CMT Blog: Wildhorse Saloon

When does "sold out" not really mean a show is sold out? Rascal Flatts, Kellie Pickler, Jason Michael Carroll, Keith Anderson and Little Big Town have set aside super special VIP tickets for their fundraising Gift of Music show on Feb. 22. It's going to be at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon. The reserved seats and general admission tickets sold out in 20 minutes, but if you want to do it up right, you can get a prime seat, a nice dinner and valet parking. It'll cost you $500 a ticket, and there's no word on what dinner will be (Stampede Platter? Delta Catfish? Fried Pickles?), but the money will go to a very good cause: the W.O. Smith Music School, which has been providing 50-cent music lessons to Nashville's underserved children for 25 years with a 160-member volunteer faculty of area musicians.

She may consider herself a "Backwoods Barbie," but today (Nov. 24), Dolly Parton is a bona fide city girl with the opening of her Dolly Parton's Trinkets & Treasures store right in downtown Nashville. It's in an old storefront on 2nd Avenue, right next door to the Wildhorse Saloon. Her music and videos will fill the air as her fans can pick up CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, hats, mugs and things for kids and tweens. And if you are one of the first 500 shoppers to spend more than $20, you'll get a free Backwoods Barbie tour book. I know from her video blog that Parton loves this time of year because she says, "The colors that God paints all the leaves with are amazing, and that cool morning air that you only feel in the autumn is just this side of heaven." So it makes sense that she'd choose fall to open the store. Well, that and the fact that even in a crummy economy, music memorabilia makes a perfect Christmas gift for any country lovers on your list.

Can the freshly crowned winner of CMT's Can You Duet really perform immediately after being named winners? I mean, won't they be too overwhelmed to sing? I guess we'll find out Saturday (Aug. 8), right after the show's big season finale. It's down to two twosomes: JB Rocket and Steel Magnolia. And the winning duo will head straight over to Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon right after the announcement. The only problem is, if you want to see the winners perform live, you really should get in line early at the Wildhorse. Hopefully, you'll be through the doors in time to watch the broadcast when it begins at 9 p.m. ET/PT. And you'll have a spot up front for listening to all that good country music.

I've only seen the Charlie Daniels Band live once, and it was excellent. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, I thought at the time. They did all their big hits, and Daniels fiddled like crazy and charmed the audience like no one I've seen since. But now the Grand Ole Opry member is going to be performing right at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville on Aug. 27. He hasn't done a downtown show since 2005, I've heard. But now he's doing this gig as part of the Nashville Songwriters Association International's "It All Begins With a Song" series. Best of all, though, if you pay a little extra for your ticket ($100), you get a meet-and-greet with the legend himself.

Can You Duet ? If not, can you at least go and watch other people duet? Yes, if you are free tonight (April 21) and live somewhere near Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon. That's where Naomi Judd will be holding court as the top-notch judge on CMT's Can You Duet music competition and spawner of acts like Joey & Rory, who will be performing at tonight's taping. It starts at 8 p.m. and is free of charge. So you'll get to hear some good country music, watch Judd impart her years of wisdom, see show host Lance Smith charm the contestants and maybe, just maybe, get your split second of fame during one of the audience shots. If you do go, report back here and tell us all about it.

When I think of camp, I think of campy things. Middle-of-the-night pranks, bologna sandwiches in the mess hall, catching fireflies, roasting marshmallows on a stick and singing "The Zulu King" with reckless abandon.

But this new camp is so not that kind of camp. For starters, CMT Camp Nashville gives you a country star name before you even register. Mine was Jesse Walton, then I put in a friend's name and his was John Boy Hickman. And there's no real camping involved in this camp. (You actually bunk at the boutiquey Hotel Indigo near downtown Nashville.)

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Last night (Feb. 2), I had the opportunity to see Dolly Parton and Ronnie Dunn, as well as members of Slaughter, Chicago and Night Ranger, plus many, many others performing under one roof at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. These acts were brought together for a benefit concert, called Gift of Music, by the Dustin J. Wells Foundation in hopes of raising money for the W.O. Smith Nashville Community School to fund musical instruments for the less privileged.

Excited for the opportunity to see Dolly Parton perform, I arrived nearly three hours early in order to secure a good seat. I found a small table towards the front and made myself at home, chatting with those around me about what we were most excited to see. "Do you think she will sing ‘Jolene,'?" a lady asked me. "I sure hope so," I told her. But I don't think any of us realized just how many acts we'd be witnessing in one night. Though we knew there were more than a few, we had no idea there would be well over a dozen. We saw country, rock, ‘80s, bluegrass. ... You name it, we probably saw it.

Throughout the course of the evening, I'd have to say I most enjoyed Ronnie Dunn's "Red Dirt Road," and of course hearing Dolly on "I Will Always Love You." Although I was not as familiar with some of the other music, what a nice thought that so many artists and supporters came together to embrace the Gift of Music.

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.

Who knew there was a country music/mixed martial arts connection? Apparently, Darryl Worley did. Because he's hosting the Music City Mixed Martial Arts event at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon on Nov 25. "I've been a fan of Mixed Martial Arts for quite some time," said Worley. "I jumped at the chance to get involved with Music City MMA and bring this intense sport to Nashville." But this is not just another country concert with a cause. There will be fighting and kicks and takedowns and punches and headbutts. And then there will be a main event, a fight between heavyweight Steve Westbeld and Memphis native Carlton "Automatic" Little. I'm not one for senseless violence, but I have to say that Worley's involvement has definitely piqued my interest.

Like a lot of folks, I am skeptical of pop stars trying to break through as country artists. But I suddenly find myself in favor of Darius Rucker, lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, who has a successful solo single on the country charts right now. The band played at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville earlier this week, and out of curiosity and nostalgia, I decided to go. You know, their most popular tunes didn't sound that far removed from today's country music - plus, Darius is just fun to watch when he gets to dancing. (I confess, I was dancing a little bit too, but I'm fun to watch for a different reason.)

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