Permalink
Stormy, even though the revenue figures at most broadcast country radio stations continue to slowly slide, I think the current format will still thrive for years to come as long as new sensations like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift come along on a regular basis. The continual slide / evolution towards a more pop-rock sound has the potential to attract an ever larger audience even if the fans of real (ie twangy) country music all abandon ship (as many if not most already have). Mainstream country radio appeals to the unwashed masses with simplistic commercial tastes in music, which is where the big demographic numbers are. The more knowledgeable and sophisticated listeners have either gone to satellite, internet radio, or just dropped out…..
I’d really like to get satellite radio but I’m too cheap to pay for it. Instead I check both the mainstream country and Americana charts on a regular basis and when new artists appear I’ll search the net to listen to what they sound like. (No, I don’t do file sharing.) The 9513 also comes in handy in this regard and especially regarding Texas based artists….
May 25, 2008 at 12:49 pm Permalink
Rick, that’s the strongest argument I’ve heard yet for why we need the Americana format.
May 25, 2008 at 4:51 pm Permalink
Rick: But with HD Radio and Sattalitte Radio and Ipods how many people are going to really want or need traditional land based radio?
May 25, 2008 at 6:31 pm Permalink
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20060904/NEWS/609040315/1186/TL28
In case you’d like to put a face to the tune “Dress Blues”.
Fair Winds Corporal of Marines!
S/F
May 25, 2008 at 11:43 pm Permalink
I take back all the less than nice things I’ve posted on The 9513 about Alison Bonaguro based upon her latest CMT blog about rock stars wanting to make country albums. I completely agree with her on this one, so I owe her an apology.
http://blog.cmt.com/2008-05-23/et-tu-rod-stewart/#more-660
June 2, 2008 at 7:23 am Permalink
I think Elizabeth Cook’s comments show a lack of class on her part. Although she is completely correct, the artists she is talking badly about are way more successful than her in the same field. It really just comes across as jealousy.
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