CMT Blog: 2008 January

Yeah, it's good old American capitalism and supply-and-demand economics, but where do you draw the line on how much you're willing to spend for a concert ticket? A case in point is Van Morrison's March 13 concert in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium. With a seating capacity of less than 2,400, the Ryman really is one of the best places in the world to experience a concert. And you expect to pay a premium price for the opportunity to see an artist perform in such an intimate setting, as opposed to the Enormo Dome. However, with peers such as Bob Dylan somehow managing to keep their tickets below the $100 threshold at the Ryman, I thought it was outrageous in 2006 when Morrison charged up to $125 for tickets to a show promoting his country album, Pay the Devil. This time around for Van, it's $130 for the "cheap seats" -- with prices topping out at $200.

Granted, the $200 price tag is in line with what some veteran rock acts are charging for tickets to arena shows, but then you get into the gray area of ticket brokers and scalpers. (Some would argue the two are the same.) For Morrison's 2006 show, scalpers outside the Ryman were asking as much as $1,000 per ticket, although I never heard if there were any takers at that price.

Maybe Van Morrison actually has the right idea. Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks are two country artists who, to their absolute credit, have always tried to keep their ticket prices within reach of working class Americans. To the best of my knowledge, Chesney has never surpassed the $100 mark for primo seats to his all-day, all-star stadium shows. However, one ticket brokering firm recently confirmed that their clients paid an average of $161 for tickets to Chesney’s concerts in 2007. And that's just an average. And the extra money goes to the ticket brokers -- not the artists. So maybe Morrison figures he should take his fair share of what the ticket market will bear.

The scary part, though, is the thought that attending a concert will eventually become an elitist activity open only to those who have a limitless amount of money or available credit on their charge cards.

Australia's Herald Sun reports that Keith Urban is in the midst of a collaboration with another woman. Urban and pop sensation Nelly Furtado are recording a duet together.

If you're going to be in New York City during Super Bowl XLII, and you like country music, consider joining Kix Brooks and some of Nashville's hottest songwriters at one of the hottest eateries.

It seems rehab is the new spot for country artists to start starting over. Joe Nichols is the latest to leave an Arizona facility with a renewed commitment to country.

Is Darius Rucker, front man of frat-rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, finally ready to unveil his country sound? You'll have to hit Nashville's Bluebird on Friday night to hear for yourself.

Even in the dead of winter, I found myself craving ice cream at the UNL Dairy Store in Lincoln, Neb., when I visited there over the holidays. The store has been around since 1917, when it was called Varsity Dairy, and today it provides experience, equipment and facilities for the University of Nebraska’s Food Science program.

Plus, the ice cream is so darn delicious. Creamy, too. I am partial to the Scarlet and Cream flavor, and not because those are the Cornhusker colors. (To be honest, I couldn’t care less about football, but the state still allows me to visit occasionally.) The mint flavor is bright green and named in honor of 4-H, the ubiquitous agricultural organization found in small schools across Nebraska. College students work the counter at the Dairy Store, and it’s tradition for UNL alumni to bring in their own little Cornhuskers for a scoop.

The first time I visited, I couldn’t resist buying a slab of their cheddar cheese, perfect for soups and sandwiches; they also sell meats like salami and summer sausage, as well as local honey. With a dripping cone in hand, I wandered the halls of the visitor center, perusing old photos of dairy companies in the smaller cities across Nebraska, with several towns and milk brands recognizable from my childhood.

If you’re visiting the East Campus of UNL, several other places are worth a look: Maxwell Arboretum, the International Quilt Study Center (with 2000 quilts in its collection) and the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test & Power Museum. My favorite pizza can be found at Valentino’s, famous throughout Nebraska for its hearty buffet. Students drool at the mere mention of this place, and so do I. If you go, save room for ice cream at the UNL Dairy Store, because it’s just across the street.

I wanted to make sure everyone in the cast understood what Southern culture and hospitality are all about. Everybody that knows me knows that my Granny Rich is a pretty important person to me. She makes my stage clothes, and I go out to her house every Sunday and watch football and the whole deal, and she's also the best cook I personally know. I've grown up eating her food, so I thought it would be cool to host a dinner with the MuzikMafia with all my buddies and let the Gone Country cast kind of mingle with them, first of all, because the musical conversations that could happen would be really cool. But then I gave the cast of Gone Country my Granny Rich's recipes and sent them to the kitchen to go cook her food and then had her show up to taste test all the food and see if it was up to her standards. She had to write down all of the recipes first. She's the kind that holds out her hand and puts the salt in her hand and shakes it out. She doesn't know how much it is in anything. But I was kinda glad she wrote everything down, because someday when she's not around, maybe I'll know how to recreate those recipes.

