Monday, June 14, 2010

CA's Artist News (6-15)

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June 15, 2010


» Music Fest Fills Nashville: Record crowds helped CMA Music Festival to its first-ever sellouts, packing Nashville's LP Field football stadium to capacity, swelling downtown sidewalks with eager country fans and generally wiping away any concerns lingering about the city's ability to recover from last month's flood. "Give yourselves a round of applause," Brad Paisley said to almost 50,000 fans as he closed out the final show Sunday night (6/13). "You're not only having a good time tonight, you're doing the right thing." All proceeds from this year's event will be split between local music education and flood relief efforts. ABC-TV's Country's Night To Rock special will bring all the action to national television when it airs Wednesday, Sept. 1. But you don't have to wait that long to hear about the highlights. Read on.


» Nightly Concert Recaps: The Oak Ridge Boys sang The National Anthem, Alan Jackson played portions of 10 songs interspersed with narrative spanning his 20-year career, and Tim McGraw made his long-awaited CMA Fest return Thursday night (6/10). (More on McGraw below.) Jason Aldean got the crowd to sing loudly to "Big Green Tractor" and, amid dozens of beach balls bouncing around, thanked the crowd for his "best year ever." Lady Antebellum delivered a compact set, and expressed their appreciation to the audience for "changing our lives with this song" as they began "Need You Now."
 Carrie Underwood closed the show, bringing Aldean out for a cover of Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City." The evening's show-stopper was an in-song segue from "Jesus Take The Wheel" to a soaring rendition of "How Great Thou Art" that brought a thunderous ovation.

"I have to tell you guys, you sound unbelievable up here," Keith Urban said as the audience sang along with "Kiss A Girl" and "Somebody Like You" during Friday night's show. The big crowd-pleaser was when Little Big Town's Kimberly Schlapman and Karen Fairchild and Sarah Buxton joined Urban for a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" against a backdrop of flood images and dedicated to "the countless men, women and angels who helped out in Nashville." Kid Rock brought it home with a 45-minute set that included "All Summer Long" and a standing ovation for the patriotic "Born Free."

On Saturday, Zac Brown Band opened with "Toes" and gave CMAMF it's Bonnaroo moment with an extended multi-solo jam. They also brought out Joey+Rory to play their new single, co-written by Brown, called "This Song's For You." If the reaction is any indication, this one will be lighting up radio request lines soon. "This week, especially, you guys are part of our community," Martina McBride told the crowd, thanking them for their support of the city. Rascal Flatts closed with a hit-packed set including "Me And My Gang," "Summer Nights," "Unstoppable" and "Bob That Head."

Blake Shelton kicked off his Sunday set with "Ol' Red" and had special guests lined up for "Home" (Miranda Lambert) and "Hillbilly Bone" (Trace Adkins). Adkins picked things up there with songs including his new single "This Ain't No Love Song," "You're Gonna Miss This" and closer "Honkytonk Badonkadonk." Darius Rucker gave the crowd the hits they wanted, including "Alright" and "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," and threw in his past life's "I Only Wanna Be With You" as well as Prince's "Purple Rain." "Ticks," "American Saturday Night," "I'm Gonna Miss Her" and "Welcome To The Future" were among the songs in Brad Paisley's festival-closing set. He finished with "Alcohol" before the big gun fireworks gave the event it's final punctuation.





» CMAMF Notes:
  • The YWCA Celebrity Auction with Martina McBride drew $103,000 in bids, a 30% increase. Two framed, hand-written lyric sheets to "She's A Butterfly" written and autographed by songwriter Big Kenny Alphin went for $11,000 each.
  • Taylor Swift's 13 Hour Meet & Greet stretched to nearly 15 hours, ending at almost 11pm Sunday. Read more here.
  • Blake Shelton's fan club party raised more than $31,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Shelton allowed his fans to request the evening's songs and pledged to donate $20 for every song he didn't know. His bill was $510. ESPN's Erin Andrews requested "Whiskey Bent And Hell Bound," with the catch that Dierks Bentley perform it, which he did. Laura Bell Bundy and Miranda Lambert performed "Proud Mary."
  • The 4th Annual Country Weekly Fashion Show and Concert Monday (6/7) raised more than $20,000 for Musicians On Call. Clay Walker and GAC's Suzanne Alexander hosted; Luke Bryan and Joe Nichols performed.
  • Temperatures in the upper 90s and extreme humidity sent hundreds of CMAMF attendees in search of medical attention. A 34-year-old festival security guard died Friday and a 29-year-old man died Sunday at Bonnaroo; heat is suspected as a prime cause in both cases.
  • For the first time in recent memory, tickets to next year's festival were not made available. They will go on sale in July.


» CMAMF Quotebook:
  • "You drive around downtown and there's people everywhere. It just shows that we are playing on. I know that happens to be my album title and it's Nashville's theme right now. Coincidence? I think not." –Carrie Underwood
  • "When we were riding over here from the bus on the little golf cart I said, 'Gosh this is a lot different from my first Fan Fair ... big buses, pop-outs, awnings all over everywhere.' I think I rode into Fan Fair in a car with every piece of clothing I could bum off my college roommate because I didn't have any fancy clothes at all." –Reba
  • "It's a big thrill for us as artists to get to play in front of that many people. Other than Chesney, nobody else gets to do that." –Jason Aldean
  • "For me, it's all about community. It's hard to define it musically because it ebbs and flows but the one constant is the communal feeling in country music and it's never been more apparent than recently here." –Keith Urban


» Set This Circus Down: Tim McGraw ended almost a decade absence from the 2010 CMA Music Festival when he took the stage Thursday (6/10). McGraw told press backstage that family time and other projects kept him from the playing the event until now. "With kids and family [along with] the way records and tours have fallen, when this time always showed up either I was right in the middle of doing something or I'd been doing so much I just needed the time off," McGraw said. "It just never lined up right for us. And this year it did. Plus, I've got one album left and then I'm [leaving] my label. So there's sort of a new freshness going on in my career." A sold-out crowd welcomed McGraw back with open arms as he performed between Alan Jackson and Jason Aldean.


