All posts tagged "Taylor Swift"

Brad Paisley photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Dating back to the “Celebrity” video, Brad Paisley’s developed a running friendship with former “Star Trek” actor William Shatner, which created a weird moment in Brad’s household a year ago.

Shatner had a movie in the Nashville Film Festival, and when he went to Music City, Brad invited him out to visit at the farm. And William apparently had a pretty good time.

Continue Reading

LeAnn Rimes photo courtesy of Curb Nashville.

Ryan Bingham earned a lot of attention for country music when he picked up an Oscar award for the theme from Crazy Heart this weekend, but he’s hardly alone among country recording artists participating in current film projects.

LeAnn Rimes, Dwight Yoakam and Miley Cyrus all have roles in titles that are on the way. Tim McGraw just finished working on another film, and Taylor Swift has racked up more sales for her work on a recent soundtrack.

Here’s a rundown on country’s current ties to Hollywood:

Continue Reading

Taylor Swift on the April 2010 cover of Elle magazine.

ELLE’s April 2010 cover girl is Taylor Swift!  The issue hits stands on March 16 and promises more glamorous photos and a revealing interview.   This is just the latest in an ongoing streak of high profile covers.  Over the past couple years Taylor has graced the covers of People, Rolling Stone, Allure, In Style, Glamour, Blender, Women’s Health, Seventeen, Country Weekly, and the list goes on… Continue Reading

Lady Antebellum on the Orange Carpet at the 44th Annual ACM Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 5, 2009. Photo © Sara de Boer / Retna Ltd.

This was quite a week for Lady Antebellum’s recent monster hit “Need You Now.” The title was announced as a finalist for Single Record, Song and Video of the Year in the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, leading Lady A to the head of the pack with seven nominations total.

In addition, “Need You Now” has been tabbed for the next edition of a major pop CD series. It’s being included among 21 songs on Now That’s What I Call Music! 33, which comes out March 23.

Continue Reading

Lady Antebellum on the Orange Carpet at the 44th Annual ACM Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 5, 2009. Photo © Sara de Boer / Retna Ltd.

Lady Antebellum heard their name called a whopping seven times this morning as Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire announced the nominees for the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on the CBS program, The Early Show. The ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 8 at  p.m. ET (delayed PT) on CBS and will be hosted by Reba for the 12th time.

For the third year, fans will select the winner of the Academy’s most prestigious honor, Entertainer of the Year and for the second year, the three newcomer categories for the annual Academy of Country Music Awards —Top New Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Group and Top New Vocal Duo — will also be opened up to fan voting. The winner in each Top New category will then move on to compete for Top New Artist which is also a fan voted category. Online voting for all fan voted categories will be available at http://www.voteacm.com/.  The winners of Entertainer of the Year and Top New Artist will be announced live during the 45^th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. 

Lady A’s seven nominations include Album of the Year for Lady Antebellum and Top Vocal Group.  In addition, the trio was nominated for Single Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Video of the Year for “Need You Now.” They were also nominated as a producer for Single Record of the Year and as a composer for Song of the Year. Continue Reading

Bridgette Tatum photo courtesy of Route Forty-Nine Records.

The Country Radio Seminar is a tough nut for a new artist to crack. Between the official performances, the unofficial side events and general hanging about by the genre’s stars, an attendee can catch the likes of Alan Jackson, John Rich, Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Craig Morgan or Darius Rucker. How does an artist who hasn’t even released an album get some attention?

In the case of Bridgette Tatum, working her feisty single “(I Like My) Cowboys Dirty,” you rename the hotel’s Bridge Bar as the Bridgette Bar. You slap your video on the club’s screens, throw over-sized banners along the glass walls, set out Bridgette Tatum placards on all the tables and put the waitresses in “(I Like My) Cowboys Dirty” T-shirts — or, better put, dirty T-shirts. Not enough? It helps that your record company is owned in part by NASCAR driver Ryan Newman — bring him in to race in a video game with guests and promise attendees you have a special “Dirty” drink just for them.

