Court Yard Hounds, the new duo teaming Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, has required the sisters to do some minor re-evaluations of their roles.
They are, after all, performing without the services of Natalie Maines, the lead singer in their primary band, the Dixie Chicks. Someone had to step in and take the lead vocal with the Hounds, and Emily got the gig.
When a member of an established band does a side project, the question inevitably emerges: Are you breaking up?
When two members find a second outlet after going through the volume of controversy that surrounded the Dixie Chicks, the question could overwhelm any of the new band’s music.
Thus, the Chicks’ short stadium tour with the Eagles in June could not have come at a better time. The dates — five of which will also feature Keith Urban — occur just weeks after sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire release an album May 4 as a duo, Court Yard Hounds.
Alan Jackson photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
Superstars are on the loose in this week’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown. Alan Jackson and Keith Urban will both drop by the set to talk with host Nan Kelley about their upcoming projects.
And each of them has very major events in the offing. For Keith, the near future includes a series of stadium dates with the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks. The itinerary has him playing at the homes of the National Football League’s New York Giants, New England Patriots and Chicago Bears in June.
Alan’s big event comes sooner: He’s releasing his new Freight Train album on Tuesday. The project includes his current single, “It’s Just That Way,” which he considered as the title of the album. Ultimately, he went with the Freight Train label just to avoid any confusion with his previous releases.
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.
Randy Houser photo courtesy of Universal Records South.
If you want an update on where country music’s been and where it’s going, you only need to put two events from the past week into perspective: Tuesday’s announcement of the 2010 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees and Friday’s New Faces Show at Nashville’s Country Radio Seminar.
Don Williams, the most recent hitmaker among the four Hall of Fame additions, was often noted for a quiet stage show. He simply stood at the microphone and sang, and his success relied exclusively on the warmth of his gentle demeanor and the thoughtful messages that dominated his understated songs.
The New Faces Show demonstrated the bigger-is-better philosophy that’s dominated concerts ever since Garth Brooks turned up in arenas two decades ago. From the outset, Love And Theft and Randy Houser — the first two acts in a five-artist lineup — cranked the volume and the tempo in a slickly produced show meant to confirm for radio programmers that they are indeed playing the right new performers as they compete for listeners’ ears.
Randy Houser photo courtesy of Universal Records South.
When the Country Music Association unveiled its annual slate of awards nominees on Wednesday, the news made a lot of artists happy. Randy Houser, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift earn their living by singing, but they shifted into talking mode after they heard they were finalists in “The 43rd Annual CMA Awards”, slated for Nov. 11. Taylor even filmed herself receiving the happy news.
Among the reactions from CMA nominees:
• Randy Houser: “It’s just really good to figure out that somebody actually gives a crap,” he told told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. Continue Reading
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