The food the cast prepared was actually pretty good. Carnie Wilson screwed up the potatoes, but other than that. They were lumpy, first of all, and then second of all, she put garlic in them. She told us, "I make these garlic mashed potatoes," and my granny goes, "You put what in there? You don't put garlic in my mashed potatoes." That was pretty funny. But other than that, it was right on the money. Diana DeGarmo did the pecan pie, and it was frightenly good.

Later on, the cast members were challenged to perform some of their hits onstage at a local bar. Watching Dee Snider of Twisted Sister singing "We're Not Gonna Take It" -- and the whole bar in Nashville just screaming it at the top of their lungs -- it makes you understand the close connection between classic rock and country music. Bobby Brown and Sisqo, you know, doing "My Prerogative" and "The Thong Song" ... incredible. Those guys are just straight up pros. I mean, it would be like taking me and throwing me into an urban scene somewhere in Atlanta or L.A. and me getting up and doing "Save A Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" and they actually all pumped their fist to it. It was kinda like that, watching it all go down.

Before she got her record deal, Sarah Johns made ends meet in Nashville by teaching spin classes – a high-intensity workout on stationary bikes common in fitness clubs.

"I taught spin like four times a day. I mean, my legs were just huge," she says. "I taught that and I taught Body Pump and I taught a bunch of classes. I remember one time, I did kickboxing. Honey, let me tell you something, I could tell all those women in there were like, 'What the hell is this woman even doing? She doesn’t even know how to do it.' I was like, 'Kick. Kick,' because I thought I could make 30 bucks if I told them I knew how to do it. I had no idea. It was the worse class I’m sure any of them ever had."

Fortunately, she landed her record deal on RCA, and she’s spending the early part of 2008 promoting a new single, "He Hates Me," as well as opening concerts for fellow traditionalist George Strait. It’s certainly easy to munch on junk food on the bus, but Johns is determined to stay in shape while she’s criss-crossing the country.

"You just try not to eat all the bad stuff. They have full catering services out here and everything. I’m trying not to eat that bad and maybe walk the stairs and really watch I’m eating, more than anything," she says. "I went in there for lunch and they’ve got hamburgers and pasta and all of a sudden I was like, 'I’ll do a salad with fat-free ranch.' I hate fat free reach, I hate it. But I got it."

Since she doesn’t want to go back to her small Kentucky hometown, Johns says she’s determined to do everything she can to promote her singing career, which means she’ll inevitably work up an appetite. In that case, she’s certainly on the right tour.

"Tonight we’re supposed to have some good steak and you know George isn’t eating crappy steak," she says. "It’s the good stuff."

Quick. There's less than a week to get your hands on Kenny Chesney’s boxers. All for a good cause, of course.

Kellie Pickler has been hanging around in men’s lockers rooms and managed to convince a Giants fullback to try on her red high heels.

Ever wanted to create a set list for your favorite artist? Here’s your chance, starting with Trisha Yearwood.

Watch Faith Hill one-up Elvis Presley with this spirited video premiere of her take on “That’s Alright Mama.” 
 

Oops!

There’s nothing more embarrassing as a journalist than to have a story that’s factually incorrect. It damages the credibility of the entire story when readers see any information that is wrong, and it can also cast doubt on other stories in the same media outlet or by the same writer. And yet, journalists are people, so mistakes happen. Been there, done that, lost plenty of sleep over it, too.

One of the funniest stories (to me, probably not to the reporter or to the artists who were in the article) occurred 25 years ago, on Feb. 4. The Oak Ridge Boys’ bass singer, Richard Sterban, decided not to go through with his planned wedding, and a Knoxville paper reported -- erroneously, it turned out -- that he jilted disco queen Donna Summer. The problem was in spelling: Sterban walked away from Donna Summers. The paper missed the “s.”

