CMT Blog: Miranda Lambert

If it was not for Jerrod Niemann's swift rise to fame, and his very infectious "Lover, Lover," I might never have heard of Sonia Dada. Neimann remade the group's 1992 hit, "You Don't Treat Me No Good," into "Lover, Lover." And if it was not for Kenny Chesney's "Down the Road," I might not have taken it upon myself to fall in love with Mac McAnally's music, as he sings the thoughts of a hesitant father on that tune. And really, I might not have paid enough attention to Kelly Clarkson until she and Reba McEntire came together for that unforgettable collaboration on Clarkson's "Because of You."

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Dierks Bentley's latest album, Up on the Ridge, has quickly become a favorite among country fans. His music video for "Up on The Ridge" is also one of the most popular on CMT.com. Through his "Posted" page at CMT.com, Bentley took the time to answer fans' Twitter questions. Take a look.

@areyes03: Any new songs you're writing? I've been trying not to ... trying to just focus on and enjoy Up on the Ridge. But, I've had some ideas floating around up there for a while and I'm starting to think about getting back into it.

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Even though cameras roll during an Invitation Only concert, the small audience always gives a candid feeling to the show. I'll be looking forward to seeing Miranda Lambert's turn in the intimate setting on Aug. 23 at 9 p.m. ET since she'll get a chance to tone down her usual rowdy performance. Highlights are said to include acoustic versions of "Air Stream Song" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and she'll also play "The House That Built Me" and "White Liar." But the unique part of the show is the Q & A session with the audience. Having seen a few of these, the stars tend to open up a little more than usual for some reason. In the meantime, take a moment and enter to win some cool prizes through the CMT Invitation Only: Miranda Lambert Sweepstakes. The top winner gets a Sony HDTV, a Taylor guitar signed by Lambert and a copy of her latest album, Revolution.

Photo credit: Rick Diamond/Wire Image

If it's Tuesday, it must be time to put down the beers and head to Wal-mart. That's the life Blake Shelton thinks his fans are living. "My fans aren't necessarily looking for music on the internet. I wouldn't know how to stream music if you put a gun to my head. We're more the kind that sit around watching John Wayne movies, drinkin' beer and then when the album comes out, we go down to Wal-mart and buy it," he told me last week.

And the album's out today (Aug. 10). All About Tonight has six songs that Shelton can rave about without sounding too full of himself because he didn't write them. Like "Draggin' the River," a song about young love and the girl's dad who doesn't understand it. Fiancée Miranda Lambert joins him on that one. Shelton told me she wanted to cut that one herself, and he said, "Bullshit you will. You already did that once with 'The House That Built Me.'" Then she suggested it would work as a duet.

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What did we do before Twitter? Seriously. It gives country fans so much random but hysterical nuggets of information. And it's not just Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley who are cracking people up. Girls are getting in on it, too. This weekend, Miranda Lambert sent out a tweet after her show on Saturday (Aug. 7) night that said, "Soooo.....some crazy girl showed her boobs to us all night while we were on stage. And they were not the pretty kind. Ew!" That was about the same time that Kellie Pickler was on her tour bus rolling down the highway saying, "can't quit looking down at my left hand and thanking God that I get to spend the rest of my life with @kylecjacobs." Martina McBride tweeted a little movie of her husband (and an audience) singing "Happy Birthday" to her. Even LeAnn Rimes, who is back on Twitter after a week-long hiatus, was retweeting the always-pensive John Mayer, with his quote, "I have found the key to a happy life is to surround myself with like-minded people who agree with me constantly."

In new videos screened by the CMT New Music Video Evaluation Team recently, Kenny Chesney goes back to the football field, Miranda Lambert delivers a lesson and Bomshel get even.

Artist: Kenny Chesney
Video: "The Boys of Fall"
Director: Shaun Silva

Kenny Chesney previews footage from his forthcoming documentary film The Boys of Fall. Football legends from Bear Bryant to Joe Namath and Peyton Manning make appearances, along with many players from high school, college and pro teams.

Panelists' Comments: "That's good but it's really, really long." "Eight minutes!" "That's some great football footage."

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Miranda Lambert channels her inner high schooler in the new video for "Only Prettier," going back in time to a '50s dance. There is some serious tension going on between her and a dark-haired rival, so the whole way through I waited for the punch bowl to go flying. Then I realized that Lambert and her friends -- Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott, Kellie Pickler and Laura Bell Bundy -- were playing both sides of the fight, so that might be kind of hard to shoot. No matter, watching each character try to annoy her alter ego is just as fun. The good girls wear pearl earrings and sit modestly, while looking mostly disgusted with those other girls, who smoke cigarettes, spike the punch and hang on the boys. I guess that begs the question, which side do you think these girls have taken in reality?

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?

Thank God for the real women of country music, like Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. That's what I'm thinking now after having just read this story in the New York Times about how "Everywhere you look, pop has gone Gaga." It concludes that there's a new feminism in pop music and how freeing the expansion of music liberation has been. But what it's really about is how unrealistic stars like Lady Gaga and Madonna really are. It's about Katy Perry's cupcake boobs in her "California Gurls" video. And how Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were all about their ostentatious image early in their careers. But to me, the unwritten story here is how real country music is.

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Is Miranda Lambert over Twitter already? It seems she's just not that into it anymore. But her fiancé, Blake Shelton, is a huge fan of the micro-blogging site. (One of his most recent tweets: "Not pre-ordering my album tomorrow is like open-hand slapping your grandma and yelling 'Now cook me some biscuits bitch!!'") Lambert told Fox News, "I'm on Twitter a little bit, I mean, I kind of took a break. It sort of feels like people get obsessed with it, people like Blake Shelton. It just feels like it's too much sometimes." She's half joking, but she does seem like she has a private side and maybe doesn't want to share every single thought with her 104,000 followers. However, she did just post a link to Shelton's mom's website where she sells handmade crosses. Then Lambert gets serious and opens up a little about the pressure of being a headliner after a few years of being the opening act. "It's scary because it's your name on that ticket, good or bad," she admits.