“Sirius and XM agreed to offer a la carte programming, develop interoperable radios to receive both companies’ signals, free up spectrum for minority programming, and impose a three-year price cap.”

If the a la carte offerings are at a reasonable price (say $ 5 a month for the country stations), I’d climb on board the satellite express. If programming minimums stay in the $ 15 range, forget it….

Link: http://www.myspace.com/willienelsonforpresidentsong

About the group who wrote it:
“Buffalo Rome is a group that evokes a rootsy feel of the 70’s west coast Country rock scene with today’s modern Country. They have appeared with everyone from Kenny Loggins to Montgomery Gentry. They have appeared on Great American Country and been featured in Country Weekly magazine. The group is currently working on tracks with Teddy Gentry (Alabama) as producer.”

I think Willie would make a fine candidate and especially if he chose Kinky Friedman as his running mate…..(lol)

“Put Kix Brooks in it
And you ain’t got nothin’
What’s it all worth
Unless Ronnie Dunn’s fronting?”

(Disclaimer: I actually wish Kix would sing lead on a single once in a while.)

“Put A Girl In It” has such a horrible message. You can only be happy if you have a woman in your life. Blah. Not that I expect much from Brooks and Dunn.

Rick I could go along with that as well.

http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1591597/kenny-chesney-ronnie-milsap-to-pay-tribute-to-bradley-family.jhtml

The artist who really should be a part of this is Mandy Barnett. Owen was producing Mandy’s second album “I’ve Got A Right To Cry” when he passed away in 1998 and his brother Harold took over even though he was a session musician, not a producer. Country music will never see another producer the likes of Owen Bradley again……

The new Thursday Night Opry’s will likely be just a new Opry “product” to entertain the Branson market tourists and increase Gaylord’s take. I can pretty much guarantee the shows will be populated by all of the senior citizen “Opry Legends” who fill half or more of the current show rosters. Once in awhile Jim Ed Brown sings Jim Reeves songs on the Opry and Jean Shepard likes to cover a variety of classic songs.

What I really wish they would do is also differentiate the Tuesday Night Oprys to feature ONLY artists under say age 65 and exclude all the Opry Legends. This would leave available slots that I would hope would be regularly filled by the likes of Mandy Barnett, Elizabeth Cook, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Jeff Bates, Jamey Johnson, Daryle Singletary, Billy Yates, Ashley Monroe etc. That way Tuesday nights would appeal to the younger folks while Thursdays would be for the geriatric set. Well, I can dream……

PS - Opry artists worth catching this weekend:
The Time Jumpers (I love that band!), Rebecca Lynn Howard, Gene Watson, Suzy Boggus, Ricky Skaggs, and Marty Stuart among others.

http://dixiechicks.com/06_pressDetail.asp?newsID=672