CMT Blog: Rodney Atkins

They gave out a dozen awards at last night’s ACM Awards. So a bunch of artists went home with big shiny trophies. But all I took home was questions. So many questions. Like why did Brad Paisley take the line about “he copped a feel as you walked by” out of “I’m Still a Guy” during his performance? Why is Rodney Atkins already doing a medley of hits so early in his career?

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Think Kellie Pickler’s beautiful on the inside? Well the outside ain’t bad either.

If you see a lesser-known band chowing down on a Grand Slam breakfast at Denny’s, now you’ll know why. It’s their Adopt-a-Band program, that feeds artists when they’re on the road.

Sarah Buxton has her arms wide open, to receive the blessings from above. And by above, we mean Keith Urban.

Why are concerts so pricey? Is it the cost of all that tour bus gasoline, or to make up for the declining CD sales?

Rodney Atkins is packing up his wife and kids getting ready to travel to the ACMs in Las Vegas.

And the Washington Post travels back in time, to examine the road Atkins took to get from repo man to six time ACM nominee.

Want to find a good man? Then give your name and email info to Danielle Peck to get a free download.

Julianne Hough knows dancing and singing. But fighting? The Fox News Fight Game show tries desperately to find a connection between her career and the fighters. 

“Mutt” Lange comments on his separation from Shania Twain

It may be called the New Faces of Country Music Show, but they really mean “new-ish.” Because in order to be considered for this make-or-break night, each artist must have at least one Top 25 single. So these performers on the last night of Country Radio Seminar — Luke Bryan, Jason Michael Carroll, Bucky Covington, Jake Owen and Taylor Swift — are certainly not names you’ve never heard of.

But still, they’re new enough to make me bummed I wasn’t there. I just have this thing for new-ish artists. I love them. Not because I’m a fair-weather fan and change my mind every time someone new comes along. I love them because they breathe new life into the genre and renew my love of country music. After a day of hearing the same songs by the established stars, it’s so refreshing to hear an unfamiliar name cross the DJ’s lips. Think about it: there was a time when those artists that are household names now were once the New Faces themselves. Last year was Miranda Lambert and Rodney Atkins, and look at them now. In the years before that, there was a younger Dierks Bentley, a greener Sugarland, and in 2002 a little boy band called Rascal Flatts.

So last Friday night, radio execs were able to watch these New Faces for a few songs each. I know industry audiences are rough, but that had to be a cool event. Just the way Taylor Swift swings that mane of blonde curls around is enough to grab the attention of even the most jaded program director. And without the typical big-star attitudes, I’m guessing the show was more intimate and down-to-earth, because artists try harder when they’re new. Right? Let’s hope this year’s crop maintains that enthusiasm longer than most.

See photos from the show.

Another cell phone went off in church yesterday. It happens just about every Sunday, despite the not-so-liturgical sign by the door telling parishioners to silence their cell phones. It’s absurd, I know. But more absurd was my reaction. While everyone around me rolled their eyes and tsk-tsked the offending teenager, judging her for leaving her phone on during mass, I judged her for her lame, standard-issue ringtone. Who even has those anymore?

Ringtones have become the very defining sound of who we are. And because they’re cheap enough to buy in bulk, they have almost an accessory-like quality about them. I switch them around like purses or necklaces. It might be “Kerosene” on Monday morning and “Real Good Man” on Friday night. The sound your phone makes does way more than signal an incoming call. It signals a mood, a personality or sometimes an unexpected country side. Like when you hear an elderly woman’s pocketbook cranking out some “Sweet Home Alabama,” or when the bagger at your grocery store insists you listen to his “Broken Wing” ringtone.

In spite of what country music has done for the $2 billion ringtone business, this girl in church was still hanging on to her old-timey bell tone. All I could think was, “With all the choices out there, that’s the one she chose to interrupt our homily with?” Not very Christian of me, I realize. But these tones have come so far since the monophonic tones that only sounded vaguely like the song. Now they’re such high quality that even the artists themselves do it. Whenever I ask people what artists they are listening to right now, they usually tell me what song is their ringtone — as if that sums up their musical influences in one 10-second riff.

