Saturday, July 24, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Country Music Songwriter Margaret Ann Rich Passes Away
Country songwriter Margaret Ann Rich, widow of country music star Charlie Rich, died on Thursday at her home near Memphis, following a struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 76.Her husband, who died in 1995, recorded several of her songs including "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" and "Field of Yellow Daisies." Her songs were also covered by Tom Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Ricky Van Shelton.Two of her songs, "A Sunday Kind of Woman" and "Nothing In the World," appeared on Rich's biggest album, 1973's "Behind Closed Doors."
The couple married in 1952 and raised four children in Benton, Arkansas, and Memphis. Charlie Rich, perhaps best known for the hit tunes "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," credited his wife for much of his success.
A graduate of the Arkansas State Teachers College, Margaret Ann Rich was a founding member of the Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Survivors include two of her children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The funeral will take place in Memphis on Monday.
CD Reviews- Clay Walker- She Won’t Be Lonely Long
The BackgroundClay Walker is keeping things real as he launches this, his tenth album, She Won't Be Lonely Long. Of his nine previous albums, four are RIAA- certified platinum, 2 are certified gold and nearly 3 dozen singles have reached the top spot on radio charts. Like his 2007 Curb debut Fall, She Won't Be Lonely Long was produced by Keith Stegall. The album's first single, 'She Won't Be Lonely Long,' written by Galen Griffin, Phil O'Donnell and Doug Johnson is already inside the top ten.
The Review
Vastly underrated throughout his career, Walker has been known as much for his personal crusade and endless fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis than for his long line of music successes. But for the better of nearly two decades, Walker has generated generally good, if not truly spectacular albums, filled with radio hits. Along the way have also been songs that have gone under radio’s radar like “A Cowboy’s Toughest Ride” from Hypnotize The Moon and his Freddy Fender duet “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” off of Fall. “She Won’t Be Lonely Long” is a song celebrating being the rebound guys and is already a chart success for Walker. It’s followed up by the romantic storytelling tale “Like We Never Said Goodbye.” Two exes find each other again and it’s a touching story of rekindling that old flame with lyrics about a common dream and probably most important, believable. He celebrates the cowboy way of life of “Double Shot of John Wayne” not with horses and the old west way of life, but with the cowboy mentality of cowboy principles. It’s unique without being preachy, lightweight fare that’s entertaining. “People In Planes” is a great study of people-watching and the introspective feelings it dredges up inside of us personally. The strongest track on the album is held out for “Seven Sundays”- a reflection about sitting in the back pew of an old white steepled church thinking about his adolescence and getting his “soul washed clean” at the age of thirteen. We’re reminded what a good storyteller Walker is with such great inflection in his voice for country music. The slower-tempo-than-the-original version of Alabama’s “Feels So Right” feels so right with its deliberate and sensual timing- and he’s even backed by former Alabama lead singer Randy Owen for added familiarity. Overall, the album has no tricks, isn’t revolutionary and has no novelties. It’s just good consistent country music- just like Walker’s career.
Sounds Like:
Strong Joe Diffie song selection with Justin Moore vocals
Track Highlights (suggested iPod adds):
She Won’t Be Lonely Long
Like We Never Said Goodbye
Double Shot of John Wayne
Seven Sundays
People in Planes
Feels So Right
The Verdict:
Three & A Half Stars Out Of Five
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Toby Keith Readies Bullets In The Gun for Release On October 5th
Show Dog-Universal’s Toby Keith will release Bullets In The Gun, his 15th full-length studio album, on October 5. The collection has been preceded at radio by lead single “Trailerhood.”From his first single and No. 1 smash “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” back in 1993 to his recent single “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song),” Keith has written the majority of his biggest hits and the new album is no different.
Keith’s American Ride Tour opened last month at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. Sponsored by Ford Trucks, the tour will hit dozens of cities through its Sept. 25 conclusion in Boston.
CD Reviews- Marc Cohn- Listening Booth: 1970
The Background:Marc Cohn's new record on Saguaro Road focuses on the year 1970, an important year for music fans in general and particularly for Marc, because many significant albums and singles were released then that had an impact on his decision to become an artist. The album features Marc's personal interpretations of classic songs written by and/or made famous in 1970 by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Cat Stevens, Van Morrison, John Fogerty and CCR, Smokey Robinson, Joe Cocker, Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Clapton and several more. Songs include 'Wild World,' 'The Tears of A Clown,' 'The Letter,' 'Maybe I'm Amazed' and 'Make it With You.'
