CMT Blog: LeAnn Rimes

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.

So many country singers are blessed with a sense of humor, including Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley and Reba. It seems to kind of come naturally to them, whether that humor is shining through on stage or within some of the laugh-out-loud lyrics. I wouldn’t ever put LeAnn Rimes in that category.

But after watching her performance on the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday (May 31), I now think Rimes has it in her to make people laugh. Hard. When I first saw her come out in a long gown, backed by a pretty full orchestra, I thought, “Hmm. This must be her new single. I’ve never heard it.” Then when I realized what she’s singing, I was quite literally ROTFLMAO.

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Every artist has a debut CD that kind of kicked off their career. But this is one I’ve never seen or heard of before. It’s Taylor Swift’s demo CD that she brought with her to Nashville when she was just 11. The track listing is only four songs long, but I can imagine hearing her put her own adolescent twist on all these cover songs: Dixie Chicks‘ “There’s Your Trouble,” LeAnn Rimes‘ “One Way Ticket (Because I Can),” Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” and Olivia Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” (That last one was always a favorite of mine because it marked the crucial turning point in Sandy and Danny’s relationship during Rizzo’s slumber party in the movie, Grease. Anyway, this demo didn’t get Swift a record deal, but it did get her to go back home to Pennsylvania and start writing her own songs. And I think we all know how that ended up working out.

You know you have something of fiddle fetish when you are glued to a TV show that is honoring one of country music’s greatest legends, and you cannot see past the fiddler.

That’s how I felt Wednesday night (May 27) watching the ACM Artist of the Decade special all about George Strait. I get what Toby Keith, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Jack Ingram and Garth Brooks all said about how they felt when they heard a Strait song on the radio. I felt that way, too. His voice is a powerful instrument, and he’s got a golden ear when it comes to picking great songs to cut.

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This vicious circle of an economy we are living in has definitely turned the real estate world into a buyer’s market. Home prices are at all-time lows. Still, if I had $7 million, I don’t think I’d buy LeAnn Rimes‘ six-bedroom home near Nashville. Mostly because I don’t think she should move out of Tennessee. I know it’s not my place to say, but leaving Nashville sends a signal to record labels, radio programmers and country fans that country music isn’t where your heart is anymore. If you lay down roots in Los Angeles, which is what Rimes is reportedly doing, it tells the world you want to pursue acting. And while I did like Rimes in that Lifetime movie she did, I much prefer her as the country singer I’ve grown up with. Maybe when her new album comes out this fall, she’ll rethink the move and just stay put.

Jonell Mosser possesses one of those persuasive voices that Nashville music fans have come to love, even though her music gravitates toward soul and blues rather than country. But who cares? The woman can belt it. She’s been a fixture on the live music scene for as long as I can remember, but she rarely puts out an album. So it’s cause for celebration that Trust Yourself is in the world. Like Wynonna and Trisha Yearwood, Mosser has a commanding delivery that immediately draws you into her world. She alternates between sassy and empowering, but above all, you can’t miss the sincerity in her singing. One of my favorite cuts is “The Light in Your Eyes,” previously recorded by LeAnn Rimes. Usually I skip through cheesy, you-can-do-anything, songs but I like everything about this rendition, especially the way it feels like she’s personally confiding in you, rather than relentlessly proving that she can hit the big notes. (Indeed, she can.) Her touring itinerary is light, but if you happen to be vacationing in Nashville and see her name in the listings, treat yourself to a different side of our music scene.

Tabloids? What tabloids? In this fantastic five-minute interview with Matt Lauer, LeAnn Rimes transcends the nasty rumor mill and focuses instead on something positive: Her new book, What I Cannot Change, which comes from her song of the same name. Rimes says the song came about on a tough day and that she was venting to co-writer Darrell Brown and he started putting honest thoughts into the verses. “It was our version of the serenity prayer in a way,” she said. And when Lauer gave Rimes the chance to set the record straight about her alleged extramarital affair, she said, “It’s hard to continue to go back and forth in the press. I refuse to discuss tabloid rumors. I’ve grown up in the press my whole life and I think people are fascinated with my personal life. And I totally get it.” And I totally get that. Sounds like she is literally learning to let go, forgive and love what she cannot change.

Is it a coincidence that the first song I heard during my first morning in Las Vegas was “If You’re Going Through Hell”? I am the rare traveler who doesn’t really look forward to visiting Sin City, but it’s been OK this year, I guess. None of the lines have been more than 20 minutes. I haven’t overheated (in fact, it’s been in the 50s and 60s), and this morning, I found yet another Starbucks in the MGM Grand. There’s a secret elevator next to my room, and it drops you off in a nightclub, which is next to the Starbucks, and right after that, there are lions in a big glass terrarium. And some poker sharks in their natural habitat, too. Now I am on my way to the pressroom, but first let me tell you about my weekend.

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Here is the ultimate test of an artist: If you can sit down at the piano and start singing and it SHUTS EVERYONE UP, then you have serious chops. And that’s what the New York Times had to say about the Jeffrey Steele show at Joe’s Pub in the Big Apple on Wednesday night (March 25). The man behind so many of Nashville’s biggest, radio-friendly tunes (like Tim McGraw’s “The Cowboy in Me,” Steve Holy’s “Brand New Girlfriend,” LeAnn Rimes‘ “Big Deal,” Trace Adkins‘ “I’m Tryin’” and Rascal Flatts‘ “What Hurts the Most”) had a chance to show off his own mad skills as a singer-songwriter. But it sounds like one of the songs Steele never gave away to another artist, “Drunk Girl,” was one of the crowd favorites.

She’s never struck me as much of a prankster. Yet LeAnn Rimes, Jessica Simpson and a handful of other celebs have signed up for a new show called I Get That a Lot. It debuts on CBS on April 1. And here’s how it’ll work: Rimes will get to work in some kind of ordinary job (Starbucks barista, grocery store bagger, bank teller, UPS delivery girl, that kind of thing.) The cameras will be rolling as the celebs try to convince customers they are really not that celeb. It seems like the reality-show people are grasping for fresh ideas anywhere and everywhere these days. But this one sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Unless you’re the one getting duped. I’d hate that. In a way, it’s a lot like Ashton Kutcher’s Punked, only the stars are in on the joke in this one.