Going Fishin' With Trent Willmon

Active since 1998 as a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Trent Willmon was signed to Columbia Records in 2004. He released two albums for the label (2004's Trent Willmon and 2006's A Little More Livin') and charted six singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts before exiting Columbia in 2006. A third album, entitled Brooken In, was released on the independent Compadre label in February 2008. Willmon also co-wrote Montgomery Genry's 2008 single "Back When I Knew It All".

Country Weekly Magazine has a VERY fun online computer called Trent Willmon’s Cold Beer a Fishin’ Pole Fishing Game. This on-line casual interactive game was created by PlanetCazmo.com in support of Willmon’s current radio single, “Cold Beer and a Fishin’ Pole”- released to radio at the first of September. Trent serenades your fishing efforts with a his new release playing in the background. Click here to go play.

Country Band Exile To Reunite After 23 Years & Release EP

Exile, the country band which had 10 No. 1 country singles in the mid '80s, has reunited and will release an EP later this month. All five living original members -- J.P. Pennington, Sonny LeMaire, Les Taylor, Steve Goetzman and Marlon Hargis -- are taking part in the project, with tour dates also expected. They played their first show together in 23 years in June during a charity concert in Lexington, Ky. The band's hits include "Give Me One More Chance," check out the video below. It will be fascinating to hear the new music and how today's production will affect yesterday's songwriting styles.

The Perfect Dream Record Store

When Tower Records closed a few years back, it took with it one of the last true music culture retail havens left to go shopping in. Yes, there are other stores that carry music. But the sterile environments, the major release only stocks, and the lack of listening opportunities at stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy leave me feeling empty. Heck, I even tried purchasing the new Darius Rucker the day after its release at Best Buy and the guy behind the counter couldn’t even tell me if his store had any on order. Wal-Mart wasn’t any different. This was the #1 selling country album that week! While store like Barnes & Noble have the listening stations, their stock just isn’t nearly as deep with off-mainstream artists for my tastes. And being one of the last remaining music listening dinosaurs that prefers his music NOT delivered digitally into a small box with white headphones, this retail lamentation is not likely to change anytime soon. I want a store that I can immerse myself into the music. I want to discover a new artist and album that I hadn’t ever heard of before, look at and purchase past recordings of an artist I just recently found, find wicked cool autographed memorabilia on the walls that I can drool over and wish that hung in my office, be inundated with posters of new releases, find used gems and have tons of staff recommendations. I want to meet aspiring artists and buy autographed cd’s, hoping that someday I’ll be able to say, I was “in the know” before they were big. Heck, make it a concert with occasional live music, sell me food and drink so I can stay longer, and offer the latest concert tour t-shirts and posters for sale so I can walk out advertising my favorite artists. There’s something exciting pulling the plastic wrapper off as fast as you can walking quickly to your car so you can pop your new music into your car CD player in the store parking lot. Do you remember Chevy Chase in Caddyshack? “Be the ball, Danny.” I want to “be the music.”

It was with great interest that I read about Waterloo Records in Spirit Magazine while travelling from Phoenix on a Southwest flight this week. Located in Austin, Texas and named after London’s underground Waterloo station, this 6,400 square foot music store was nearly everything I dreamed of. A treasure trove of CD’s and vinyl classics, the huge stock ranges from local country artists to today’s monster stars, all arranged alphabetically, not by genre. Amen. You can listen to any album before you buy and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, the music-savvy staff will order it for you. Hallelujah. And there’s a stage. As the store begins to sell multiple kegs of Shiner Bock, artists like Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and the Los Lonely Boys take the stage to perform the latest songs off their new albums. Holy. Toledo. If this place rented hotel rooms, it just might become my favorite vacation destination. Heck, most of the staff are aspiring musicians themselves, happy to sell you or promote their very own albums on the stores shelves- or at least give great recommendations of albums you might not have ever heard before. It’s pure rapture.

