Country Music Fashion Focus- Cash T's

Some of these cool tees from the Johnny Cash Store.

CD Review - Marc Broussard - Keep Coming Back

First of all, I must admit, that I am a huge unabashed passionate Marc Broussard fan. His 2004 release Carencro goes down as one of the best albums of the last decade and the first song off that album, Home, ranks up there as one of my favorite songs ever released. Ever. It was with great anticipation that I listened to his first major-label album off Atlantic Records, Keep Coming Back.

This time out, it's all original material (his last album Save Our Soul was all R&B covers) recorded on two-inch analog tape. Keep Coming Back is bluesy and a very mellow recording rooted in Broussard's arrangements. It was cut in 11 days and the singer claims eight of its songs were first takes. As an AOL review says, “It's drenched in gritty Southern funk, big voiced blue-eyed soul, and swampy blues and rock. The set kicks off with gritty funk as Broussard comes strutting into his lyric in a relaxed but low-down backcountry seductive croon. One can feel the immediacy of the band's presence in the whomp of the snare drums, choppy guitars, and snaky keyboards winding themselves around the blanket of horns (can you say Muscle Shoals?) and a backing chorus that takes it all to party-ville.”

Broussard's voice is enormous- raspy, warm and filled with emotion- and he can soar above the wall of brass without even trying. This is modern and sophisticated yet crackling funky soul. It should be loved by anyone with a pulse. You can almost feel Broussard playing this live inside a deep southern bar with his band right behind him.

The only complaint is that this first major label album, in an effort to reach the masses, misses out on what brought me to Broussard in the first place- the Bayou influence. Whether it’s Broussard talking about bus rides and Nawlins’ in Home, reflections of the Mississippi in Must Be The Water or alligators on Ya’ll Ain’t Ready (both off of his Must Be The Water EP), its been his rowdy & noisy Louisiana sound that has been his best. Keep Coming Back misses that mark completely. Aside from the title track, it’s much mellower and rooted in 70’s funk than his previous albums. There’s more ballads and less rockin’ with his Cajun self. Don’t get it wrong, it’s still an album worth owning- but here’s to hoping that his next album gets his bayou back…

Sara Evans Designs Suite At The Opryland Hotel

“You’ll feel like you are staying at Sara Evans’ house.”

The third season of HGTV's Design Star was recently filmed in Nashville. Multi-platinum recording artist Sara Evans appeared in Episode 5 as a celebrity judge on the popular reality design program. Now guests coming to Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center can reserve the Sara Evans' suites for their visits, following a recent national broadcast of the Design Star show featuring the creation of the stunning rooms, and Evans' reaction as she toured them one at a time.

“I absolutely love this! This feels like a cozy little apartment. If I were staying in this hotel I wouldn’t want to leave. This is incredible,” Evans gushed.

And among the first to have the honor of staying in one of the suites will be the winner of a Sara Evans Sweet Opry Sweepstakes. Just visit the Opryland Hotel website now through September 29, 2008 for the chance to enter to win a VIP trip to Music City, which will include:

· Hotel accommodations in one of the Sara Evans Suites at the world-famous Gaylord Opryland Resort
· Daily breakfast buffet for two at resort’s Water's Edge Marketplace
· VIP tickets to the Grand Ole Opry for Sara’s performance October 4, 2008
· A souvenir program and gift from the Opry
· Meet & Greet with Sara backstage at the Opry
· A Sara Evans themed gift-basket
· VIP seats for the General Jackson Showboat dinner cruise
· VIP passes to Fuse, the Vegas-style nightclub at the resort
· A ride on a Delta River Flatboat inside Gaylord Opryland Resort
· Plus airfare to Nashville on Southwest Airlines!

During the episode, the six remaining contestants traveled to Gaylord Opryland Resort to redecorate two ordinary Colonnade suites into "Sara Evans Suites,” fitting her style. Evans invited the contestants to her home for inspiration The results were described as “shabby chic” with a flair of southern elegance and include layers of depth in a setting of pale greens. As the show describes the suites are “down to earn and beautiful, just like Evans.”

The suites are available to hotel guests starting at $700 per night. Shabby chic is not inexpensive, evidently.

CD Review- Darius Rucker- Learn To Live

Hootie has hit a home run again. It seems like Darius Rucker’s first single, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” has been embraced by country fans- hitting number #1 on the charts this week. And after listening to Learn to Live, it would not surprise me if the album had the same effect.

Of the 14 songs on Learn to Live, it feels like at least 12 of them could be singles. It ranges from the honky-tonk blow-off song, “All I Want,” which is Brad Paisley guitar-infused, to “If I Had Wings,” which shows off Rucker’s softer side. It includes background vocals from Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. It has the coolest father/daughter song with “It Won’t Be This Way For Long” and “I Hope They Get to Me in Time” is an interesting perspective of a life flashing before your eyes in an accident scene. This is not just another rocker who has gone country. This is a man who clearly established he could sing when he was fronting Hootie & the Blowfish. But now he’s proven that the country roots — the ones so many claim to have had all along — are genuinely his. Every song has something that feels honest-to-goodness country.

And it’s also noteworthy to celebrate the fact that an African-American has hit the top of the charts as well. It’s interestingly timed as Barack Obama is making a historic run for the presidency. Darius’ trip to the top in country doesn’t set any precedents, but it’s the first time in over two decades an African-American has had a No. 1 hit in the format. Ray Charles joined Willie Nelson at No. 1 in 1985 with "Seven Spanish Angels," while Charley Pride was the last solo artist to do it with "Night Games" in 1983. With fellow African American country artist Rissi Palmer primed for stardom as well, this will hopefully be another great influence and chapter in country music’s history.

