Country Music Blog: 2008 February

Parents first, superstars second. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill prove their love and devotion to their daughter Gracie at an Ensworth School basketball game. Looks like Tim's got some advice for the ref.

Kris Kristofferson has officially given his endorsement to Barack Obama, saying that the presidential hopeful has the diplomacy our world needs now.

A rock 'n' roll walk of fame in Australia honors Keith Urban with his own plaque, for his part in impacting the international music scene.

Move.That. Bus. And make room for Toby Keith when he performs on "Extreme Home Makeover" on Sunday (3/2).

If Alan Jackson really was rockin' in his cradle to the crying of a steel guitar, as he claims in his 1990 hit "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow," then his mother must've known best. She must've known that Jackson, who will turn 50 in October, was destined for country icon status. And his new CD, Good Time, (out on Tuesday) stakes his claim to that upper echelon of Nashville heroes even more. This space isn't big enough for a proper review of the 17 tunes he penned himself. So I will try, desperately, to narrow it down to the top three reasons you should own this little slice of country music heaven:

One: A simple track called "I Still Like Bologna." It has a love it/hate it/love it message about the high-tech world we're in. But Jackson's bottom line is that bologna, a woman's love and a good cell phone are the keys to happiness. I'd like to add to that list the sound of the double bass you can hear in the background.

Two: "Good Time." Sounds cliché, I know. But this isn't just another let's-go-out-tonight song. It's a fast-talker, which gives Jackson a chance to show off the myriad talents he's got in his voice without a whole bunch of unnecessary instruments. But the sweet harmonica break towards the end does add to the infectious workin'-all-week anthem.

Three: Country music's good about taking a phrase and turning it around. That's what happens in the brilliantly written "Right Where I Want You," when Jackson sings, "You've got me right where I want you." Gentle vocals help him pull off this aching ballad about getting caught up in love. (This last one was a tie for third place with "Small Town Southern Man," the one on the radio right now. But the radio's already doing a good job pushing that one.)

It's obvious that Jackson takes his craft seriously. He sticks to relatable narratives without ever losing focus on who he is -- in life, and in country music.

Vince Gill gave the Washington Post some totally awesome quotes about Taylor Swift, and how she's like so completely seriously amazing or whatever.

Another teen who's super awesome? Miley Cyrus, for rescuing a lost dog and comforting him until his owner was retreived.

If you're a Kenny Chesney fan, you won't want to miss tonight's premiere of Biography on A&E. Even though Chesney didn't speak to the A&E crew for the show, his manager and songwriters did.

The soldiers in Fort Bragg better get ready to rock. Miranda Lambert's going to perform just for them and their families on Saturday (3/1) night at the Ritz-Epps center.

As if he wasn't busy enough educating B-list celebs on country music, now John Rich is going to conduct monthly talent contests at 12th & Porter in Nashville.

At this point in the digital age, why isn't every album ever released by a major label available either on CD or as a download? And why does it so often take a foreign record label to re-release classic music that's sitting in a corporate vault?

I just got back from the Ernest Tubb Record Shop after learning that two of Chet Atkins' RCA albums from the mid ‘70s -- The Night Atlanta Burned and The First Nashville Guitar Quartet -- were finally released on CD. Not by RCA, of course, but by Raven Records, an Australian company that packaged them together on one disc. I gladly plunked down $24, but honestly, for the past decade, I would have paid twice that amount -- but that CD simply didn't exist and the download still doesn't.

Atkins recorded both albums with acoustic ensembles -- The Night Atlanta Burned with guitarist Paul Yandell, mandolinist Johnny Gimble and violinist Lisa Silver and The First Nashville Guitar Quartet with guitarists Liona Boyd, John Knowles and John Pell. Great stuff. While interviewing Chet Atkins in the mid ‘90s -- when he was recording for Columbia -- I asked if he thought The Night Atlanta Burned would ever be released on CD. He said, "All of that belongs to RCA. I'd love to see it released, but I don't have any control over what they do."

