CMT Blog: 2008 October

I swear I am not being sarcastic this time. I just really don't get the appeal of this song by Rehab. It's called "Bartender Song," and it is the number two video being streamed on CMT.com. So either the band's moms are hitting the refresh button and clicking play over and over, or people out there really like this tune.

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If you're a country music fan and love singing karaoke, then SingStar Country on PS2 might be for you. The game has 30 songs from artists like Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, Martina McBride and Taylor Swift. You can play the game with two microphones, making it a fun choice for a party. I played it today along with some other CMT bloggers (getting the absolute lowest score, mind you) and can say that it is definitely an engaging, and at times hilarious, group activity. We sang Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman," Kenny Chesney's "Big Star," Jackson's "Chattahoochee," even "Pancho and Lefty" by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Jewel and Jessica Simpson are in there, too. Afterward, some of us commented that it may be a better game for groups than Rock Band or Guitar Hero since the actual music video plays during the game rather than animation. Plus, those not playing don't have to listen to constant clicking of plastic guitar buttons, just suffer through questionable singing. You can sing solo or duet, battle an opponent or play in a pass-the-mic, hot potato mode. Learning is quite easy. Personally, I still prefer the guitar games, but that's only because I'm a horrendous "singer." This thing is a good time.

The media has been hard-pressed to get a picture of Sunday Rose, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's little girl. But not to worry. Kidman has told Parade magazine exactly who she looks like: Urban. "I'm glad, because when he goes on tour, I say to him that he leaves a little bit of him with me," she said. Aw. She goes on to describe how attached she gets in relationships. And that may be why the trouble Urban had early on in their marriage was so hard. "We were thrown into his alcohol problem three months into the marriage, and that was big," she says. "We became the closest we could become, because we had to bare our souls. We did 10 years of marriage in three months," she explained. If their marriage weathered a rough patch that well, parenting Sunday Rose will certainly seem like a piece of cake.

Toby Keith's been on the phone and on the road a lot this week promoting his new album. And everyone's been asking about the tough-guy swagger in his lyrics, the ballad-heavy track list, the new movie coming out and of course, politics (the country's and those of the awards shows in the music business). But the music critic at the Washington Post had to know more. Like, what's with the clean-shaven armpits? Keith gives him a candid answer about all the sweating he does onstage, then asks, in his unabashed way, if the guy has a man crush on him. If you don't believe me, click to the picture to see the, um, softer side of Toby Keith.

As last night's taping of CMT Giants, Alan Jackson sat in the balcony of the Ryman Auditorium and watched his own band perform. The songs were familiar, of course, as friends like George Strait, Brad Paisley, Martina McBride and Lee Ann Womack serenaded him with his biggest hits. Even newer artists like Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift (who was born the same year Jackson released his first single) were on hand to pay tribute to the small-town Southern man. The show will debut on CMT on Dec. 6.

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If you like Dierks Bentley, you're gonna love Mondays. Because according to a video from Bentley's interim Web site (his old one is down and the new one's not up yet), he is going to post behind-the-scenes footage every Monday. It sounds like fans will get to see Bentley and his crew getting a little blood on the new record. Those are his words, not mine. He says they've been working harder on this album than any other one and that it's already been in the works for two years. Bentley's been an Internet pioneer since he started his career and was one of the first new artists to make good use of street teams and fan clubs. So I'm sure this latest virtual endeavor -- and the album it's meant to promote -- will catapult him to to the next bigger and better level.

You know those Keith Urban fans who come into every concert armed with big cameras and even bigger lenses? It may look like they're just hard at work on their own private galleries of Urban photographs. But a few lucky ones are actually hard at work on a much more philanthropic project: the Keith Urban calendar.

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In a recent interview with CMT, Toby Keith talks about his new album That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy. He says that since he co-wrote every song and produced the album it has his fingerprints all over it, but that doesn't mean that it's more of the same. According to Keith, "There's about four love songs on here -- which is about three more than I usually do." There's also a bluesy track called "Missing Me Some You" that includes some soulful vocal backing and a horn section. I think I like the title track the best, but with its hint of bluegrass flavor, "You Already Love Me" might be the sleeper of the album -- and is pretty infectious too. Since the tracks are available for streaming in their entirety on Keith's MySpace page (probably only for a limited time) you can make up your own mind.

For their last video, they put a girl in it. Lots and lots of girls, actually. But for their latest video for "Cowgirls Don't Cry," Brooks & Dunn have opted to put a few kids in it. Ronnie Dunn's daughter Haley, 14, has a big role in the video. She will be appearing with her horse. And one of the co-writers of the song, Terry McBride, got his 6-year-old daughter Lilly a role in the video too. I remember when Trace Adkins had his daughter in his "Ladies Love Country Boys" video. And Lee Ann Womack had hers in "I Hope You Dance." And Tim McGraw's were in his "Last Dollar (Fly Away) video." So this isn't the first time artists have leaned on their kids for talent, and I hope it won't be the last.

The title track from Keith Anderson's latest album beckons the world to C'mon! to the CMA Awards during the promo spots on ABC. I hope to God they are asking us to C'mon and watch the awards on TV. Because the cheapest nosebleed seats I could find on Ticketmaster were around $125. Each. So when Anderson sings "C'mon. C'Mon. We been knuckle bustin', back breakin', head achin' all week long," all I can think of is, who can afford to actually go to the Sommet Center? Certainly not the guys in the song, who've been plowin' up a cloud of dust and haulin' hay from dawn till dusk. But still, I'm sure millions will heed Anderson's advice and C'mon to their couches on Nov. 12 at 8p.m. ET for the 42nd annual CMA Awards.