TNS Video History- Sara Evans- "No Place That Far"

Country Music News Round-Up- Vince Gill's New Album, Roy Acuff 20 Years Later & Sawyer Brown Has New Music

"That crossover of whether it's entertainment or news is the biggest crock of b.s. in television today, because it's all entertainment." - Vince McMahon

* The big news of the day is that Vince Gill has a new single titled "Hitting Me With Heaven" that will be hitting country radio late this summer and will be releasing an album entitled Guitar Slinger shortly thereafter. From the press release:

Gill co-wrote “Threaten Me With Heaven” with his wife, singer/songwriter Amy Grant, Dillon O’Brian and Will Owsley.

“Since the song was recorded, my friend Will Owsley took his own life, so the song has a profound impact on me now,” Gill laments.  “In my lifetime, ‘Go Rest High On That Mountain’ has been the song that helped a lot of people through their grief. I think this one will in turn hopefully do the same thing. It’s a powerful, powerful song.  I feel like it’s the crown jewel of the new record.”

And that’s quite a statement, considering that this album includes some of the most poignant and moving songs of his career, such as “Bread and Water” and “If I Die.” But the album also features fun, upbeat songs as well, and serves as a wonderful showplace for his guitar playing.  Gill wrote every song on the album, which was the first project recorded from start to finish at his new home studio.

“I feel like the emphasis has been on the songs and the songs have gotten better,” he says. “They really run the gamut of what they are about, how they feel, how they sound. It’s not an all-traditional record, it’s not an all-contemporary record; it’s all over the map, like I kind of have always been. But it doesn’t feel out of step with anything I’ve done previously.”

Guitar Slinger is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed four-CD, 43-song box set, These Days, which was certified platinum, won the 2006 Grammy for Best Country Album and received an overall Grammy Album of the Year nomination. “That never feels anything but great,” he says of the album’s overwhelming reception.

Gill didn’t have any specific thoughts or themes in mind when he began creating the songs for Guitar Slinger. Instead, he just let his creativity flow. “I had no expectations of what it would sound like in my home studio,” he says. “I’ve never recorded in my house before. So I discovered an awful lot about how the rooms sound, and it’s a real warm record.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s so different than most studios in that there are windows all the way around the room. You look out and see trees. There’s such a great spirit running around in the house and in the rooms that all the musicians have raved about the vibe. It’s real low key; it’s not commercial-feeling at all.”

Guitar Slinger epitomizes coming home for Gill for several reasons. Not only did he record in his home, but he is joined on the album by his wife, Amy Grant, and their daughters Jenny, Sarah and Corrina. “Corrina makes her debut at nine on this record in a very dark song,” he says of “Billy Paul.” “It’s a song about a friend of mine who took his life after he took someone else’s life. It’s very, very dark, but I love that in music. I was always drawn to music with those kinds of things.”

* Roy Acuff's passing is coming up on twenty years and CMA and IBMA member Charles Haymes has done a great little feature on one of the greatest country artists this generation knows nothing about. Check it out HERE.

Throughout the Opry’s storied past, no artist’s name has been more often linked with the famed radio show than Roy Acuff. Whether it was as a performer, songwriter, publisher or spokesman, he is one of the most towering figures in the history of country music.

* Nearly four years after their last album and radio single, the boys from Sawyer Brown have come back with an island-themed single called "Smokin' Hot Wife" that has been sent to radio and will be available digitally early next week. It is scheduled to be the first official release from their Travelin' Band album. You can listen to the new single HERE.

* New music from LeAnn Rimes as well:

Grammy-Winning Country Album Artwork Creator Bill Johnson and Singer/Songwriter Tony Lopacinski Pass On

Tony Lopacinski

Nashville artist Bill Johnson died Wednesday morning (6/15), at his Nashville home after a battle with lung cancer. He was 68. Johnson is known for his creations, which include the logo for Rolling Stone magazine and the arts direction on Rosanne Cash’s King’s Record Shop album, for which he won a Grammy Award. He won again the following year for Tired of the Runnin’ by The O’Kanes.