» More Country, Less Weed? Jamey Johnson, Miranda Lambert and the Zac Brown Band bridged the CMA Fest/Bonnaroo divide, bringing a touch of Nashville to the wide-ranging neo-hippie gathering 90-minutes to the south. ZBB and Lambert played simultaneously – the former on the main stage and Miranda in That Tent. "She had the place packed," our insider tells us. "Lots of young girls and women. She opened with 'Kerosene' and closed with 'Only Prettier.'" During Johnson's performance, our correspondent marveled at how well-versed in country the fans were. "The entire audience sang every word to 'In Color' and 'High Cost of Living,'" he says. "You don't expect that at Bonnaroo." He adds, "There weren't nearly as many joints being fired up at those shows, either."


» If You See Her, Er, Him: Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson's impression of Reba didn't sit well with her when she first saw the skit on the late-night show. The real Reba was actually "very offended" when she first started receiving emails about the bit. "I didn't like it at all," Reba told press backstage at the CMA Music Festival Friday (6/11). "Then I kept watching it, and he was making fun of himself. There were parts that were very funny and imitation is a form of flattery so I thought it was all done in fun." When the two collaborated at the 2010 CMT Music Awards last Wednesday (6/9), Reba thought he was a "sweetheart of a guy." "I really enjoyed getting to work with him," she said. There is also a Facebook campaign to get Reba on SNL this year. So far, the page has more than 2,000 supporters. Details here. And see the sketch that started it all here.


» I Told You So: Has Kid Rock been praying for Jaron & The Long Road To Love and the rising hit "Pray For You"? "[Kid Rock] couldn't have been more complimentary or nicer," Jaron says of meeting the Detroit rocker backstage at the 2009 CMT Music Awards. "He said he'd bet anything I was gonna be a big star. It was incredibly flattering, but I also chalked most of that up to that fact that we had been drinking." Fast forward a year to last week's CMT Awards, and who does Jaron see backstage? "I walked up to [him] and before I could say a word he said with a huge grin, 'Was I right?'" Jaron says. "He said he had been looking forward to seeing me tonight so that he could tell me how happy he was for me. I couldn't believe that one of the biggest stars in the world even knew who I was, let alone wanted to congratulate me."


» You Were Flint For Me: Country stars often add a local touch to their concerts, but Jewel is taking it a step further on her current Star Light Café Tour. "It's been such a fun experience seeing all the different places on my tour, and I wanted to do something special for my fans so I have been surprising them with a song about each city," she explains. "I usually end up writing the song hours before the show. It's so nice to jump off the tour bus and just see the sights and what makes each city unique. We usually end up snapping some pictures and run them during the song later on that evening." The big questions remains: What rhymes with Yakima?


» Wayne Is A Good Thing: Jimmy Wayne's Project Meet Me Halfway has caught the attention of several artists and celebrities including LeAnn Rimes, Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine and celebrity chef Paula Deen. When asked about MMH backstage at Wednesday's (6/9) 2010 CMT Music Awards, Deen identified with his mission: "I was not born with any silver spoons in any orifices, and it's wonderful to be in a position to give back to things I believe in," she said. When we spoke with Wayne Friday (6/11), he was elated by her support. "It feels like there's been a jolt of MMH love recently with radio stations reaching out and O Magazine following me on Twitter. [Oprah] is so powerful so why not go to the most powerful people to try and get their help? You don't even have to have me on your show. Just talk about it." Wayne is also featured in the current People magazine. He's currently three days from the Arizona state line, but has to take two weeks off from his walk for some concerts. Learn more here.


» Drinks With Umbrellas: It's almost time for Carrie Underwood to walk down the aisle. She's putting the finishing touches on her upcoming nuptials, but she's staying mum on the actual wedding date. For her honeymoon, Underwood's completely in the dark — thanks to fiancé Mike Fisher. "I don't know where it is; it's a surprise," Underwood told press backstage at Thursday night's (6/10) CMA Music Festival press conference. "That was Mike's project, and I have no clue where we're going, which is nice. I know it will be warm, but that's about it."


» Chronicle: Our condolences are extended to family and friends of new Country Music Hall of Fame member Jimmy Dean, who died Sunday evening at his home near Richmond, VA. He was 81. Known equally for his musical career ("Big Bad John," "P.T. 109") and the sausage company he founded that bears his name, Dean was to be celebrated at his Hall of Fame induction Medallion Ceremony in October.


»Birthdays

Craig Morgan (617)
Blake Shelton (6/18)
The late Chet Atkins (6/20)
Chuck Wicks (6/20)
Allison Moorer (6/21)
Kris Kristofferson (6/22)

On TV

Tuesday (6/15): Sammy Kershaw, Larry King Live (CNN).

Wednesday (6/16): Lonestar, The Price Is Right (CBS).

Thursday (6/17): Wynonna, GAC Nights.

Friday (6/18): Keith Urban, John Mayer, CMT Crossroads.

Upcoming Album Releases

Mark Chesnutt Outlaw (6/22)
Jaron And The Long Road To Love Getting Dressed In The Dark (6/22)


Taylor Swift Fearless


» Ball Of Fame: Justin Moore (r) and Jaron (top) join The Band Perry at last week's City Of Hope Celebrity Softball Game prior to CMA Music Festival.

© 2010 LH Publications, LLC

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