Sound Off On Carrie Underwood’s New Video For “Just A Dream”
- Watch the new video for Carrie Underwood’s “Just A Dream,” and then go voice your opinion in the forums.
- The proceedings for a lawsuit filed against Tim McGraw over a year ago were moved to Nashville last week. James Martinez filed the lawsuit in Texas, claiming McGraw copied his hit “Everywhere” from Martinez’s own song “Anytime, Anywhere Amanda,” but McGraw’s lawyers told TMZ that Martinez’s claims are “totally without merit.”
- Congratulations are in order for Lois Lewis–known to The 9513 readers by her screen name “Double-L.” Lois has been named Music Director at Kiim-FM 99.5 in Tucson. (via All Access)
- Brooks & Dunn were immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday.
- Dan Evans, a contestant on the fifth season of The Biggest Loser, will release a new country album on September 30th.
- Also on Sept. 30th, Starbucks’ Hear Music label plans to release a new James Taylor covers album aptly titled Covers. Among the songs are George Jones’ “Why Baby Why,” John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind,” Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” and the Dixie Chicks’ “Some Days You Gotta Dance.”
- David Cantwell writes that Johnny Cash’s hit “There You Go” has always been one of his favorites, but these days it hardly gets the same attention as other early Cash hits despite being a fairly important record for him at the time.
It’s also a reminder of how mainstream country has abandoned most of its interest in life’s dark and stormy side, how it’s jettisoned unhappy endings altogether, in favor of songs that incessantly preach carpe diem and (mostly) unearned uplift.
- Roughstock’s Matt Bjorke posted an exclusive interview with Jeff Bates. He talks about being compared to Conway Twitty, the state of country music and the internet’s role in the modern music industry.
- The new video for Kenny Chesney’s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” was filmed on the island of Jamaica and will feature Bob Marley’s band The Wailers. Talk about perpetuating the stereotype.
- Michael Corcoran stirs the pot by claiming that the latest LP from The Mother Truckers, Let’s All Go To Bed, is as good as any Dixie Chicks album since 1999’s Fly, and says it’s the best Austin album of the year so far.
- The Los Angeles Times‘ Randy Lewis has a nice review of Dolly Parton’s generous two-and-a-half hour set on Sunday night. Meanwhile, Marc Malkin focused on Parton’s humor-laced stage banter.
- Sony bought out Bertlesmann Music Group’s stake in Sony BMG for $1.2 billion.
- Thanks to Stephen H. for letting us know that Jamey Johnson’s song “In Color” is the iTunes Single of the Week (opens in iTunes), which means it’s free.
- Beverly Keel has a fantastically informative article on Jamey Johnson. For instance, she says Johnson booked the recording session with his band in April of 2007, but when they got there, they spent the first couple of hours passing whiskey and trading stories.
“I was ready to just pay the bill and book them again, ‘Let’s try again next week,’ when somebody said, ‘Well, I guess we better go cut something.’ We ended up spending most of the night in there and got this album cut that night with the exception of a few songs.”
- Listen to Texas Music Matters’ David Brown talk to Glen Campbell about his time as a lucrative session player and his newest album, Meet Glen Campbell, in which he covers songs from the Foo Fighters and Greenday to Tom Petty and U2. If you make it to the end, you can hear Campbell sing a cover of Scottish Indie pop band Travis’ “Sing.”
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53 Comments
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August 5, 2008 at 11:32 am Permalink
Hmmm…I don’t know if I can imagine James Taylor covering an Anderson song…
August 5, 2008 at 11:32 am Permalink
Ryan Seacrest getting a Walk of Fame star kinda took the cool out of that, didn’t it?
I always thought Fly was over rated, especially compared to Home.
August 5, 2008 at 11:44 am Permalink
Stormy, me too. I like Fly, but Home was so much better.
August 5, 2008 at 11:46 am Permalink
James Taylor doing country seems pretty natural to me. Now Glen Campbell covering pop/rock songs? not so much. Then again, I have always been a sucker for ‘cover’ songs and do feel that country music could ‘exploit’ some good songs from bands like Travis (”Driftwood” being one) and make them work.
