CMT Blog: 2008 November

Stork. Phelps. Romo. So many men have been linked to Carrie Underwood, but this time, she's really found her soulmate. Elvis Presley. Granted, he's not living in the here and now. But they are so good together on his Elvis Presley's Christmas Duets CD. The two sing "I'll Be Home for Christmas" together. Underwood said singing "with" Presley was very surreal, but that it felt like a good thing to do. "When Priscilla asks you to sing with Elvis, you do it," she told Entertainment Tonight. She added that she loves traditional Christmas songs like this one because of their ability to stand the test of time. I have to agree although she'd probably sound just as good dueting on more modern country Christmas tunes like Kenny Chesney's "All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan" or Garth Brooks' "Baby Jesus Is Born."

CMT on Tour with Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum wrapped up last weekend (Nov. 22), but it's not quite over yet. A contest was run where fans submitted their best photos of Aldean taken during the shows. Now it's down to five finalists and time to vote on which one will be the winner. My favorite is the dark, hellfire and brimstone-looking one taken by Judy Vinson -- very ominous. I wonder what song he was playing. ... Votes are counted on Monday (Dec. 1), so get yours in while you still can.

This is how I picture life in Hollywood: You are a star and you want to go out for coffee or a mani/pedi. So you call your publicist, who "leaks" that information to the paparazzi, and then voila: You are on the cover of Us Weekly. And that is exactly the opposite of life in Middle Tennessee, which is why Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban love it so much. They can get on with their routine, normal lives doing routine, normal things (and even delivering meals to homebound folks for Meals on Wheels), without the constant media scrutiny. Kidman told The Tennessean that people are getting accustomed to seeing her around town, and that she hasn't even been recognized some of the time. "Or if we were, they didn't say, and that is lovely," she said.

Photo credit: Ed Rode

Not every teenager who takes Nashville by storm ends up riding the Taylor Swift rocketship to stardom. Some take time off to write, reflect and find a new record label. Like Jessica Andrews of "Who I Am" fame, circa 2001. She was just 17 when she sang about being "Rosemary's granddaughter, the spitting image of my father and when the day is done my momma's still my biggest fan." She was also the ACM's top new female vocalist in 2000, had a gold record and toured with Tim McGraw. Now, some seven years later, she's back with a new label and a new single, "Everything." And I like it. She may have evolved and changed and matured, but my appreciation for a powerful voice has not. Go listen and let me know what you think.

Marty Stuart has been taking photos of the world of country music since he was 12. His new book, Country Music: The Masters, includes some of the ones that he holds most precious. Like the one of Johnny Cash that graces the cover. Titled "Last Portrait, September 8, 2003," it was taken just four days before Cash's passing. Or the first photograph he ever took, which amazingly turned out to be of his future wife, Connie Smith. Listening to Stuart tell the story of that photo is like a hearing a real-life fairy tale. I can only imagine the stories that the rest of the book will tell.

About 10 years ago, I started keeping a gratitude journal. (It was an Oprah thing. Everyone was doing it. It was because of that little bestseller called Simple Abundance.) The idea is to write down five things that you are grateful for every day. And not just the big things, like your family and your health, but little things. The overlooked blessings. Like a Cinnamon Dolce Latte or a hug from my son. Writing them down means you are giving conscious thanks (instead of those fleeting moments where you just think to yourself, "Wow. That was awesome.").

So now I have lists and lists of those simple pleasures. You're supposed to skim them every once in a while and see what themes reoccur, and therein lies your contentment. My theme appears to be music. Here are some entries from my 2008 journal. Feel free to post a few of your own. Then maybe I'll e-mail the link to God.

Hearing Dierks Bentley sing "Prodigal Son's Prayer" live tonight.

Loretta Lynn confided in me today that she's a little jealous of Trisha Yearwood because "Doggone, she got the man." Adorable.

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The Internet and all its MP3s and videos and blogs have definitely changed the way people discover new music. But every once in a while, it happens the old-fashioned way: by watching TV. Like it did for Laura Greenspan, a buyer responsible for the country music assortment at Best Buy.

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Mary Chapin Carpenter has released her first Christmas album this year, but she also felt compelled to write something poetic about that other holiday - Thanksgiving. She says that as she was writing it, she was trying to address the subject of gratitude, and that "Thanksgiving Song" is part of the same spiritual song cycle as the rest of Come Darkness, Come Light. Along with writing several new songs for the album, she also dug up a few lesser-known tunes without dragging out all ye olde chestnuts. As a result, the album is unexpectedly subdued, beautifully understated and makes for a warm companion during the winter holidays.

I found this little :30 clip of Vince Gill singing with Richard Marx, and I found it interesting. First of all, it's fantastic. I would never have imagined those two vocalists sounding so good together, but they do. Really, they do. But the other thing I found interesting is why Richard Marx chose an old Beatles tune ("And I Love Her") to record. With all his songwriting chops, for country stars (Keith Urban's "Better Life" and "Everybody") and himself in his pop star heyday ("Right Here Waiting," "Should've Known Better"), I would've thought he wasn't a covers kind of guy. But this new Marx album has some original material written and some iconic covers. And he said he enjoyed venturing out of his comfort zone to do these covers. To hear the Gill duet, click here and go to Track 8.

Maybe she always knew farming. But now that Jewel's a bona fide country singer, she's extolling the virtues of America's agriculture in a campaign to support the future of farming. And she's doing it for Campbell's soup. "I love living on a ranch because I like being connected to ground," Jewel says on the campaign's Web site. "I like knowing where our food comes from." You may not think about freshly-farmed veggies when you sit down to a bowl of Chicken & Stars. But Campbell's relies on farmers every day to make so many of their soups M'm! M'm! Good! And Jewel is doing her part by getting out there, harvesting money and preserving family farms for the Help Grow Your Soup initiative. If you just click on the little red barn, you will effortlessly donate $1 to the cause.