CMT Blog: Faith Hill

Looks like all those years with a Dixie Chick rubbed off on Charlie Robison. He may have divorced the Chicks’ Emily Robison, but it sounds like he’s married to that whole fiddle and steel and mandolin brand of music. (That said, there’s not one single banjo lick on the entire album.) Although he may consider himself too hip to be pigeon-holed as country, his new album, Beautiful Day, is countrier than most Texas country artists ever strive for.

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Et tu, Martina? First Faith Hill did it, and now you. Putting on a bikini at your age, after three rounds in the delivery room, for a magazine cover*? I can’t decide if it makes me hate you or love you. On the one hand, I hate you because I don’t look like that. But, on the other hand, seeing you on the cover of Shape magazine looking so, so perfect makes me love you for giving me and the rest of the middle-aged women out there a body to aspire to. (Not to mention it assuages any fears I had that I could never look 20 years old again.) So, thank you. I guess.

* Yes, I know that Julianne Hough and LeAnn Rimes are on the magazine cover, too, also in skimpy two-pieces. But they are younger and childless, so it just doesn’t impress me as much as the shot of McBride.

I spent a lot of time in the car yesterday with my son, and I let him pick the music for the majority of our drive. And even though he’s only 12, he’s kind of into old-school country. Plus, my car is 24 years old and is outfitted with only a cassette deck, so we were limited to the tiny shoebox of music I had with me. So we listened to both sides of each and every tape, and these 10 tracks ended up at the top of my list.

“Don’t Take the Girl,” Tim McGraw
“Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House,” Garth Brooks
“Too Gone Too Long,” Randy Travis
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I had a dream last night that I’d died, and when I got to heaven, there were only girl singers. Not one single guy. And they were all so welcoming, like I’d joined a special club and they were really glad to have me. I’m no dream analyst, but I think it may have had something to do with the music I was playing non-stop over the holiday weekend.

Check it out:

“I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore,” Carrie Underwood
“Crazier,” Taylor Swift
“Girls Lie, Too,” Terri Clark
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Note to folks who went to camp with young country stars and are now hoarding their works: Fans want to buy whatever you have. One such camper who knew Bob Dylan when he was 16 and at the Herzl Camp in Wisconsin is selling what first appeared to be an original poem handwritten by the music icon. As it turns out, although the document is in Dylan’s handwriting, it’s actually a copy of lyrics to an old Hank Snow song about a dog who dies. It’s still a fascinating artifact, and the owner hopes the document will raise up to $15,000 to support the camp. So if anyone out there bunked with Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Trace Adkins, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood or Martina McBride and is holding on to notes, poetry, dream catchers or other arts and crafts from summer camp, please consider selling them to the fans who will treasure them the most. I’m sure the now-famous artists won’t mind.

There is a randomness to this week’s list I cannot even begin to explain. Well, I can explain the first two. I saw a Keith Urban/Zac Brown Band show over the weekend, so that may have upped my interest in them. And then I did some Internet searching and found a couple songs I’d heard performed live and loved. And then I got on this old kick for fun girl songs. And then, a friend who lost his job just found one down South and is moving his whole family out of my town and into Little Rock, Ark. So please enjoy my themeless track list and all of its messy haphazardness:

“If Ever I Could Love,” Keith Urban
“Different Kind of Fine,” Zac Brown Band
“Nothing Is Better Than You,” Jamey Johnson
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If you stumble upon country star John Michael Montgomery in a new infomercial, don’t assume he’s after Billy Mays’ job. He is selling something much better than OxiClean and Mighty Putty. Montgomery is the new pitchman for Time Life’s Country Music Explosion. This boxed set of CDs has 160 songs from household names like Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Craig Morgan, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Then there’s Montgomery’s own biggies, like “I Can Love You Like That”, “I Swear” and “I Love the Way You Love Me.” I can’t find the price tag for this Explosion on the Time Life Web site yet, but whatever it costs, getting 160 hit country songs has to be worth it.

When you have a baby, a whole new part of you is born. The mother part. And that creates a bond you will share with other mothers that will endure for the rest of your life. Does country music capture that? Rarely.

But when it does, it does so with imagery that either gives you a glimpse into the emotions of motherhood, or magnifies that feeling tenfold. And I’m not talking about songs that merely mention motherhood or the routines of housewifery. Those are a dime a dozen. “Hot Mama,” “Mama Tried” and countless others just solidify that mothers exist. Nothing more.

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It’s People’s 100 Most Beautiful special double issues! On newsstands now! Who wouldn’t buy that? Especially when there are stories out that say three of the beautiful are Julianne Hough, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. And there are even a couple of shorter items on Jason Michael Carroll and Jewel.

But you have to wade through a lot of pages of “Lindsay Lohan: Is She Too Skinny?” and “Heidi & Spencer Get Married (Again!)” types of stories before you get to the really good stuff.

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I wasn’t a wife, a mother or even a grown woman when I started reading Redbook. I was a little girl, emulating the classiest woman I knew. Redbook was my mom’s go-to magazine when she sat down with a cup of Sanka and a cigarette.

I loved it then because it made me feel grown up. And I still love it now, after 20 years as a loyal subscriber, because of stories like this one: Faith Hill. In the article, she talks about her role amid other iconic blondes throughout the years. Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot and Twiggy. (Who hasn’t gotten a pixie haircut and worn false eyelashes and put on a shift in the hopes they, too, could channel Twiggy?)

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