It was quite a shock to the singer Summer, and probably to her husband, Bruce Sudano. The couple had just had a child the previous August. There was some crossover between the pop and country worlds, because Summer wrote the Dolly Parton hit “Starting Over Again” and the Oaks sang on Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away.” However, Sterban and Summer as a couple should have raised a red flag somewhere before the story ran. Sterban, by the way, did marry Donna Summers five years later. They had a child and are still married.

There’ve been other miscues since. NBC reported briefly on Christmas Day 1994 that Chet Atkins had died earlier in the year. The real celebrity in question had the same initials, actor Claude Akins. A fan magazine reported in the fall that “Ready, Set, Don’t Go” singer Miley Cyrus was pregnant. She was not. This month, Slim Whitman was reported in several media outlets to have died. He is, in fact, alive and well and living in Florida, a robust 84 years old.

There are two morals to the story. One, reporters need to always check their facts. Two, if you’re unhappy that you’re not a celebrity, don’t be: Imagine how much time you might have to invest in clearing up the reports of your demise.

Country stars always talk about paying their dues, playing for tip jars night after night in Nashville’s honkytonks. But to go country after you’ve done American Idol, you have to work that much harder to break on through to the other side.

That’s what former AI contestant Phil Stacey’s up to now: courting county radio, one conference room at a time. If you thought it was hard to shine when you sang for 18,000 fans in an arena, try doing it in a 20’ x 20’ meeting room at 10 a.m. He has the vocal chops and the easy charm to pull it off, but it ain’t easy singing to an industry crowd. Actually, "crowd" is the wrong word. More like 20 employees sitting around a conference table with bagels and coffee. It couldn’t possibly be as nerve-wracking as auditioning for Simon, Paula and Randy. Still, it is an audition of sorts. Just more like a try-out for country radio success.

Yesterday at Chicago’s US99, Stacey sang without a mic, with just two guys on acoustic guitar backing him. First came his debut single, "If You Didn’t Love Me," which was co-written by Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox, so it’s sure to be a hit. "No Way Around a River" showed off the gritty voice we came to love during last season’s AI. And the last song of his mini-set was Keith Urban’s "Where the Blacktop Ends." While Stacey spent his Idol days singing more old school R&B, he says, "country is part of who I am," because of the Deep South bluegrass he loved as a kid. "I had to do country," he said. "I’d have been a poseur if I’d done rock."

It’s hard to imagine a tougher audience that Simon Cowell. But now that Stacey’s made it past Cowell and a few country radio conference rooms, I’m guessing he can make it anywhere.

When new artist Luke Bryan gets time off from touring to go back to his hometown, he will most likely be found outdoors. "When I go home [to Georgia], outdoor stuff is a big part of what we do. Anytime I get home I’m bee-lining it to the woods," says Bryan, who sings about his rural upbringing in his new single, "We Rode in Trucks."

And when he heads for the trees, he often takes his four-legged friend, Maggie. "She’s an English Cocker, black and white, about 25 pounds," says Bryan. "English Cockers are a little hunting dog that’s popular down in south Georgia. They’re great little retrievers. I’d always grown up with Labs, but it’s gotten too hot in south Georgia now to go hunting with Labs, so English Cockers have gotten popular."

Bryan says he and his wife got Maggie as a pet, but as an avid hunter, it didn’t take him long to put his pet’s work skills to the test. “I do hunt with her, but not as much as I’d like to,” he says. "She’s pretty incredible at retrieving. My wife’s father has trained a lot of dogs, and he says Maggie is one of the best he’s seen. She’s really smart.

"I think her best characteristic is that she has so much drive and energy," he continues. "I can take something that will sink and throw it into the shallow end of a swimming pool, about four or five feet deep, she will dive to the bottom to get it. She’s like an otter. She’s just got a lot of drive, and if she sees something to retrieve she will not quit until she gets it."

Photo credit: Angela Marie Bertrand

Patriots and Giants fans will soon be Sara Evans fans when they hear her belt out her best at the Super Bowl tailgate party this Sunday in Phoenix.

Dolly Parton's brother is in a whole mess of trouble over a tourist attraction in North Carolina.

Maybe it's just a phase, but Miley Cyrus is changing her name to give a shout-out to her dad, Billy Ray.

Brad Paisley's wife Kimberly slept with soap while she was pregnant. She shares other advice for moms-to-be. Nicole? Are you listening?

Barack Obama voted for Keith Anderson when "Sunday Morning in America" was heard playing at his last rally.