Raven made me very happy through the years with some of the titles they've been the first to release on CD, including an expanded version of Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb's Reunion. Raven was also the first to offer CD versions of Michael Murphey's Geronimo's Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir, two excellent albums he made for A&M in the ‘70s.

If projected sales figures prohibit releasing CD versions of certain albums, how much does it cost to make a download available? No doubt, there are financial and legal factors at play in some situations, but it sure looks like the major labels are still sitting on a lot of music because they either don't know what they've got -- or don't care enough about it to make it available to the public.

Maureen McCormick (better known as Marcia Brady) recently admitted to having a bit of a girl crush on Gretchen Wilson on Gone Country. Then CMT.com columnist Hazel Smith was raving about Crystal Gayle's skin, eyes, smile and hair. And Miley Cyrus had some mildly suggestive pictures taken with another girl a few months ago. Is everyone everywhere having these girl crushes, and if so, shouldn't someone write a song about the new trend?

Back in 2006, Willie Nelson released a song called "Cowboys are Secretly, Frequently (Fond of Each Other)." I think it might be the time for another tune about homosexual tendencies. Not a straight-up lesbian love song, but more of an exploration of the crushing craze, because it really has less to do with actual, physical lust and more to do with an infatuation of another girl's mind, body and soul. (Although McCormick's forthcoming book reportedly reveals a girl crush that actually progressed to sexual play with Eve Plumb, who played younger sister Jan Brady.)

I'm not suggesting country music's on the verge of a girl-on-girl kiss a la Madonna and Britney. However, a Jennifer Nettles/Carrie Underwood awards-show kiss would certainly give us something to talk about, wouldn't it? But I do think the phenomenon of girl love doesn't seem to be as taboo as it once was. In the new book, Sexual Fluidity, the author reports that women are more fluid with their emotions when it comes to other women -- that it's not as black and white as it is with men, and that the occasional attraction to women is natural.

Maybe in the conservative world of country radio, the potential lack of spins might be holding songwriters back. But radio has crossed some lines in the sand before, and the timing may be right for a little more flirtation with controversy. Just think of the untouched lyrical territory. Fans always want music they can relate to. And who can't relate to a page out of Marcia Brady's life?

Sounds like Garth Brooks should be the one up all night, cleaning his gun. Now that his daughters are growing up, he had to set down some ground rules for dating.

Even the highbrow Wall Street Journal can't help but hear the soul in the SteelDrivers' bluegrass. Music they themselves call "something with a little dirt under its nails."

With the Cyrus daddy-daughter duo tapped to host the 2008 CMT Music Awards, tickets are long gone. Was that the plan all along?

From the my-roots-have-been-country-all-along files, Eddie Money is producing a country album with revamps of his own hits like "Two Tickets to Paradise." No predictions on how long he'll stay country.

Pizza, pot stickers and a private show. That's what Julie Roberts fans are vying for in the contest to win a private concert, thanks to Red Baron Pizza and Asian Sensations.

Mindy McCready's trial date has been set for August, where she'll be tried for battery and resisting arrest. Expect a country song about her imprisonment to follow.

"We got married in a fever/Hotter than a pepper sprout."

Simply one of the greatest opening lines ever written for a country song, those 11 words pull you into "Jackson," made famous by Johnny Cash and June Carter, enough that you're hooked for the entire song. The irony of it is that Johnny and June were not married when they recorded "Jackson," but they would be on March 1, 1968 -- 40 years ago this week.

One has to have sympathy for Vivian Liberto, Cash's first wife. They were married in 1954, but when Cash made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry two years later, he was already flirting with Miss Carter, whom he'd heard on Opry radio broadcasts many times. Around 1962, Carter became a permanent member of Cash's road show, and in that role, she likely spent more time with Cash than his wife did. The inevitable divorce was granted in January 1968, and barely seven weeks later, Cash popped the question to Carter in Ontario. She said yes and they wasted no time on a long honeymoon. A week into the engagement, they told music executives attending a Grammy ceremony in Nashville that they were getting married. Appropriately enough, the announcement came as they accepted their award for that hotter-than-a-pepper-sprout song, "Jackson."

