There’s a segment of older artists who resent the current crop of performers, who represent change for a genre that’s held in high regard by its previous crop of talent. Country Music Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall is not one of those crabby old-guard dudes.
“Music is an art form,” he told a passel of programmers Thursday at the Country Radio Seminar. “It should not be done the way it used to be done. If we do it the way they used to do it, that’s copying.”
Not that T. is above getting crabby.
“I do resent,” he allowed, “the fact that they’re makin’ so much money!”
Danny Gokey photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
The fastest way to a Nashville recording contract, it appears, is to do well on “American Idol,” and nowhere is that more apparent than this weekend’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, hosted this week by Suzanne Alexander. Three former “Idol” contestants — Carrie Underwood, Danny Gokey and Kellie Pickler — own the top four slots on the list.
Carrie’s former No. 1 video, “Cowboy Casanova,” regains the top spot from the Zac Brown Band, while her emotional “Temporary Home” clip makes its debut on the chart at No. 2. Kellie Pickler reamins at No. 4 with her Caribbean-shot “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You.” And Danny makes his first chart appearance at No. 3 with “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me.”
Kellie Pickler photo by Tony Baker, courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
Music and love have both been hailed as a universal language, but Kellie Pickler discovered there’s one more: tag.
That’s right, the kids game. And Kellie discovered that when her nine-year-old brother, Eric, tagged along at the video shoot for “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You,” which took place in the Dominican Republic.
Randy Houser photo courtesy of Universal Records South.
Last month, Randy Houser joined a long list of country stars who’ve toured the Middle East with the USO, and if you thought that celebrities got soft treatment, he insists that’s not the case.
“There was a lot of stuff they left out of the brochure,” he told The San Antonio Express-News. “It was pretty scary, pretty dangerous. I thought we were going to a pretty safe area.”
Zac Brown Band photo courtesy of Atlantic Records.
One of the biggest strengths of country music is its ability to connect with the real-world issues of typical, working-class people in Middle America, and the Zac Brown Band is entrenched at No. 1 on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown with a song and a video that do exactly that. The four-minute clip for “Highway 20 Ride” is in the top position for a second week on this weekend’s edition of the countdown, hosted by Nan Kelley.
The video brings appropriate visuals to the song’s storyline about a Georgia-based truck driver struggling to maintain a good relationship with his kid, despite the fact that he’s divorced the child’s mom and has to leave the state to earn his paycheck. The band plays it well, and Zac sings it like he means it.
Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.
A lot of virtual ink has been spilled over Jimmy Wayne’s attempt to walk from Nashville to Phoenix to raise awareness — and money — for agencies that deal with teen homelessness.
It’s a dramatic effort, especially since Jimmy’s had to battle extreme elements in the winter of our discontent, but he’s not the only act who’s been active in some form or another for charity of late. Dierks Bentley played for a crowd that included a controversial baseball figure at a fundraiser for animal rescue, Taylor Swift contributed to an auction for people in Haiti and Randy Owen’s Country Cares charity drew a slew of acts to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Here’s a look at country’s giving efforts, as well as an update on Jimmy’s progress:
Kellie Pickler in the January 2010 issue of Shape magazine. Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
Kellie Pickler’s featured in this month’s issue of Shape magazine on the “Healthy Hollywood” page, where she shares her health and fitness secrets, including becoming a vegetarian. “About a year and a half ago, I cleaned up my diet, becoming a vegetarian and replacing the junk I was eating with whole foods, like raw veggies, nuts, and edamame,” she says. “My energy shot way up! When I’m away from home, I stop by a grocery store to stock up on healthy snacks instead of hitting a drive-through.” Continue Reading
The votes have been tallied and GAC viewers have picked their top 50 favorite music videos of 2009. The count down starts on Monday, December 28 at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and your tour guide for this year-end special is Martina McBride!
To prepare for the big job of hosting GAC’s Top 50 Videos of 2009, McBride huddles with Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher for endurance pointers.
Watch this behind the scenes clip:
Throughout the countdown she visits with guests John Rich, Chris Young and Jack Ingram while her Shine All Night tour mate Trace Adkins creates his own unique get-out-the-vote campaign (despite the fact that he missed the voting deadline) with special appearances throughout the countdown. And while it’s possible they were just trying to find out how they fared on the year-end list, many artists including Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban and Reba send out special taped messages to the fans, while Miranda Lambert and Kellie Pickler phone in from the road to catch up and help introduce their videos.
This year’s results represent a wide variety of both top stars and stars in the making. Those artists with 3 videos a piece in the top 50 are Taylor Swift, Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn while Dolly Parton, Chris Young and Miley Cyrus make their year-end countdown debut.
GAC’s Top 50 Videos of 2009will air over 5 consecutive nights as follows: (each night at 8 p.m. ET)
In the midst of a depressin’ recession, it’s a huge gamble to put on a stadium concert, and very few acts are willing to roll the dice on the up-front expenses for that kind of a gig. Of those that do, it seems nearly all of them were country acts in 2009 — and usually that act was Kenny Chesney.
Kenny played a dozen stadiums during his Sun City Carnival Tour, joined for most of the schedule by Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry, Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum. Kenny created a party atmosphere, often bringing up hometown athletes — including members of the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots, for example — to connect with the city. By the time Sun City ground to a halt in Indianapolis in September, the Zac Brown Band had replaced Lady A and Kenny had topped every other act in any genre as the top touring artist, according to USA Today.
Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
Christmas time’s a-comin’, to quote a song made famous by the late Bill Monroe. In fact, the big day is almost here. And just as country fans will be celebrating the holidays, so will the genre’s most familiar artists, including Miranda Lambert, Sugarland, Alan Jackson, Montgomery Gentry and Brad Paisley.
Whether it’s decorating trees, hiding presents, singing carols or watching ‘A Christmas Story,’ the stars’ plans for December — and their memories of holidays past — are probably a lot like yours.
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