As I finished up the article, it was with great satisfaction that my dream shop really exists- or at least comes pretty damn close. It’s always a welcoming feeling knowing that you’re not completely mentally camping in left field. It will necessitate a trip to Texas soon. Although, it may be a tall order talking the family into scheduling a vacation around a retail store. “Kids, I know you wanted to all go to Disneyland this summer, but Dad really wanted to look at out-of-print Johnny Cash albums on vinyl.” Yeah, not so much. As understanding as she is to my music affliction/addiction, I just don’t see this flying with my bride. I guess my perfect dream record shop needs to be directly next door to the world’s largest scrapbook store. I’ve got to go look up Austin Yellow Pages online… let’s see… c for crafts or s for scrapbook stores…

Kevin Costner To Test Country Waters With Band, Modern West

It looks as if besides acting, Kevin Costner has a whole "Field Of Dreams" he wants to fulfill- and country music is one of those dreams. Costner will launch a new evolution in his career this November with the release of his first country music album. No... really.

While his musical aspirations may come as a bit of a surprise to some, Costner has been playing music with some of his Modern West band mates for nearly 20 years.

The 53-year-old has co-written six songs from the 12-track album, some of which will be available to country music radio this week. The album is set for release Nov. 11, and the band plans tour dates later this year through 2009.

When you look across Costner's acting career, there's been major hits (Dances With Wolves) and major disasters (Waterworld)- somehow I think this album will fall somewhere in the middle. Click here to hear some samples of the Modern West sound.

CD Review- Randy Travis- Around The Bend

Randy Travis emerged with a classic and deep baritone voice in the early 1980’s. It’s been nine years since his last true country album (he’s released five country gospel albums over those nine years- two of which won Grammys) and it’s fairly incredible to think how the sound of country music has changed in those nine years, let alone the 20+ years since Travis burst onto the country scene.

His latest release, Around The Bend is prototypical Travis music. Producer Kyle Lehning has been at the helm of every single Travis album and he massages the sound to a traditional classical country any Travis fan would recognize. Travis’s voice has aged a little, but his depth and the rough edges getting there (a reason I love the late Johnny Cash’s albums as they draw you into the singer’s soul more than the overproduced overdubbed lyrics on some releases today) make up for the weathering of his upper register of notes.

There are some truly great songs on this CD that belong in an eventual Randy Travis box set. Songs like Everything I Own Has Got A Dent as well as Every Head Bowed are when Travis is at his best- singing upbeat conversational songs with a story. Those in the iPod generation will be good to add a little old-school to their collection.

Around the Bend would have been a lot more fun had Travis and Lehning picked more lively hooks and guitar picking exercises and fewer of the preachy ballads that weigh the album down a little. Dig Two Graves, Till I’m Dead and Gone and You Didn’t Have A Good Time are, quite honestly, downers without being that emotionally deep like a Merle Haggard song (or in today’s music, a Jamey Johnson tune). They come across a little heavy-handed without actually moving you.

For this release, I’d say if you’re a longtime Randy Travis fan, it’s worth the addition to your CD library. If you don’t have one of his CD’s in your collection, go out and purchase one of the greatest country albums ever made- Travis’s Always & Forever- and then add Everything I Own Has Got A Dent and Every Head Bowed as singles to your personal music player.

Hear It Here- Lee Ann Womack's "The Bees"

Born in Texas, Lee Ann Womack is best-known for her 2000 Country-Pop crossover hit I Hope You Dance. Womack has had three Gold albums and four Platinum albums since breaking through in 1997 with her debut self-titled album. She has also won two Grammy awards and over five awards from the Country Music Association, as well as having numerous Top 10 and 20 Country hits.

Lee Ann wants you to hear her new album Call Me Crazy before anyone else. Starting this past Monday, she is going to be leaking one track a week off the new album until album release on October 21st. That first single (besides the single Last Call that is at radio stations now) is The Bees. This single is fantastic- a simple upbeat drum gives it a backroom bar feel, it has a great lyrical hook, and Womack's vocals (always her strong suit) are at their normal pinnacle level. Early "tease" releases off albums are the country music label's new effort in creating interest in cd sales. For this buyer, it's worked. Last Call and The Bees have instantly put Call Me Crazy on my shopping list at the end of October.

You can listen to the new single here.

Up & Coming New Nashville- Mallary Hope

21-year-old Mallary Hope moved to Nashville to a few years ago to find her mark in country music and pursue her passion for music. Winning several awards as a teenager in Alabama including their version of the “Horizon Award,” she has a strong vocalist and has been gaining attention from some of the largest record labels in Nashville.

