Country Music Blog: Gretchen Wilson

I got a puppy about a month ago. So naturally, I became instantly obsessed with dogs as if I was the first person to actually own one. I have all the books, I watch Animal Planet non-stop and spend about $150 a week at PetSmart on toys this little guy has no interest in. I've done everything short of getting a my-dog-is-smarter-than-your-dog bumper sticker. But what I keep wondering is, why there are no good country songs about dogs?

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Gretchen Wilson sets a better example with her life than with her songs. Beginning with "Redneck Woman," many of her songs seem to suggest that you can be happy and emotionally fulfilled by embracing the squalor, ignorance and low expectations into which you were born. Fortunately, she's never followed her own lyrical counsel. She dreamed big, worked hard and became a superstar. Now she's taken time out to earn the high school diploma she had to forfeit back in tougher times. That's a monumental act of courage and good sense -- and it's the kind of value she should be extolling in her songs rather than the dead-end charms of Skoal rings and Jack Daniel's.

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From here on out, Dierks Bentley will be known to beer drinkers everywhere as Mr. Sad Country Song Songwriter in Bud Light's popular "Real Men of Genius" ad campaign. Misery sells records, indeed.

With a lot of pomp and a little circumstance, Gretchen Wilson will don her cap and gown to graduate from high school on May 15.

It sounds like Miley Cyrus' guitar is her best friend and her therapist. That's one lucky six string.

Brooks & Dunn are looking for a girl. Specifically, one who makes everything more fun. And you could win big if you're the one.

Country's not just a one-off for Darius Rucker, former frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish. He promises his new album will be the first of many. Yee haw.

Brad Paisley and Gretchen Wilson weigh in on what makes for a good country video -- in the latest edition of USA Weekend.

For you guitar freaks, Paisley also gives his opinion on why multiple amps and in-ear monitors are so important to his sound.

Josh Turner is the latest country artist to set his sights on acting with his appearance in Billy: The Early Years, the upcoming film about Billy Graham.

There's a new artist growing up out of the band behind Kenny Chesney. His name is Tim Hensley.

"Awkward" and "fun." Those are just a couple of the choice words Carrie Underwood uses to describe what it's like to be famous, in this story from the Baltimore Sun.

Us magazine readers now have a forum for choosing Underwood's next crush. See if you agree with them.

Dierks Bentley, John Rich and Gretchen Wilson remember the Station nightclub fire, which occurred five years ago, with an acoustic concert in Rhode Island.

Did you bite into something crunchy at Country Radio Seminar? The health scores for the Nashville Convention Center might explain why the lights were so dim.

Speaking of country radio, is your favorite station among the off-camera nominations for the Academy of Country Music Awards?

Sam Bush, Natalie McMaster and Chris Thile will be playing RockyGrass this summer in Telluride, Colo., and the single-day lineups have been announced.

This rock star produced Loretta Lynn's Grammy-winning album and lives in Nashville. Now, Jack White is rush-releasing a CD by his new band, The Raconteurs.

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.

Ashton Shepherd's album, Sounds So Good, is here at last. So now everyone can enjoy the rich country sound she's bringing back to country radio (with the support of the smoking hot fiddle work by Nashville vet Joe Spivey). But for me, so much of what makes this music so blessedly relatable is the lyrics. So I'm going to list a dozen of the lines I love the most, and when you're done listening to the album I highly recommend buying, you can come back here and list your own favorites.

They are, in no particular order:

1. So what if I like the bar and dancin'? What do you care if you don't mind me askin'?

2. Tonight I've had too much to drink and he stays on my mind.

3. There ain't nothin' like the sound of a cooler slushin' on the bed of your truck.

4. You don't ever even talk to me, I just get to do your laundry.

5. There's always somethin' to be done, but I still like havin' fun.

6. I'm a grown woman, I should've already set myself free.

7. I felt at home though I'd never been in there before.

8. She ain't gonna stay, she don't work that way.

9. I've got a baby at home, a to-do list a mile long.

10. And hopin' to God you feel like I do, completely lost in you.

11. I can't believe you even spoke to me, what nerve you must have.

12. I like a pint of Crown and a country sound.

I know that words on paper don't do justice to the way they sound coming out of her mouth, but you have to admit they certainly pique your interest. Now just try to imagine them delivered with a Loretta Lynn twangy drawl, Patsy Cline expressiveness, Gretchen Wilson sass, Martina McBride power and Carrie Underwood's vocal control. Or, just go download the album to hear these lyrics come to life. Even without the pint of Crown, these 11 songs will put you in your happy country place.