August 5, 2008 at 11:52 am Permalink
Yeah, Taylor doing country isn’t a stretch for me either. I just think him doing a John Anderson cover will be a stretch. His voice is too…well…soft for an Anderson song. I imagine Taylor will take the edge off of it and turn an otherwise cool song into something boring.
August 5, 2008 at 12:00 pm Permalink
will “the wailers” play on a tractor pulled trailer, among coconuts and bikini-beauties in that new chesney beach-video? that’ll be a sure bet for a nomination for best video at this year’s cma awards.
August 5, 2008 at 12:00 pm Permalink
Every former rock star (some to nice effect i.e. Darius Rucker) and minor celebrity in U.S. America thinks they can put out a country album. Time for some nobody bloggers to follow suit. Trailer’s “Trailer Park Anthems” due for release February 30, 2009. Don’t miss it!
August 5, 2008 at 12:09 pm Permalink
That damn Taylor swift add!
August 5, 2008 at 12:19 pm Permalink
Brody, concerning Chesney, what do you mean by “perpetuating the stereotype?”
August 5, 2008 at 12:24 pm Permalink
@Leeann: I don’t think it’s actually the Taylor Swift ad, I only said that because you referred to it as a strange chirping noise :P Let me know if you figure out what it really is, though.
@Funk: The stereotype that’s been created of him as having to add an island flavor to all of his music.
August 5, 2008 at 12:26 pm Permalink
Beware my evil army of crickets.
August 5, 2008 at 12:31 pm Permalink
Leeann,
It was just the ‘voices’ in your head (a la Chris Young).
August 5, 2008 at 12:38 pm Permalink
Ha, Brody! Maybe it is the voices in my head…except it does sound more like Stormy’s crickets.:) Actually, it’s more like a chirping/beeping sound. It only happens sometimes, but only when I’m on this site….today.
August 5, 2008 at 12:39 pm Permalink
Hey,
Did anyone notice the Coppola Sisters/Big Machine Records released “You’re Not My Judge?” to iTunes?
I blogged about it @ roughstock (just click my name to go there).
August 5, 2008 at 12:39 pm Permalink
Heh,
Maybe your computer is giving you a warning Leeann! “Stay away from this webiste!”
August 5, 2008 at 12:42 pm Permalink
Yeah, Matt, I first learned about it on Country California. I, personally, think it’s funny. I’ll go read your thoughts on it now though. I didn’t see Can You Duet, but I know Naomi can be cruel, though she comes off as trying to seem wise and all when she talks. I love the Judds music though
August 5, 2008 at 12:43 pm Permalink
Ha, I wondered that myself.
August 5, 2008 at 12:45 pm Permalink
Matt B, I can’t comment on your site for some reason, but I agree with your assessment.
August 5, 2008 at 12:46 pm Permalink
Yes, Naomi can come off that way but I actually think John Rich seems tame compared to her. I like the Judds song too.
August 5, 2008 at 12:47 pm Permalink
leeann, the site currently requires registration. My company is uber sensitive to spammers (they own a hip hop site that got deluged with it).
August 5, 2008 at 12:54 pm Permalink
Brody, not sure it’s a stereotype. It’s his version of “Red Dirt Music.” That part of the world is where he lives now. He’s probably doing the natural (and right) thing and supporting local music and musicians. Call it “White Sand Music.”
August 5, 2008 at 12:56 pm Permalink
You know, Matt, I think you’re right. She was being pretty nasty to Wynona on the Oprah show when they were on it a few years ago. Before that, I just thought she was this nice, calm lady.:) After the show, I have no trouble she was probably pretty nasty on Can You Duet. I wish I hadn’t missed the show though, since I hear it was better than NS. The Coppolas seem much more talented than anyone on NS anyway.
August 5, 2008 at 1:00 pm Permalink
i thought naomi was a bit hard on them ‘personally’ (making comments / attacks that had nothing to do with their music) but i thought she was ’spot on’ with her critique of their music and performance. i didnt like them either. and they just agitated her with their snide ‘comebacks’ to her comments instead of being ‘bigger than her’ and trying to prove her wrong with thier performances instead of getting into a pi$$ing match with her on camera.
just my take on it anyway.
