CMT Blog: Uncategorized

When Taylor Swift speaks, celebrity Web sites listen. That was certainly the case Wednesday (Oct. 28) when portions of her interview with CMT Radio Live With Cody Alan made their way to the Internet. It looks like all the excitement is about Swift's comments regarding her friendship with Taylor Lautner, who portrays Jacob Black in the Twilight film series. The speculation stems from photos of Swift and Lautner in California at a Los Angeles Kings hockey game this past weekend. "I don't know, he's an amazing guy and we're really close ... and ah ... yep," she says in Alan's interview airing Wednesday night. "We're in a movie together and I am really excited about seeing it." The movie she's referring to is Valentine's Day, set to arrive in theaters on Feb. 12. Wait, that's just two days before Valentine's Day. What a coincidence! You can check out the Swift/Lautner coverage provided by People and Us magazines and Perez Hilton.

Constantly, I am reading this battle on the CMT blog between people claiming a certain artist is too pop while another is too country, or not enough, and so on and so forth. It seems to me that many are overlooking the actual music to focus on its classification. I am guilty of this, too. But I remember a lengthy conversation with Kid Rock last year when he told me, "Go where you're celebrated, not tolerated."

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I have been playing "Always Have My Love" by WPA (Works Progress Administration) on repeat pretty much every day since I got their self-titled debut album. I first heard the song at the Americana Music Conference last month, and I was immediately hooked by the twin-fiddle intro. I didn't catch all of the lyrics that night, but now I realize that the song is about forgiving someone's infidelity, which is kind of a heavy topic for such a bright melody.

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Seriously, Kanye? You can't just stay in your seat and let Taylor Swift have her turn in the spotlight? I agree with you that Beyonce's video was very good. Phenomenal. So was Katy Perry's, Kelly Clarkson's, Lady GaGa's and Pink's. But they seemed to accept their loss with dignity and humility. In fact, so did Beyonce. But you had to jump up onstage right in the middle of Swift's acceptance speech after her "You Belong With Me" won the prize for best female video at Sunday night's (Sept. 13) MTV Video Music Awards and say, "Yo, Taylor. I'm happy for ya. I'm gonna let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time." She may only be 19, but Swift had the maturity to do the right thing: let you speak your mind, keep her head down and smile. She's crazy classy, Kanye. Learn from her.

Check out the video from MTV.com here:

Photo credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

You can't promise something as big as a Garth Brooks/Shania Twain concert and get away with it. But Hiro Jamal Hariram tried. He's an event promoter from Houston who took $56,000 from the nice folks in Brownsville, Texas, because he told them he could put together the country concert of all country concerts. There were even faked booking contracts. I probably would've handed over $56,000, too. The judge on the case set the bond pretty high, either because this Hariram guy already has other criminal charges (including one for murder) pending against him in another county, or because the judge is a big country music fan and was just as disappointed as the rest of the Texans.

Right about now, country fans are either counting down the days until CMA Music Festival (20) or the days until the sixth annual Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic (21). It's one of those weekends when you probably wish you could be in two places at once. Keith's event is in Oklahoma and will have golfing, music and an auction that no music lover would want to miss. Things like a cruise with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimmy Buffett tickets and George Strait tickets. A dinner for 20 with Keith himself would top my list of must-bid items. The whole benefit is for Ally's House, which gives financial support to the Oklahoma families of kids with cancer. (It was started after Scott Webb, one of Keith's original band members, lost his daughter Ally to cancer just before her third birthday.) "Ally fought her cancer about a year, and she wanted at least one parent with her all the time, and Scott and [wife] Linda both work," Keith explained. "A year is a long time to juggle that kind of life, and that's what happens time and again. Family needs vary from medical and pharmacy bills to rent and utility payments. They also have expenses for lodging, food, health insurance premiums or deductibles. Ally's House helps pay different bills based on what that family needs." A good cause, whether you can be there in Oklahoma or not.

My daughter is graduating tonight. I won't tell you from what grade because if I say "college," I just sound old, and if I say "kindergarten," I just sound ridiculous.

But she is old enough to have taken it upon herself to make a video for the class. It will be shown after tonight's ceremony. And it has about 150 pictures of her and her classmates from the past 10 years. Very, very touching stuff.

The soundtrack for this tear-jerker is last year's American Idol champ David Cook's "The Time of My Life." Even though I had a long, long list of country songs that would've been perfect: Dixie Chicks' "The Long Way Around" or "Wide Open Spaces," Darius Rucker's "It Won't Be Like This for Long," Carrie Underwood's "Don't Forget to Remember Me," Trace Adkins' "Then They Do," Sugarland's "Already Gone" and Kenny Chesney's "Don't Blink." She ignored my country and went with rock. Read more...

Tamzen and Kevin were married on CMT's show My Big Redneck Wedding 3. Tamzen shares her thoughts about the big day.

After almost eight years and a couple of tries, Kevin and I got married. Everyone knew it was a long time coming except us (HAHA). The week before the wedding was a mad house. Because of the lack of funding we decided to make everything ourselves. A big, huge, giant thank you to my maid-of-honor and my stooge maids. Read more...

At the risk of calling George Strait the Rodney Dangerfield of the Grammys, the guy never got much respect until Sunday night (Feb. 8). That's when he won first Grammy of his career -- a best country album trophy for Troubadour. Considering all the albums and singles he's recorded, not to mention his success at country awards shows such as the CMA and ACM, how could this have not happened before now? Well, it probably has a lot to do with Strait's attitude and demeanor. Instead of schmoozing people and being seen at all the places frequented by music industry people in Nashville, New York and Los Angeles, he's always preferred to stay on his ranch in Texas, tending to horses and concentrating on things that matter to him, such as team roping activities. He doesn't even visit Nashville all that often unless he's recording an album or attending a country awards show. And in recent years, even his national tours have been of short duration when compared to the mega-travels of acts such as Rascal Flatts and Kenny Chesney. Now that he has finally received a Grammy, we can all agree that it's a well-deserved win. Of course, he didn't bother going to Los Angeles for the awards show and wasn't there to pick it up in person. Good for him.

I know, I know. There's only one Carrie Underwood. But c'mon. You've got to think that every single person who stands before those American Idol judges on tonight's (Jan. 13) premiere is hoping for that same level of Underwood success. The kind that Simon Cowell anticipated when he told her, "I will make a prediction: Not only will you win this show, you will sell more records than any other previous Idol winner."

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