Month: November 2007

Toby Keith, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood Offer New Holiday Music

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It’s the holiday season, and you’re going to the mall anyway, so how about stuffing a stocking with these new Christmas albums? Diamond Rio, The Star Still Shines These guys must love A Charlie Brown Christmas as much as we do, presenting both “Christmas Time Is Here” and an instrumental jam, “Christmas Is Coming.” Toby Keith, A Classic Christmas A generous helping of religious songs on one disc and secular singalongs on the other, this is Toby Keith’s second Christmas package, following a batch of originals in 1995. Larry the Cable Guy, Christmastime in Larryland Somebody has spiked the holiday punch lines. Listen to this one when the kids aren’t around. There’s a DVD version, as well. Raul Malo, Marshmallow World & Other Holiday Favorites If your favorite thing to open at Christmas is another bottle of vodka, shake up your holiday party with this disc. “Feliz Navidad” is always a kick. Martina McBride, White Christmas A blend of solemn hymns and perky holiday favorites, this reissued disc adds four new songs to its wish list. It’s wrapped in a new album cover, too. Mindy Smith, My Holiday The sensitive, spiritual songwriter turns in a quiet, soothing Christmas disc with a few new songs. Alison Krauss harmonizes on “Away in a Manger.” Taylor Swift, Sounds of the Season Thanks to this teen star, a new generation of sensitive girls may discover the melancholy but oh-so-melodic “Last Christmas.” She also includes two original holiday songs. Pam Tillis, Just in Time for Christmas You don’t have to see her Christmas show at Opryland Hotel to buy this lovely CD, but if you can somehow get to Nashville, an irresistibly warm and fuzzy feeling awaits you. Randy Travis, Songs of the Season He wraps his rich baritone around “O Holy Night,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “Joy to the World,” along with a new song he wrote, “Our King.” Conway Twitty, A Twismas Story The country legend loaded up the sleigh with squeaky Twitty Birds for a holiday album released in 1983. After growing up with the kid-friendly album, Twitty’s granddaughter is now featured on the CD reissue. Various Artists, Hear Something Country – Christmas Carrie Underwood asks, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” We sure do — Christmas songs from Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Kellie Pickler and many more. Various Artists, Mary Did You Know?: 17 Inspirational Christmas Songs From Today’s Top Country Artists Josh Turner, Joe Nichols and LeAnn Rimes are among the country stars inspired to share the true meaning of Christmas. Wynonna and Kenny Rogers sing the title track.Country Music Photo Gallery

Trace Adkins: A Personal Stand

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Editor’s note: Trace Adkins‘ new album, American Man, Greatest Hits Volume II, will be released Dec. 4, but he’s also getting national media attention for his first book, A Personal Stand Roughneck. In this excerpt, the third chapter of the book, Adkins shares memories of his early days in Louisiana. I Came Here to Live: Growing Up in Sarepta I grew up in a town where tough was a cigarette and a souped-up car on a county road. — “I Came Here to Live” (from Dangerous Man) I grew up in Sarepta, Louisiana. Population 924. Three years ago, they finally replaced the flashing red and yellow light with a brand-new traffic signal at the intersection of Highway 371 and Highway 2. Sarepta is located about forty miles northeast of Shreveport and ten miles south of the Arkansas line. The next-closest town is Springhill, population 5,000, seven miles north up Highway 371 (as a matter of fact, I was born in the hospital there). Sarepta is a “dry” town, so to this day, you still have to drive to Springhill to buy any alcohol. Geographically and culturally, Louisiana can be cut up into three different slices. The northwest corner of the state is a North Texas-type environment where the economy is based on oil, timber and cattle. Northeast Louisiana is river bottom, a lot like Mississippi and southeastern Arkansas, with lots of farming and agriculture. Southern Louisiana is Cajun-influenced, with cities like New Orleans, New Iberia, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge. (Other Louisiana natives may disagree, but don’t pay any attention to them.) Read more on CMT.com Country Music Photo Gallery