I have always been fascinated by the Academy of Country Music's "top new" nominations. Looking over the past winners, you sometimes have to ask yourself, "Who's that?"

Some years, fresh country female artists must have been in short supply, considering the top new female vocalist winners who are mostly forgotten now: Kay Adams, Cathie Taylor and Cheryl Poole in the 1960s; Billie Jo Spears, Christy Lane and Lacy J. Dalton in the 1970s; Terri Gibbs, Karen Brooks, Gus Hardin and Judy Rodman in the 1980s; and Michelle Wright, Chely Wright and Jessica Andrews in the 1990s. Even in the 2000s, it seems that past winners Jamie O'Neal and Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Kellie Coffey are yesterday's news. In 2003, the Academy skipped the category altogether, handing out a "Top New Artist" trophy instead. Can we please go back to that? Women will still have a shot, of course; Gretchen Wilson won the ACM's "Top New Artist" a year later.

This year, in the category of Top New Duo or Vocal Group, this year's ACM nominees are ... Carolina Rain (the album tanked in 2006), Lady Antebellum (whose debut record doesn't come out for another six weeks) and The Wreckers (who aren't together anymore). In the top new male vocalist category, you've got Luke Bryan, Jack Ingram and Jake Owen - all of whom have just one Top 10 hit to their credit. Top female vocalist nominees are Sarah Buxton (whose album was never released), Kellie Pickler (who's selling pretty well) and Taylor Swift (who is certain to win - and most likely will be remembered by the general public five years from now).

Maureen McCormick (better known as Marcia Brady) recently admitted to having a bit of a girl crush on Gretchen Wilson on Gone Country. Then CMT.com columnist Hazel Smith was raving about Crystal Gayle's skin, eyes, smile and hair. And Miley Cyrus had some mildly suggestive pictures taken with another girl a few months ago. Is everyone everywhere having these girl crushes, and if so, shouldn't someone write a song about the new trend?

Back in 2006, Willie Nelson released a song called "Cowboys are Secretly, Frequently (Fond of Each Other)." I think it might be the time for another tune about homosexual tendencies. Not a straight-up lesbian love song, but more of an exploration of the crushing craze, because it really has less to do with actual, physical lust and more to do with an infatuation of another girl's mind, body and soul. (Although McCormick's forthcoming book reportedly reveals a girl crush that actually progressed to sexual play with Eve Plumb, who played younger sister Jan Brady.)

I'm not suggesting country music's on the verge of a girl-on-girl kiss a la Madonna and Britney. However, a Jennifer Nettles/Carrie Underwood awards-show kiss would certainly give us something to talk about, wouldn't it? But I do think the phenomenon of girl love doesn't seem to be as taboo as it once was. In the new book, Sexual Fluidity, the author reports that women are more fluid with their emotions when it comes to other women -- that it's not as black and white as it is with men, and that the occasional attraction to women is natural.

Maybe in the conservative world of country radio, the potential lack of spins might be holding songwriters back. But radio has crossed some lines in the sand before, and the timing may be right for a little more flirtation with controversy. Just think of the untouched lyrical territory. Fans always want music they can relate to. And who can't relate to a page out of Marcia Brady's life?

Outtakes from the Grammys:

A reaction from a non-country fan about Vince Gill's Beatle remark to Kanye West: "I didn't know Vince Gill was funny."

Another non-country fan after Brad Paisley's performance of "Ticks": "I didn't know Brad Paisley could play guitar like that."

Carrie Underwood, on accepting her Grammy for country female vocal: "I voted for myself. I have no shame..."

Ricky Skaggs, after winning with The Whites for Southern, country or bluegrass gospel album: "This is my thirteenth Grammy but this is the sweetest because I got it with my dearest friends."

"Before He Cheats" co-writer Chris Tompkins on the song: "When I started the song I had Gretchen Wilson in mind for it."

The producers of the winning historical album by Woody Guthrie, The Live Wire: "This is the holy grail of folk music."