The Review:
Most music lovers know Marc Cohn by looking back to his Grammy-winning debut album featuring the smash single “Walking In Memphis” or even his single “Walk Through This World” off of his superb follow-up album The Rainy Season. Less visible may have followed, but they never failed to tell powerful stories with personal and meaningful lyrics- culminating in the post-Katrina revelation Join The Parade from 2007. But to know Marc Cohn is to delve back even farther than that first album. It’s to flash back to his elementary school days, sitting in his bedroom at eleven years old discovering the music that which will inspire him for a lifetime. That year was 1970 and acts such as Neil Young were making a huge impact. Now forty years later- and with Cohn now 51- he revisits his favorites with the help of his longtime friend and producer, John Leventhal (fresh off of producing wife Roseanne Cash’s The List.)
Cohn’s passion for the project is evident from the opening track and his distinctly soulful voice parlays a unique bluesy southern-flavored taste to each track. Leventhal and Cohn eschew traditional arrangements at nearly every turn, instead letting the lyrics and a single studio session between the two of them reinventing the song before cutting masters with a full band. Only when they thought they had a fresh take would they move forward. What results is something both familiar and new , recognizable but fresh. Cohn gets help from the likes of India.Arie, Kristina Train, Jim Lauderdale and Aimee Mann. Each song, now forty years young, are as vital, vibrant, relevant and full of music soul as ever. This is a good one. Not quite country, but worth having in your collection nevertheless…
Sounds Like:
A more bluesy Graham Nash, a more mellow Marc Broussard
Track Highlights (suggested iPod adds):
Wide World
The Only Living Boy In New York
Maybe I’m Amazed
Make It With You
The Verdict:
Four Stars Out Of Five
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Taylor Swift Announces New Album Speak Now For Release October 25th
Taylor Swift’s highly-anticipated third studio album will be released worldwide on October 25th, Taylor herself announced yesterday afternoon during a web chat with her fans. The video above is the first ten minutes of that web chat.
Entitled Speak Now, the album will be released on Big Machine Records and contains 14 tracks, all written solely by Taylor. Taylor co-produced the project with Nathan Chapman, and the first single from the new record, “Mine,” will be released on August 16th.
“Saying the right thing at the right moment is so crucial that most of us start to hesitate, for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But lately what I've begun to fear more than that is letting the moment pass without saying anything,” Taylor says of the very personal collection that is Speak Now. “These songs are made up of words I didn't say when the moment was right in front of me. These songs are open letters. Each is written with a specific person in mind, telling them what I meant to tell them in person.”
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
New Music Video From Amy Grant- "Better Than A Hallelujah"
The image will take you over to Ladies Home Journal where this is running as an exclusive this week. This is a good one- be sure to watch it all the way through...
CD Reviews- Dierks Bentley- Up On The Ridge
The Background:At every turn in his career, he’s done his own thing, whether that meant touring with jam bands, playing rock venues or recording with bluegrass all-stars on platinum country albums. Now Dierks steps forward with his most artistically daring project yet - the all-acoustic Up On The Ridge - a powerful, beautiful album steeped in the bluegrass and roots music that moved Dierks Bentley to be a country musician in the first place. His fifth album for historic Capitol Records is a document of an artist who’s using some well-earned freedom to write in a fresh vein and cook up collaborations with the musicians who fascinate and amaze him most in the world. It’s the way all albums should be made - built on an idea and an artist-driven vision - as opposed to formulaic packages of eleven songs with four radio singles.