New Sheryl Crow Album Due In February

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Jonathan Cohen, N.Y. Sheryl Crow will return Feb. 5 with her next A&M/Interscope album, “Detours.” The first single, “Shine Over Bayblon,” is at iTunes now. Crow told Billboard.com this summer that the song “is very environmentally conscious, in the tradition of Bob Dylan.” “I’m really encouraging artists to write about what’s going on, because we seem to be very distracted by some lightweight topics,” she added. I think it’s time to start writing about the reality of what’s around us.” In additional comments on her Web site, Crow describes the single as “an every way a desperate cry for understanding. Perhaps it is even a battle song in the face of fear.” “Detours” was recorded at Crow’s Nashville farm and will feature “14 or 15” of the 24 songs put to tape. The artist’s baby son, Wyatt, makes an appearance on the song “Lullaby for Wyatt,” which will be featured in the upcoming movie “Grace Is Gone.” “The songs are very inspired by the last three years of events in my life,” Crow said of a time that found her battling breast cancer and splitting with partner Lance Armstrong. “Detours” is the follow-up to 2005’s “Wildflower,” which debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200.Country Music Photo Gallery

Jewel Signs with New Nashville Label Valory

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Scott Borchetta, the president and CEO for Big Machine Records, is launching a second imprint, the Valory Music Company, and has signed Jewel to a multi-album deal, billboard.com reports.“She’s just one of the best singer/songwriters in any genre,” Scott says, adding that a move to country is “a natural progression for her.” The label’s name is a variation on June Carter Cash‘s birth name, Valerie June Carter. According to Scott, the name means “fierce; the brave one; of valor.” Along with Jewel, whose album was produced by Big & Rich‘s John Rich and is expected in the spring, Valory will be home to Justin Moore and Jimmy Wayne. Justin has been in development, and Jimmy moves over from the Big Machine roster, which includes Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood and Jack Ingram, among others. It also handles promotion for Garth Brooks. Jewel, who has cut five of her six albums in Nashville, says country has always been in her plans. “I’ve been wanting to do this record my whole career,” she says, “but my label was always scared of country music. I’ve always had country songs on my records. If I had been discovered now, living in my car in San Diego, I think I would have been signed as a country act.” Earlier this year Jewel hosted the country reality show Nashville Star and she has made a number of appearances at Muzik Mafia events. She co-wrote and dueted with new artist Jason Michael Carroll on “No Good In Goodbye,” which appears on his debut album, Waitin’ in the Country. She will be a presenter on the Country Music Association Awards show on Wednesday. ~Courtesy of GACTV.comCountry Music Photo Gallery

LeAnn Rimes Does Double Duty at CMA Awards

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LeAnn Rimes confesses that appearing on awards shows isn’t quite as much fun as simply attending. “It’s nice to have people all in one place,” she tells the New York Daily News, “but if you’re performing or hosting, it gets pretty busy. You’re running around, you’re changing clothes, there’s some tension, you really don’t get to relax and enjoy the show very much. Thank God for TiVo.” LeAnn will be both a performer and a segment host this Wednesday, when ABC airs the Country Music Association’s “41st Annual CMA Awards” from Nashville at 8 p.m. But there’s one thing LeAnn says she will definitely enjoy: singing a duet with Reba McEntire. “Reba’s been one of my idols since I was a little girl growing up in Texas,” she says. “Now she’s also a friend, and it’s such a pleasure any time that I get to sing with her.” LeAnn could find herself on the nomination side of the show next year for her new CD, Family, which consists of songs incorporating a wide range of styles, from country to pop, rock and blues. “I think as a singer, that’s always been my natural inclination,” she says. “I love country music, that’s my base, but I don’t want to be pigeonholed. Country has definitely gone mainstream. It appeals to people everywhere now, and not just in America. People in other countries love it, too. It’s become an international music.” ~Courtesyof GACTV.comCountry Music Photo Gallery

