CMT Blog: Sugarland

Oh, the things you can learn when you tune into the Grammy Awards two hours early. The red carpet show on E! is always good for focusing on everything BUT the music. Who are you wearing? Where's your boyfriend/girlfriend tonight? What are your plans after? And so on. But last night's show was pretty educational. (See Grammy red carpet photos.)

Like when Keith Urban took the time to clear the air about his People's Choice award speech where he said of his music, "I don't even care if you download it illegally, give it to your friends, I really don't care." So Ryan Seacrest gave Urban a chance to clear the air. "I didn't mean I wanted people to steal music. It came out wrong and I apologize," he explained. (If I can translate a little, he was just encouraging fans to share their love of music with other people, like the way you'd make someone a mix tape in high school.) He also joked that any big duets with wife Nicole Kidman would stay in the unpredictable world of amateur videos.

Read more...

It's always cool to see some love for Nashville at an event that's not country-specific, like Sunday night's (Jan. 31) Grammy Awards -- even better when it's more than a little nod and smile in passing. Nashville and its music actually got quite a bit of camera time as Lady Antebellum, Zac Brown Band, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Nettles all got performances, and two of the biggest all-genre awards ended up going to country artists.

Read more...

We had a family friend pass away this weekend. But she was really more than a friend to us. She was a pioneer in mothering. Her name was Viola Lennon, and back in 1956 she got together with a handful of housewives in her neighborhood to hang out, have coffee and support in each other in their efforts to breastfeed when breastfeeding wasn't cool. That little group grew into La Leche League, which is now the world's largest breastfeeding advocacy group. For me, when my babies were little, it was my go-to group for all kinds of help nourishing and nurturing my little ones. So it's only natural that my taste in music right now is songs that take me back to those days. La Leche League always reminded me that while those days were long, the years were short.

"In My Daughter's Eyes," Martina McBride
"Somebody's Hero," Jamie O'Neal
"Mama's Song," Carrie Underwood
Read more...

After an hour and a half of trying to learn to ice skate backwards on Saturday (Jan. 16), Jennifer Nettles finally found the key to success. In the Miley Cyrus song, "Party in the U.S.A." Nettles had only been skating four times before, but thought it was time to learn what she calls one of the more counter-intuitive actions one can try. She even had a teacher telling her things like "push from your toe," "don't lean forward," "bend your knees," "lean back a bit on your skates" and all that. All while trying to do this in hockey skates, which must've been close to impossible because the blades are narrower and shorter than the ones on figure skates. Anyway, eventually Nettles said "something clicked." She tried, like a singer should, to move to the music: "Turning my hips side to side, to the beat. They were playing my song. I felt like I could fly away. Bobbing my head like, yeah. Moving my hips like ... Yeah, backwards skating bitches!!!!" Maybe ice-skating rinks will start playing that hip-grooving "Party in the U.S.A." at all their lessons from now on.

In the early 1990s, a Boston-based songwriter named Ellis Paul befriended a young man named Kristian Bush, who helped book the Eddie's Attic listening room in Decatur, Ga. They've kept in touch ever since and Bush -- who's now famous as one-half of Sugarland -- co-wrote several tunes on Paul's intriguing new album, The Day After Everything Changed. One of those collaborations is the title track, which seemed to have started as a love song, but evolved into something deeper and more complicated. When I presented my theory to Paul during a phone conversation earlier this week, he laughed out loud -- in the nicest way possible way, of course. Turns out, I was almost on target.

Read more...

"Country music and Dr Pepper share a strong fan base of Americans looking for an authentic experience," says Dave Fleming, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. Whatever, Dave Fleming. You can blah, blah, blah any way you want, but the important news here is that your soda (and an important part of my complete breakfast) is giving Sugarland fans the chance to win a trip to, as Jennifer Nettles says, "come on board and party down." She's talking about the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on April 18. The Dr Pepper winner and a guest will get tickets to the awards show, access to a special reception with Sugarland and the post-awards ACM All-Star Jam. Enter at www.drpepper.com by March 31.

As a companion piece to a recent story about a dozen of my favorite country albums of the decade, I came up with this playlist representing my top tunes of the 2000s. To narrow it down to just 20 selections, I enlisted two requirements: That the song climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's country airplay chart and that I still enjoy hearing it whenever it comes on. I have personal stories tied to pretty much all of these tracks, and I bet they will trigger a lot of memories for you, too.

"I Hope You Dance," Lee Ann Womack
"Angry All the Time," Tim McGraw
"Somebody Like You," Keith Urban
"She'll Leave You With a Smile," George Strait
"Travelin' Soldier," Dixie Chicks
Read more...

I call it a gift because being able to watch Sugarland do their thing in a recording session feels like a present to me. In this new behind-the-scenes video from the making of their holiday album, Gold and Green, they are laying down music and vocal for the title track. What I love, almost more than the song, is hearing Kristian Bush describe the feeling he wanted. "We're trying to imagine it coming out with the orchestration attitude of a Nat King Cole Christmas album," he says. Then Jennifer Nettles goes on to talk about the song's visual icons: the postman, the snowflakes, the candlesticks. She says her favorite line is "And the world decides to sleep safe tonight." It warms my heart this time of year to know a country band is that dedicated to the nuances of every single song they craft.

Reba McEntire always shows up in the most unexpected places. First in a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit with Andy Samberg a few weeks ago -- oh wait, that wasn't Reba? Well, there's no mistaking her distinctive voice on a new duet of "Blue Christmas" with stellar singer Andrea Bocelli. In the spirit of unexpected pairings, I've compiled a list of my favorite country Christmas songs with some selections that you probably haven't heard on country radio. Hopefully you'll find a few surprises.

"Let It Snow," Alison Brown Quartet
"Blue Christmas," Andrea Bocelli with Reba McEntire
"Last Night (I Went to See Santa)," Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Read more...

I never went to Lilith Fair back in the late '90s in its heyday. I liked the artists but not enough to endure a sweltering sun and high festival prices. But now it's back after a decade of resting and/or revamping, and the best news is, they've rounded up some country stars this time. Miranda Lambert, Emmylou Harris and Sugarland will all be there representing the genre as the tour winds its way through major cities in the U.S., such as Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, and across the pond, too. Those artists are reason enough for country fans to go to what's being billed as a celebration of women in music.

Read more...