August 5, 2008 at 1:14 pm Permalink
I thought their song was amusing and I think it sounds good too. They have great family harmony and the production of the song was appealing to me.
August 5, 2008 at 1:20 pm Permalink
Watch it there Paula, I’m kookoo for the Coppola Sisters! (lol) Well, at least how they look anyway…
I think I’d rather hear a bunch of real country artists sing James Taylor songs rather than vice-versa. “Sweet Baby James” was dang near a cowboy song!
Matt, that’s a fine interview with Jeff Bates. I wish Jeff and Jamey Johnson would go on a road tour together as I’d be in hog heaven musically speaking.
Speaking of Jamey Johnson, Beverly Keel’s article is really interesting. Jamey is definitely one of the more unique personalities in country music today. While Carrie Underwood’s personality is more plain vanilla, Jamie’s more of a combo of military issue camo colors for both deserts and woodlands…
August 5, 2008 at 1:26 pm Permalink
Rick,
Check out Jason Matthews. He’s friends with Jeff and is quite opinionated about things. I will be posting an interview with him tomorrow. :)
August 5, 2008 at 1:36 pm Permalink
I haven’t really gotten into Jeff’s music, but I really liked your interview with him, Matt. I agree, at this point, with him on his opinions about the internet. Maybe if artists want someone to download an entire album of theirs, they’ll try to make every song worthy of downloading. When it was just hard copy CDs that we could buy, we’d just have to live with the filler that was included if we liked the nonfiller enough to buy the CD in the first place. With digital downloading, it’s up to us what songs we have to have in our collection. Garth Brooks insists that he doesn’t like digital downloading because it ruins the idea of whole albums, but I’m starting to disagree with his reasoning. Even his own albums had plenty of filler that I’d be happy not to own, but I was kind of forced to pay $12 to $15 just to hear the songs that I liked of his. I like it that if their happens to be a lone Chesney song that I enjoy, I’m not forced to live without that song and I can own it without having to own all of the other stuff that I dislike by him, which happens to far outweigh what I like of his.
August 5, 2008 at 6:28 pm Permalink
Trailer, funny you should mention that; I actually have an album of my own called Squinting In The Country coming out on the same day. Maybe we can have ourselves a 50-Kanye rivalry.
August 5, 2008 at 9:20 pm Permalink
I like the Mother Truckers record just fine, but ‘best Austin album of the year’? uh, no.
and comparing the Truckers to the Chicks is like comparing Jason and the Scorchers to Taylor Swift.
I want some of what that boy’s smokin’.
August 6, 2008 at 2:07 am Permalink
Matt – “James Taylor doing country seems pretty natural to me. Now Glen Campbell covering pop/rock songs? not so much.”
Glen’s played on and recorded a lot of Pop songs in the past, why’s this any different?
August 6, 2008 at 9:06 am Permalink
David,
Glen singing what he’s going to sing is what I don’t really wanna hear.
August 6, 2008 at 10:38 am Permalink
Glen Campbell was a Beach Boy!
August 6, 2008 at 12:00 pm Permalink
As in a member of the group or Kenny Chesney?
August 6, 2008 at 12:11 pm Permalink
The Glen Campbell album is strong. Seriously. I’ve sampled its wares.
Dan, if I don’t outsell you, I’ll retire from my lucrative country music career.
August 6, 2008 at 12:24 pm Permalink
@Jim C: I take it you’re not too fond of the Chicks?
@Everyone else talking about Campbell’s new album, here’s a trailer:
August 6, 2008 at 12:31 pm Permalink
watching that video does show me that he can cover those songs. It will be interesting.
August 6, 2008 at 12:32 pm Permalink
I thought his voice had deteriorated from things I’d heard of his in the past, but it sounds pretty decent here.
August 6, 2008 at 12:43 pm Permalink
I liked the Mother Truckers album, for sure, but it has some pretty stiff competition from Reckless Kelly and Alejandro Escovedo, I would think…
August 6, 2008 at 1:18 pm Permalink
I mean, Glen Campbell was in the Beach Boys touring band during the mid-’60s.
August 6, 2008 at 1:27 pm Permalink
Chris N.: He also played on Pet Sounds.
Leeann: I saw Glen live about two years ago and didn’t hear much if any deterioration.
