CMT Blog: News

Jimmy Buffett fans don't need to grab their flip-flops or mix their margaritas for this. All they need to do is sit back and relax and watch their favorite singer come together with Zac Brown Band for their upcoming CMT Crossroads. It doesn't air until March 2010 but it is taping next month in Nashville for an invitation-only audience. So let's use this space to like a suggestion box for songs. I'd love to hear Buffett try his hand at "Chicken Fried" and Zac Brown Band do "Cheeseburger in Paradise," but those are kind of obvious. What other beachy hits from Buffett's catalog should Zac Brown Band do? And what country-leaning Southern rock tunes of Brown's should Buffett tackle?

Sandra Bullock. Faith Hill. It doesn't matter who she is, Tim McGraw just wants to be around women who rule. In his new movie, The Blind Side, Bullock plays his wife who takes charge of every situation. McGraw tells Parade.com that he was at home with that. "In our family, my wife Faith Hill is very much in control of our life. She works out everybody's schedule. I wouldn't be able to function without her. So I can totally relate to a wife like that, and I feel that it is a blessing for me because I would be a mess without her giving me that kind of structure." How nice is that? While some men (my own husband, for one) would find a take-charge woman controlling, McGraw says Hill's a blessing. The article is about way more than the way the McGraw/Hill household is run, but to me, that says it all. That, and the fact that he made the list of the hottest celebs in the upcoming Sexiest Man Alive issue of People.

Winning and losing isn't something that usually comes to mind when thinking about music, but the guys in Reckless Kelly say that sometimes at the end of a concert you get one feeling or the other from a crowd. They definitely won Thursday night (Nov. 19) at Nashville's Exit/In. Opened by Scott Miller, the show ran past midnight for an audience that only seemed to want more.

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Though it's not even quite Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but feel the Christmas spirit last night (Nov. 19) as my husband and I stood outside Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel. We were sipping hot apple cider and waiting anxiously with hundreds of others gathered to witness the ceremonial lighting of more than two million sparkling lights. It was the official kickoff of the hotel's "A Country Christmas," a series of holiday festivities that will take place through January. Even celebrity chef Paula Dean, entertainer Louise Mandrell and Montgomery Gentry's Eddie Montgomery attended the special commencement. Lucky for us, we got a sneak peek of this winter wonderland.

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Charlie Daniels is already spreading the good tidings of Christmas. First of all, he's released a new holiday album, Joy to the World: A Bluegrass Christmas, with guests like Jewel, Kathy Mattea and Aaron Tippin, as well as Suzanne and Evelyn Cox, the Grascals and Dan Tyminski. Instead of a duets project, Daniels lets the singers tackle a whole tune. (Tyminski's rendition of "The Christmas Song" is especially terrific.) Daniels also offers a nifty new original, "Mississippi Christmas Eve," and recites both an original short story ("A Carolina Christmas Carol") and a passage from the book of Luke.

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If you have fans, you have everything. Yes, record labels and money and relationships help but this is a story about how the fans matter the most. Take this guy, Jaron Lowenstein. Never heard of him? Me neither, until I heard some radio people talking (OK, Facebooking) about his new song, "Pray for You," saying listeners were going crazy for it in Detroit, burning up request lines in Cleveland, sending floods of e-mails to a few Wisconsin stations and so on. When I finally heard the song, it all became crystal clear. And it doesn't hurt that Lowenstein is smokin' hot, sings with an earnest voice, has a top-notch band and writes unexpected lyrics about praying that "your brakes go out, your birthday comes and nobody calls, all your dreams never come true."

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I've loved Miranda Lambert's music since day one so this kind of shocked me: She told The Tennessean newspaper that her latest album is the one she would hand out to her heroes. She said, "The fact that Patty Loveless knows my music at all, that made me really pumped. This is the first time I've made a record that I want my heroes to hear. This one, I'd hand it to my heroes with no hesitation." I hope that doesn't mean she's not proud of her first two albums. Like if she were to hand those to her heroes, would she seriously hesitate? I mean, sure, she's come a long way since "Me and Charlie Talking" but those efforts produced deeper cuts like "Bring Me Down," "New Strings" and "More Like Her." I can't speak for all Lambert's heroes, but I have a feeling they'd dig everything she's done since her debut in 2004. She should be proud of it all.

If you've ever wondered what performing on the CMA Awards would do for your career, I have three words: triple digit spikes. That's what happened for Lady Antebellum, Sugarland and Jamey Johnson. After winning two awards and performing the snowy "Need You Now," Lady Antebellum had their biggest sales week ever and a 130 percent sales increase from the previous week for their self-titled debut album. And Sugarland's current album, Love on the Inside, had a sales jump of 136 percent, while its concert companion, Live on the Inside, rose 110 percent. Even better, Jamey Johnson's That Lonesome Song jumped 286 percent after his performance of "Between Jennings and Jones" with Kid Rock, as well as his trophy for song of the year ("In Color"). That makes him the CMA performer with the biggest album sales percentage increase this week and he is grateful for every album he's sold, because like he said on stage, "I've swung a hammer for seven bucks an hour so I appreciate every single person who supports country music."

Photo credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Some of my earliest memories of really connecting with music come from a Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle Vol. 1: The 20 Greatest Hits CD that my mother owned, and usually it started with a guitar lick. The riffs that John Fogerty wrote with Creedence were so iconic and natural that I never gave any thought to his skill with his instrument. But according to this interview in The Tennessean, even after all of his success he felt guilty about his guitar playing and how he never reached the level of his inspiration, Chet Atkins. Disproving the old-dogs-can't-learn-new-tricks theory, he spent almost two decades practicing and now feels like he can jam with Buddy Miller -- who contributed to Fogerty's The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again album -- without having to apologize first. That's pretty amazing, if you ask me, and shows what determination can do. Needless to say, I am pumped to see what he's got this Sunday at the Ryman. Maybe it will be something like this trailer from his concert DVD, Comin' Down the Road.

Grammy nominations are right around the corner but their hard and fast rules are making it impossible for some major artists to take home a trophy come Jan. 31. Like Lady Gaga, who has been on top of the pop world and a household name but didn't make the cut this year because her "Just Dance" was nominated last year. But what's fair is fair, right? So if not Gaga, which newcomers are getting the most Grammy buzz? Variety is saying Zac Brown Band is the one country band to watch because they comfortably straddle the line between jam band and country act. "Easy-going melodies, like 'Chicken Fried' and 'Toes,' blend Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney, and have found favor with a broad swatch from college kids to baby boomers," the entertainment trade publication says. I wonder, though, what country artists are missing from that list? What say you, readers?