Equally impressive is Mallary’s songwriting talents. She currently is working in the studio on several new projects. She was featured in a Turner South Television Special, which aired this past December featuring Mallary as an up and coming Country Music Artist, and showcases Mallary’s song “Christmas In Tennessee”.

She has spent the past several years writing songs that are far beyond her young years, but songs that are delivered with such conviction that the audience embraces her and her music. Working with My Good Girl / Sony ATV publishing she is writing with some of the best people in the industry. Mallary has the ability to fall into the depths of her song and convey the song’s message to the audience. She is a seasoned artist who will bless your heart and remind you what the term making music really means. As an artist, and a songwriter she is gaining the respect and attention every artist dreams of.

Mallary has several songs currently on her MySpace page with “Love and Laundry” the highlight of the bunch. With her deep pipes and reflections of the search for love through the normal passages of life, it’s a great tune. The bridge with the alarm clock is a great touch…

You will be hearing more of this young artist in the very near future…

Mike Rowe From "Dirty Jobs" Goes Nashville Country

Dirty Jobs is a program on the Discovery Channel in which host Mike Rowe is shown performing difficult, strange, and/or messy occupational duties alongside the typical employees. The appeal of the show is the character of Mike Rowe, a well-spoken man of television with a sharp, sarcastic, self-deprecating wit, the blue-collar situations in which he's put, and the colorful personalities of the men and women who actually do that job for a living. And now, armed with a guitar and his loyal video guy Dave Barsky on the banjo, they're taking on the Nashville Music Scene:



Okay, maybe not. He can always keep his day job, or at least everybody else's day jobs.

At the conclusion of a two-hour special edition commemorating Mike's 100th dirty job, he and field producer Dave Barsky faked a guitar/banjo duet, featuring an extended version of this anthem which ran a little over two minutes in length (Rowe actually sang all the parts while Rowe's friend Matt played all the instruments.)

A Vote For Kenny Rogers For Nashville’s Country Music Hall-of-Fame

For all his success, Rogers has never received the Country Music Association’s top honor — Entertainer of the Year — despite being nominated for it five times, or been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame like peers Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. He said he’d never even been invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry until 2005.

“There’s no question that I was viewed as an outsider. I never lived in Nashville, and I was more pop than a lot of people,” he said. “But when you choose the fence, you get what goes with it. I was too country to be pop and too pop to be country. I’m smart enough to know I brought a lot of that on myself.”

Kenny Rogers contributions to the importance of the genre are just as great as many of those inducted ahead of him, so surely he should be right up there. Did anyone stand taller or stretch the boundaries of country music wider than he did in his long and hit-filled heyday? With huge country hits such as The Gambler, Coward of the County, Islands In The Stream and Lucille that endure, it’s time. Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, were named in a poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever". He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People Magazine. He has received hundreds of awards for both his music and charity work. These include AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003. To date Rogers has recorded 65 albums, won practically every award there is to win, and with well over 120 million records sold, he's the No. 8 best selling artist of all time.

One of the biggest wasted opportunities is inducting deserving candidates posthumously when they could be inducted alive and well. With Kenny Rogers turning 70 this year, the selection committee should make Rogers’ induction a priority.

Sebastian Bach of Skid Row Releases First Country Single

Sebastian Bach, the lead singer of Skid Row and recently crowned king of "Gone Country 2," is the latest former-rocker and crossover artist to enter the waters of country music. He has just had his new single "Battle With The Bottle" released to country music and his new video released on CMT. This single was the song Bach played in the finale and while it was good enough to put him over the top in this reality television series, I would imagine it would have very little chance to do well as country radio- as much as it would be fun to hear a somewhat upbeat crossover tune- ala "All Summer Long" from Kid Rock- this mellow tune is missing a hook to give it much of go.

For those that weren’t following the rock scene back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, Skid Row was an American Glam Rock band. Their first self-titled album was certified 10x Platinum and the album spawned the top 10 singles "18 and Life" and "I Remember You" and the Mainstream rock hit "Youth Gone Wild". It is the bands' most commercially successful album.

You can see the new video here on CMT.