August 6, 2008 at 1:52 pm Permalink
I think I heard him on a televised thing around 2001 and he was sounding rather aged…maybe it was soon after his stroke? At any rate, I’m glad he’s sounding good. While I haven’t liked all of his songs, I like his voice.
Chris, I did know about his Beach Boy connection.
August 6, 2008 at 5:13 pm Permalink
I saw Glen live just over a year ago and he sounded great. He can still play the guitar as well – the place went nuts when he played the William Tell Overture!
About the Beach Boys, I believe he filled in for Brian Wilson at some stage as well as playing on some of the albums. He played for Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Merle Haggard, the Monkees and many others whos names escape me.
August 6, 2008 at 8:23 pm Permalink
I like the Chicks just fine. But prefer the version before Natalie came along.
And just the thought of RK and Alejandro in the same sentence gives me heartburn.
;-)
August 7, 2008 at 10:13 am Permalink
Well Jim C., I believe it was you who put Jason & the Scorchers in the same sentance with Taylor Swift…i guess we should consider context, huh:-)
August 7, 2008 at 11:44 am Permalink
What!?!?
I’m speechless. What’s amazing to me is that you can read, but continually prove you don’t understand.
August 7, 2008 at 12:16 pm Permalink
Jim C. I am equally amazed at the very same notion, just the other way around obviously. You made a jocular comment about me putting RK and Escovedo in the same sentence and my repsonse was merely a light-hearted reply to you explaining that I wasnt comparing the two (should’ve been obvious), and that since we were talking about putting “mismatched” artists in the same sentence, I simply pointed out that you had done that as well (knowing that you were also not comparing the two artists in your sentence, just as I wasnt comparing). Also, I put one of those silly little smiley faces (for example:-)) on my comment to suggest I was being light-hearted about my comment. You seem to be unable to catch that aspect of the comments even though you use the “smiley face” quite liberally yourself. For someone who made the initial comment responding to my comment, you are quite touchy…try decaf instead of “full-caff” in the am perhaps ;-)…
August 7, 2008 at 12:36 pm Permalink
At the risk of being berated by Jim C… ;-)
While I respectfully disagree with Jim’s pre/post Natalie opinion, he doesn’t hate the Chicks:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A378586
Same Jim C.?
August 7, 2008 at 1:45 pm Permalink
What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.
August 7, 2008 at 1:49 pm Permalink
Hmmm…Lynn…very interesting…:) Some flip flopping?:)
August 7, 2008 at 7:57 pm Permalink
1) I said “I like the Chicks just fine.” How does that translate to anything close to “hate”? And how does a positive review of their last record become a “flip flop”?
2) Corcoran equated the Mother Truckers to the Dixie Chicks which I thought ridiculous on it’s face. One’s a loud rock band with a country edge, the other’s a country band with some bluegrass edges. So, I made an equally ridiculous comparison, the Scorchers and Taylor Swift. A loud rock band with a country edge and a airhead country artist.
3) I don’t understand anything that Kelly says and I obviously don’t get her sense of humor. Therefore, from now one when I see a comment from her I’ll skip over it. It’ll save everyone (read mostly me) the aggravation of having to go through this on a regular basis.
Hope that clears things up for y’all.
August 7, 2008 at 8:07 pm Permalink
FYI–Kelly’s a dude.
August 7, 2008 at 8:17 pm Permalink
James Taylor recording country isn’t much of a stretch. Some of his early singles received airplay on country radio and there were some early of covers of his material by established country stars. George Hamilton IV had a minor hit in late 1969 with “Carolina In My Mind”.
Taylor has dabbled with Nashville for a long time – he wrote “Bartender’s Blues” with the idea of having George Jones record it, and he and Ricky Skaggs recorded a Christmas song together “New Star Shining” some years back
August 7, 2008 at 8:45 pm Permalink
I liked that Ricky and James Taylor song…though I could use an updated production, I think. I agree that James Taylor doing country isn’t a stretch; I just think he sounds better on songs that I perceive as more mellow.
Jim C, I just thought your luke warm endorsement here didn’t seem to match your highly positive review of their album over there. Sorry, I was actually kidding about the flip flop thing.
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