But these tones do have the power to put your favorites out there. It’s not like when you’re alone in your car, or have ear buds in, and the music is just for one. Setting your tone to a song tells the whole world what you’re into. And right now, my cell phone rings with “If You’re Going Through Hell.” Good thing I don’t bring that to church.

Rodney Atkins was recently named one of six Outstanding Alumni of the Year by his alma mater Tennessee Tech University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 2007.

A Sports Illustrated pop culture poll finds two big shot hockey players wishing Taylor Swift would’ve graced the cover of the Swimsuit Issue.

Starting March 17, you can see if Priscilla Presley shakes it as well as her ex-husband did. She’s just signed on to compete on Dancing with the Stars.

Nashville moms — celebrities and regular folks — can now listen in to Karla Lawson and Sue Fabisch talk about motherhood and sing a good few parody songs. Tune in to WLAC on Sundays at 12:30 pm.

Drunk driving. Car jacking. And Spice Girls? One of the SG’s tour bus drivers witnessed some erratic driving while on the road in Michigan. He called police and the driver was arrested.

Until yesterday, DeKalb meant one thing to me: Country music. But one man with two guns has changed all that. Now, for millions of people across the country, DeKalb now stands for yet another senseless college shooting.DeKalb’s Northern Illinois University campus is about a half hour west of where I live. It’s nestled in the farmlands that sit on the edge of Chicagoland’s suburbs, kind of a transitional gateway to the way-more-rural land that stretches beyond it. And its Convocation Center has been hosting country acts for years: Sugarland, Rodney Atkins, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley. Bentley’s was the last show I saw there, and it was one of his best ever. The arena-style seating with the college-town vibe fit perfectly with the personality of his live show. So when country fans around here thought of DeKalb, I’m sure they always thought of good times. Now, everyone will think of the six students who died while sitting in an oceanography class on Valentine’s Day.

Coincidentally and tragically, another Chicago venue has lost its innocent identity. Tinley Park is home to Chicago’s only outdoor amphitheatre, and always has a half-dozen country shows each summer. But now the name of that quiet suburb stands for something horrible: A shooting at a Lane Bryant store that left five women dead, with a shooter who is still at large. Just a half-hour south of me, in a town I used to associate with sunburns and steel guitars, there is a dark cloud that will forever hang over that venue.

The correlation of these shootings is mainly just in my head. Although, having them both happen within two weeks and 70 miles of each other makes it hard to ignore the link. While the connection between DeKalb, Tinley Park and live country music may still be there, it’s now one that people will always associate with random acts of violence. My heart and prayers go out to the families and friends of all of those touched by both tragedies.

Here’s a look at some of the stories that have been surfacing on the Web:

Although a 16-year-old California boy was arrested in Nashville for plotting to hijack a plane from Los Angeles to Nashville, the FBI denies media reports that the youth was planning to crash the plane into Friday night’s (Jan. 25) Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana concert in Lafayette, La.

Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Sugarland, Keith Urban and Taylor Swift are among those cited in the Nashville Scene’s eighth annual Country Music Critics’ Poll.

Rodney Atkins will perform “These Are My People” on Sunday night’s (Jan. 27) episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

A stretch of an Arkansas road traveled frequently in the ‘50s by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Billy Lee Riley and Sonny Burgess has gotten tentative approval to be renamed “The Rock and Roll Highway 67.”

I just finished this fantastic book called The Year of Living Biblically. The author, A.J. Jacobs, goes on an absurd quest to follow the Bible literally for an entire year. So it makes me wonder if I, a devout country music fan, could ever take the lyrics literally for a year. With 2008 about to begin, this may be the best time to start. While Jacobs attempts, with non-stop hilarity, to do things like play a ten-string harp, stone Sabbath violators, avoid impure women and stop reading the Amazon.com reviews about his first book, the laws set forth by Nashville would be much easier to obey. How hard could it be to live by the gospel according to, say, Brad Paisley? That’s much more palatable than doing things because the Old Testament told you so.

