Country Music Blog: Alison Krauss

When I was asked to jot some things down for this blog, they were daring enough to give me a blank slate on choosing a topic -- brave souls. But man, the choices of things I have opinions on and could ramble about are really many and varied. Of course, the choices of the things you may want to read, on the other hand, might be a shorter list.So where to start? Well, in the last six months, I've tackled recording my first solo album in a whopping eight years, so some meandering thoughts on recording might be fun. Maybe I've managed to get a little sharable wisdom over the years.

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Robert Plant gushes over Alison Krauss, both as a tourmate and as his vocal mentor.
Teen pregnancy? Taylor Swift's against it. And she said so at the Event to Prevent gala in New York City.

Country music was coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on Monday as Phil Vassar performed on the White House's south lawn to honor recipients of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award.

Actress Minnie Driver is getting ready to give birth: to a new baby and a new collection of country songs on her album, Seastories.

Eva Longoria is no Jewel. Cast your vote for who wore the white lace number best.

Merlefest is probably the world's largest Americana and roots music festival. I was at the very first Merle Watson Memorial Festival (as it was called in those days) 21 years ago. The first concert featured jams with Chet Atkins, Doc, Earl Scruggs, Mac Wiseman, Jim Shumate, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Grandpa Jones, Marty Stuart, Newgrass Revival, John Hartford, Mark O'Connor and others inside the Walker Center and outside on a flatbed truck stage. I remember sitting on hay bales outside watching the whole thing go down. A few years later, I was playing Merlefest as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station. One particular year was memorable because the mainstage show consisted of us and Ronnie Milsap, who just murdered the crowd with a solo guitar version of "Knoxville Girl."

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Merlefest is one of those festivals that is sort of addicting. It was my very first music festival back in 2005, and I have not missed a year since. Set in the hills of Wilkesboro, N.C., at Wilkes Community College, Merlefest is a celebration of all types of roots music. It's an absolutely beautiful place for a festival, and a very nice get-away from the hustle and bustle of Music City.

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Seventeen bucks says you can smell like bergamot, lavender, patchouli and aged whiskey. That's how Women's Wear Daily describes "McGraw," Tim McGraw's new fragrance which is priced for the mass market.

And $5 says you can play like a pro on a Web site devoted to teaching you how to play music along with Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss and Alan Jackson.

Did Sara Evans' CMT Music Awards dress make her butt look big? She thought so, and that's OK with her.

Bill O'Reilly weighs in on the racy pictures of Miley Cyrus.

Starbucks is moving its record label business to another record company to focus on serving up their over-the-top coffee concoctions.

Imagine how absurd it would be if every American singer sang with an English accent -- on the radio, in concerts and even in your local venue. Pretty bizarre, right? That's similar to how it felt when I lived back in the UK; the American accent has become the near-universal accent of popular song. But as my ears have searched for artists under the wire, I've found some great British artists who sing in their own accents, and it's a lot rarer than you might think...

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Here's my weirdest moment from the 2008 CMT Music Awards last night. I was sitting among all the reporters in the press room, when Jewel and Tom Arnold came back for photos. Somebody asked them about the election, and since I don't care who celebrities endorse for president, my eyes wandered off to the television, and Paula Abdul's on there, rattling on about something. All this is going on at Belmont University? This sort of thing never happened when I was an undergrad there in the 1990s. My big dream back then was to be a reporter on the country music beat, and now I am doing just that - with Jewel, Tom Arnold and Paula Abdul.

Anyway, the reporters are always grateful to anyone who comes back to visit with us. (Thanks, Taylor Swift! TTYL!) In case you missed the show, here are the big winners.

"Our Song," Taylor Swift 
(Video of the Year, Female Video of the Year)

"Stay," Sugarland 
(Duo Video of the Year)

"I Got My Game On," Trace Adkins 
(Male Video of the Year, Supporting Character of the Year, Director of the Year)

"Gone Gone Gone," Robert Plant and Alison Krauss 
(Wide Open Country Video of the Year)

"Til We Ain't Strangers Anymore," Bon Jovi and LeAnn Rimes 
(Collaborative Video of the Year)

"I Wonder," Kellie Pickler 
(Performance of the Year, Tearjerker Video of the Year, USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year)

"Online," Brad Paisley 
(Comedy Video of the Year)

"Take Me There," Rascal Flatts 
(Group Video of the Year)

There were many memorable moments in the house at the CMT Music Awards Show on Monday night (April 14). There were of course the ear-splitting shrieks for Miley Cyrus at first. And the same for Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts. But there was also the genuinely spontaneous standing ovation for Alison Krauss and Robert Plant when they walked up the stage steps to receive their Buckle award. The audience gave a similarly genuine ovation after seeing and hearing Faith Hill and Tim McGraw together on the show.

