CMT Blog: History

Taylor Swift is going to be both the host and the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this Saturday (Nov. 7). Is that even possible, for someone to perform country music AND be truly funny in the skits?

Yes. And I know this because of Garth Brooks. He did the same double duty when he was at the top of his game, and I think really surprised everyone with a sense of humor that seemed to come very naturally. Like when he's being teased backstage by the irresistibly sexy Mango (Chris Kattan). Or when Tracy Morgan is totally bad-mouthing Chris Gaines right to Garth Brooks' face. "He's a weedy beedy bing bong freak. And he's soft. He's fat. If you were that big, they'd be calling you Girth Brooks." But the very best was when Garth played Milo Jenkins, who sells his soul to the devil (Will Ferrell) to write him a hit song. Like "Fred's Slacks." It might be hard for Swift to beat that. But she has taken Garth Brooks' advice before, so I'm guessing she'll follow in his footsteps again this weekend. She told MTV she wanted to look nothing like herself. "I told all the writers, 'Don't count anything out. I want to go completely, 100 percent in.'" Then she said cast member Kristen Wiig was one of her comedic inspirations. Which really makes me hope they do a skit with Wiig as the one-upper, trying to one-up Swift. Like, "You got a songwriting deal when you were 14? I got one when I was still in my mother's womb." Or, "Both your albums went platinum four times? My albums have gone platinum, like, platinum times. Elvis was totally jealous." And they'd have to do something about Kanye. "Kanye West barged in on your VMA speech? He barges in on me more. He barges into my house, my dressing room, my car. He's obsessed with me. He thinks I'm the greatest comic of all time."

There's been much talk lately about the fact that Taylor Swift just broke the record set by Nickelback for having an album stay on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart the longest time during this decade. Good for her. Nickelback was hard to beat because their All the Right Reasons had the staying power to remain on the chart for 156 weeks. But Swift's self-titled debut album has now been on it for 157 weeks, so she wins. But I tend to look at things through only country music glasses, so I wanted to know what country album records she beat. So, according to Billboard, here goes: Shania Twain came the closest to Swift when her 1997 album, Come on Over, was on the chart for 151 weeks. And Carrie Underwood was on for 137 weeks with Some Hearts. And the Dixie Chicks, who I never thought anyone could ever beat, stayed on the charts for 134 weeks with Wide Open Spaces. Other noncountry albums have enjoyed similar success during this decade. And, of course, Pink Floyd's 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, holds the all-time record with 741 consecutive weeks on the chart.

Getting back to the basics of love (for the country music I remember as a kid), I put together this Waylon Jennings playlist, gathering the highlights from a few of my CD collections. Personally I'm drawn to his output in the 1970s -- even though he certainly had some signature songs before and after that period. Rather than assembling a "greatest hits," I compiled my favorite tracks from that decade, starting with "The Taker" (written by Kris Kristofferson and Shel Silverstein) through "I Ain't Living Long Like This" (by Rodney Crowell). And since I'm writing about Waylon in the 1970s, I couldn't pass up those classic duets with Willie Nelson -- in fact, "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" may be the first country song I learned to sing from start to finish.

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Before I received a copy of Dolly Parton's new four-disc, career-spanning collection, Dolly, I thought I knew a lot about her music. After listening to it from start to finish on a road trip back to Nashville -- 99 songs in all -- I realized I had a lot of catching up to do. She's one of my favorite singers, and definitely a songwriting force to be reckoned with, but there are plenty of tunes on Dolly that I'd never heard. One of them is "Sweet Summer Lovin'," a Top 10 hit from 1979 that sounds like just like a new Keith Urban tune -- simple lyric, easy to sing with and ready to warm you up inside.

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Good news for people who think that today's country music isn't really all that country: George Jones agrees with you. He isn't loving where the genre has moved in recent years. So when he was asked about some of the pop-influenced country stars that are so hot right now, Jones said, "They (Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift) had to use something that was established already, and that's traditional country music. So what they need to do really, I think, is find their own title, because they're definitely not traditional country music." He does think that Alan Jackson and George Strait are still good for that traditional sound. "We still have it, and there's quite a few of us that are going to hope that it comes back one of these days," he said. In the meantime, though, any suggestions for what that new title should be?

Growing up in the South -- and being brought up on country music -- made going to a show at the Grand Ole Opry House something I've always wanted to experience. On Tuesday (Oct. 27), I found out that's just what it is -- an experience, not just any old concert. I realized this during the introductory video just five minutes into the show. At 4' 11", Little Jimmy Dickens climbed a stepladder in order to stand eye-to-eye with 6' 6" Trace Adkins and invited Adkins to become an Opry member. It was obvious from Adkins' facial expression that he was elated. The audience doubled over with laughter at the first sight of Dickens on the ladder but the laughs quickly died down as Adkins' emotion apparently overwhelmed him, leaving everyone else with a warm sentiment and a big smile -- and the show hadn't even started yet.

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Anne Murray came by the CMT offices this week to chat about her new autobiography, All of Me. I read it in two days to prepare for the interview, and even though it's a fun and conversational story, I believe that every aspiring artist should read it for the tough-luck lessons from her own magnificent career. Of course she had an enormous pop hit in 1970 with "Snowbird" -- the first gold record ever by a Canadian solo female artist. However she battled overexposure to such a degree that a Vancouver newspaper ran her photo with the words: "In the air, everywhere, 24 hours a day." Her follow-up singles fizzled until "Danny's Song" a year and a half later, ushering in two solid decades of success.

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Sometimes I wonder where singers get their start. Not the town, but specifically where they are. In their basement? Garage? Bedroom? I'm just kind of curious where one would go to hone their vocals without driving the neighbors crazy. And I've just discovered where Darius Rucker got his start: in a storage shed. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal talked about how the Sumter Street Self-Storage units near the University of South Carolina are legendary to local musicians. And that Rucker's band, Hootie & the Blowfish, first started playing and practicing there in the early '90s. But now, a local activist made it his mission to shut down the Sheds and got a zoning board and the fire marshal to stop the music. Hootie drummer Jim "Soni" Sonefeld said, "The best thing about Sumter Street Storage was you could make noise. That's where you hone your craft. If you don't have anywhere to practice, how you going to get good?"

Rosanne Cash is back on the charts with her new album, The List, the latest project in a long and distinguished career. Over the weekend I pulled out The Wheel, her insightful 1993 album that has remained in my collection for many years. Her country career had come to an end by the time it was released, but her creativity appeared to be in full flourish. Living in New York City and kindling a romance with producer John Leventhal, she approached her craft from a new viewpoint, especially in the exhilarating title track. "I felt like I looked up from my navel with that song," she said in the liner notes to The Very Best of Rosanne Cash, "I knew how it felt to give love and recognition." Those topics are prevalent throughout The Wheel -- along with the anxiety of "changing partners" (to borrow a song title). Musically, the album captures some of Cash's most absorbing melodies, and even though the topics are tender, her voice is strong and commanding. If you're hoping to expand your Rosanne Cash catalog, add this one to your list.

In the early 1970s, Stephen Stills found himself frustrated with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and decided to scale back his musical direction. So he called longtime friend Chris Hillman, who was facing similar anxieties in the Flying Burrito Brothers. With five other guys, they formed the cool country-rock band Manassas. The ensemble blended Latin, country, rock and R&B -- and the invigorating concoction led to a gold record and a successful U.S. tour. Because Stills loved to record ("... and record ... and record ... and record," he says in the liner notes), they ended up with a bunch of outtakes, which have been gathered for Pieces, a new odds-and-ends collection from that era.

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