Carrie Underwood Sells Some CDs

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When the smoke was cleared and all the numbers were counted, SoundScan reported that Carrie Underwood‘s new CD, Carnival Ride, sold 527,101 copies during its first week of release to place the American Idol queen at No. 1 on Billboard country albums chart and the Billboard 200 pop chart. It sets a record as the highest first week sales in SoundScan history for a sophomore country album, and it also gives her the highest selling debut week of any female artist in 2007. Her digital sales soared to 44,928 in the first week, the largest country debut in digital album chart history. Just so you know, Rascal Flatts‘ sales debut a few weeks ago was 546,505, the highest so far in 2007. Also of interest, Raising Sand, the new album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, sold 112,308 units in its first week out. This doesn’t seem like we’re falling behind in CD sales, does it? By the way, when Carrie was told her numbers, she acknowledged the people who are truly responsible for her success and said, “I want to share a sincere thanks to all my fans for supporting me over the past two years and for making my dreams come true.”Country Music Photo Gallery

Grammy Committee Says Merle Haggard’s “The Bluegrass Sessions” Is Not Bluegrass

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Nashville, TN…McCoury Music, the artist-owned and operated label that released legendary singer/songwriter Merle Haggard‘s The Bluegrass Sessions on October 2nd, expressed its shock today at a National Academy Of Recording Arts & Sciences committee’s decision to exclude the acclaimed album from consideration for nomination in its “Best Bluegrass Album” Grammy category. The label, created by legendary bluegrass artist Del McCoury in 2004, earned its first bluegrass Grammy in 2005 with the Del McCoury Band‘s The Company We Keep. “Anyone who knows the bluegrass community knows that its members like to debate definitions,” McCoury Music’s General Manager Chris Harris said. “But this is an album that Merle and Del decided to call The Bluegrass Sessions, produced by a bluegrass musician with bluegrass musicians, recorded at a bluegrass studio, released on a bluegrass label, racked under bluegrass in record stores, aired on bluegrass radio, covered by the bluegrass press, and it’s currently in it’s fourth consecutive week at # 1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass chart. If that’s not enough, even The Washington Post wondered why ‘no one had thought to pair Merle and Bluegrass together before.’ “ McCoury, who holds nine International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Entertainer of the Year awards, expressed his disappointment personally. “Merle did everything in his power to make this record authentic except remove that unique Haggard sound–and that’s something he’s brought to every genre of music he’s ever visited,” McCoury said. “ Merle Haggard could make a polka record, and there’d be no mistaking it’s Merle Haggard.” Album producer Ronnie Reno, a bluegrass veteran who earned his spurs performing with two Bluegrass Hall of Fame artists–father Don Reno’s Reno & Smiley and the legendary Osborne Brothers–before spending some eight years in Haggard’s band, reacted in a more down to earth fashion: “that’s pure b******t.” Recorded at Ricky Skaggs‘ Hendersonville, TN studio, The Bluegrass Sessions features Haggard backed by an all-star–and all-bluegrass–cast of musicians that includes such IBMA award winners as fiddler Aubrey Haynie, dobro player Rob Ickes, guitarist and harmony singer Carl Jackson and Alison Krauss. As veteran mandolin player Marty Stuart, who got his own youthful career start with Hall of Famer Lester Flatt (Flatt & Scruggs) in the 1970s, wrote following the recording sessions, “Merle Haggard has put the blues back into bluegrass. I was honored to be there alongside of him when he did it.” On its release, The Bluegrass Sessions rocketed to the top of Billboard’s bluegrass album chart, racking up the legend’s highest first-week sales for a new release since 2000, and Merle‘s first #1 on any of Billboard’s charts since 1984. The Bluegrass Sessions is currently enjoying it’s 4th consecutive week at the top of the chart. There has been solid support from the Bluegrass media, from the monthly magazines to the increasingly popular Bluegrass Blog, the winner of this year’s IBMA Media Award, in addition to features in mainstream media such as TIME Magazine and major newspapers across the country, “When I contacted NARAS, they would not identify the committee, their Continue reading Grammy Committee Says Merle Haggard’s “The Bluegrass Sessions” Is Not Bluegrass→