“Singer Nelson Begins Prison Term…”

She was “discovered” a few weeks ago at an Alabama fair at a Lorrie Morgan concert.

As I heard it, the opening act had to cancel, and so the promoter invited people in the audience to come up and sing. Shepherd did so and impressed Morgan’s sound engineer enough that he asked for a cassette of some songs. He sent that to BMI in Nashville. Shelby Kennedy there was very impressed and told the Universal Music Group about her. Shepherd was flown to Nashville, sang for UMG Nashville head Luke Lewis, and he signed her straightaway. She brought 40 original songs with her and cut 14 of them with veteran producer Buddy Cannon for her debut CD. The album’s done. It’ll be out probably next spring.

It’s certainly a feel-good story, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a true one. Flippo’s column is dated August 9th, 2007, and no artist discovered this summer already has a single at radio and a finished album. I know that the Nashville machine likes to embellish stories like this, but this is a clumsy concoction. The South Alabamian has the real story.

While she joked that she hoped his teeth were knocked out during that night’s game, her attempt to laugh through her pain didn’t last long. She cried onstage while singing “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You.”

“You turn on the radio these days, and I don’t mean any disrespect, but it’s not what I fell in love with as a young guy. There’s some good stuff out there, you just have to look awful hard to find it.”

He doesn’t play an instrument, but was nominated for male vocalist at the eighteenth annual International Bluegrass Music Association Awards…which he ended up taking home on the strength of his debut album. The awards show also featured “Dale Ann Bradley winning the female vocalist prize after Rhonda Vincent had dominated the category for seven straight years.” Read the article, there’s lots of good quotes and interesting tidbits. It definitely makes you wan to go searching for some new music.

Something I appreciate about Steve Earle’s music is his ability to be political with tact and grace plus a great pop sensibility. Making the message in a medium people can relate to is what makes protest music effective.

Canada’s writing process seems to go like this: 1) Get ticked off by words, situations. 2) Lock self in room to write angry song to feel better. 3) Excitedly play it for the band before the lyrics are really done. Too much of “Mission California” sounds motivated more by exasperation than inspiration, which is unfortunate because it’s the band’s most vibrant-sounding album yet.