CMT Blog: Uncategorized

Dear Jessica Simpson,

Welcome to Nashville. And now that you’re here, let me share some advice that I once received as a young reporter — everybody that you pass on the way up will be there to greet you on the way down. In other words, be nice to every person you meet in the country music business. And that includes Carrie Underwood. Why would you wear that “Real Girls Eat Meat” t-shirt when you know full-well that your boyfriend Tony Romo used to date the famous vegetarian?

Read more…

Nicole Kidman wasn’t too busy to pick up a salad for Nashville radio personality Gerry House while husband Keith Urban was being interviewed on his morning show. We think House was just kidding when he gave her his order.

For 42 years, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has been making music that’s hard to classify and easy to love. And they’re bringing it to Austin, Texas, on July 18.

The unlikely pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss is still garnering stellar reviews everywhere they go. Like this one from Variety that says they bring out the best in each other.

Mary-Kate Olsen was almost too tired to talk to David Letterman about her little bus trip to Bonnaroo by way of Nashville.

Guess who is just a good ol’ Southern girl that likes her Cracker Barrel at 9 o’clock at night. Could her last name be Cyrus?

People who aren’t into country music are pretty quick to classify it as “music for soccer moms.” As if that’s a bad thing. Like soccer moms have no taste, thereby making the music they have chosen to play in their minivans less cool than whatever alt-emo-pop music other folks are listening to. And those folks are partially right. Middle-aged suburban moms do make up a big portion of country radio listeners and are responsible for a lot of what’s left of retail CD sales. But those folks are wrong about moms not having enough smarts to recognize good music. Read more…

After about a decade of taking concert photos, I finally invested in a nice zoom lens about three years ago. It pretty much changed my life. No longer did I come home with shot after shot of a tiny artist on a big ugly stage. That lens gave me the power to get tighter than tight on their faces. And what I discovered is that while you can certainly get extreme close-ups of the artists singing, you can also zoom in on everything else. And by everything else, I mean the tattoos that grace their skin.

Read more…

As I pushed off for the Country Music Half Marathon last Saturday, I began to think what had attracted all these thousands of visiting runners to Nashville. I had 13.1 miles to find some answers. The CMT Music City Mile began just before we hit Music Row, home to the publishing companies, studios and labels that keep Nashville ticking over. Big banners in front yards congratulated songwriters on their latest hit — part of the village feel that Nashville offers over other industry towns like L.A. and New York.

Read more…

Taylor Swift came by the office this week and thanked us — my co-workers and me — for our support of her here at CMT.com. I know you think that because I work at CMT.com, I get to rub elbows with a lot of stars. Not really. As my co-worker remarked, “I think that’s the second time in 11 years we had an artist come thank us in person.”

Later, I kept thinking of the scene in Coal Miner’s Daughter where Loretta Lynn drove up to the radio station, went in with her record and asked them to play it. I think it might be easy to dismiss Taylor’s meteoric rise to the megawatt power of the Internet. But thinking back on the movie, I see similarities between these two women. Read more…

Blogger’s note: To celebrate Take Our Daughters to Work Day, I’ve let my oldest daughter write my blog today to show her what life is like in this grueling career I’ve chosen. And while she’s literally rolling her eyes as I type this (as if to say “OMG, Mom, you are so totally lame”), she knows that what I get to do every day is pretty cool.

By Maddy Bonaguro

I like all types of music. Well, most types anyway, but I’m going to tell you why I like country. To make it in country, you have to bring something new. Like how Taylor Swift writes her own songs about things like the boys that she knows. I like the new kind of country. I’m not exactly into bluegrass, and my friends and I don’t really ever dance around to Johnny Cash. But I do like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, and lots of other people. They mix pop, rock and country.

Read more…

There’s a new book out — called How’d You Score That Gig? — all about people with cool jobs. I know mine’s pretty cool. Because when I’m at a concert, taking notes, someone inevitably tells me so. And, yes, it is better than covering, say, school board meetings. But still, it’s not all backstage passes and comped tickets. Some nights are downright tough.

What concert-goers don’t see is the over-analyzing I put into every word after the show. I have editors who expect that. And I have deadlines and word counts, too. (So to all you folks who berate me for not including the artist’s six-minute speech on voting in the primary, that’s why.) And concert reviews need to be less of a litany of events and more of a summary the night. You can’t just start every sentence with “And then” and end every sentence with “which was awesome!” I also need to be very thorough.

Read more…

If there’s a downside to this job, it’s the anonymity. Readers can get a sense of who I am through my blogs, but I know nothing about them. All I know is what I read in their comments and in the emails they sometimes send. But really, all those tell me is how they feel about that one particular topic. Like how much they love Dolly Parton, or how much they hate my opinion of whatever I’ve written about. So I’m going to ask a few questions. Okay, more like ten. And if y’all answer them in the comments section, we’ll all get to know each other better. I’ll go first.

Read more…

Hey everyone,

Monday night was AMAZING. I am still smiling. My sister and I sat next to my tourmates Jewel and Chuck Wicks, and behind us was James Otto, who tapped me on the shoulder and gave me the “biggest fan” award. I’ve grown up idolizing these artists, and I actually got to meet most of them, one in particular, Faith Hill, who has inspired me so much. It was an honor meeting her.

It was so much fun being up on that stage. I got to introduce my tourmate, Brad Paisley, with Sara Evans and Josh Turner, who kept making me laugh during rehearsals that day. Not to mention I was pretty nervous. You would think after performing on TV with 30 million people watching each week the nerves would leave. Well, well think again! :)

The performances blew me away, they were all so amazing. I really enjoyed LeAnn Rimes, Sugarland and Keith Urban. I can only hope to perform up there one day. What an unforgettable night!

Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images