Posted: June 29th, 2007 at 11:23 am| By: Whitney Self
I remember the first time I saw her. I was just a little girl watching television with my mother when I became instantly captivated by this presence in front of me. She was wearing a long white sequined dress and had the most beautiful voice I’d ever heard. I looked up from the screen and said, “Mommy, is she an angel?” Finding this rather comical, my mother chuckled back, “Oh no hunny, that’s Dolly Parton.” To this day, I still get that same feeling each time I see her video, “Eagle When She Flies.”
The strong women that make up this video are not limited to images of Mother Teresa, Amelia Earhart or Oprah Winfrey, but also women like me, women like you. “She hurts deep and when she weeps / She’s just as fragile as a child / And she’s a sparrow when she’s broken / But she’s an eagle when she flies.” None of us are angels, including Dolly Parton, and at times we may seem more like an ordinary sparrow. Yet every woman, though weak at times, can still be as strong as an eagle.
Posted: June 29th, 2007 at 9:35 am| By: Sunny Sweeney
My name is Sunny Sweeney. I’m a Texas girl born and raised! I was raised up in northeast Texas in a town called Longview and now I live down in Austin, TX. I wake up every day and thank God that I can say I am a working musician! I cannot believe that this is what I get to do! I played my first real gig in Sept. 2004 at Austin’s Carousel Lounge. So many great things have happened since then and this blog is just testament to that. Who woulda thought that I’d be writing a blog for CMT? So here goes…
Last week, I went up to Washington, D.C. to co-host XM America Channel 10 with the on-air talents they have: Ray Knight, John Welch and Country Dan. I was on the air from 6 a.m. to midnight except when I went over to the Laura Ingraham show and the Voice of America show to play for a little while. I have never had so much fun! Ray Knight and I got along so well and it was like I was just his little sidekick! I wanna have a little show that I would call a “Ray of Sun” and it’s me and Ray Knight…Don’t ya like it?
I think I answered something like 500 phone calls in the all-day deal and met a bunch of my fans that happen to be a lot of truck drivers. I’ve also decided I am going to do a truck stop tour. I already bought a CB for the van and we are all coming up with our CB handles as we speak. I got some suggestions from the truckers that called in to XM and the front runner for me is “TWANG THANG,” that is unless you come up with something better.
The boys and I are leaving on Thursday for our first full-on Europe tour! We are touring in 5 countries, and we have a 9-day break while we are over there and I’m going to ITALY! I’m so excited! I’m gonna see the Pope and eat some awesome gnocchi…oh and buy some gorgeous shoes!
Hope to see y'all out and about soon! Make sure you come say hi!
Please check out my Web site and myspace pages:
Welcome to our new blog site on CMT.com. We have gathered an exceptional stable of journalists and musicians to give you a panoramic view of country music. You can expect behind-the-scenes blogs from the Wreckers as they tour with Keith Urban. The new band Halfway to Hazard will also keep you up-to-date about their slot on the Soul2Soul 2007 tour with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. A rising star in Texas, Sunny Sweeney will write about the club scene in her home state, with a few sassy insights thrown in. Bluegrass and acoustic fans will want to keep tabs on Eamon McLoughlin, the fiddle player in the Greencards, as the band van travels from coast to coast, hitting a bunch of cool festivals along the way.
Of course, we’ll blog a lot about the current country scene – like new videos, big tours, favorite songs and popular albums. We’ll also give you our own perspective on the latest headlines in country music. Sometimes we’ll go back in history to introduce new country fans to the classics. Since many of the bloggers live in Nashville, we’ll also reveal our top spots in Music City. Let us know what you think. We encourage readers to add their comments below.
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