After serving as art director in the 1970s at Rolling Stone, where he worked to redesign the magazine’s original logo, which is still used today, Johnson became CBS Records’ art director in the early 1980s. He worked with hundreds of CBS/Sony releases. He first worked for CBS in New York and eventually moved to CBS Nashville, where he became the head of the label’s creative department.

Nashville music critic Robert Oermann detailed just a few of the artists whom Johnson created album artwork for MusicRow.com:

Other notable packages that bore his distinctive touch included Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Willie Nelson (1981), George Jones’ Shine On (1982), Rodney Crowell’s Diamonds & Dirt (1988), Dolly Parton’s Eagle When She Flies (1991), Merle Haggard’s Chill Factor (1987) and the Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces (1998).

Among the dozens of artists whose visual images he affected are Janie Fricke, Larry Gatlin, Waylon Jennings, Joe Diffie, Ricky Skaggs, Mickey Gilley, Charlie Daniels, Ricky Van Shelton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Loveless and Exile.

Singer/songwriter Tony Lopacinski also passed this Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. The father of two moved to Nashville in 2005 after a successful career on the road as Train’s touring guitarist. He worked extensively as Josh Gracin’s bandleader and teamed with the artist and Bobby Pinson to co-write the Gracin hit “We Weren’t Crazy.” Lopacinski also played with Shelly Fairchild, Julie Roberts and others. Recently he had been focused on a new band called Tailgate South.

According to his wife’s Caring Bridge post on the day he passed, his last day was filled with friends visiting including his Tailgate South bandmates singing to him as well as “Sarah Buxton came over and spread her great energy, love and sang a few songs to him.”

New Music Video From Joe Nichols & Jasmine Rae- "I'll Try Anything"

Joe Nichols and Australian country star Jasmine Rae have spent the last two weeks with the number one single on the Australian country music charts with this nice little duet.

Country Music News Round-Up- Alan Jackson And Dolly Parton Both Release New Singles And More

All the country music news that is fit to print in one little bow-tied blog post this morning...

* Alan Jackson has released his very first single off of his new EMI Records Nashville record deal titled "Long Way To Go." You can listen to it below:



* Dolly Parton has also released her first new single since her last album Backwoods Barbie and played it on the Ellen DeGeneres show. You can stream the audio below:

* Crystal Shawanda, a full-blooded Canadian First Nations country artist from the Ojibwe band, signed a new record deal and will be releasing a brand new single called "Love Enough." She's a That Nashville Sound favorite- can't wait to hear the new single.

* Leighton Meester, star of the feature country film, Country Strong, unveiled a new music video and some new songs in a recent concert event in Los Angeles.

* Soulful southern crooner Marc Broussard released a brand new album yesterday and Matt Bjorke over at Roughstock did an interview with the artist.

"I think it’s the fans as much as it is the music that’s blurring the lines. Because of the accessibility of music these days, people can explore different genres whereas in the past, you’d might go into a record store and just see the country sign on top of the racks and that’s where you’d go. With different tools like iTunes has with ‘reccomendations’ and ‘Genius’ function, people are constantly being sold more stuff. In my opinion it has to do with the way with the stuff is monetized these days as well with the music itself. Especially in country, we see guys like Zac Brown, they’re doing straight up the middle country music which talks about stuff that I love the most about country, those traditional themes like family, talking about your dog and your food. They’re giving us, in my opinion, the best of what country has to offer while others are actively trying to crossover."

* Brad Paisley has two original songs on the upcoming Disney/Pixar film Cars 2. In a feature from USA Today that is accompanied with a video with some music highlights, he talks about being pushed out of his comfort zone and a duet with British pop star Robbie Williams.

