CMT Blog: 2008 December

After too many years of too many of the same New Year's resolutions, I've grown completely bored with my own list. Probably because it always sounds just like everybody else's litany of self-improvement. Eat less. Jog more. Stop cussing like a sailor. Be more charitable. Never pay retail. It's like a broken record. Just one I never really seem to listen to.

This year will be different, I swear. Because this year, I looked to country music for inspiration for my resolutions. And it's not just a live-like-you-were-dying kind of thing. It's more of a wish list for living life a little more country. So in 2009, I promise to:

Go "Fishin' in the Dark."

"Start a Band," perhaps with a "Band of Brothers," and always "Play Something Country."

"Pray About Everything" and consider being baptized in that "Muddy Water."

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Isn’t it good to know that with all the economic strife around us, it’s free and easy to get country music anytime you want? Just turn on your radio. There are 2,024 country radio stations across America, so chances are there is one near you. Sure, you have to listen to a few monotonous commercials and some mind-numbing DJs, but that comes with plenty of good music from Taylor, Sugarland, Carrie, Alan, Toby, Brad, Kenny, Trace, Dierks, Keith, Tim and Martina. In fact, according to Billboard magazine, country is very much the No. 1 music format in radio. Even after losing 30 stations in the past year, country music is still on top. (News/talk stations are ahead of country, but that’s probably just because everyone wants to hear about said economic strife.) So turn it on, turn it up, and enjoy this free country of ours.

I already knew Kristian Bush could sing. His raspy vocals really complement Jennifer Nettles' twangy ones on bits and pieces of Sugarland's music. On their latest album, Love on the Inside, Bush chimes in on "Love," "Genevieve" and "Already Gone." (That's him at the end, singing the part about "My momma mapped out the road that she knows/Which hands to shake, which hands you hold.") And now I've discovered Bush's MySpace page where he has three songs of his own. I don't think it means anything other than he's a musical guy, whether he's doing his own thing or doing the Sugarland thing. In fact, in a lot of ways, it makes me respect the singer-songwriter in him even more. Because nothing says I Am Not Just Part of The Nashville Machine more than a meagerly publicized MySpace page devoted to music. Not blogs, not 3 million "friends." Just music.

There's a certain protocol when you're in the presence of a songwriting legend. You listen carefully, you watch in awe of his or her genius, and you basically let the rest of the world slip away. Unless you're That Dude Who Keeps Checking His Blackberry. During an intimate listening party at Nashville's Bluebird Café, as songwriter Don Schlitz was onstage doing his thing, The Tennessean newspaper's Peter Cooper noticed That Dude. There's usually a few at every concert, obnoxiously checking emails during a show. What's worse, this guy was right in the second row. What the hell could be so important that it couldn't wait until after Schlitz had finished his set? Especially on a Monday night during a holiday week. Do you have to know that your company's office fridge is getting cleaned out tomorrow morning? Or that your daughter's soccer practice was canceled? Schlitz is the brilliant mind behind hits like Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," Randy Travis' "On the Other Hand" and Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All." I'm glad Cooper outed That Dude and, hopefully, shamed him into cutting the hi-tech apron strings next time around.

There comes a time over Christmas break, after all the Legos have been built, all the Webkinz have been registered, all the Yule log cakes have been devoured and all the Wii games have been played, that my family sits down and watches movie after movie. And this year's faves had to be the movie musicals. Specifically, Across the Universe and Mamma Mia.

They are both ordinary films that bring the extraordinary music of the Beatles and ABBA, respectively, to life. If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend them. (Although you may want to turn the volume way down when Pierce Brosnan starts singing in Mamma Mia.) Watching these movies made me wonder why no one's made one telling a story with the country music of a legendary band. (George Strait's Pure Country doesn't count.)

I have to think the music of Brooks & Dunn would make a good backdrop for some epic film. And I don't know yet what the story could be about, but surely a listen to their catalog of hits would inspire a few screenwriters. It could open on a man singing "Cowgirls Don't Cry" to his daughter and close with him reprising it on his deathbed. And in between? God, the story could go in a million different directions. "Brand New Man," "She's Not the Cheatin' Kind" and "Ain't Nothing ‘Bout You" would be perfect for relationship montages. And "Only in America," "Believe" and "Red Dirt Road" have the kind of lyrical imagery that would make any scene about growing up with rural roots that much richer.

