Sammy Kershaw’s Political Bid Fizzled By Incumbent
- Porter Wagoner remains in a Nashville-area hospital and has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
- With four kids at home Kelly Willis put her musical career on the back burner. She didn’t feel like she had time to write until an interviewer reminded her that she could do other people’s songs. One thing led to another and out popped Translated From Love, an album about love that endures.
- Shooter Jennings describes the country music business as an extension of high school social cliques.
- The brief history of Kris Kristofferson’s career. The secret to writing like Kristofferson? Studying 17th-century English metaphysical poetry along with the poets William Blake and William Shakespeare. Sounds daunting.
- Carrie Underwood’s comments about the incident involving LeAnn Rimes writing on her website that Underwood didn’t pay her dues or deserve the award she got are quite humorous.
“She had megasuccess early on, and you know she wasn’t a 12-year-old playing in bars,” Underwood says. “I didn’t really think that much of it coming from her. If it had been somebody who had spent 20 years working to get this and then they got it, that would be a little different.
- Incumbent Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu received 57 percent of the votes to defeat Sammy Kershaw in his bid to become Louisiana’s lieutenant governor.
- NPR’s latest Del McCoury Band goodness, including audio, video, pictures, and interesting anecdotes from his fabled career.
- Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times highlights a lyric from the new Underwood album that sounds a whole lot like a TV commercial, and after reading it, I can see it easily being part of the radio spots for “Real Men of Genius.” Maybe she’s propositioning Bud Light for a sponsorship to play up her country persona. Sanneh also has a few thoughts on the new Gary Allan album:
But especially compared with his excellent and elegant 2003 CD, “See if I Care,” this one seems a bit thin. Omnipresent electric guitars eat away at the starkness that has defined some of his best songs. And sometimes they simply push him in the wrong direction, as with “Wrecking Ball,” a gruesome bluesy romp.
- Rumor has it that Jessica Simpson plans on moving to Nashville.
- Merle Haggard says it’s good that Bob Dylan included “Workingman’s Blues #2″ on his latest album because it gives him the chance to do “Blowin’ in the Wind #2″.
- The material isn’t new, but the new album from Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame and Alison Krauss is sure to raise more than a few eyebrows. Produced by T Bone Burnett Raising Sand draws songs from the catalogs of Gene Clark, the Everly Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, Allen Toussaint, Mel Tillis and Tom Waits. About the two singers, Burnett says, “They both sound like they’re singing from some other time. Alison sounds like she just stepped out of the Black Forest, and Robert sounds like Ozymandias,” the Egyptian pharaoh.
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LeAnn Rimes - “What I Cannot Change” When LeAnn Rimes enters a recording studio, she carries with her the most impressive instrument in the room.
Kellie Pickler - “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” Coming from Kellie Pickler, it’s like a rich man telling the beggar that his soul is rich and that’s better than all the money in the world.
Lee Ann Womack - “Last Call” It’s not her strongest song, but it’s well written with a good performance, and despite the dull internal conflict, it’s rife with emotional depth.
Brad Paisley - “Waitin’ On a Woman” Bizarrely, it took a song written by someone other than Brad Paisley for radio to hear what the Paisley style can truly accomplish.
Merle Haggard at the Ryman Auditorium: Of the Haggard classics, “Silver Wings,” “The Way I Am” and crowd-favorite “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” were performed with confident ease while “Kern River” was sung with inspired tenderness and “Back to Earth,” from 2007’s Last of the Breed, contained more than a trace of Willie’s nasally twang. 
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.
The two-time Dancing With The Stars champion, Julianne Hough, recently took some time to answer questions for The 9513 in this exclusive interview.
After cutting ties with Warner Bros. Records, Ray Scott decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns and form Jethropolitan Records, a place where he can get back to the blood and guts of what he terms “real country music,” the kind of stuff you don’t hear on radio anymore.
Catch up on Nashville Star through Matt C.'s live blog. Episode I | Episode II | Episode III | Episode IV
Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music by Dana Jennings When Jennings addresses modern country in the final chapter, he leaves you with the impression that it just can’t tap into the primal psyche the same way the classics that served as his nursery rhymes did.Tagged In This Article
Alison Krauss // Carrie Underwood // Gary Allan // Jessica Simpson // Kelly Willis // Kris Kristofferson // LeAnn Rimes // Merle Haggard // Porter Wagoner // Robert Plant // Sammy Kershaw // Shooter Jennings
Current Discussion
- CRAIG R.: Jim that is an excellent point....
- Jim Malec: I think Toby is one of the better recording artists in country music--but like s...
- Brian: Toby once made the comment that he was the "Barry Bonds of songwriting." After "...
- CRAIG R.: I must confess that Toby Keith has really not impressed me that much since " H...
- John Maglite: I agree. If you don't agree with D16, you are clearly naieve....
- D16: Telly, How can yoube so naieve. This is a great song...
- Sam G.: Didn't know there was going to be so many promising releases coming up in the ne...
- CF: Nice review. Imma check it out....
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8 Comments
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October 22, 2007 at 10:02 am Permalink
Carrie, Carrie. I love you, dear, but LeAnn was in fact, a 12 year-old singing in bars. And, at the age of 25, she’s been doing this at least semi-professionally for around 15 years now.
October 22, 2007 at 10:40 am Permalink
if you want further proof that country music is indeed like high school (per shooter jennings in the earlier story), look no further than the carrie underwood story. it sounds like they’re all in high school. “so and so said you’re fat”. “do you like timmy or bobby?” “she’s so…like, you know, yesterday.” for God’s sake.
October 22, 2007 at 11:42 am Permalink
Who cares about due-paying? When an artist is making quality music, I couldn’t care less whether it takes them 20 years or 2 weeks to get there. I thought LeAnn’s comment was pretty classless at the time that she made it and I still feel that way. Carrie doesn’t exactly take the high road in her response and she overplays the “struggle” that she went through on American Idol. Furthermore, while she is a bit too dismissive of Rimes’ career path, she does have a point: LeAnn Rimes isn’t exactly an authority on due-paying.
October 22, 2007 at 11:46 am Permalink
I don’t know, Matt. Rimes has had a tumultuous career, especially considering that she was exiled from country music (due to, shocking, careless comments) and has had to claw her way back into our good graces.
October 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm Permalink
True, but she got back into country music at an age that would still be young for an artist to get into it, and at that time she had several mega-hits to her name and had sold more albums than most artists sell in a lifetime.
October 22, 2007 at 3:10 pm Permalink
I applaud Rimes for calling it like it is. I think Faith Hill’s reaction was raw emotion, and therefore wasn’t ‘kidding.’ Seeing that Faith whimped out, someone had to stand up and say what everyone else was thinking. I was shocked and extremely disappointed that the CMA gave the award to the flavor of the week. That award belonged to Faith Hill or Sara Evans. I don’t think Underwood should have even received the nomination, let along won; Rimes was one of the few females to have a #1 hit that year (”Something’s Gotta Give) and that nomination was her’s.
October 22, 2007 at 10:50 pm Permalink
I hope Rimes issues a response to Underwood’s misinformed statements. I guess that’s what happens when the Sony BMG puppet masters aren’t controlling the puppet 24/7 and telling her what to say; she shoots from the hip with misguided facts.
October 23, 2007 at 10:09 pm Permalink
Aw, heck! I’m into 17th Century Metaphysical poetry (John Donne is my favorite) so I guess I could give Kris Kristofferson a run for his money.
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