* In 1984, Neil Young was sued by his record company, Geffen Records, for making albums it deemed "artistically uncharacteristic." Fed up, Neil Young gathered a band of amazing Nashville musicians he called The International Harvesters, and hit the road. Recordings from those dates have been uncovered with five unreleased Neil Young tunes and have been released this past month in an album called A Treasure. The album is more traditional country than anything he'd done before. In a Chicago Tribune review, "Young's ongoing series of archival releases allows him to have the last word, or at least to frame what he was doing in a clearer context. A Treasure (Reprise) documents his country phase and makes the point that, no matter what his detractors and doubters say, it really wasn't a "phase" at all, but one of his periodic and most fully realized immersions into the genre."

* Trace Adkins announced a brand new album titled Proud To Be Here that will be released on August 2nd. The deluxe edition of the album, available for presale on iTunes on July 12, includes four additional tracks, including a duet with Blake Shelton on "If I Was a Woman," a humorous song Adkins and Beard co-wrote with Sherrie Austin and Jeff Bates.

Hear It Here- Lauren Alaina & Scotty McCreery Make Their Grand Ole Opry Debut

American Idol winner Scotty McCreery and runner-up Lauren Alaina made their debut at the Grand Ole Opry this past Friday night (June 10). The audio is below, set into a YouTube video of a picture of each Idol.

Alaina took the stage first and sang "Blue" by LeAnn Rimes followed by "Like My Mother Does," her coronation single. McCreery was next and he sang his coronation single "I Love You This Big" and George Strait's classic "Check Yes or No."

Lauren Alaina Grand Ole Opry Performance:


Scotty McCreery Grand Ole Opry Performance:

New Music Video From The JaneDear Girls- "Shotgun Girl"

CD Album Review- Donna Ulisse- An Easy Climb

The Review-
Lemonade from lemons. Strike that. Really good ice cold frosty strawberry lemonade from lemons.

Let me explain. Way back in 1991, a young singer/songwriter named Donna Ulisse was signed to Atlantic Records which subsequently released three solid singles and two music videos. For whatever reason, the country music Gods didn’t smile down on the release and Ulisse and the label parted ways. For most artists that would have been the end. Lemons. But in a moment of serendipitous purpose, Ulisse returned a whopping eight years later with a homespun collection of bluegrass albums that even better represented the artist.

Over a five year period, Ulisse has released four independent bluegrass albums to widespread critical acclaim. What makes each album consistent to one-another is the inclusion of one magical and powerful song to go along with a collection of solid ones. 2007’s album was the Just Plain Folks Awards Bluegrass Song of the Year,“I'm Calling Heaven Down", off of her 2007 release of When I Look Back. On 2009’s Walk This Mountain Down, the haunting tale of a lost child on “Levi Stone” was one of That Nashville Sound’s top ten songs of the year- in all genres. 2010’s Holy Waters' title track made an incredible combination of faith and Appalachian love.

An Easy Climb continues that trend of including a song for the ages- only this time, we’re treated with two. “Shady Glen” is masterful storytelling at its best. At once fictional history as well as a fantastic ghost story, it tells the tale of a Confederate loyalist female infiltrating the union army before they destroy her town and poisoning them with rabbit stew. It’s modern day ghosts and a story from 150 years ago all wrapped up in a perfect little package. It has all the things you want from a story, a protagonist, a purpose, a cause, action and reaction- all wrapped up perfectly in a wondrous four minute tale. The other phenomenal track is the fantastic autobiographical “Hand Me Down Home.” Every detail of her family cabin that’s been handed down by several generations is lovingly described in personal important minutia. From the background of the family headstones to the wood the porch is made from, it’s a caring tribute to her family that’s a treasure- one she shares with us like a guest room.

For those two reasons alone, this album is worth a purchase.

Track Highlights:
Shady Glen
Hand Me Down Home
Let It Rain
Black Snake

Sounds Like:
Patty Loveless’s Mountain Soul Albums

The Verdict:
Four Stars Out Of Five

Hear It Here- Shania Twain's New Single- "Today Is Your Day"

Listen to the brand new single just premiered by Shania Twain- "Today Is Your Day."

TNS Video History- Tracy Lawrence- "Today's Lonely Fool"