Tonight is 2010’s installment of the CMA Awards, undoubtedly country music’s most important night, but one that is regularly marked by controversy. The kinky sex backroom deals that make mainstream country turn get exposed for all to see as awards are handed out as bribes and paybacks, with quality and talent being the least of criteria, if even a concern.
The parade of new lows coming from Music Row in Nashville just keeps coming folks. The pre-Holiday period of 2010 might go down as the worst ever. The latest low blow comes from Jason Aldean, whose single off his album released today called My Kind of Party is a straight up rap song.
This is not John Denver and Olivia Newton John ruffling feathers by winning country awards. This isn’t Garth Brooks flying over stadiums on wires. This isn’t Rascal Flatts rehashing classic rock songs, or even Taylor Swift playing with a fiddle player hidden in a dark corner. This is it. This is the bottom of the slippery slope. This is country music’s ‘rock’ bottom.
This week it was announced that Toby Keith’s Bullets in the Gun album is the new #1 in country. However this is the worst-selling country music #1 album since stats like this have been kept according to Billboard. A sheepish 71,000 copies sold, and even this is addition by subtraction, as the main reason it’s #1 is Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey went in a 64% tailspin…
Right now the #1 country song in America is Kenney Chesney’s “The Boy’s of Fall.” How anybody can even take Kenney seriously after he clearly lip synced his performance at at the ACM Awards in April, I have no idea. Well I’m feeling froggy, and I find this song a little offensive, so I think it is time to take the cover off the smoker, get a bag of Kingsford, throw some mesquite chips on top, and do a little roasting.
There’s been lots of talk lately here and other places about what makes an Outlaw, who are the real Outlaws, who are the fake ones. Well Nancy Dunham from The Boot had Merle Haggard cornered and answering questions, and was bold enough to ask him some smart ones, and Merle replied with some bold, smart answers.
Looks like I’m a step behind this story, but apparently country star Clay Walker has joined a growing list of artists sideways with country label Curb Records. That list includes heavy hitters Leanne Rimes, perfume magnate Tim McGraw, and the Hank Williams legacy of Hank Williams Jr. and Hank III. Just like with Tim McGraw […]
By his own account, pop country’s so called ‘New Outlaw’ Eric Church doesn’t mind ruffling feathers. With his new pot anthem “Smoke A Little Smoke,” he’s doing that very thing, and not just with the morality police. Of course Eric Church fans are eating this song up like a bowl of Count Chocula in a […]
Savingcountrymusic.com has obtained some exclusive information that none other than genre bender Kid Rock is responsible for a string of hat snatchings in and around the Nashville area, all of which involve grandmothers over the age of 80. “I was going to buy my cat Mr. Mittens a new mouse toy at the pet store,” […]
Over a year ago I reported that the Warped Tour’s Kevin Lyman was planning a country tour and in preparation of doing so he was relegating the country music fan to a “40%” statistic, singing the praises of Taylor Swift, and opening an office in Nashville to snort cocaine off of hooker’s bellies with Music […]
Willie Nelson is an ever evolving animal. Outlaw, to crossover musician and actor, to an unsavory era where it seemed he was palling around with whoever he could to stay “relevant.” Now maybe he has made it full circle, or he’s moved into uncharted territory. Either way, he’s making good music again, deeply entrenched in […]
The sheer speed at which American pop country is devolving before our very eyes can only be described as “awesome.” It is the evolutionary equivalent of if we could witness a species of apes evolve into a new race of humans in the length of a football season. As the creatively bankrupt boardrooms of Music […]
It’s true. When wacko Pat Robertson proclaimed that Katrina happened because of all the sin in New Orleans and Haiti got hit by an earthquake because they made a pact with the devil, I thought he was high on more than just Christ Love. But apparently it’s true, and apparently God not only hates sin, […]
Remember back when Taylor Swift won the CMA for Entertainer of the Year? We thought it couldn’t get worse for country music. There was a lot of surmising of where country music might go next after that win. Would there be a traditionalist backlash? Would country become even more pop oriented to try to mimic […]
There is a war going on right now for the heart of country music my friends, and we just had a salvo shot right into our belly. I would love to be sitting here writing about one of the countless original, highly-talented bands out there that Music Row won’t even let sniff it’s panties, but […]
I’ve had a working theory for a while that 75% of what you hear on mainstream country radio today can be traced back to a small handfull of songs by Bob Seger and The Black Crowes. Darn near 1/3 of them can be traced back to Seger’s “Night Moves” alone. Well it might be time […]
I love that pop country has become so contrived and transparent, that even other pop stars and people like Kid Rock can see right through the sham. Some people have been waiting for Billy Ray’s daughter to join the ranks of pop country, surmising that it’s not if, but when. But instead Miley Cyrus joined […]
They say war makes strange bedfellows. I guess this is a good example. In a recent Edmonton Journal article, country music legend Merle Haggard held little back when sharing his thoughts on “Auto Tune”: “They fix a person’s voice when it’s out of tune, and then they have to do it live when they can’t […]
I told you. Once Music Row figured out there is a HUGE group of disgruntled REAL country music fans out there with money to spend, they were going to start manufacturing their own “Outlaws,” fresh faced and focused grouped, ready to maximize their profits with fashion plate country. Well ladies and gentleman, I give you […]
This Sunday at the Super Bowl, Carrie Underwood will very likely be lip-syncing the National Anthem, whether she wants to or not, and it is mostly the fault of the king of pop country, Garth Brooks. This story starts way back in 1993 at Super Bowl XXVIII in Pasadena, CA. In 1993, Garth Brooks was […]
I would much rather be writing an album review, or highlighting a new artist. But since the 19-year-old Taylor Swift took home an unprecedented four CMA’s, including Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, this website has been flooded with traffic, similar to what Rush Limbaugh probably experienced after Obama’s win, which […]
Tonight (11-6) Taylor Swift will be the host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live. Insert your favorite vomit joke here. If I desired, I could operate a daily blog on how Taylor is either not country, or how her handlers exemplify greed beyond all. Just this week a controversy brewed about how the new […]
Country music legend and Hall of Fame member George Jones has come out slinging verbal daggers at pop country performers, saying “They Have Stolen Our Identity.” Jones, who has publicly come out against pop country before but never in such blunt terms, let the gloves fall in an interview today (11-2-09) with The Associated Press. […]
I really cherish the few opportunities I have writing this thing to laugh a little, and today is one of those days. They say all good humor is rooted in truth, and what is more true than the joke that is actors and 80’s pop stars slipping on a pair of boots to “Go Country” […]