CMT Blog: Keith Anderson

If you were clutching Keith Anderson concert tickets in your hand, hoping to see him in the next couple of months, you're gonna have to wait just a little bit longer. Some vocal problems have forced the singer-songwriter to cancel his upcoming shows in Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Michigan and Illinois. He was getting ready to hit a few winter festivals and ropin' rodeos, but now he's on complete vocal rest until he has some vocal cord surgery at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. No singing, no talking -- nothing. His Web site confirms he will be hitting it full-throttle come March, so hang onto those tickets while you wait for news of rescheduled tour dates.

You'd think someone as legendary as Dolly Parton would make her rare stop in Nashville at some huge concert venue -- like the Grand Ole Opry house or even the Sommet Center. But, no. She's coming to Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon. It's a charity show to benefit the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School, so maybe she didn't need a big venue for her mini four-song set. She won't be alone, either. A handful of Sony BMG artists -- Ronnie Dunn, Kellie Pickler and Keith Anderson -- will join her at the Feb. 2 show. Tickets are only $45, but it's a general admission event. So if you want to watch it with your elbows on the stage, get there early.

When Keith Anderson had his birthday party earlier this week, some of his famous friends turned out to help him celebrate. Carrie Underwood, Jamey Johnson and Randy Houser were all there, and it sounds like they did more than just give Anderson their well wishes. The concert at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre was a fundraiser for the YMCA Benefit Center. And while it doesn't sound like Underwood did any singing at the show, Johnson and Houser did acoustic sets, and Anderson sang some of his hits and his new single, "She Could've Been Mine." This is my kind of birthday party. A little music, a little charity and a lot of celebrity.

Yesterday morning, on a snowy trudge to my local Starbucks, I ran into my former next-door neighbors, an elderly couple who moved into a retirement community a few years ago. After exchanging some holiday pleasantries, they told me love reading my articles, and that they always cut my stories out of the Chicago Tribune. Like a little country music scrapbook. How adorable is that?

Then they said they'd actually cut my Top Five Country Albums list out of the paper, and taken it with them when they went Christmas shopping this year. I was so touched, and so honored, that my story was folded up in this 82-year-old woman's purse like a shopping list. The problem was, though, they had a hard time finding those albums. And it's not like I had obscure music on that list, just Sugarland, Ashton Shepherd, Darius Rucker, Keith Anderson and Lady Antebellum. However, Rucker's Learn to Live was the only CD they could find.

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The official press release calls it "helping fans in this economic crisis." I call it brilliant. Even if you don't have the cash right here, right now, you can still get tickets to the Country Thunder USA festival taking place in April in Florence, Ariz. So you can look forward to immersing yourself in four days of Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Montgomery Gentry, Little Big Town, Neal McCoy, Blake Shelton, Rodney Atkins, Keith Anderson and the Zac Brown Band. But you don't have to immerse yourself in debt. You can pay upfront or in three payments. "Every day we hear more and more people worried about the economy and how they are going to afford to do the fun things that they love to do. We know that Country Thunder USA is a place where these folks can let loose and leave their worries at home for a weekend," says Brian Andrew, producer of Country Thunder USA. It may sound like a positive spin on a desperate situation, but I'm all for finding new ways to rationalize festival tickets. So instead of one big fat $500 charge showing up on your credit card, it's three little $167 charges. Which is barely even noticeable.

A friend of mine e-mailed me yesterday looking for some new music recommendations. Now, I should tell you that this is not some casual country fan. He used to work in country radio, so I had to think long and hard about what he might like. He's pretty much heard it all. I wanted to make sure my playlist had the kind of music that was fresh and new but still country enough to feel genuine. And this is the what I came up with, by browsing my iPhone's "Recently Added" playlist. Some may not be technically new, but they may be new to him. If you'd like to add to the list, feel free. The more country, the better. With enough good twangy vocals and steel guitars, maybe he'll realize what he's missing and come on back to country for good.

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What happens when five "country music power players" get together to address the issues facing the industry? The Tennessean, Nashville's daily newspaper, reports on last week's meeting with Keith Anderson, Rodney Atkins and industry big shots Tammy Genovese, Randy Goodman and Clarence Spalding. Atkins talks about swallowing his pride. Anderson talks about how club owners are going crazy. Goodman says artist's managers are now calling him asking for gas money. Spalding addressed the poor sound quality of MP3s. And then Genovese offered up one positive note -- that the CMA festival attendance was up 10 percent. Let's hope Genovese is onto something and that not all the news is bad news.

The title track from Keith Anderson's latest album beckons the world to C'mon! to the CMA Awards during the promo spots on ABC. I hope to God they are asking us to C'mon and watch the awards on TV. Because the cheapest nosebleed seats I could find on Ticketmaster were around $125. Each. So when Anderson sings "C'mon. C'Mon. We been knuckle bustin', back breakin', head achin' all week long," all I can think of is, who can afford to actually go to the Sommet Center? Certainly not the guys in the song, who've been plowin' up a cloud of dust and haulin' hay from dawn till dusk. But still, I'm sure millions will heed Anderson's advice and C'mon to their couches on Nov. 12 at 8p.m. ET for the 42nd annual CMA Awards.

God love these hard-working new artists. Like James Otto. He's opening a big arena show in the Chicago suburbs for Trace Adkins and Alan Jackson tonight (Oct. 10), and then rushing into the city to perform again at a fundraiser hosted by Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould. It has me wondering if it's because Otto's just a nice guy? Or because that bond between country stars and professional athletes seriously runs that deep?

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Is it too late for me to hop on a plane for Savannah, Tenn.? I wish I could, because that's where Darryl Worley's big ol' Tennessee River Run is underway. Saturday's (Sept. 13) concert will have Restless Heart, Keith Anderson and Worley. Not to mention all the items up for auction, like the handwritten lyrics to Little Big Town's "Boondocks," tickets to an upcoming Carrie Underwood concert in Nashville and a bunch of sports memorabilia. Every penny Worley raises goes to good causes for the folks in Hardin and McNairy counties in West Tennessee.