Oct
22

Carrie Underwood was in Singapore last week visiting with Asian media, performing and promoting her upcoming album release, PLAY ON . Photo Credit: ION, Richard Kang, October 16, 2009
Country music has expanded its mission in recent years to include conquering international fans. Usually, that means potential music buyers in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Australia. But several country acts — Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and Carrie Underwood — have put Asia on their personal calendars of late.
Last week, Carrie visited Singapore to spend time with Asian media in advance of her forthcoming album, Play On. While there, she played at the opening of the ION Orchard shopping mall, a sheltered, open-air venue.
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Aug
28

Darryl Worley photo courtesy of Stroudavarious Records.
Darryl Worley might be a big ol’ country star, but he’s still got the same small-town sensibility he was raised with, which is part of the reason he raises about 75 head of cattle on his farm near Savannah, Tenn.
“It’s just one of those little things that were kind of the way we grew up,” Darryl told The Decatur Herald & Review of Central Illinois. “I think sometimes those things help you keep your feet on the ground.”
One other thing that will keep you grounded is a little lull in success. “Sounds Like Life To Me” is in the Top 15 on the Country Aircheck singles chart, the first song Darryl’s had reach that plateau in a good three years. He went through a major adjustment when his label folded in 2005. In the aftermath, he signed with an independent company that Neal McCoy started up, and that company ran out of money. Continue Reading
Jun
26

Jimmy Wayne photo courtesy of the Valory Music Co.
Celebrity deaths, it’s been said, come in threes, and that was certainly true this week with the passing of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon.
They were not country figures, but each of them had a small level of influence on the genre. And in the middle of their much-covered deaths, the loss of songwriter Tim Krekel — who authored a pair of hits — was overshadowed. Continue Reading