Trace Adkins Releases His Tenth Album, X
- Always the realist, Trace Adkins knows that people don’t put him in the same class as Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and George Strait, but he doesn’t let that change his approach to his job. He tells The Tennessean’s Beverly Keel:
“I’m the journeyman. Have you ever seen those fighters? There’s a big title fight and all of a sudden one of the fighters breaks his hand and can’t show up, so they call the journeyman, who takes the fight on two days’ notice.
“He keeps himself in pretty good shape because that’s his job. He fights the young fighters on the way up. He’ll give them a good, solid 12 rounds. . . . He’s never going to be champion of the world, but he’s that mid-level journeyman fighter who beats the (heck) out of the new kids.”
- And after recording songs like “One Hot Mama” and “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” he feels like a marked man. “I’m the guy in Nashville where if a couple of songwriters are sitting down and write a song that is so nasty that nobody will possibly ever record it,” he muses, “I’m the guy they’ll send it to.”
- Rhonda Vincent confirmed rumors yesterday that two members of her band had departed and announced their replacements.
- Diane Pecknold, author of The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry, comments on the criticism of commercialism in music in an interview with Music Tomes‘ C. Eric Banister:
I’ve always been a big fan of popular music, and it has always seemed to me that blanket condemnations of commercialism don’t accomplish much. The truth is we rely on capitalism to expand and preserve musical practice. What can’t be commercialized (and here I mean everything from local shows and burned CDs to Sony/BMG) quickly becomes moribund. Even the die-hardest anti-commercial purists expect to get paid to show up and play, even if it’s only a few bucks. I was really interested in getting to a level of specificity about the very different forms commercialism can take and how those different forms shape production, distribution, and audience experience.
- Making her third appearance on Mountain Stage, Rosanne Cash invited her ex-husband Rodney Crowell to join her for a performance of “No Memories Hanging Around.” She is currently working on an album that will feature a selection of songs from a list of 100 that her father gave her and considered essential. From that project, she included “Sea of Heartbreak” and Townes Van Zandt’s “Two Girls,” which she says might be added to the record even though it wasn’t on the list.
- While you’re listening to that, check out Barry Mazor’s article for No Depression in which he explores the two recently released DVDs included in Johnny Cash box sets, Johnny Cash’s America and Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison: Legacy Edition, and how they fit in with Cash’s construct.
- Delaney Jackson, the man who has played lead guitar for Mark Chesnutt for 12 years, accidentally shot himself in the hand last Thursday while he was cleaning his pistol.
- In an interview with Entertainment Weekly’s Mandy Bierly, Blake Shelton affirms his affinity for The Golden Girls and confesses that he once sent money to Kelly Willis:
The person you wrote a fan letter to when you were young?
Kelly Willis. She was a Texas artist, and I sent $2.50 to her fan club or whatever for a poster of her, and I didn’t know at the time that you shouldn’t put real money, with coins, in an envelope. I don’t think it ever got to her. It’s the only fan letter and money I ever sent to a fan club, and I never got my picture of Kelly Willis.Have you ever met her?
I met her last week at the CMAs, and it was terrible. I told myself right before I went to introduce myself, I shouldn’t do this. She hadn’t heard of me, which is not shocking. But when she picks up her latest issue of People, she’s gonna be kickin’ herself. - Word has it that Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks is working on an instrumental, fiddle-based bluegrass album.
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November 25, 2008 at 11:34 am Permalink
I just got to listen to “‘Til the Last Shot’s Fired” from the new Trace album. Absolutely chilling. Can you imagine being in the West Point Cadet Choir and singing a song from the perspective of a fallen soldier?
November 25, 2008 at 11:40 am Permalink
Tayers,
That is chilling to say the least and the first time you hear the song, it’s quite jarring too…
November 25, 2008 at 12:21 pm Permalink
The problem isn’t with the commericalization of country music–country music was much more commerical in the 1950s-1980’s than it is now–it that the current commericalization of country music has done nothing to either sell the music or preserve the sound.
November 25, 2008 at 12:24 pm Permalink
How was country music more commercial in the 50s-80s than it is now?
November 25, 2008 at 12:32 pm Permalink
Kelly Willis was at the CMA’s?
Not impossible I guess, but surprising.
November 25, 2008 at 12:44 pm Permalink
I also wonder how Country was “more commercial” back then?
I doubt that George Jones or Merle Travis ever did a stadium tour that was brought to you by Frito’s, Stetson and/or Jockey Underwear that was televised for a NBC holiday special while selling their ringtones on their websites that were sponsored by Cracker Barrel and Sprint Mobile….
November 25, 2008 at 1:28 pm Permalink
Not bad, not great… only three new songs that are real keepers: “Til The Last Shot’s Fired”, “I Can’t Outrun You”, and “Sometimes A Man Takes A Drink”, plus the current single.
November 25, 2008 at 2:03 pm Permalink
Jim C. said, “Kelly Willis was at the CMA’s? Not impossible I guess, but surprising.”
I’m surprised that she was there and hadn’t heard of Blake Shelton. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that she doesn’t keep up with mainstream coutnry acts, but if that is the case, why go to the CMAs?