But the musical moment of the evening for me was the powerful and haunting delivery of "Life in a Northern Town," sung by Sugarland, Little Big Town and Jake Owen. It seems at first an unlikely choice for a country awards show. It was written and recorded in 1985 by the British folk-rock group The Dream Academy and ostensibly is about the British singer Nick Drake, who died of a drug overdose in 1974. The three artists covered it on the Sugarland "Change for Change Tour." Subsequently, the concert footage of "Life in a Northern Town" was made into a music video for CMT.

It's full of dreamy, folk music lyrics such as:

They sat on the stoney ground
And he took a cigarette out
And everyone else came down
To listen.
He said, "In winter 1963
It felt like the world would freeze
With John F. Kennedy
And the Beatles."

But the hook is the hypnotic chant of:

Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.

All together, these song elements along with Little Big Town's four intricately intertwined harmonies, Jennifer Nettles' sugary yet gritty vocal and Owen's grounded singing make this a gorgeous song. Many people in this audience were seeing Sugarland, Little Big Town and Owen do it together live for the first time. And they liked it very much. Even the young Miley Cyrus fans around me, who had gotten bored once they had seen their Miley, quit their wrestling and whining and grew silent and listened to the song, especially to the chanting.

Sure, some people will look at just-announced nominations for the 2008 CMT Music Awards and insist that the future of country music -- and maybe Western civilization -- is coming to an end because the list includes Robert Plant, Bon Jovi, Huey Lewis and The Eagles.

Those first three may be relative newcomers to the wide world of country music, but the Eagles have exhibited a strong country influence throughout their career. Think back to their first charted single -- 1972's "Take It Easy." It never made it to the country chart, but it sure contained more banjo that most of the No. 1 country singles that year, including Jerry Lee Lewis' "Chantilly Lace," Ray Price's "She's Got to Be a Saint" and Donna Fargo's "Funny Face" and "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A."

The Eagles made the CMT nominations list for "How Long," a song that reached No. 23 on Billboard's country singles chart. Another nominee -- Bon Jovi's "(You Want To) Make a Memory" -- didn't do quite as well at radio, but it also received substantial airplay. Bon Jovi also picked up another nomination for "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore," a song and video with LeAnn Rimes.

And then there's Huey Lewis, who's nominated simply because Garth Brooks recorded one of his songs, "Workin' for a Livin'," and later invited him to appear in the video. And what about Robert Plant? The Led Zeppelin vocalist is nominated for his video with Alison Krauss, "Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)."

Substantial promotional effort was involved in marketing the Eagles and Bon Jovi to the country audience, but that's simply part of the music industry machinery. I can't imagine that either group sat down and said, "Let's see what we can do to pander to the country audience." I'm not a huge fan of either band, but both acts have too much artistic integrity -- and money -- to resort to that. While it's impossible to predict what Robert Plant will do in the future, he still seems to be guided by a true artistic muse. He may do another acoustic-oriented album, such as the one he recorded with Krauss, or maybe he'll do something else. Rest assured, he's not trying to take over country music.

I might suggest that these occasional rock elements help widen the scope of country music without posing any serious danger to the genre's future. The real danger, I think, has more to do with record labels signing too many generic-sounding mainstream artists who are devoid of any genuine artistic vision. That's a trend that should scare the hell out of any true country fan.

Brad Paisley will get in touch with his inner sci-fi nerd when he pays tribute to Battlestar Gallactica on a TV special set to air March 28.

Alison Krauss' musical relationship with Robert Plant could mean the end of Led Zeppelin. He recently turned down a world tour opportunity to focus on things with Krauss.

Think country stars are demanding? Check out Rolling Stone's glimpse inside the backstage list of essentials (like Connect 4 and Patron tequila) in Kanye West's touring rider.

Tim McGraw's good pal and Green Bay Packers' QB Brett Favre will have more time to listen to some downhome country music now that he's decided to retire from football fame.

A little gift -- a onesie for the baby -- is all it took for a fan to get a kiss from Keith Urban at a recent Baton Rouge show. What if she'd brought him a stroller instead?