Bucky Covington and GAC's Storme Warren at the Country Weekly 15th Anniversary Party at Nashville's Hard Rock Cafe, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

A 15-year anniversary is definitely worth a party, and Country Weekly’s big event Tuesday at the Hard Rock Café brought out a load of stars — including Trace Adkins, Josh Turner, Bucky Covington, Aaron Tippin, Darryl Worley, Steel Magnolia and the Oak Ridge Boys’ Duane Allen — to mark the occasion for one of the genre’s best-known publications.

“Is there cake in there?” Steel Magnolia’s shivering Joshua Scott Jones asked at the red carpet.

“Are you planning to jump out of it?” I asked.

“If it’s big enough!” he insisted.

Forget the cake, though there were multi-flavored mousses, shrimp, chicken, bruschetta and wine and beer.

And, of course, stars — and hints of stars — everywhere. The Hard Rock’s walls are adorned with guitars owned by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Carl Perkins and Buck Owens. Country Weekly covers featuring George Strait, Toby Keith, Patty Loveless and Johnny Cash flashed in video boxes. And the visitors ranged from newer acts — including Emily West, Whitney Duncan, former “Nashville Star” contestant Gabe Garcia, the Roys and Burns & Poe — to hit-makers Aaron Tippin, Tammy Cochran and Ira Dean (formerly of Trick Pony) and to award-winners Lee Greenwood and Bill Anderson.

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John Fogerty photo courtesy of Shore Fire Media.

Thanks to his role as the primary singer and songwriter for Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty’s name is permanently etched in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But his first post-CCR project, 1973’s Blue Ridge Rangers album, put him on the pop charts with a cover of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (On The Bayou).” John went back to the country well in 2009 with a sequel, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

As with the original Rangers release, John covers a series of country music classics: Buck Owens’ “I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me),” the Kendalls’ “Heaven’s Just A Sin Away,” John Denver’s “Back Home Again” and Ray Price’s “I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me),” to name a few.

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Photo courtesy of Cledus T. Judd

It had to happen sooner or later. Who better to do it than country’s own funnyman, Cledus T. Judd — the man who has tee’d off on hits from country stars including Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Kenny Chesney. Just to name a few.

This time Cledus has his sights set on Tiger Woods. The World’s leading golfer has been in the news non-stop for the past couple of weeks, following a wild series of events brought about by a car wreck and subsequent allegations of infidelity. When opportunity knocks, Cledus answers the door. This time he answers it with a parody set to the chart-topping tune “I’ve Got a Tiger By The Tail,” originally penned by Buck Owens and Harlan Howard. The original, recorded by Buck Owens, went No. 1 back in 1965.

Cledus effortlessly weaves golf lingo and innuendo into an incriminating, musical tale of a golfer who has clearly hit one deep into the rough of life!  Watch and listen for yourself… Continue Reading

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T Bone Burnett photo courtesy of tboneburnett.com.

Producer T Bone Burnett has had a hand in a slew of important albums this decade, including the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss project Raising Sand, Elvis Costello’s current Secret, Profane And Sugarcane, plus the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Cold Mountain and Walk The Line.

Now T Bone’s got his fingers on a picture that has pre-release Oscar buzz all over it, and the song that runs over the end credits should heighten the profile of Americana artist Ryan Bingham.

Jeff Bridges stars in the new picture, Crazy Heart, in which a formerly successful country singer grapples with life after his career has faded. Robert Duvall, who won an Oscar for a similar role in the 1983 movie Tender Mercies, is a co-producer of the new release. In an unconventional move, T Bone wrote the music before shooting commenced with co-producer Stephen Bruton, a Kris Kristofferson band member who died this year after working on the project. Much as he did when he oversaw the vocal performances of actors Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, T Bone also produced Jeff’s performances as a has-been singer.

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Dwight Yoakam photo by Cambria Harkey, courtesy of New West Records.

The recording business has gone through fundamental changes several times, driven by the evolution of technology. For decades in its beginning stages, the industry made its money on the sales of singles. The Beatles helped develop an album mentality, and that was heightened by the introduction of the CD in 1983. With the growth this decade of iTunes and digital downloading, the pendulum has swung back toward sales of individual songs.

While many country performers admittedly tried to make albums full of potential singles, Dwight Yoakam has viewed his albums as an artistic statement, which is part of the reason that his most recent release, Dwight Sings Buck, was a tribute to the late Buck Owens.

That was two years ago, and Dwight’s ready to crank out more new material. But he’s been watching the landscape closely, and he’s thinking strongly about tossing aside the album format — at least temporarily — as he figures out what to do with the latest songs he’s written. There’s a strong possibility he may record them one at a time and put them out as individual tracks online instead of making them part of a package.

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