Author Archive

Lady Antebellum on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the Ryman Autitorium in Nashville. Photo courtesy of The Greenroom.

Just two years ago, Lady Antebellum was on the road for the first time on a major tour, opening shows for Martina McBride. Last year, the group played a bundle of stadiums on the Kenny Chesney summer tour, and Lady A is currently opening arena dates for Tim McGraw.

Last week, the group upped the ante a little more, taking top billing on a pair of sold-out shows at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Playing in the band’s hometown was part of the attraction for Lady A, but it was also an attempt to test the water and see if the group could deliver a strong enough set to warrant a full headlining tour. The trio — Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood — has gone from playing about 25 minutes per show on Kenny’s tour to doing a full hour opening for Tim.

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Kellie Pickler photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of Sony BMG.

Didn’t you know how much we love her? Kellie Pickler takes part in this week’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, but she’s not just making a guest appearance. She’ll actually join Nan Kelley to co-host the run-down of the genre’s top videos.

Kellie knows a thing or two about making successful videos. She’s frequently among the five biggest titles on the Top 20 list, and “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You” is still at No. 8 this week, five months after it first appeared among fans’ favorites.

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David Nail photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

You’ve likely heard of the rock band Train. The group has a pop hit at the moment with “Hey, Soul Sister,” and its history includes the 1999 single “Meet Virginia” and the Grammy-nominated 2001 hit “Drops Of Jupiter.”

David Nail is certainly familiar with Train. His new album, I’m About To Come Alive, is titled after a song that first appeared on the band’s 2003 album My Private Nation. David’s producer suggested they do a version of it for his album after hearing David perform it repeatedly in concert.

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Gary Allan photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Gary Allan’s latest album, Get Off On The Pain, got off to a good start selling 65,000 copies in its first week of release. That’s enough to land him at No. 2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart — trailing only Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now — and at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

The title of the album is dark, which is typical for Gary, though the actual music is a little lighter in tone than his previous two releases.

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Colt Ford photo by Sean Cokes.

One of the longest-running debates in country music pits traditionalists against pop-leaning sounds, and it’s tough to find a better illustration of how wide the genre’s gotten than the calendar. Specifically April 20. On that date, country’s releases will include competing albums by old-school singer David Ball and rap-influenced Colt Ford.

David, who played with the late Walter Hyatt in Uncle Walt’s Band, has had a couple of peak periods as a solo artist. He threw George Jones-like, back-of-the-throat vocals onto 1994’s “Thinkin’ Problem,” an ultra-catchy song that bordered on novelty. He signed with an independent label around the turn of the century and his military ghost tale, “Riding With Private Malone,” became a Top 10 hit in the aftermath of 9/11.

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Steve Wariner at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009 & Rubin Media. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.

Four country acts that launched a series of hits in the 1980s and ‘90s — Steve Wariner, Patty Loveless, John Michael Montgomery and the late Keith Whitley — are set to enter the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame when it holds its next induction ceremony in April 2011 in Lexington.

They’ll be joined as new members by bluegrass duo the Goins Brothers; gospel singer Larnelle Harris; and Molly O’Day, a country vocalist who left a critically acclaimed body of work in a short five-year recording period in the late 1940s.

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Sugarland photo by Kate Powers, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

The dates and lineups for the first eight of this summer’s Lilith Fair dates suggest organizer Sarah McLachlan is committed to providing a little country music in most of the outings. The rosters in six of those cities, released Tuesday, boast at least one country act — such as Miranda Lambert, Sugarland or Loretta Lynn — and the gigs in Atlanta and West Palm Beach have two apiece.

The lineup of all-female talent was a regular feature on the summer concert circuit during the late 1990s, and Sarah’s carting a reinstituted version of Lilith to a total of 36 cities this year. Each of the shows promises 11 acts from a pool of 80 performers. As it currently stands, a July 2 show in Portland is the earliest date on the schedule.

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Montgomery Gentry photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Tomorrow is a good day to be wearin’ the green and countin’ your lucky stars. Wednesday is St. Patrick’s Day, a celebration of the luck of the Irish. And if you need a few country songs to make the day run smoothly, good luck’s gonna shine, as Keith Urban would say. We’ve got country’s “Lucky 13” titles, which run the whole gamut from the best of times to the worst.

Montgomery Gentry, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Alison Krauss are among the country stars who’ve used their music to embrace supposedly random fortune — good luck, bad luck, no luck at all. Luck’s been a central theme in songs about love, songs day-to-day living and even Jerry Reed’s “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” — a classic about a game of craps.

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Joe Nichols made a nice move this week to launch his current single, “Gimmie That Girl,” into the Top 15 on the Country Aircheck Mediabase chart. It’s the first time he’s cracked that level on the chart in more than three years, and part of the reason is likely because he connects on a personal level to the upbeat sentiment of the song.

Watch Joe’s video for “Gimmie That Girl” »

When Joe married Heather Singleton in the fall of 2007, it had a huge, calming effect on his life. They’d actually known each other as friends for more than a decade, and she’d been a rock of support for him even when everything else was kind of wacky.

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Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Even before Dierks Bentley had his first hit, he made it a point to pay homage to his roots. He made a passionate plea to take part in a bluegrass tribute album, and his enthusiasm won out: Even though he was unknown, Dierks showed up alongside Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Marty Stuart on Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: The Songs Of The Louvin Brothers.

Seven years later, Dierks is playing up his musical influences again in several different efforts. He debuts his own one-hour radio show Monday afternoon on classic-country WSM, the station that introduced the Grand Ole Opry. He’s got a roots-referencing album, Up On The Ridge, coming out this summer. And next month he launches a 30-date Up On The Ridge Tour with a couple of appropriate opening acts: bluegrass icons the Del McCoury Band and award-winning Americana singer-songwriter Hayes Carll.

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