CMT Blog: Craig Morgan

Aug. 20, 2010

Hey Y'all -

We've been in Dallas and Tulsa, Okla., recently and the shows have been awesome. We rolled into Dallas on Wednesday morning and hit the ground running. Ran over and did some radio visits and met with some folks. The show that night at The Granada was awesome -- thanks everybody for coming out! Here are some pictures of the night. Had a good time hanging out with Meghan & Josh (from Steel Magnolia) in Tulsa. Josh even got up and joined us for "Long Haired Country Boy." -- Rodney

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By the time you're reading this blog entry, I will be aboard the Barefoot Lady Pontoon Excursion, deep in the crystal clear waters of a Wisconsin lake. As you might imagine, I elected myself Music Director and put together a playlist of songs to thoroughly entertain my friends and me as we cruise up and down and around this lake. But I didn't want to make it all about the patriotic weekend, because we'll have enough of that on Sunday. Nor did I want to make it all fun-in-the-sun songs, since too many of those can feel like you are actually trying to turn your day into a country song. But now that I look at this mix I've come up with, I realize I'm a little heavy on the good-time songs, so please add a few I-Heart-America songs to the list to balance it out.

"Water," Brad Paisley
"Redneck Yacht Club," Craig Morgan
"Drive (For Daddy Gene)," Alan Jackson
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After a long and hard-fought battle of wits and skill (and a little good-natured cheating), the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge ended in a 10-10 tie Monday night (June 7). But unlike most sporting events, fans in the stands for this charity game were able to coax the famous players back out on to the field for one more, sudden-death inning. In the heavy-hitting end, the After Midnite with Blair Garner team led by Joe Nichols and Vince Gill bested the Grand Ole Opry team with Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean 15-10.

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I love music downloads, but I especially love free music downloads. If you're a Rodney Atkins fan -- or a country fan, in general -- how can you resist a free download of "Get Together"? It's a brand new song that's never been on any of Atkins' albums. Aside from the new music, the Knoxville, Tenn., native has a busy tour schedule this summer, including a June 5 appearance at the BamaJam Music & Arts Festival in Enterprise, Ala. And on June 11, he'll be performing in Nashville on the CMA Music Festival's Riverfront Park stage during a day of music that also features Gretchen Wilson, the Eli Young Band, Jack Ingram, Craig Morgan, Patty Loveless, Sawyer Brown, Bucky Covington and The Band Perry. His tour is sponsored by VELVEETA Shells & Cheese, and at some of the stops, a "side shack" will provide a variety of family entertainment and the chance to win a VIP pass that allows winners the virtual reality experience of performing with Atkins on an interactive video screen and other prizes. In the meantime, download the song and let us know what you think of it.

Every once in a while, I forget how much I love Craig Morgan. Then a song like his new one comes along, and it reminds me how well his voice can tell a story that is moving, sad and inspirational all at the same time. (Or a story that is just plain ol' fun. He does that well, too.) "This Ain't Nothin'" is about an old man who has just lost everything to a tornado. But since he's the ultimate optimist, he tells a reporter that this ain't nothin' because he lost his daddy at 8 years old, Vietnam killed his baby brother and best friend and his wife of 50 years has passed on. Talk about a survivor. Morgan's Web site has a video of him talking about the song from the Franklin, Tenn., set of the video shoot. And since the song alone made me get all choked up, I could only imagine what a tear-jerker the video would be. Watch it for yourself, and see if you don't reach for a tissue when the old man kisses the dusty photo he pulls from the debris.

Why does every man in Nashville seem to be so obsessed with having a man cave? Is it their God-given right or something? You never hear women bragging about their girl cave, do you? But if you are into that kind of thing, tune in Friday (Feb. 5) to watch Eric Church show you his. He and his wife Katherine will be giving you a personal tour of their newly-renovated home in Nashville for an episode of CMT Cribs. It will have more than the aforementioned cave, though. There's a homegrown backyard garden, and the master bedroom has separate bathrooms, which the couple admits is the secret to a happy marriage. I do love this series. How else am I ever going to see the deck off Dierks Bentley's master bedroom, Craig Morgan's wine cellar, Gretchen Wilson's John Deere Gators and Jason Aldean's pool?

This decade has been quite a rollercoaster for country music. But I'll spare you the trip down memory lane right now and will just say this: A lot of artists have had just one big No. 1 hit in the past 10 years.

I thought of that when I read that Chris Young had his first No. 1 just now at the end of the decade. So I took a look back at all the songs that have been so huge but never had the follow up I'd hoped they would, chart-wise.

According to Billboard magazine, these are some of the songs that topped the charts -- recorded by artists who didn't make it back up there again.

The Wreckers, "Leave the Pieces" -- Loved the whole acoustic Bohemian sound they had on this, their break-out hit.

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Not to sound like a public service announcement, but did you know that 88 percent of wildfires are started by humans? And in the past 10 years, about 6.5 million acres of land were burned annually. So that rowdy little "Bonfire" that Craig Morgan sings about in his latest tune? It could actually be the culprit. Maybe that's why he teamed up with another celeb, Smokey Bear, to teach radio listeners how to put those fires out once the party's over. Bear's tune is the same one he's had since 1944: "Only you can prevent forest fires." Morgan admits that bonfires are built for good times, although he stresses, "But anybody who knows me knows that I'm a big outdoors guy, and any time you build any sort of fire outside, safety has to be your number one concern."

In new videos screened for the CMT New Music Video Evaluation Team this week, George Strait is as live as he ever gets, Craig Morgan takes his song to some unlikely locales and Matt Stillwell squeezes out a little more summer.

Artist: George Strait
Video: "Livin' for the Night"
Director: Shaun Silva

George Strait does here what he does best. He gets up on a stage and sings a good country song, as he's done for decades. Straight-ahead. No frills.

Panelists' comments: "Yum!" "I love that." "It's George Strait. It's already classic." "What else can you say? It's George."

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In the opening scene of Craig Morgan's video for "Bonfire," he and his band look like a boxing entourage heading to the ring for a fight. That's about the last thing that looks serious in this one, though, as Morgan drops in to various everyday places and serenades folks who have no idea what's going on. Imagine being at work around 3 p.m. holding back a mid-afternoon yawn, when in through the door bursts a camera crew and a bunch of guys singing and dancing around. Reactions range from elation to awkward indifference, but it seems like they end up making more friends than enemies, except maybe that lifeguard. Or maybe this is Morgan's new recession-proof side job -- "I'll wake up your whole office for $20!"