Willie Nelson Way Passes Unanimously; Sexy Country Songs; Luke McBain Back For Round Three

I’m inclined to agree with the Music Square resident who didn’t want the street name changed. Surely there are other places in Nashville to rename and honor Cline, many downtown even. Music Square is internationally known, and a landmark in itself. There’s got to be a better place to call Patsy Cline Boulevard.

Speaking of the zany and delightful Sarah Buxton, here’s the details for her upcoming album (from AllAboutCountry.com):

Track listing:
1.) “American Daughters”# (Sarah Buxton, Bob DiPiero)
2.) “Outside My Window”+ (Sarah Buxton, Victoria Shaw, Mark Jeffrey Hudson, Gary Burr)
3.) “Radio Love”@ featuring Jedd Hughes (Sarah Buxton, Jedd Hughes, Steve Robson)
4.) “For Real”^ (Sarah Buxton, Bob DiPiero)
5.) “Wings”@ featuring Jedd Hughes (Sarah Buxton, Blair Daly)
6.) “Love Like Heaven”* (Sarah Buxton, Blair Daly)
7.) “Space”+ (Sarah Buxton, Lari White, Chuck Cannon)
8.) “Innocence”# (Sarah Buxton, Jeremy Stover, Dave Berg, Georgia Middleman)
9.) “That Kind Of Day”# (Sarah Buxton, Jeremy Stover, Greg Barnhill)
10.) “Stupid Boy”# (Sarah Buxton, Dave Berg, Deanna Bryant)
11.) “Big Blue Sky”@ duet Jedd Hughes (Jedd Hughes, Luke Laird)

# Produced by Dann Huff & Craig Wiseman, + Produced by Sarah Buxton, ^Co-Produced by Sarah Buxton and Bob DiPiero, *Co-produced by Sarah Buxton and Blair Daly, @ Produced by Dann Huff.”

Considering I already have 5 of those songs and I don’t care for “Space”, looks like I’ll be purchasing the others as download singles. I’m disappointed that the song “There You Go” that was on Sarah’s MySpace player for awhile didn’t make the cut as I really liked it. Oh well…

Was that Boot list supposed to be sexy songs or schmaltzy/cheesey songs? Never mind….

I really like the new Shania pictures, although at first I mistook her for Miley Cyrus in those shots where she’s wrapped in a bed sheet…(lol)

Randy Kohrs was on the Opry last Friday night and did a fine job. Good stuff!

Sweet Jeebus…the picture of Shania in the Nirvana t-shirt had my right leg going like Thumper in Bambi. Wooo!

Sorry.

/sexism.

Oops, what happened? Looks like you have to copy and paste the entire link address to get to the right webpage. Hmm…

Shania Twain still rivals any country artist out there.

“Shania Twain still rivals any country artist out there” Oh really? How’s come she ain’t putting out any new music…I feel like half a decade has gone by since she faded from explosion on scene.

I was always hounded at CW by angry Shania fans who would demand to know why we didn’t put her in every issue. Suffice to say it’s kind of difficult to consistently cover someone who only puts out a record every few years and lives halfway around the world.

I imagine there will be more than a handful of extremely talented producers willing to produce Shania Twain’s next album.

That said, how radio would react and how many listeners would buy is not an easy question. Shania has a huge fanbase, so I assume she could sell more than a few copies. But it has been nearly 8 years since her last studio album, tastes have changed, some Shania fans may have moved on, and Mutt Lange was a large part of her success.

I also checked out the list of the Ten Sexiest Country Songs. I have to say that I did not agree with it entirely. I felt that Gary Allan and Toby Keith were both very good choices. (Toby’s done some – or most, depending on which camp you’re in – of his best work with ballads, and I think that he’s one of the most underrated singers in this area. “Burnin’ Moonlight” and “I Know She Hung the Moon” from “Big Dog Daddy” could easily compete with the Boot’s choices, and he usually has at least one or two songs like this on each CD. Though these songs didn’t get released as singles and thus didn’t have the exposure of the Boot’s picks, he has other qualified chart hits as well, especially from earlier in his career, like “Me Too.”)

Also, “Don’t Close Your Eyes” was a very strange choice to me. It’s not that it isn’t about sex – it is. It’s just that the point was not to be sexy; the song is communicating something different from the others. Sure, there’s the promise of a great physical relationship if the woman would just open her eyes, so to speak, and appreciate what’s in front of her. However, the song is, at its heart, about a man who is obviously depserately in love with this person who makes him feel inadequate. “Don’t Close Your Eyes” is his plea for her to love him as much as he does her. It’s a very sad song, in my opinion, and ’sexy’ is not exactly the word I’d use to describe it. I almost feel they missed the point of the song.

I almost think that ten is too few to get a satisfactory representation of country music. Anygood list of sexy country songs has at least one from Conway. That’s just my viewpoint, but I think it’s shared by a lot of other people. Like I said, ’sexy’ is not what comes to mind when I think “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” Sexy is what comes to mind when I think “Slow Hand,” “Tight Fittin’ Jeans,” “I’d Love to Lay You Down,” “You’ve Never Been This Far Before,” and any other of a number of classic Twitty tunes. That they don’t include Conway makes their list appear very short-sighted and incomplete.
Plus, Trace Adkins would make a nice addition to the list. He has many a sexy song, foremost among them his first #1 “(This Ain’t) No Thinkin’ Thing.” When you actually think about it (or at least, when I think about it), there are quite a few great, romantic, sexy songs across country music’s history. I also thought that Blaine Larsen’s version of “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me” was amazing. Josh Turner also deserves a nod, I believe, for either “Your Man” or “Firecracker.” And let’s not forget one of 2009’s most pleasant surprises: Chris Young’s smash “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song).” And why not put a Vince Gill song on there?
I’m just glad that “I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes,” as one poster had suggested, wasn’t selected. It’s a terrible, cliche song, but that’s just my opinion. I’d pick Joe Nichols’ new single “This Bed’s Too Big” or even Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor” over that song. Part of the reasoning behinnd my ideas may come from the fact that most of these songs are addressed to women, and frankly, I am not a woman, so I may lose some perspective on this subject.

Anyway, that’s my take.