Bridgette’s already started making a name for herself as a co-writer of the massive Jason Aldean power-chord special “She’s Country,” but even with those credentials, CRS is a tough sell. She wasn’t even the only artist in the Bridgette Bar on Wednesday night. You could spot former Shenandoah vocalist Marty Raybon, newcomer Katie Armiger and even much-publicized Mindy McCready. And Kix Brooks might well have been headed for the Bridgette Bar when he rolled into the lobby of the Renaissance Nashville Hotel around 11 p.m.

Continue Reading

Taylor Swift photo by Ash Newell, courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Taylor Swift’s new music video is for the title track of her Grammy Award winning album, Fearless.  The clip plays out like a video journal/documentary, showcasing a collection of Taylor’s onstage and behind-the-scenes highlights from this past year’s  “Fearless World Tour.”   The video, directed by Todd Cassetty, not only shows off her passion for performing, it really shows off her passion for her fans and how connected she is to them.

Click here to watch the video for “Fearless” at GACTV.com now »

I’ve seen Taylor in concert more than once, and each time I have shared the experience with my 11-year old daughter.  Seeing Taylor in concert is not about going to a music recital for a quiet, pristine performance. It’s about having a stand-up-and-dance, scream-out-loud-good-time.  Taylor’s video for “Fearless” captures that attitude and the experience of what she brings to her fans each and every night she steps onstage.  She’s definitely been the source of some unforgettable moments and wonderful experiences for me and my daughter this past year!  Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think about Taylor’s new video!

Lady Antebellum photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Lady Antebellum wasn’t sure when it wrote “Need You Now” how Capitol Records would react to it. Likewise, the band wasn’t entirely convinced that radio stations would like it or that the general public would warm to it.

They certainly weren’t expecting the song to become a major pop record, but that’s exactly what’s happened. “Need You Now” reached No. 9 this week on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, and it’s likewise at No. 22 on the magazine’s Top Pop Songs list.

It’s not a development the band tried to create. A handful of pop stations started playing the song in November or December. Once the label figured out what was happening, it got proactive in promoting the song to the pop market. In the meantime, Lady A wants to reassure its core country fans that the band won’t suddenly start chasing the other genre.

Continue Reading

Vince Gill photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Dwight Yoakam sang about “guitars, Cadillacs and hillbilly music,” and the guitar is central to current stories involving three different Halls of Fame — one of which contains a Cadillac owned by the late Elvis Presley.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, previously known as the Cowboy Hall of Fame, has a new guitar exhibit at its home in Oklahoma City, where instruments used by the likes of Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and Marty Robbins are on display.

A guitar Taylor Swift used during a fundraiser to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame in the fall is now being sold at auction to raise even more money for the facility. And the Musicians Hall of Fame, located just blocks from the Country Hall in downtown Nashville, has to put guitars owned by some classic figures — including Charlie Daniels and Elvis musician Scotty Moore — into storage by the end of the week.

Continue Reading

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):

• “Lonely And Gone” – Montgomery Gentry
• “I’m Moving On” – Rascal Flatts
• “White Liar” – Miranda Lambert
• “I Will Always Love You” – Dolly Parton
• “The Most Beautiful Girl” – Charlie Rich
• “There Is No Arizona” – Jamie O’Neal
• “Today My World Slipped Away” – Vern Gosdin/George Strait
• “Whiskey Lullaby” – Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss
• “Kiss This” – Aaron Tippin
• “Take This Job & Shove It” – Johnny Paycheck
• “Before He Cheats” – Carrie Underwood
• “Consider Me Gone” – Reba McEntire
• “Blame It On Your Heart” – Patty Loveless
• “Unwound” – George Strait
• “You’ll Think Of Me” – Keith Urban
• “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” – Glen Campbell
• “Cheatin’” – Sara Evans
• “Goodbye Says It All” – BlackHawk
• “Should’ve Said No” – Taylor Swift
• “Brokenheartsville” – Joe Nichols