Obama Boogies Back To Texas With Ray Benson and Joe Ely
- An fundraiser for Barack Obama at the Austin Music Hall last night featured country artists Ray Benson and Joe Ely, and Obama himself even joined in for a performance of “Boogie Back to Texas.” The Asleep at the Wheel MySpace blog has several additional pictures.
- Chet Flippo weighs in on Kix Brooks’ comments about artists getting paid for attending the CMA Fest.
Turn your back on your fans, and you may as well turn your back on a huge chunk of your career. I know one thing: Say what you will about Garth Brooks. When he signed autographs for some 23 hours straight in 1996, he was not looking to get paid. He saw it, rightly so, as a career investment. Some things are worth more than money.
- The Lost Highway feels like there’s four or five single-worthy songs on Chris Cagle’s new album, My Life’s Been A Country Song, but says the “filler” tracks aren’t any better than his own self-penned numbers.
- According to an Irish betting agency, odds that Keith Urban and wife Nicole Kidman will name their baby after Kidman’s parents are 10-1. “The names Tom, Katie, Suri, and Maverick (the name of Nicole’s ex-hubby Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun) are all longshots at 250-1.”
- Twang Nation’s Baron Lane says his adios to No Depression and thanks them for showing him the way.
- Grant Alden ponders the idea of a podcast to replace ND’s signature long-form articles, and provides a link to an audio interview he and Peter Blackstock did with NPR.
- Stonewall Jackson got a federal court date of February 10, 2009 for his age discrimination suit against the Opry.
- A day before the 1990 Association of Country Music Awards Garth Brooks says he was handed three buckeye seeds by a fan who told him they were lucky. The next night Brooks scored six wins. Eighteen years later he’s convinced they’re lucky and still holds on to them.
- Texas Monthly posted numerous Willie Nelson stories from fans and you can even submit your own. (via Still Is Still Moving)
- Premier Guitar has an interview with Pete Anderson. He originally set out to be a guitar player, but things changed when he produced Dwight Yoakam’s first album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. Now he’s been in the business for thirty years, has become a premier producer, owns his own label (Little Dog Records), and still has time to do what he loves and originally set out to do, play guitar. (via Little Dog Records’ blog)
- Faith Hill denied rumors that her and husband Tim McGraw were working on, or had plans for, a duet album this year.
- An employee of Big Machine Media sent out an email to several hundred music bloggers and accidentally included all the email addresses in the Cc: field so that the list of addresses was revealed to all the recipients. An unfortunate mistake, but even more unfortunate is the amount of snobbish responses she received from the bloggers. Check out Idolator for some examples.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to subscribe to our feed or receive updates via email.
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
Forgotten Artists: Goldie Hill Had Carl Smith and Goldie Hill been born 30 or 40 years later, they might have been like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw–the dominant married couple in country music.
Forgotten Artist: Wynn Stewart Both Buck Owens and Merle Haggard have cited Wynn Stewart as a major influence on their careers, yet somehow, he was never able to translate his enormous talent into extended and consistent success for himself.
Miranda Lambert - “More Like Her” This kind of material, as opposed to her tough-chick-done-wrong romps like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Gunpowder and Lead,” is where her real promise lies
Joey Rory - “Cheater, Cheater” It’s actually downright frivolous, but that just makes it all the more fun. And really, are you allowed to say “ho” on country radio?
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.
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.
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.
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
Asleep at the Wheel // Chris Cagle // Dwight Yoakam // Faith Hill // Garth Brooks // Joe Ely // Keith Urban // Kix Brooks // Little Dog Records // Ray Benson // Stonewall Jackson // Tim McGraw // Willie Nelson
Current Discussion
- Paula: well, y'all are just gonna LOVE this little tidbit from cmt.com Rascal Flatts...
- JACK L DAVIS: DAVID ROGERS I could listen to forever and i wish he were still with us and mak...
- Paula: Rick - MySpace and/or my internet arent playing nice tonight so I cant get Shann...
- adhara: kenney chesney was excellent with the wailers. reggae & coutry... grea...
- Jaime: @ John Maglite: You have to have a certain panache to pull off bathroom humor, a...
- Rick: Leeann and Paula, we can start a "Music Cheapskates Club!". (lol) Have you ga...
- Troy: Thank you...
- Matt B.: Re: Billboard Charts: Hot Country Songs charts all the major country markets ...
- Dylan Gramm: Woo-hoo! New Lauderdale!...
- Troy: Like Taylor Swift song Change it is number 10 on the hot 100 but is 50 something...
3 Comments
RSS for comments on this post | Trackback URI for this post
February 22, 2008 at 1:47 pm Permalink
For the record, the Big Machine referred to here as making an e-mail slipup is a pop publicity agency with no country clients, and not the Big Machine label out of Nashville.
February 22, 2008 at 1:56 pm Permalink
Political presidents shouldn’t ever try to show their musical talents - Bill Clinton makes them all look like first grades when he picks up the saxaphone! Now I want to find a video of it though and hear Obama sing.
I wish I had a Willie story. Always cool to read those fan stories.
That Garth mention was from what he said to Jay Leno, the whole show can be watched on the Tonight Show’s Official site - it’s linked in my latest blog on MySpace if you’re too lazy to google the tonight show. Worth a watching, that’s for sure.
February 22, 2008 at 2:01 pm Permalink
I meant potential presidents, not political, oh well. Haha.
Leave a Comment