CMT Blog: Recommendations

Rosanne Cash's music has remained one of the constants in my life as a young adult. I've always felt a connection to her songs, even though I've never felt that "Seven Year Ache" or escaped from a hectic life by "Sleeping in Paris." After reading her new memoir, Composed, it seems that we also share an inherent urgency to travel, an early love for language and a determination to build a life in music. Fortunately, Cash is further gifted with the ability to write concise lyrics with an interesting melody to match, plus her earthy singing voice is so revealing. All the while she remains rooted to country music through her father, Johnny Cash, and their intimate connections to the Carter Family, but continues the circle on her own terms.

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Even though cameras roll during an Invitation Only concert, the small audience always gives a candid feeling to the show. I'll be looking forward to seeing Miranda Lambert's turn in the intimate setting on Aug. 23 at 9 p.m. ET since she'll get a chance to tone down her usual rowdy performance. Highlights are said to include acoustic versions of "Air Stream Song" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and she'll also play "The House That Built Me" and "White Liar." But the unique part of the show is the Q & A session with the audience. Having seen a few of these, the stars tend to open up a little more than usual for some reason. In the meantime, take a moment and enter to win some cool prizes through the CMT Invitation Only: Miranda Lambert Sweepstakes. The top winner gets a Sony HDTV, a Taylor guitar signed by Lambert and a copy of her latest album, Revolution.

Photo credit: Rick Diamond/Wire Image

Following his Grammy-winning collaboration with Alison Krauss on 2007's Raising Sand album, Robert Plant is back with a new project called Band of Joy, and this one promises to dig even deeper into Plant's love for Americana. For Led Zeppelin trivia heads, Plant and the late drummer John Bonham were in a group called Band of Joy before Zeppelin took off. But now the band is led by the sure hand of producer/guitarist Buddy Miller and features Patty Griffin, Darrell Scott, Byron House and Marco Giovino as they uncover dusty American gems. In his video for "Angel Dance," Plant revives the old Los Lobos tune and sets it to images of young people and, well, joy. There's a distinctive swampy, industrial chug to Miller's production, while Plant's vocals occasionally drift up near the upper reaches of his famed range. As a bonus of sorts, Louis Perez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos act as chauffeurs to Plant in what works as a cool metaphor for his exploration of the American musical landscape.

The 11th annual Americana Music Festival & Conference kicks off in Nashville next month (Sept. 8-11), so for four nights I'll be feverishly chasing my roots music fix. It's impossible to see it all, so I've got to pick carefully from the long list of performers. But first I wanted to share some new additions that were made to the lineup today (Aug. 10), including Shannon Whitworth, whose smoldering new album, Water Bound, has been slowly burning its way into my head. Her moody voice refuses to ever totally catch fire -- it always seems just a little detached from the aching subject matter. Other fresh arrivals include Shelby Lynne, Todd Snider, Cadillac Sky and Sarah Jarosz, and they'll join a cast that already boasts Charlie Louvin, Corb Lund, Band of Heathens, Elizabeth Cook, Micky and the Motorcars, Randy Kohrs Band, Raul Malo, Ray Wylie Hubbard, the SteelDrivers and Australian country star Troy Cassar-Daley, as well as young upstarts like the Trishas, Those Darlins, Rayland Baxter and Frontier Ruckus. And that's not even half of the full list. If you were me, who would you go see?

Josh Ritter and Tift Merritt are braving the Southern summer heat with a few tour dates together, but even if it was the dead of winter, this would still be a hot ticket for fans of the smart singer-songwriters. They're both skilled at choosing exactly the right words to tell their stories, and they realize that distinct melodies are just as important as the lyrics when you're playing a crowded club.

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Amid with a crowded field of superstar releases, quite a few indie country artists are returning with new albums this fall, too. The newest announcement comes from Joey & Rory, who have slated Album Number Two for Sept. 14 on Sugar Hill. I'm eager to hear "That's Important to Me" because I'm always charmed by its quiet and sincere message whenever they perform it. Plus, the duo partnered with Zac Brown Band on "This Song's for You," a heartfelt dedication to hard-working fans.

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Darius Rucker wants to hear your song. Your best song, in fact. The one you wrote and have been dying to get a top-notch talent to listen to and give you feedback on. A mentoring session with Rucker is the grand prize in this year's Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Song Contest that runs now through Oct. 31. Its mission is to give unsigned songwriters the help they need to become big-time hit makers. So you submit your songs, and some of Nashville's top writers and song publishers will narrow the list down to a group of finalists and announce a winner. Then fans will vote early next year for their own favorite. Even if you don't win the session with Rucker, you could win other prizes like a one-song demo, tickets to the 2011 CMT Music Awards, a private tour of CMT studios, a performance at The Bluebird Café, meetings with industry hotshots and more. So enter. It doesn't even have to be a country song. And it only costs $35 per song ($45 for non-members).

Little Huck Paisley only sings one word. "Me." But it may be the single most touching word in this brilliantly moving song that Brad Paisley is about to release to radio. It's called "Anything Like Me," and the way Paisley describes it, it's about the double-edged-sword moment when a man realizes he's going to have a son. "You're excited you're having a boy. But then you think about what you did and the horror sets in," he says.

So as the song goes along, from the telltale ultrasound to the son leaving home for good, it is just an all-out cry-fest for me. Because I have a son. One who has done almost everything in this song, including the melting of Tonka trucks with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. (He also figured out how to burn holes in leaves that day, but Paisley can't include every little-boy pastime in his song.) The song's not just about how boys will be boys. It's about a father getting payback if and when his son ends up anything like him.

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This is the ultimate test of a singer's talent. When you strip away the bright lights, big stages and arenas full of fans, can he still blow you away with just his voice? After watching Trace Adkins do this Unplugged concert, I'd give that a big ol' yes. He sings a song that put him on the map 13 years ago, "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing," plus a few new ones, and then his latest hit "This Ain't No Love Song." But his very best, and most moving performance, is one that he says is a little out of his comfort zone. It's Larry Graham's "One in a Million," and it's so, so good. All this from a man who admits he was scared to sing in public after playing the cat in a third-grade play.

"I hope you don't wake up with a case of the Mondays," teased John McCauley just after 1 a.m. Sunday night (Aug. 1). It was the end of his band Deer Tick's 90-minute set at Nashville's Exit/In, but the singer looked like he had a few more hours left in him. The performance showed the songwriter and frontman as a something of a hard-living but poetic outlaw. I found it really refreshing and it seemed like a few hundred others agreed. On their records, Deer Tick feature a smart brand of country-tinged folk rock, but live it's a different story. Phrases like "circuit-blowing" come to mind. But for all the high energy and PBR swilling, the songs are still beautifully crafted with lived-in lyrics and interesting arrangements.

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