November 25, 2008 at 2:36 pm Permalink
her hubby has written some big mainstream hits, and I am sure there are good after-parties…
November 25, 2008 at 5:09 pm Permalink
Kelly–Both Merle Travis and George Jones most definitely appeared on old NBC radio broadcasts, and they have had scores of other radio show and tour sponsors. Jones has had TV specials sponsored by specific companies, maybe one that you mentioned. They’ve hawked everything from flour to coffee to elixirs, or most anything else put in front of them. I’m guessing you haven’t tried George Jones Country Sausage yet, or bought one of the expensive rocking chairs he endorses? Shoot, Hank Williams met Audrey while walking from car to car hawking a beauty product that some company that sponsored his flat-bed-truck show. Only he told her he didn’t think she needed it, which was probably a sales pitch.
For better or worse, country music has been selling commercial products since long before the Carter Family sold Mexican cure-all ointments from across the border.
November 25, 2008 at 5:31 pm Permalink
Hmmm…somebody wasn’t treating his firearm like it was loaded. ;)
Let’s hope that Marty really is doing an instrumental album, and it will match (or come close) to her previous work.
An instrumental bluegrass album is just what I need to clear my head from some recent releases. ;)
November 25, 2008 at 5:43 pm Permalink
I am sorry to bring this up- but twice I have seen or heard Trace Adkins say something negative about gay marriage. Why isn’t anyone talking about that bigotry. If he was saying something negative about race or gender people would have something to say. I was never a big fan of his but I liked his voice , but not when it shows him as a bigot.
November 25, 2008 at 6:08 pm Permalink
I don’t know which I’m more surprised about, that Kelly Willis doesn’t know who Blake Shelton is, or that Blake was a fan of Kelly’s as a teen. Hmmm….
Trace Adkins can’t have it both ways. If you have big radio hits with sexually suggestive lyrics you’re bound to get stereotyped and have such material expected of you by radio programmers. Although that never seemed to limit the career of Conway Twitty.
Boy, the word “commercialization” can mean a lot of things. When I think of Top 40 country radio I don’t consider the it “commercial” because of any product endorsements or tie-ins. I consider the music “commercial” when the song production is designed to produce a “radio friendly sound” that compromises the artistic integrity of the song, and especially when the songs start to sound alike. Well, that’s just my take anyway.
November 25, 2008 at 7:26 pm Permalink
Speaking of Trade Adkins, here’s a funny tidbit from MusicCityTV:
“Darryl Worley: Trace Adkins and I once got in a brawl!
By Brad, November 25th, 2008
Whoah, talk about yer battle of the titans! But Darryl Worley told me today that he and Trace Adkins once brawled in a California hotel room in 2002 when they were on the “Big Men of Country: Size Matters” tour.
“We locked horns pretty good,” Darryl said, laughing. “We’re just having a big ol’ party, ya know. We’re two Alphas, man! It was one of those tests of will and strength, ya know,” Darryl said.
The real victim — the hotel room.
“Two tour managers came in and started begging: ‘Please guys, we’ve already got enough damage here,’” Darryl said. “So we quit.” Darryl said he and Trace agreed they would never fight again.”
I think these two should dress up like Mexican wrestlers and do a bout for charity! (lol)
November 25, 2008 at 8:07 pm Permalink
“I don’t know which I’m more surprised about, that Kelly Willis doesn’t know who Blake Shelton is, or that Blake was a fan of Kelly’s as a teen. Hmmm….”
The part that doesn’t ring true to me is that Blake is not that much younger than Kelly. He’s 32 and she’s 40. She was 22 when she released her first album for MCA. Blake would have been 14 at the time, and that’s certainly old enough to know that one doesn’t put cash and coins in the mail. And $2.50 also sounds pretty cheap to get a poster in the mail in the 90s.
November 25, 2008 at 9:17 pm Permalink
We have seen Trace Adkins two times in concert ths year.One time he was with Kellie Pickler and another time he was with Alan Jackson both of the concerts were so awesome to be at.
November 26, 2008 at 4:54 am Permalink
M.C. – Obviously I was not claiming that those artists had no commercial involvment whatsoever. while you are right about the commercial aspects of Jones and Travis’ careers, you can not make the claim that the level of commercialism was anywhere near the saturated level that it is these days. My point was that every aspect of a major label artists prmotion is commercialized and sponsored. The items that were commercialized 40 years ago are still being commercialized now, along with numerous other options not available in the 50’s-60’s (ringtones, websites, digital music,etc…).
November 26, 2008 at 9:58 am Permalink
Brady Vercher
November 25, 2008 at 12:24 pm Permalink How was country music more commercial in the 50s-80s than it is now?
I guess I should say it was much more commercially sucessful, but there was not this whole alt-side to it that worked NOT to appeal to a mainstream audience.
November 27, 2008 at 12:05 pm Permalink
Is it wrong that the story about Mark Chesnutt’s guitarist made me think of ‘Rustler’s Rhapsody’?
“If I don’t surrender you’ll shoot me in the hand? I don’t reckon I like the idea of being shot in the hand.”
November 30, 2008 at 8:11 pm Permalink
all I know is Blake has pretty good taste… I mean, I remember Kelly back then and MAN! lol. I was all about her. I remember telling a friend after seeing her video, “I want two to go please!”. And I liked the song as well. ;)
April 6, 2009 at 10:03 pm Permalink
hey i think u make some the best country music and i hear u dont like to ride motorcycles…. y is that…..
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