Search Results for "Alison Krauss"

Keith Urban photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

It’s doubtful that too many music fans would confuse Keith Urban with Liza Minnelli, but his background certainly intersects with the setting of one of her biggest roles.

During his teen years, Keith worked as the music director for a cabaret in Australia. Broadway songs are quite different than country music, and yet, the job eventually paid off after he became a star.

“The whole thing was pretty odd,” he told Newsday. “I mean, I was 16, with hair down past my shoulders, and I had to perform in a tuxedo. Continue Reading

Dailey & Vincent at the 2009 IBMA Awards. Photo by Dan Loftin, courtesy of Karen Byrd Public Relations.

Dailey & Vincent didn’t take home quite as many trophies as they did in their first year of eligibility, but the duo still played a strong hand at Thursday’s International Bluegrass Music Awards, taking home three honors. Their collection included a repeat as the genre’s Entertainer of the Year. The act also claimed Vocal Group of the Year and went home with Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year for “On The Other Side.” Dailey & Vincent earned seven awards at the 2008 ceremony.

“We’ll do our best to take [bluegrass] to the masses,” Darrin Vincent told the audience this week at the Ryman Auditorium, according to the Associated Press. Continue Reading

Dan Tyminski photo by Matt Harrington, courtesy of Rounder Records.

The Dan Tyminski Band is the leading nominee in next week’s International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, and it’s indicative of a nice problem for its lead singer, who’s got a couple of major gigs to juggle.

Dan is, of course, a guitarist and vocalist with Alison Krauss + Union Station. The Tyminski Band gave him an opportunity to keep working when Union Station took some time off, but now Alison and crew have reassembled to work on another album. Dan’s hoping to keep both acts active, and that poses a potential nightmare for everyone’s schedule. Continue Reading

Vince Gill photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Vince Gill is one of the most talented and respected artists in country music — and on Sept. 9 the Recording Academy showed him by making Vince the first artist to be honored at their inaugural “Grammy Salute to Country Music.”

Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley, Amy Grant and many others paid tribute to Vince by performing his songs. The Tennessean reported that Alison sang Vince’s “These Days,” while Brad did “Tryin’ To Get Over You” and “Oklahoma Borderline.”

Brad told Dial-Global that he was 11 when he first met Vince at a Steve Wariner concert. Continue Reading

Lee Ann Womack photo courtesy of MCA Nashville. Photo credit Danny Clinch.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

For much of the music world, Call Me Crazy is a welcome reunion with the voice and interpretive gifts of Lee Ann Womack after her three-year hiatus from recording.

But for Tony Brown, this album represents fulfillment of a dream that dates back to a fateful day in his office at MCA Nashville, when an intern unexpectedly caught his ear.

“The tape copy room was across the hall from my office,” recalled Brown, who was at the time a staff producer and A&R executive with the record label. “Usually interns got the job of making compilations of songs when an artist is about to cut, so one day I heard one of them singing in there; when the music stopped, she’d keep singing by herself. And I was thinking, ‘Man, she’s got a killer voice!’” Continue Reading

Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Charlie McCoy, Barbara Mandrell and Roy Clark gather at a reception before the Medallion Ceremony at the Hall of Fame in Downtown Nashville on May 17, 2009. Photo credit: John Russell / CMA.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

It was the kind of day that invites lingering outside: abundant sun, just enough breeze to keep the air fresh. But on this late afternoon of May 17, the place to be was past the red carpet that stretched from Demonbreun Street up the steps and inside its destination: the lobby of Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where an Olympian assembly of music industry notables had gathered for the inductions of Roy Clark, Barbara Mandrell and Charlie McCoy as members of the Hall.

No greater distinction exists in the world of Country Music than membership in the Hall, founded by CMA in 1961 to honor the artists, songwriters and industry executives who had done the most to preserve and further this beloved genre. Continue Reading

Love & Theft photo courtesy of Lyric Street Records. Photo credit: Tec Petaja

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Each of the hard-rocking harmonizers in Love and Theft has a unique background: In Palm Harbor, Fla., Stephen Barker Liles grew up on contemporary Christian music, Johnny Cash, Elvis and basketball, while Brian Bandas mixed his b-ball with influences that ranged from jazz to Tim McGraw to the Goo Goo Dolls in Austin, Texas, and Eric Gunderson drew inspiration from his grandfather’s bluegrass banjo gigs around Charlotte, N.C. All went to college and then changed course when they felt the call to pursue their musical ambitions. They met in Nashville, where it became apparent almost at once that they belonged together onstage and in the studio.

For six months they rehearsed, rotated lead vocals, polished their assertive but nuanced vocal blend and wrote songs. Continue Reading