What other songs or artists could you see being woven into the heart of a movie?

The Washington Post recently named Ashton Shepherd's debut album its album of the year. Not country album of the year, mind you. Album of the year, period. That's how good it is. Miranda Lambert loves it, too, telling the Post, "The first time I heard Ashton Shepherd's voice, it's like she reached out of the radio and grabbed me. ... I love that in her music you hear her life and the down-home feel of her lyrics. She is perfectly unpolished. The fact that she is a redneck, beer-drinkin' chick from Alabama, I mean what's not to love?" The story also has a few fun facts about Shepherd I hadn't heard before: She lives in a single-wide trailer, does phone interviews with her son on her lap, she can't read music and she loves Jamey Johnson's "In Color" so much she got chill-bumps all over herself the first time she heard it.

Wanna catch a glimpse of the sought-after teen queen Miley Cyrus? Start going to her dad's concerts. I'm not saying she'll be at every single one, but she had enough downtime on her schedule to pencil in his show at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon on Saturday night (Dec. 27). She stayed the whole time, dressed way down in a grungy-but-cute style, and hung with boyfriend/model/Nashville Star contestant Justin Gaston. (He also goes by "Romeo" to country fans because of his role as such in Taylor Swift's "Love Story" video) Miley even took to the stage to help Billy Ray out on their duet "Ready, Set, Don't Go."

Singer-songwriter Bonnie Bramlett has issued a statement about her former husband and musical partner, Delaney Bramlett, who died at age 69 on Dec. 27 in Los Angeles, due to complications following gall-bladder surgery. "I'm so going to miss him; as Delaney wrote in his song: ‘It's hard to say good-bye,'" reads her statement. "All I can hope is that I'll see him in the light." Bonnie met Delaney in Los Angeles in 1967, and they married seven days later. They formed Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, acknowledged as the first rock ‘n' roll traveling road show, whose players included George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Gram Parsons, Leon Russell, Dave Mason and Rita Coolidge, among others. The duo released five albums, Their hit singles included "Soul Shake," "Never Ending Song of Love" and "Only You Know and I Know." The duo broke up personally and professionally in 1973. Their daughter is Nashville singer Bekka Bramlett.

After co-writing three of the hit singles off her Carnival Ride album, plus "Crazy Dreams," it's no wonder Carrie Underwood wants to get in on a little more songwriting action for her next album. And not just because of the royalties. Having songwriting cred earns you some more respect in the music industry and probably makes you feel a little more emotionally connected to the songs you're singing. Plus, she told reporters she's "getting more comfortable" with her writing abilities and that she's not one of those people who has to write every song. I think that's the perfect attitude going into a new album. Write a few, buy a few. If that's the formula that worked to make her last album go platinum twice, I doubt anyone on Team Carrie would want to mess with that.

Enough already. Enough looking back at what 2008 was all about, music-wise. The new year is three days away, so I think it's about time we started looking forward. And there is plenty to get excited about.

Jessica Andrews will be back on the radio, God willing, with her new single, "Everything." Lee Brice will have some new music, too. Jason Michael Carroll's "Where I'm From" will be up and running soon. Luke Bryan is working on a sophomore album, and has a song from it coming out in February. Jamie O'Neal's new label is going to try to make her new "Like a Woman" a big hit. Jason Aldean has an album due out in the spring. Jack Ingram's next album should be out in the early part of the year. And Eric Church's newest tune will be on the radio right around Jan. 12.

But it's not just newer artists who are pushing into 2009 with enthusiasm. Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Pat Green and Dierks Bentley are going to be releasing new albums pretty soon. Miranda Lambert and Gretchen Wilson are said to be working on new music, too. And in the collaboration of all collaborations, Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift co-wrote the kiss-off girl-power anthem "The Best Days of Our Life" which will help Pickler get her new year off to a sweet start.

So on Wednesday night, raise a glass to Auld Lang Syne. And raise another one to all the good country music up ahead.