CMT Blog: Charlie Daniels

Michael Symon is the chef and owner of critically acclaimed Lola and Lolita restaurants in Cleveland, but he’s best known as one of Food Network’s Iron Chefs and host of the network’s show Dinner: Impossible. It’s the latter job that paired him with country star James Otto. Yesterday, James told his side of the adventure. This is Chef Symon’s take on cooking with James.

I never know what I’m getting into for each episode of Dinner: Impossible, and this trip to Nashville was no different.

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Let me start by saying I’m no chef, but I got the chance to learn from one of the best when I was asked to be part of Food Network’s hit TV show Dinner: Impossible.

I started the day by meeting up with the host, Michael Symon, at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville where he was getting a lesson in country music history. I waited in the alley in a limo to pick him up and take him to the Opryland Hotel where the actual cooking would take place.

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I had been to Stone Mountain Park, about 30 minutes outside Atlanta, for family vacation and college camping trips a couple times before, but this time I was with a friend who was equally eager to explore as much of the area as possible without much of a schedule. From the ground the smooth, gray mountain is overwhelming and bizarre, but even more so from the top. A solid chunk of granite, Stone Mountain’s peak is 825 feet above the surrounding plain, but the mountain extends an estimated 10 miles beneath the earth’s surface. A three-minute tram ride or 1.3 mile hike to the peak allows guests to explore the mountain’s alien landscape. It is a unique and surreal experience.

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Carrie Underwood advises any American Idol contestant to take Simon Cowell’s criticism like a man. Meanwhile, USA Today claims Kristy Lee Cook had no business singing Martina McBride’s “Anyway” on Tuesday night during American Idol’s Songs of Inspiration week.

Charlie Daniels is fightin’ mad that the folks at Guitar Hero messed with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” He thinks they took the novelty of a fiddle contest right out of the song.

When an album’s cover art is reduced to a thumbnail image, as it is when you buy songs on iTunes, does that mean it’s a lost art?

Who knew Vince Gill was so hot? Apparently, his barber. Gill’s fresh new buzz cut is doing wonders to show off his good looks.

A couple days ago, Charlie Daniels received a Career Achievement Award from the Country Radio Broadcasters. It honors the artists who have made “a significant contribution to the development and promotion of country music and radio.” And he has certainly done that. But he’s also made a smaller and perhaps less significant contribution to the world of music: He inspired a very unlikely fiddle player in my six-year-old daughter. If there was an award for that, I’m pretty sure he’d get that too.

Taylor Swift gets an awful lot of credit for bringing a younger demo into country music, but guys like Daniels are doing it too. While adults bask in Daniels’ rebel brand of Southern country-rock, all my budding fiddler knew was that the music was so good she wanted to rosin up her bow and play that fiddle hard. She knew nothing of his heyday in the early 80s. She had no idea what his political stance was, or what his lyrics meant. (”Chicken in the bread pan pickin’ out dough/Granny does your dog bite? No, child, no”

Who does know what that means?)

This Charlie Daniels epiphany my daughter had at such a young age gained some closure when Gretchen Wilson admitted in “Redneck Woman” that she knew all the words to every Charlie Daniels song. Her little mind seemed to reason that if he was good enough for Gretchen, he was certainly good enough for her. He is the quintessential country boy, she is the quintessential little girl. They made an odd pair the day she finally met him, and she asked him to autograph her pink fiddle. That fiddle, her first and therefore most beloved, has become something of a trophy in our house. If my prodigy sticks with this talent of hers, she may go on to win her own mantel full of ACMs, CMAs and Grammys. But the fiddle with Charlie Daniels’ name on it will always be the one she treasures most.

If you would’ve asked me in the first part of the year 2007 if I ever would play the Grand Ole Opry, I would’ve said, “Yes, some day, I will.” However, on the 21st of January last year, I received an e-mail confirming my Grand Ole Opry debut that would take place on March 2, 2007. Now here we are less than a year later, and I’ve made three appearances so far, and on March 7 and 8, I will play the sacred stage again with the like of Josh Turner and Charlie Daniels (two of the Opry’s newest members) for my one-year anniversary of playing that stage.

I’m almost in disbelief that I can even say that, and I am TOO excited.

If you’ve never been to the Opry and have been thinking about making a trip to Music City, maybe this should be the time you come. I know it will be a great time, and Josh Turner and Charlie Daniels are two of my very favorite entertainers!

I’ve seen Josh Turner on many interviews, and just by the way he speaks about his influences and why he does what he does, I can tell he is one of the ones carrying the torch of the country music that I love and grew up on (and that’s before he even opens his mouth to sing). When he sings, it’s just mind blowing. It takes me back to when I was a little girl.

Y’all come out and hang with us for a great night of country!

If one thing surprised me about this year’s CMA nominees, it’s that Tim McGraw didn’t receive a significant nomination — and the Dixie Chicks did. The only nomination McGraw received when the announcements were made Thursday (Aug. 30) was in the musical event category for the assistance he and Kenny Chesney gave to their friend Tracy Lawrence in recording his hit, “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” The Chicks, on the other hand, are up for vocal group of the year.

My observation about the Chicks is in no way political. I like their music — a lot — but I’m not interested in what Natalie Maines has to say about the war and politics. I should point out, too, that I’m also not interested in what any other celebrity has to say about war and politics — whether it’s Charlie Daniels or Toby Keith or Sean Penn or Tim Robbins or … well … any of them. There are better sources of information and enlightenment, but I certainly defend everyone’s right to freedom of speech.

The surprising thing about the Chicks’ vocal group of the year nomination is that they simply didn’t do much to earn it during the official eligibility period of July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007. According to the CMA’s official wording, “Singles, albums, music videos and qualifying products for the vocal event must have been first released during the eligibility period.” This doesn’t specifically address the issue of what qualifies for a vocal group nomination, although but you’d think any accomplishments should take place during the same time span. The Dixie Chicks did not release an album during the eligibility period. And if they released a single to country radio, it must not have received much airplay. Their last single to reach Billboard’s country charts, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” was released in March 2006.

As I recall, the Dixie Chicks didn’t even tour after July 1, 2006, but McGraw sure did. His Soul2Soul tours with wife Faith Hill were among the hottest concert tickets in the U.S. during 2006 and 2007. McGraw’s latest album, Let It Go, was released in March and has sold more than 1 million copies. Two of his singles released this year hit the Top 10 — “Last Dollar (Fly Away)” and “I Need You,” the latter a duet with Hill. And surely the CMA voters wouldn’t discriminate against McGraw for stealing the show at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards show when he performed “If You’re Reading This,” a song he co-wrote with the Warren Brothers. He hadn’t even formally recorded the song when Let It Go was released, but public demand forced McGraw’s management and record label to release the live recording as a single.

The Dixie Chicks did get some airplay on non-country radio stations, so maybe that’s what turned the tide for them with CMA voters. Or maybe it’s just because there aren’t as many vocal groups around, so the competition isn’t quite as severe as it is in most of the other categories. And, let’s face it, against Rascal Flatts and Little Big Town, the Chicks don’t have a snowball’s chance of winning.

Wait! I just figured it out! The Chicks’ nomination obviously stemmed from Shut Up and Sing, the documentary about the uproar in the aftermath of Maines’ infamous comment about George W. Bush. Think about it: Country music is seldom the central theme of a feature film, so this obviously fits within the CMA’s mission to “guide and enhance the development of country music throughout the world.”