By now, most of you have heard about the upcoming release of a new movie called Country Strong, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. What you might not know is how involved Gwyneth Paltrow got in preparing for and playing the role of “Kelly Canter,” a just-out-of-rehab country singer trying to re-start her career. She actually learned how to play the guitar and is really the one singing the title track from the film. Of course it’s not bad to have the likes of Patty Griffin and Vince Gill providing harmony vocals on the track. Just a couple months ago we gave you a first listen to “Country Strong” and now the official music video is here. The video features Gwyneth performing with a full band in a warehouse setting blended with scenes from the film.
Gwyneth Paltrow as "Kelly Canter," from the movie "Country Strong." Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow becomes a country singer in the upcoming movie Country Strong, in which her manager is played by some guy named Tim McGraw.
Actors like to talk about researching their roles, and Gwyneth certainly did that. To understand her character, Kelly Canter, Gwyneth learned how to play the guitar.
Chris Young photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
When Chris Young spent multiple weeks at No. 1 with “The Man I Want To Be,” he had the perfect reason to throw a party.
Even better, he found the perfect time, celebrating the feat with songwriters Brett James and Tim Nichols at the Tin Roof in Nashville on Thursday, the first day of wall-to-wall concerts during the CMA Music Festival. Chris made the most of it. Not only did he perform a few of his own songs for the party, hosted by RCA and BMI, but he also brought up classic-country singer Gene Watson for a rendition of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried.”
“The Man I Want To Be” repeated the success of Chris’ previous release, “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” which also topped all the other singles on the national chart. The long-term significance of that accomplishment is not lost on him.
Emmylou Harris photo by Rocky Schenck, courtesy of Nonesuch Records.
Since the beginning of May, Nashville has been digging out from the devastating affects of an unexpected flood. The community has pulled together, and outsiders have been amazed at the extent of humanity and neighborly goodwill Music City has expressed.
The flood was an example of Mother Nature wreaking havoc on humanity. But people have been messing with Mother Nature, Emmylou Harris observes, in a way that is destroying another part of Tennessee. Emmylou wrote a guest editorial in Sunday’s edition of The Tennessean explaining why she and some of her fellow musicians — Kathy Mattea, Big Kenny and Dave Matthews, among them — are performing a Music Saves Mountains concert Wednesday at the Ryman Auditorium.
The concert calls attention to mountaintop removal, a form of mining in which explosives are used to blast the tops off of mountains so that coal companies can access strips of coal, which eventually gets converted into energy for everyone’s households. Mountaintop removal is employed in the hills of Kentucky, West Virginia and east Tennessee. It permanently destroys the landscape, and it pollutes the environment, including the drinking water for the local residents.
Saturday marks three years since the tragic fire that destroyed the former Tennessee home of Johnny Cash and June Carter, a moment that had a huge impact on Nashville’s music community.
A number of country artists — Marty Stuart, T.G. Sheppard and several Oak Ridge Boys, among them — could only watch helplessly as flames engulfed the structure, which had been purchased from the Cash family by the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb. A couple of songwriters, Monty Holmes and Leslie Satcher, were inspired by the blaze to write “House Of Cash,” a Patty Loveless duet that appeared on George Strait’s award-winning Troubadour album. And Larry Gatlin turned the disaster into a statement about the changing nature of country music, “Johnny Cash Is Dead (And His House Burned Down).”
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.
“I never had so many people open for me!” Josh Turner exclaimed Wednesday at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. “Wow!”
Indeed, 14 artists preceded him in that legendary venue, though another three sang after him as well as the Universal Music Group Nashville showcased its talent for Country Radio Seminar registrants in a unique format that provided a microcosm of the wide net that contemporary country represents.
Sugarland, David Nail, Jamey Johnson and Vince Gill were particular standouts as the acts performed just one song apiece. Collectively, the music ranged from bluegrass influences to blue-eyed soul; the acts stretched from brand new artists who haven’t yet released a single to one member of the Country Music Hall of Fame; and their backgrounds ran the gamut from Broadway to TV performer to Texas troubadours.
David Lee Murphy, writer of Jason Aldean's "Big Green Tractor," celebrates with Jason at the platinum party for his Wide Open CD. Photo by Chris Hollo, courtesy of The GreenRoom.
One of the biggest hits of 2009 was Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor,” which went to No. 1 for four weeks in the fall and — combined with the power-packed previous single, “She’s Country” — launched his concert sales into a whole new stratosphere.
The song, written by 1990s hitmaker David Lee Murphy and Jim Collins, used the tractor as a literary vehicle for the escapism that a relationship can provide. But Jason’s not completely sure that the tractor itself wasn’t the attraction in the song.
“I told the writers if they have any more tractor songs, be sure to send them to me,” Jason told The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.
Like it or not, Valentine’s Day is almost here. We gave you our list of the Top 20 Country Love Songs – but life isn’t always moonlight and roses, is it? So after we dried our eyes and pulled ourselves together, we came up with a list of our favorite anti-love songs. Are you breaking up with your boyfriend/girlfriend? Your spouse? Your job? Did you find out your sweetheart’s been less than faithful? Whatever the heartbreak occasion, there’s usually a country song that’s a perfect fit.
By no means is this a definitive list, so please, tell us what other songs you’d add! Put your suggestions in the comments section below.
Top 20 Country Breakup Songs (in no particular order):
