Jewel To Record A Country Album And Carrie Underwood Predicted To Score Big At Grammy Awards

Before we get to the news, I wanted to announce that The 9513 t-shirts are officially for sale in the shop through Paypal. So if you enjoy reading The 9513 and want to help support us, hop on over to the shop and consider purchasing a shirt. They’re good quality shirts from American Apparel, you’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth.

And now…the news.

• Jewel says now that she’s a free agent she’s going to record a country album, something that she’s been wanting to do since she was 16. She also discloses that she already has 20 to 30 songs ready for the album, but doesn’t discuss any possible release dates.
  via City Girl, Country Girl
• Country music has been able to continue making a profit while other genres of music got hit hard by downloading services like Napster. An article on the Music City Syndicate discusses how the flourishing of country music is drawing artists from other genres to start recording country songs, and even albums. Here’s my favorite paragraph:
  

  Even for a band like Bon Jovi, which still has a massive fan base – some 2.2 million fans bought tickets during last year’s tour – going country is a way to extend their reach. Says Huff: “As long as they’re not perceived to be pandering to country, they have a shot at getting some new fans.” Which, for the band and its record label, should mean even more money in the bank.

  To me, that’s exactly what these other artists are doing, “pandering to the country music fans.”

• The results of a Harris Interactive survey showed that if youth had any say so, Carrie Underwood would be walking away with top honors at the Grammy’s in both Best New Artist and Song of the Year for Jesus Take the Wheel.
• The Seattle Times has an article about George Strait holding his own even with competition from the “sexy young guys.” The article doesn’t carry very much significance, but I thought it was funny that the writer calls Strait a “tall Texas troubadour.”
  

  The tall Texas troubadour could teach those boys a thing or two about nearly everything, from honky-tonk music to looking supremely cool in clean cowboy hat and pressed — not sprayed-on — jeans.

  People I know who have seen Strait and talked to him have told me that he’s not very tall. I’ve only seen him in concert one time, from the nosebleeds, so I can’t comment on his height from personal experience. I suppose “tall” is relative to who you’re talking to.

• Country Nation is reporting that Montgomery Gentry has recorded over 80 versions of the same song. The second line in their new song, Lucky Man, reads “Last Sunday when my Bengals lost, Lord it put me in a bad mood.” The different versions substitute numerous teams from across three different sports leagues for “Bengals.”
  

  And to spur a little extra competition between the two Super Bowl cities, the Colts version was sent to the country radio station US99 in Chicago, and the Bears version was sent to WFMS in Indianapolis.