The Review:
A student of country history- his passion for the Grand Ole Opry is well-documented- Bentley has been given an opportunity to produce an album of modern bluegrass songs backed by one of the strongest collection of acoustic musicians since Steve Martin’s The Crow. Up On The Ridge is not just about the music from the Appalachian hills, it’s about the Appalachian hills. “Down In The Mine” uses eloquent lyrics about theose with no other resources to feed their families except for working “down in the hole” of those mountains. “Fate has no mercy for those down in the mine” and Bentley does a fantastic job of relaying a thankless job filled with greater dangers than any of us will experience. The production ebbs and flows in instrumentation which help with the emotion and suspense. It’s truly a beautiful single. The first single to radio is “Up On The Ridge” which blends a rocking bluegrass love song with the hills as a background- all with terrific musicianship. “Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)” borrows bluegrass star power in the form of Nickel Creek’s lead singer and mandolin player Chris Thile. “Rovin’ Gambler” is a whirlwind of picking in the typical bluegrass tragedy of bad behavior- someone getting shot and jail time. “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” is a fantastic cover and remake of the legendary U2 track. He gives a fresh take on the classic rock tune, giving it a whole new acoustic sound with still keeping the familiarity of the original. “Bad Angel” leans on two of country music’s hottest commodities in Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson- it’s delicious vocal jumbalaya about the corner of “Temptation and Salvation Street.” “Draw Me A Map” is a gorgeous dobro and mandolin filled plea for forgiveness and love. But it’s also a great analogy for the album as a whole. Few artists, if any, have been able to connect this instrumentation to modern country radio. With his first single of “Ridge”, Bentley has drawn a map from bluegrass to radio with some medium to moderate success. Here’s hoping X marks the spot and more radio finds this mark,
Sounds Like:
Dierks figured out a way to convince his label to put passionate art ahead of commercialism
Track Highlights (suggested iPod adds):
Down In The Mine
Up On The Ridge
Senior (Tales of Yankee Power)
Rovin’ Gambler
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Bad Angel
The Verdict:
Four Stars Out Of Five
Monday, July 19, 2010
Up & Coming New Nashville- Megan McCormick
Megan McCormick always knew her life lay in music. It wasn’t a matter of fancy costumes or the notion of thousands of people clamoring for her attention. The girl who grew up in Alaska – and whose grandparents are in the Western Swing Hall of Fame – could feel it on a cellular level.“Everyone in the family played… so I’ve always been around great music,” says the dark-headed young woman with the glint in her eye. Her parents played too, though not professionally. Her mother was a country singer while her father was more of a rock & roller. “It was never about the glamour, but the grits, you know? Because I’d be doing this whether people listened or not. It’s how I’ve chosen to live… It’s a necessity, not an option.
“And music, if you’re doing it for those reasons, isn’t about the chart numbers, about the money, about the thousands of people, but more the way people feel it. You know there will always be people who want the more superficial, poppy stuff, but I know there are people out there who want more – and those are the people I’m playing for.”
At 23, McCormick has more insight into the human condition than many people twice her age – and her guitar playing has a deep-in-the-blues groove-grounding that adds credence to songs about addiction, obsession, romance, sorting life out and trying to make one’s way in the world. Whether it’s the taut Stevie Ray Vaughan-evoking “Shiver,” the lacerating lost souls’ recognition in “Drifting” or the torchy foreboding of meltdown that is “Pick Up The Phone,” her heart on her sleeve and her truth in your face seems to be this singer’s natural stance.
“I don’t identify with a lot of things other people do,” she confesses. “It’s not about age or education… man or woman… straight or gay… wrecked or sober… I’m just a plain human on my journey, and that makes me more like most people than different. That’s the thing: people like to magnify the differentiation when really there are so many more similarities.
“Even when you’re looking at relationships and different perspectives, what happens between people is pretty much the same. What could be about a lover, could be about a father in a different context – or a friend. Once you get too specific on whatever descriptors you’re using, the more you minimize the people you can reach, the ones who see themselves in the songs… because everyone’s got trouble.”
Pausing, she weighs her words. “When you start looking at it like that, you’d be amazed. There are a lot more fragile people than there are emotionally healthy Buddhists.”
McCormick’s trade is certainly in the darker places, the crevices where life falls in on itself, where urges get a momentum destined to pull the unsuspecting off the tracks and that which saves can suck you under. With a wistful yearning, the young woman who attended East Tennessee State University’s acclaimed bluegrass program reflects on what is lost in the descent on “Wasted” and finds the soul undulations to pick up the pieces on “Things Change” on what can only be considered an eclectically lean rock & roll record.
McCormick's masterful guitar playing adds to the emotional heft, giving a musical weight to each track on the album. Whether tearing through a blazing outro solo on "Shiver" or elegantly finger picking on the album's title track, McCormick's guitar skill helps set her and her songs apart. It also helps to drop jaws at her live shows.
“When I was little, I loved Reba McEntire – the straight-up showmanship and strength of who she was,” explains the brash singer/songwriter/guitarslinger. “But then there was Gladys Knight – and I had a cassette of hers that broke. I went crazy! I remember telling my Mom that they had to fix the tape, ‘because I needed to study it… because somebody was going to have to sing those songs when she’s gone.’…that classic soul thing, the groovy choruses. I was obsessed.
“That’s the thing: no matter how many genres you can detect on this record, it all melts into this one thing, which is my music. It’s genuine, and it’s a true sense of me, who I am as a musician. Maybe rock & roll is more of a mindset, but I think it’s about what’s inside you.”
