CMT Blog: 2009 March

Brad Paisley started his week leading up to the ACM Awards by grabbing two trophies today (March 31), earning wins for video of the year and vocal event of the year with Keith Urban. The video of the year award goes for his heartfelt "Waitin' on a Woman" (featuring Andy Griffith) and vocal event for his duet with Urban on "Start a Band." I kind of expected the vocal event award to go that way, but Paisley's video win seems pretty telling. He had some tough competition in Heidi Newfield's "Johnny and June," George Strait's "Troubadour," Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream," and to win it makes me think that Paisley might have some momentum building. He's nominated in four more categories, including entertainer of the year, and I'm wondering what the odds of a sweep are.

When Martina McBride admitted she Twittered during her recent interview with CMT's Lance Smith, was I the only one who immediately signed up for this crazy thing? Probably not. I think any time a celebrity tells you that you can get to know him/her a little bit better, that's pretty hard to resist.

In case you haven't figured this trend out yet, it's just one more way for people to keep folks updated (and inundated, really) with a steady stream of info. Technically, it's defined as "a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called ‘tweets' of 140 characters or fewer." So I joined. And found a few country stars to follow.

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If you haven't yet pored over the liner notes from Defying Gravity like I have, let me tell you one of the things that will jump out at you: Keith Urban plays a staggering eight instruments on this standout 11-track collection of musical wanderings. There's his ever-present ganjo (a six-string banjo with the neck of a guitar), electric guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, EBow (a hand-held electronic bow for guitar), mandolin, bouzouki (a stringed instrument from Greece, which Urban's liner notes spell as "bazooky") and, of course, the mandocello. How could you make a country album without that? Oh, and he sings pretty well, too. Is there no end to this man's talent?

I was elated when I received a call from CMT telling me I had won a CMT Music Pass. It got even better when I was told I would be going to see Kellie Pickler at the Grand Ole Opry. That night could not come soon enough! My friend and I arrived at the Opry, got our tickets and headed to our seats. We were so excited. At the Opry, there are quite a few performers every night, so we had to wait a little while for her to come out. It was sure worth the wait! Kellie came out and sang "Red High Heels" and rocked that song. The crowd was very into it! She then talked a little about her next song and latest single, "The Best Days of Your Life," which she wrote with Taylor Swift. This is my favorite, and it was amazing. After singing that, she talked about going on tour with Taylor this summer, inviting us all to get tickets and support them! She only sang two songs, but it was well worth it! Thank you CMT.com for this opportunity! Check out Kellie Pickler's upcoming tour dates.

Over the weekend, I was enjoying Tift Merritt's Bramble Rose album and decided to see if she'll be coming through Nashville anytime soon. Nope. (Drag.) However, she has booked several concerts for April, and after that, she has a few cool projects in the works. On May 1, an exhibit of her photographs, titled "Other Countries," will be displayed at the Mahler, a fine art gallery in Raleigh, N.C. She calls the collection the "visual component of the record I wrote that summer." That record being 2008's Another Country -- already one of my all-time favorites. And speaking of another country, she'll also play the Jazz Café in London, less than a week later.

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Good news for SHeDAISY fans. They have a new record, A Story to Tell, coming out soon. Well, soon-ish, anyway. No date has been announced. According to their MySpace page, "This album is not about a single song but rather the whole adventure -- a sonic journey." Wow. That's a pretty big promise. Think a trio of sisters from Utah can deliver on that? If history can repeat itself, then yes. Kristyn, Kelsi and Kassidy Osborn had a platinum album a decade ago and a big hit with their debut single, "Little Good-Byes." So I think it's safe to expect more good things. The band hasn't made a studio album since 2006, which might explain why they admit in their blog to being "impatient and very excited to get the music out there, but there is a teeny tiny itty bitty bit more to do, and I guess patience shall be tried."

Four new music videos showed up for the CMT New Video Evaluation Team's latest screening session. Each appeals to a different personal reaction. Kellie Pickler aims for sweet revenge with "Best Days of Your Life" -- with the help of Taylor Swift. Trace Adkins goes for the funny bone in "Marry for Money." Dean Brody plucks on the heartstrings with "Brothers." And Williams Riley tell a saga of a family member reaching old age.

Artist: Trace Adkins
Video: "Marry for Money"
Director: Michael Salomon

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Hindsight is 20/20. You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. And all those other clichés about retrospectiveness. They all make for good country music. But now that Kenny Chesney has moved away from songs about wanting things to be like they used to be ("The Good Stuff," "There Goes My Life" and "Don't Blink"), it's time for someone else to pick up that lyrical slack. And Bucky Covington's just the guy. When you throw his rich drawl into this message of pining for the past, as he does on his new single "I Want My Life Back," it sounds so heartfelt that I can hear the yearning in his voice. He seems to have really mastered that throaty Kid Rock sound on this latest tune. Plus, any time you open a story with a guy who has holes in his shoes and is pouring whiskey in his coffee, it is hard to resist.

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Keith Urban's new album, Defying Gravity hits stores Tuesday (March 31), and if you're wondering what you'll find on it, Urban explains in this interview with USA Today. "It's a very up record. Once we got in the studio and started recording, the majority of the songs tended to be pretty up and joyous," he says. Honestly, it seems like it would be hard not to make joyful music like "Sweet Thing" when your life is going the way Urban's is. With his marriage to Nicole Kidman and the birth of their daughter, Sunday Rose, he has a lot to be thankful for and it seems like he knows it. In the article, Urban says one song, "Thank You," didn't start off being about Kidman, but co-writer Rick Nowles' music "pulled this story out of me, which became quite a confessional -- much more intimate than I might have written had I intended to write about (her). It was very instinctual and very much from the heart."

I quit the Dierks Bentley fan club -- not intentionally at all. But rather unintentionally, I quit out of sheer laziness. Just one of those things on your to-do list that gets pushed to the bottom. Renewing fan-club memberships is certainly above some things ("schedule dentist appointment" and "rotate tires"), but for sure below other things ("meet deadlines" and "feed family"). But God love him, Bentley really wants me back. I got this e-mail this morning: "Hey Alison. We realized that you haven't renewed your All Access membership, and we wanted to know if you could answer a quick, three-question survey to tell us why. One minute of your time will help us improve Dierks.com and keep fans like you happy." Isn't that nice? Soliciting feedback from fans instead of, say, record label committees? It's enough to make me re-up for another year at least.