CMT Blog: Lifestyle

This is none of my business, but I’m glad Tim McGraw is taking a bit of his own advice and starting to take better care of himself. In his big cover story for People magazine’s most recent country issue, he said he quit drinking. So even though he’s well past 30, he’s taking the lyrics of “My Next Thirty Years” pretty seriously now. At least, that’s how I’m reading into this. As if all country stars stop and think about what they’re singing as much as I do.

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Melissa Lawson is the winner of the 2008 Nashville Star Series.

Hi everyone! I am HOME! After 3 months on Nashville Star and 2 AMAZING whirlwind weeks after winning, I am finally HOME! =) I get to spend a couple of weeks with my family, no cameras, no interviews, just us Lawsons hanging out and lovin’ on each other. I am really looking forward to this time to recharge my batteries and get ready for the Nashville Star tour kicking off Sept. 12 in St. Louis and to begin working on the album, which will be released around the first of the year. Now let me tell you about what you really want to know about … CHINA! WOW! I thought Nashville Star was great, but it can’t even compare to the last 2 weeks of my life.

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From a baggy Arkansas sweatshirt in 2005 to a patent leather hat and cranberry eye shadow in 2008, Carrie Underwood: The Style Icon has certainly come a long way. And this photo gallery from the beauty magazine Allure takes readers on a visual journey of Underwood’s precipitous ascent to the top of the fashion hierarchy. The bottom line? She looks just as good dressed down as she does dressed way, way up.

When steel guitar master Don Helms passed away earlier this week, it quickly caught my attention. I had the privilege of getting to know Helms and his wonderful wife Hazel over five years ago when I was writing a series of stories for CMT.com on the 50th anniversary of Hank Williams’ death. Helms, the steel guitar-playing soul of Hank’s Drifting Cowboys band, was my chief historian. Of all the stories Don told me, one quickly came to mind:

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In this little video clip from People.com, you can see what life is like on artists’ tour buses. Like how neatly Dierks Bentley’s bed is made and how much he loves to play the video game Halo before a show. And how anal-retentive Lady A’s Dave Haywood is. I mean, how organized he is. He even labels the drawers on the bus so nobody has to ask where the silverware is.

Did you know you can go inside Loretta Lynn’s plantation home? I never realized it until this week, while driving back from Memphis, that she offers tours of the majestic, Civil War-era house that her husband Mooney Lynn bought for her. It’s a must-see for fans of Coal Miner’s Daughter, since several scenes were filmed inside. And that Crisco Kitchen! It hasn’t changed since the 1960s, but I’ve been noticing that same bright orange décor in a lot of magazines and catalogs lately. Like the Coal Miner’s Daughter herself, you just never know what’s going to come back in style.

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There is no statue for Patsy Cline in her hometown of Winchester, Va. Although she’s one of the most celebrated country singers in history, you’d be challenged to find much that honors her there. It’s enough to make her fans fall to pieces. The house where she lived with her mother is noted with a historical marker. There’s a memorial highway on the outskirts of town, and a boulevard in town named for her. However, I would have never found her flat gravestone in Shenandoah Memorial Park without a local tourism representative literally leading me to it.

See photos from Patsy Cline’s hometown of Winchester, Va.

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Anyone who has ever been to a concert can relate to the topics in this new book, No Air Guitar Allowed. Like how the parking lot at a classic rock show will always be full of luxury cars, a Buffet concert will have the drunkest crowd and how every show has at least a few people you know: Wasted Guy, Other Lead Singer, Urinal High Fiver and Make Out Couple. (I know that last couple very well. They sat in front of me at a Rascal Flatts show last weekend.)

Most country artists have a pretty good sense of humor. But rarely do they have it in them to make people laugh out loud. Phil Vassar does, though, as you can see from his video bestowing his random grilling tips upon America. And he’s not talking about marinades, rubs and cooking times. His advice ranges from dealing with vegans and “accidentally” disposing of the gross food people bring. It’s seriously funny.

It wasn’t even 9 a.m. and already Julianne Hough had put on false eyelashes, done a radio show, taken pictures with about a hundred fans, climbed up a fire truck ladder and gone riding on an ATV. This is her new life, one of a rising country music star. And it looks like she’s adapting very well. At a little coffee shop in suburban Chicago, we sat down this morning to talk (after the meet & greet and before the ATV ride).

She may not have written the songs on her first album, but says being on tour with Brad Paisley, Jewel and Chuck Wicks has inspired her to start writing songs for her next one. And since she loves watching Miranda Lambert perform, she has inspired her to learn to play the guitar. “When I was living in London with my dance coaches, they wouldn’t let me play. I had to focus on dancing,” she said.

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