Certainly songs like “Lonely Tonight” and the gently brutal “Honest Words” mine doubt, regret, a certain kind of agony and a definite vein of pushing off the bottom to face the mess, fix what you can and embrace what you can’t. “Right now I feel more comfortable about who I am, my intentions, what I’ve been through and the lessons I’ve learned than I ever have been.
“The thing about ‘Honest Words,’ it works from a lot of different places – because there are so many stories from whatever side you’re on. The one in it, the child, the parent – and this heartbreaking thing of ‘Why did you do this to me?’ whether it’s your Dad, your partner, God, even yourself! It’s not a good feeling to be walked away from in any circumstance, but it’s in facing it that you can start over.”
Those stories that McCormick tells so willingly and completely are what drew legendary music publisher David Conrad out of retirement. The man who championed the songs of Gillian Welch, Nanci Griffith, Patti Griffin and Emmylou Harris saw something vital in McCormick’s amalgamation of styles, sentiments and truth and signed on.
“David saw me at the Basement,” McCormick says. “He’d retired, but he called Lance Freed, who’d originally signed Melissa (Etheridge). He came to see me, liked what he saw… and that was the beginning of some very major relationships in my life. And they’re music people, really advocates for the song.
“Because you know when you’re making an album, you’re putting yourself out there, making a series of impressions. It’s funny what a personal expression something like this can be, as passion turns to employment – and it takes you away. It becomes your life."
Zac Brown Band To Release You Get What You Give On September 21
Atlantic Records/Southern Ground Artists, Inc. will release You Get What You Give, the much-anticipated studio album from Best New Artist GRAMMY winners Zac Brown Band, on September 21.The album features a genre-defying collection of songs that the band has been testing on the road over the past year. Stand out tracks include: the somber piano-driven early fan favorite "Colder Weather," the reggae-leaning, jam-inducing "Who Knows," and a harmony-laced lesson on the merits of chasing after love "As She's Walking Away."
Praised for the ability to blend "down-home country with bits of reggae, bluegrass and rock to create a high-quality musical stew" (USA Today), front man Zac Brown notes that the new album "is representative of where we are right now. It combines elements of our southern rock and country roots, but also stays true to our jam-band style musicianship from the live show."
You Get What You Give is the follow up to the band's double platinum-certified, major label debut 'The Foundation' (Atlantic), which is one of Billboard's Top 20 albums of 2009 and features the band's first four #1 singles.
Zac Brown Band is: singer/guitarist Zac Brown, violinist/singer Jimmy De Martini, bassist/singer John Hopkins, guitarist/organist Coy Bowles, multi-instrumentalist/singer Clay Cook and drummer Chris Fryar.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Craig Morgan & Cracker Barrel Team Up For New Release
The popular restaurant and retail company Cracker Barrel is gearing up for the latest release in its exclusive music program: country music star Craig Morgan’s That’s Why – Collector’s Edition. This CD features 13 songs, including the top radio hits “Bonfire” and “This Ain’t Nothin,” as well as two previously unreleased songs.Craig Morgan made a name for himself with his signature hits “Almost Home,” which was named Music Row Song of the Year in 2003, and the chart-topping summer anthems "Redneck Yacht Club," and "That's What I Love About Sunday."
Morgan says he is pleased to have his newest CD available exclusively at Cracker Barrel, where he stops in for chicken n’ dumplins (with extra dumplins!) frequently. “Cracker Barrel offers the closest thing to home cooking when I am on the road touring. Music is what I do, but country living is who I am, so it’s really nice to have them both come together with my CD at Cracker Barrel,” said Morgan. In commenting on the décor that Cracker Barrel is known for, Morgan added, “A visit to Cracker Barrel lets you get a look at Country America all under one roof.”
“That’s Why – Collector’s Edition is a remarkable CD and Cracker Barrel is glad to be featuring it as our newest music project,” says Peter Keiser, Vice President of Marketing. “Craig is a terrific performer. His ten years in the United States Army and his determination to return to the Nashville area, where he grew up, to develop his music career are admirable.”
Two of the 13 songs on That’s Why – Collector’s Edition have never been released until now: “You” and “Evel Knievel” Morgan says that “You” is about his wife and “Evel Knievel” is about himself, about living life on the edge a little bit. An additional song on this special collector’s edition is “Summer Sundown,” which Morgan says is a real-life song about the happiness to be found in our own backyards.
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