WE Fest Relies on Country's Guys This Weekend
Whenever I cover a country music festival, I'm always happy when Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban are on the bill because their music is easy to enjoy at the end of a long, hot day. They're both playing WE Fest this weekend near Detroit Lakes, Minn., along with Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Randy Houser, Montgomery Gentry, Joe Nichols, Blake Shelton and Gretchen Wilson. That's a pretty strong lineup for country fans, but as they say on Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the other. So, where are the women? Rand Levy, vice president of WE Fest, told a North Dakota news website that it's just a coincidence that female artists are scarce on the lineup this year -- and that he did try to get Miranda Lambert, but she was unavailable. But he did grab Gloriana, which has two female members. Eric Church and Gloriana's Cheyenne Kimball weigh in with their opinions about women entertainers in country music, but I'm more curious about what the fans think. Do you care if there's an equal balance of men and women on stage at country music festivals?
Well, I may not have been all that crazy about the video for 
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.
What do teenagers see in country music? There are so many country artists nominated for the Aug. 9
Well, I'm here in Nashville. So that part's good. But oh what a journey it's been to get to Nashville. A delayed and very bumpy flight. The comedy act I've come to love from the flight attendants was nonexistent. Then, because bad things come in threes, they lost our luggage. But wait, there's more. They offered me a $50 gift card to a discount store. No offense but I hardly think that $50 would do much to get me red-carpet ready. I doubt I could even replace my iPhone charger, my makeup and hair products with that meager stipend. I know 
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