The awards were presented on Feb. 29 -- Leap Day -- and they took their leap the next day, marrying in Franklin, Ky., with Merle Kilgore (Carter's co-writer on "Ring Of Fire") serving as best man. All in all, it seemed to work out well in the end, though the way Vivian was left in the dust seems harsh. Despite those circumstances, Cash and Carter were practically inseparable their remaining 35 years, and his daughters seemed to forgive their father for any anger their parents' split might have created.

In addition to the ironies in "Jackson," one other odd coincidence occurred in the midst of all that. At the Grammy ceremony, songwriter Bobby Braddock caught the ear of Billy Sherrill, who had produced a song that won a Grammy that night for Tammy Wynette. Sherrill expressed interest in a new song Braddock had written with Curly Putman, and the two writers delivered a demo recording of it to Sherrill the next day. Three weeks later, Wynette recorded that composition, which is the complete opposite of the "we-got-married-in-a-fever" theme of "Jackson. The song in question: "D-I-V-O-R-C-E."

"I'm going to always look like a cheap whore." That and other famous lines from Dolly Parton have made it into this week's Entertainment Weekly.

After switching record labels within the Sony BMG family and waiting for the timing to be just right, Keith Anderson has finally announced a date for his sophomore album release: May 20.

How does Keith Urban write his signature hits? He lets the music dictate the lyrics, instead of the "lyrics-come-first" approach favored by most Nashville songwriters.

While the real estate market in the real world is tanking, an ambitious price tag of $14 million has been suggested for a beach house reportedly owned by a certain country music star.

Dear Taylor,

May I join your fan club? Being quadruple your age, I know I'm not the demographic you're shooting for. I'll probably never visit you on MySpace or download any of your music (although I do promise to make a good faith effort to find out what the hell downloading is). Moreover, I'm well past the point of identifying with the subjects you write and sing about. You fret over teardrops on your guitar while I'm principally occupied these days with food stains on my shirtfront. These are lifestyle differences we'll just have to accept in each other

I've admired you for a long time -- actually since I first heard you sing "Tim McGraw." That song was epochal. "At last," I rejoiced, "someone's gotten beyond babbling about Hank and Waylon. Break out the champagne and Roman candles!" I applaud your considerable intelligence, too. It shines through whenever you speak. Unlike other country singers I could name, you don't act as though being smart is a betrayal of your culture.

Best of all, you seem to be having great fun -- and that's as it should be. Beneath all that stardust, you're still a wide-eyed kid. There are few things more tiresome than listening to someone who's chased fame moan and groan about how demanding it is when they catch it. So far, you've been too classy to do that, and I urge you to remain so.

Well, I won't take any more of your time. You've still got a lot of discoveries to make and translate into song for an eager world. Here's hoping you triumph as long and as brightly as the supreme Kitty Wells. And thanks again for choosing country music. We're just so proud to have you.

Sincerely,

A senior admirer

Mrs. Keith Urban was glowing from head to toe at Sunday night's Oscars. Nicole Kidman's sautoir necklace was literally dripping with diamonds totaling almost 1,400 carats.

Vince Gill and Amy Grant kicked off a St. Jude event in Nashville on Friday night. While they performed, people bought raffle tickets for the 2008 Dream Home Giveaway. One lucky winner will eventually get the home valued at $650,000.

Hear some true confessions of what it's really like to perform on American Idol from someone who knows -- Phil Stacey. The on-his-way country star dishes on why singers may sound a little pitchy sometimes.

Texas swing band Asleep at the Wheel serenaded Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at his Austin rally with "Boogie Back to Texas." Check out Obama's singing.