CMT Blog: Songs

For the thousands of young adults who are college-bound this fall, Jennette McCurdy's "Not That Far Away" is sure to resonate. However, this fresh-faced 18-year-old has already established herself with a budding acting career in Nickelodeon's iCarly. Now she's hoping to find her way into the country field with a contract on Capitol Nashville and a cozy, colorful video that finds her signing up for an open mic night. Since she looks so comfortable up on the stage, her family and friends in California probably don't need to worry too much. Check out the video.

I've blogged before that I'm not all that interested in sports. Not as a spectator. Not as a player. And I think part of that stems from living in a neighborhood where people are so completely over-the-top about sports. You can't just sign your kid up for a baseball team at the local park district, you have to get him on a traveling team and plan your vacations around his all-star game schedule. And if he plays basketball, you'll need to sign up for special shooting clinics. And football? Well, he's going to need a personal trainer at the very least. It's gotten so bad that parents actually talk as if they are grooming 7-year-olds for college scholarships. But Kenny Chesney has changed my mind.

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Eric Church knows there's more than one way to handle any situation, and in "Smoke a Little Smoke" you can guess his preferred remedy. With lyrics touching on a breakup, we get the idea that Church is ready to let this one go -- and sit back and fire one up. Now, we all know smoking ain't cool, but obviously the image here is that Church is a badass who will smoke if he feels like it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a "spark 'em if ya got 'em" kind of guy, but in this case it might be nice to know a little more of the back story. Just a few lines about what it was like before she left could transform "Smoke" into an upbeat song with some real heft. How long did he have to hide that stash? How many Friday nights did he spend watching I Love Lucy? But second-guessing aside, one of the arrangement's most interesting features is its building-block approach -- it starts off with one guitar riff and builds up piece by piece. See if you can find similar elements in Church's newest video.

Nightline now has a segment called Nightline Playlist and they let the person they're interviewing do all the talking. In this story with Martina McBride, she raves about the music she loves for a good five minutes. She spends the first minute talking about what a career song "Independence Day" was for her and how important it was for her to not record fluffy girl songs or novelty songs. But then she goes on to list what's at the very top of her playlist from other artists. And they are: "Crazy" by Patsy Cline, "Mad Love" by Linda Ronstadt, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, "Friends in Low Place" by Garth Brooks and "Somewhere Over the Raindow," the Eva Cassidy version. "I never get tired of it," McBride says of the song she sings so well in concert.

If it was not for Jerrod Niemann's swift rise to fame, and his very infectious "Lover, Lover," I might never have heard of Sonia Dada. Neimann remade the group's 1992 hit, "You Don't Treat Me No Good," into "Lover, Lover." And if it was not for Kenny Chesney's "Down the Road," I might not have taken it upon myself to fall in love with Mac McAnally's music, as he sings the thoughts of a hesitant father on that tune. And really, I might not have paid enough attention to Kelly Clarkson until she and Reba McEntire came together for that unforgettable collaboration on Clarkson's "Because of You."

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Jennette McCurdy has not let the narcissistic character she plays on iCarly bring her down in real life. Thank God. That's just her being Sam. But I much prefer the real McCurdy who you can get a glimpse of in this making-of video for her debut country video, "Not That Far Away." It's been a year and a half since I first wrote about the young star launching a country career after all those episodes of iCarly on Nickelodeon. And it's been 10 years since McCurdy got her first taste of Nashville's charms when she played Faith Hill's daughter in the video for "The Way You Love Me." McCurdy's video debuts on Saturday (Aug. 14) and was directed by Roman White, the man behind "Fifteen," "You Belong With Me," "Before He Cheats," "Last Name," "Just a Dream," "So Small," "Hillbilly Bone" and many more. So I think it's safe to say, this video will be huge.

Getting 116 radio stations to put your song on right when it's released is quite an achievement. Because she's just as gifted as a businesswoman as she is a songwriter, Taylor Swift was smart enough to send out a quick thank you to all those stations who added "Mine" to their playlists. (It kind of makes me wonder why some stations didn't add it, you know?) In an impromptu video greeting, Swift offers a heartfelt "Konnichiwa!" then goes on to say hi to her friends at country radio and gives her effusive thanks. She does it from the side of a stage in Toyko where she was part of the Summer Sonic Festival. Right before she heads out to sing, she says, "I'm about to play for 45,000 people in Japan! Wish me luck! Thank you for the first week. I love you."

During Blake Shelton's recent visit to CMT, he was asked what separates "All About Tonight" from his long list of country hits. He replied that unlike some of his other slow-building singles, his newest one gets an immediate response from his crowd: "'All About Tonight' has been more of an instant reaction. I think probably whether or not people have heard it or not, people instantly get it. They know what it's about and by the time the second chorus rolls around, this is a song about partying right now. For that reason, it's probably for me the ultimate live concert song because that's what a concert is."

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Celebrities visiting Nashville usually proclaim their love of country music, but they're often hard-pressed to cite any artists beyond Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton or maybe Johnny Cash. That's why Justin Bieber's apparent knowledge of country is so surprising. The teen heartthrob is in Nashville for a Wednesday night (Aug. 11) concert at the Bridgestone Arena. According to a report from his afternoon soundcheck, somebody asked him about his favorite country artists, and he immediately reeled off the names of Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride and Alan Jackson. Then, in an impromptu move, he sang the entire first verse of Jackson's "Chattahoochee." Regardless of your opinion of Bieber, you've got to respect any teenager who can sing part of a country song that topped the chart a year before he was born. I'd have been even more impressed had he chosen Jackson's "Here in the Real World," but that's beside the point. I wonder how many of today's newer country acts know the words to "Chattahoochee."

Photo credit: Teen Island

Dierks Bentley's latest album, Up on the Ridge, has quickly become a favorite among country fans. His music video for "Up on The Ridge" is also one of the most popular on CMT.com. Through his "Posted" page at CMT.com, Bentley took the time to answer fans' Twitter questions. Take a look.

@areyes03: Any new songs you're writing? I've been trying not to ... trying to just focus on and enjoy Up on the Ridge. But, I've had some ideas floating around up there for a while and I'm starting to think about getting back into it.

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