All posts tagged "Southern Voice"

Brad Paisley on the set of "Welcome To The Future". Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

As a kid growing up in Altoona, Iowa — a very white suburb of Des Moines, I had almost no firsthand exposure to the racial divide that newspapers and the TV news regularly referenced in the 1970s.

Until I began working in Des Moines at the age of 16, the main way I learned about the issue was through Stevie Wonder albums. In songs such as “Living For The City,” “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” and “Cash In Your Face,” Stevie described the unfairness of being denied work or shelter because of an arbitrary physical trait — skin color — and I got an education through music that was not present on the street where I lived.

Tuesday was the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a Caucasian man. The date went by with little fanfare, though the results of her noble revolution can now be seen in country music, where she’s referenced in not just one, but two hits from the last six months: Brad Paisley’s “Welcome To The Future” and Tim McGraw’s “Southern Voice.”

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Tim McGraw photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Curb Records.

There are five Southern voices in the home of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and it looks like that’s the limit. Tim, who occupies the cover of the newest edition of People magazine, originally had more kids in mind, but with three girls already in the family, there’s not much thought of expansion.

“We talked about it once,” he says in the story. “We even have names for boys. I would love to have a boy also, but if we start again now, we’re going to be old when they’re gone. We started out wanting five [kids], and life just…got busy.”

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On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Brad Paisley performed for the President, First Lady and family, members of Congress and White House staff in the historic East Room of the White House. Photo credit Ben Enos.

Tuesday is Election Day in many parts of the U.S., and the week is a monumental anniversary as well: Barack Obama was voted the nation’s first African-American president on Nov. 4, 2008.

That same date marked the release of Brad Paisley’s Play album, and he couldn’t have created better timing if he’d planned it. He was in New York to promote the CD the day the nation went to the polls, and he witnessed hysterical celebration in Times Square. That helped inspire his song “Welcome To The Future,” which hit No. 1 this anniversary week in Country Aircheck.

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Tim McGraw photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Curb Records.

Tim McGraw releases his new Southern Voice album Tuesday, and in gearing up for the street date, he’ll appear this weekend with host Nan Kelley on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

The album’s first single, “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You,” was written in part by Chad Kroeger of the rock band Nickelback, and his current hit, “Southern Voice,” namechecks such rockers as Chuck Berry, Tom Petty, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Allman Brothers. In fact, Gregg Allman will sit in with Tim when he performs “Southern Voice” on “The Jay Leno Show” Oct. 27.

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Tim McGraw photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Curb Records.

After Tim McGraw earned his first hit 15 years ago with the novelty “Indian Outlaw,” he took a 180-degree turn with his next single by releasing the almost-morbid ballad “Don’t Take The Girl.”

That approach has since become a minor signature in his career: Tim followed the pleading ballad “Please Remember Me” with the playful “Something Like That”; balanced the heavy message of “Live Like You Were Dying” with the goofy wordplay of the next single, “Back When”; and contrasted last December’s alcohol-fueled “Nothin’ To Die For” with the flip follow-up “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You.”

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Tim McGraw photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Curb Records.

Tim McGraw’s latest single is the title track from his upcoming album, Southern Voice, and it gives credit to such historic figures from Dixie as Hank Williams, Hank Aaron and Rosa Parks.

Each of them rose from modest beginnings to make a significant impact on American culture, and they fit well with Tim’s rootsy vision for the album.

“I hope it’s a record you get lost in,” he told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. “I hope it’s a record that you can put on and just sort of melt into. Continue Reading

Tim McGraw photo courtesy of Curb Nashville.

Fans who’ve seen the trailer for Tim McGraw’s next movie are likely noticing a similarity between The Blind Side and his very first motion picture, Friday Night Lights.

In both cases, Tim plays the father of a high-school football player. Tim wasn’t necessarily looking to reprise the earlier role, but The Blind Side script proved irresistible. It’s built around the life of Michael Oher, a poverty-stricken Memphis kid who was adopted by a wealthy suburban family. Michael became an All-American college player and was a first-round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens, and that reversal of fortune kind of roped Tim in.

“It’s a great story,” he told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. Continue Reading