Much has been debated about the influx of pop stars into country music. Rucker is usually thrown into that argument. However, listen to the ten-million album selling “Cracked Rear View” by Hootie and the Blowfish. It’s not much different than the Eagles and today’s electric guitar leading acts Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban. Rucker hasn’t changed course at all, country has just finally found its way to his home in Charleston.

This album is one of the year’s best- a five out of five star.

Good Guy Craig Morgan Named Newest Opry Member

Craig Morgan has been invited to be the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry yesterday at a special concert for U.S. troops at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C. Craig, who was stationed at Ft. Bragg from 1990 to 1992 during his 10-year active duty tenure in the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division,will be formally inducted into the Opry on October 25.

Opry member John Conlee joined Craig on stage during a performance of “Rose Colored Glasses,” (originally sung by Conlee in the 70’s) and said, “Craig, where are your rose colored glasses?” to which Morgan said he must have left them at home. Conlee then asked Craig if he knew where he was going to be on October 25th and he replied “I don’t know.” “Well, I happen to know that you’re going be on the Opry,” said Conlee. “How would you like to be the next member of the Grand Ole Opry?” Morgan then proceeded to break down on stage and exclaimed “Oh, God Yes. I do love the Grand Ole Opry. And I gotta tell you, it’s cool to be invited right here.”

The induction will also coincide nicely with Craig’s release of his fifth album, “That’s Why,” on October 21!

TNS Photo Gallery Exclusive- Charlie Daniels Band

"Few individuals have symbolized the South in popular culture as directly and indelibly as Charlie Daniels." - Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

Charlie Daniels is all Southern good-ol’-boy. His signature tall cowboy hat and belt buckle, his lifestyle on the Twin Pines, his love of horses, cowboy lore and the heroes of championship rodeo, Western movies, and Louis L'Amour novels, identify him as a Westerner. He’s the real son of a lumberjack and a Southerner by birth, his music- rock, country, bluegrass, blues, gospel - is quintessentially Southern. In fact, even his bent for all things Western is Southern. His attire, his lifestyle and his interests are historically emblematic of Southern working class. And he has survived- three decades in country music to be exact.

It hasn't been so much a style of music, but more the values reflected in several styles that has connected Charlie Daniels with millions of fans. For my family and I, we got to see first-hand the celebrated showmanship of Charlie and his long-standing team of band-mates in Virginia. It was a treat beyond expectations. Between rain, thunderstorms, wind and a whole lotta' great tunes- it was... as my ten-year old said... "the coolest concert I've ever been too!" Here are some TNS exclusive photos of his great concert.

CD Review- Hal Ketchum- Father Time

If you’re looking for today’s country on the new album Father Time from Hal Ketchum- which might include loud drums, obligatory guitar solos or overdubbed choruses- this is not the album for you. However, if you were hoping for Hal Ketchum’s signature sound and sensitive vocal prowess, thoughtful lyrics and gentle instrumentation, Father Time is an album that you’ll want to add to your music collection. It will go down as one of the best works of his career.

In an era of over-production, Hal Ketchum decided to record Father Time the old-fashioned way. In the course of two days, Hal and his crack band of respected studio cranked out 14 tunes that speak to the way records used to be recorded- even laying them down on the CD in the same order they were recorded in the studio. Ketchum gathered Nashville's A-list string players, hunkered down together in the main room of a studio and cut a record in two days. It is a refreshing contrast to the markings of many of today's country records.

Acoustic country at a premier level, there's the subtle fiddle-guitar play backing Ketchum's warm, easy vocals on Strangest Dreams, the weepy steel guitar on the lonely Civil War ode Sparrow, and the compelling mandolin riffs on Let Me Go and The Preacher and I, a tune in which Ketchum says is the first song he ever wrote. There's even a wry, bare-bones take on Tom Waits' Jersey Girl.

As the album’s title suggests, a prevailing theme throughout the project is time. Songs such as “Yesterday’s Gone”, “Invisible”, “Ordinary Day” and “When He Called Your Name” are some of the compositions that explore the perspective that often accompanies the passing of time. The opening song, “Invisible”, is from the viewpoint of a homeless man who is sad, but not bitter about the contemptuous manner with which people tend to look at him. While he acknowledges that “he has become expendable, untouchable, invisible”, he reveals that this hasn’t always been the case in his life. Ultimately, he benevolently wishes that the people around him will have “the gift of never being me.”

“Yesterday’s Gone” finds a younger man trying to make sense of mortality as he watches his grandfather fading away. He sings, “It’s hard to believe as I sit here and hold him/How mountains will crumble and Yesterday’s gone.” Another song that struggles with the affects of time is “Ordinary Day”, wherein we find a waitress who feels that her life has passed without accomplishing much for her to be proud of.

While a rather wide range of emotions can be found on this album, the most poignant track is the steel guitar laden “Sparrow.” As the best compositions about war tend to do, this song explores the reality of war and the dark effect that it has on soldiers. With detectable despair in his voice, Ketchum sings, “If I were a sparrow I would fly/And if I were alone now I would cry/But tears won’t bring my brothers back home to their mothers/Or bring comfort to a soul too young to die.”

Hal Ketchum hasn’t had an album released in the United States for six years, but for longtime fans, Father Time is well worth the wait. The raw, what-you-hear, is-what-we-played sound is refreshing indeed but without strong songs, nobody would care for the album. In a career filled with well-constructed albums, Father Time may just be the crowning achievement of Hal Ketchum’s career.