Since I don’t have a book deal, my experiment needn’t be so controlled. Yes, I’d drink sweet tea like Billy Currington, but I wouldn’t sell turnip greens. Following Paisley’s advice, I’d have to trade in my minivan for a pick-up truck, then get a little mud on the tires. I would do so in the official uniform of country music: bikini top, miniskirt and cowboy boots. (I’d draw the line at those Trace Adkins-inspired badonkadonk short-shorts.) Then, taking a cue from Alan Jackson’s “Everything I Love,” I’d drink more Jack Daniels. This would make it easier to cheat on my husband, which I’d do by following the lyrics of Miranda Lambert’s “Guilty in Here.” If he cheated on me, however, and gave me that Collin Raye song-and-dance about “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” I’d get to see how Carrie Underwood felt, by taking a Louisville Slugger to some little homewrecker’s SUV. Should my marriage survive all that carousing, and boys start coming around to date my daughters, I’d either remind my husband that he himself was just a hayseed plowboy (as Trisha Yearwood sang) or tell the young man (as Rodney Atkins does) that we’d be at home, cleaning our gun.

I know there are different levels of interpretation of country music, much like the Bible. Not everything’s meant to be taken literally. But when you explore the relevance of the lyrics, it’s hard to argue with hunting, fishing, frying chickens and putting an extra five in the plate at church. Who’s with me?

The year-end country song chart has been posted by Nielsen SoundScan and you might be surprised by some of the results. The most-played country song on radio was “Watching You” by Rodney Atkins. He also has the No. 4 song with “These Are My People.”

No. 2 is Billy Currington’s “Good Directions,” No. 3 is Kenny Chesney’s “Never Wanted Nothing More,” and No. 5 is Rascal Flatts’ “Take Me There.” Rounding out the Top 10 are Big & Rich’s “Lost in this Moment,” Carrie Underwood’s “Wasted,” Tim McGraw’s “If You’re Reading This,” Dierks’ Bentley’s “Free and Easy Down the Road I Go,” and Sugarland’s “Settlin‘.”

Over at The Texas Music Chart, the last chart of 2007 finds Cross Canadian Ragweed at No. 1 with “I Believe You.” The rest of the top five, in descending order, are the Randy Rogers Band’s “Better Off Wrong,” Shooter Jennings’ “Walk of Life,” Johnny Cooper’s “Let It All Go,” and George Strait’s “How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls.”

The top five songs on Billboard’s final weekly chart of 2007 are Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” at No. 1, followed by Josh Turner’s “Firecracker,” Chesney’s “Don’t Blink,” Strait’s “How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls,” and Montgomery Gentry’s “What Do Ya Think About That.”

Finally, in all the proliferation of charts, Billboard’s year-end charts rank all country artists, as well as top new country artists. Topping the country artist chart for the year is Carrie Underwood, followed by Rascal Flatts, McGraw, Chesney and Brad Paisley. Billboard’s top new country artist chart for the year puts Jason Michael Carroll at No. 1, followed by Kellie Pickler, Bucky Covington, Luke Bryan and Cole Deggs & the Lonesome.

See and hear Atkins on his Unplugged at Studio 330  session.

My Country Christmas wish list for some needed presents for some special someones:

• For Kellie Pickler:  a world map. And a little geography lesson on exactly what “Europe” means. And pointers as to where Bulgaria is. And just all that stuff, you know. I have an extra world globe I’d be happy to give her.
• For Kenny Chesney and Rodney Atkins: fashion consultant sessions with Manuel. Listen, if I could afford him, I’d be at Manuel’s shop right now. The man knows what he’s doing. He can make you truly a sharp-dressed man.
• For all of country music: a Banjo Licensing Bureau. Unfortunately, rampant banjo abuse in Nashville’s recording studios has caused the proper authorities to take action. Earl Scruggs of course will be the ultimate authority on the banjo standards to be issued. Only Bureau graduates, as CBPs (Certified Banjo Pickers),  will be allowed in public with a banjo in hand.
• For Mindy McCready: a get-out-of-jail-free card. You think maybe she’s suffered enough? And would perhaps be better off in serious rehab than behind bars? She has made stupid mistakes aplenty, but she deserves a chance at genuine treatment.
• Now that Porter Wagoner has died, we need to find someone else who knows the location of Nashville’s Lost Rhinestone Mines. And someone who remembers how to find the old Sequin Quarry, reputed to be somewhere west outside town. I fondly remember back to when Dolly Parton attributed her professional break-up with Porter to “creative differences,” she said.  “I was creative, and he was different.”