CMT Blog: Archive

Seven new music videos lined up and jostled each other for space before the CMT New Music Video evaluation team this week. And the artists are truly all over the map. Including one presumably in Heaven. Yep. Elvis and Martina together. Plus, Reba teams up with Brooks & Dunn. Keith Urban and Brad Paisley hit the stage together. And we received new videos from Josh Turner, Emerson Drive and Adam Gregory. Finally, the first clip from Alan Jackson’s CMT Giants show is coming, with an all-star lineup.

Artists: Brad Paisley and Keith Urban
Video: “Start a Band”
Director: Jim Shea

Two of country’s best pickers get together for a true guitar fest. Brad Paisley and Keith Urban obviously respect each other’s playing, and it shows here in this extended jam. They’re swapping hands on each other’s fretboards and doing all manner of guitar wizardry. And it ends up with them wowing a bunch of aspiring young pickers at a “Guitar Showdown.”

Comments: “That’s good!” “That is a whole lot of noodling.” “My 9-year-old son loved it.” “They were having a ball.” “Definitely a hit.”

Artist: Emerson Drive
Video: “Belongs to You”
Director: Steven Goldman

Somehow, this dark and brooding, intensely moody piece seems to fit Emerson Drive well. Lead singer Brad Mates is dramatically lighted in a ballroom scene as a lush string section plays and a bride and a groom dance gracefully across the floor.

Comments: “This song will be in every wedding for the next five years.” “It’ll do well on radio.” “Oh, radio will eat it up. They’ll love it.” “It definitely feels like a spring wedding song.”

Artist: Martina McBride
Video: “Blue Christmas”
Directors: Flanigen/Umberger

If you’ve ever seen Elvis Presley’s TV special, Elvis — better known as ‘68 Comeback Special — you know that the King was never better performing onstage. Tanned and fit and wearing tight black leather, Elvis was joined on an intimate stage with his original backing musicians of guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana. Through the magic of modern television, Martina McBride walks onstage here to duet with Elvis on his signature “Blue Christmas.”

Comments: “Weird! He appears to look right at her.” “That is the ultimate fan fantasy — to be on that stage!” “Some people have said it’s sacrilegious — I think it’s awesome.” “This is very newsworthy.”

Artist: Josh Turner
Video: “Everything Is Fine”
Director: Roman White

The video opens with that deep, familiar baritone voice and Turner’s by-now well-known face. He’s walking toward the camera through an intricately stylized, virtual countryscape, a sort of dream world set in the country. But it’s got its realistic touches: flocks of birds fly by, and a realistic hound dog howls. The overall mood is extremely happy.

Comments: “”I really like the song.” “This did very well online [on CMT.com] yesterday.” “It looks good. The texture is great.” “Visually, though, it feels like one long, continuous shot.” “I liked the birds.”

Artist: Brooks & Dunn, featuring Reba McEntire
Video: “Cowgirls Don’t Cry”
Director: Deaton Flanigen

This is a very imaginative, yet realistic, dramatization of the young Reba McEntire first getting on a horse and then learning to be a rodeo barrel-racing champion and growing into adulthood. And, of course, getting thrown off along the way. And you would be greatly disappointed if it did not end with Reba getting her own daughter up on horseback for the first time in her life.

Comments: “Reba is not afraid to kill people in her videos.” “Been a long time since we had a good, old-fashioned Reba acting video.” “I think they [songwriters Ronnie Dunn and Terry McBride] wrote this song for Reba.”

Artist: Adam Gregory
Video: “What It Takes”
Director: Roman White

New country singer Adam Gregory is trying his hand at a domestic-looking scene, where he’s singing to a female love interest. She seems to be snuggled in bed at first. And he somehow ends up cooking for her, as well as singing.

Comments: “He’s never cooked anything in his life. Nobody holds a whisk like that.” “Visually, it seems to lack something.” “Not a bad song; just not distinctive.”

Artist: Giants excerpt, featuring Alan Jackson with George Strait, Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley
Video: “Country Boy”
Director: Ryan Polito

Two of country music’s veteran hit makers are joined by two hot young rising stars in performing Alan Jackson’s song, “Country Boy,” from the taping of an episode of CMT Giants honoring Jackson. Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley join Jackson and George Strait for a rousing rendition of the song. You seldom see the usually reserved Strait enjoying himself this much on stage.

Comments: “They are really having fun.” “Especially George. Look at him!” “That’s a very impressive line-up.” “Love having the young whippersnappers with the older guys.”

Consensus: The video from Martina and Elvis will debut on CMT on Monday (Nov. 24) in medium rotation. The Paisley/Urban clip hits CMT as a Hot Shot on Monday, and Brooks & Dunn’s video with Reba also airs Monday as a Hot Shot. Josh Turner’s new video enters medium rotation on Monday, and the CMT Giants video will debut Tuesday (Nov. 25) as a Hot Shot.