the ACMs were so fiercely publicized by CBS that i suppose i'm not that surprised that i was a tad underwhelmed by the evening. of course, carrie underwood was hot as hell, i mistook gorgeous faith hill for giselle bundchen, and miranda looked extraordinarily fabulous. but other than that, i'd say the highlight was brad paisley coming out wearing the same beanie as zac brown. (if you don't know what i'm talking about, google the zac brown band to see that he is NEVER beanieless!) apparently the real highlight though was ashton kutcher offending the likes of miranda lambert and justin moore with his presentation of the best female vocalist award. i'm suprised at this! i loved it, and thought it was adorable! he's a big country music fan and he was paying homage to the great george strait with his little song and getup. and why oh why would he make fun of country at the ACMs, where he is surrounded by the beefy likes of jason aldean and eric church? it don't make no sense people! we all know miranda's not a fan of womanizers, so perhaps anything ashton did would have rubbed her the wrong way.
dancing with the stars said goodbye to jack wagner from the bold and the beautiful this week (i have yet to make the phonecall to my mother), and there to give him the musical warning were none other than rascal flatts, singing here comes goodbye while julianne hough (aka ryan seacrest's beard girlfriend) returned to the show for a dance. pretty snazzy stuff!
lionel richie continues the media blitz for his new record tuskegee with a huge lionel richie and friends concert in vegas. filmed the night after the ACMs, it will air on--you guessed it--CBS this friday the 13th. have a great rest of the week my lovelies!
{lionel richie dueting with tim mcgraw. photo thanks to zimbio.com}
this year, our votes will help determine who wins the academy of country music award for new artist of the year. so as your fearless leader, i have compiled a voter's guide for this pleasantly difficult decision! you have a week to get your vote in, so read carefully and then have your voice be heard here! get into the habit of rocking the vote now so we can all band together to reelect obama in november! oh dear, i lost all you tea partiers just now, didn't i? i'm sorry but i told you guys from the very start that listening to country music would be my only republican tendency, and i'm a woman of my word! so then, on we go. the semi-finalists are:
brantley gilbert
[photo credit: usa today]
country music is big on anthems. think brad paisley's this is country music or, to just get to my point already, brantley gilbert's country must be country wide. i think it's especially bold for a newcomer to attempt such a song, and i'm down with brantley's. it's more a proclamation of his adoration for the genre, kind of like someone starting an awesome blog to take you on her amorous journey through country music. yeah, kind of like that. this single hit #1 on billboard's country list, and it also taught me about the copenhagen smile. so i would not be mad at you for voting for this guy! like at all.
hunter hayes
i was less than impressed with storm warning. i also don't have much to say about him, which you can take as my opinion about him. but we are all lovers here, so i suppose the least i can do is publicize his music video, which you can check out below.
jt hodges
[photo credit: countrymusicnewsblog.com]
i haven't heard of jt hodges, but who am i anyway? he does have a smoldering elvis thing going on, so that's worth something right?
scotty mcreery
this american idol winner has been embraced quite graciously by the country music community. carrie underwood won best new artist in 2007 when she won american idol as well, so there's definitely precedent for scotty to win. he already won the american country award for best new artist too. BUT, he owes so much to his north carolina idol josh turner and so much of scotty's performances have actually been of josh turner hits that i don't feel it's fair to have scotty win this one. he's adorable and talented and all that, but he hasn't quite discovered and presented himself as an artist to us yet.
[photo credit: blogster.co.nz]
and josh turner didn't even win in this category (he was nominated for the top new artist acm in 2004 AND best new artist in 2005. how that works i have no idea), so it doesn't make sense that a josh turner tribute artist would win, don't you think?
justin moore
[photo credit: roughstock.com]
i think a sure sign of a winner for this award is when someone says, "holy balls, he's a new artist!?" justin moore has already had a few hits, including small town usa and if heaven wasn't so far away. smalltown usa qualifies as a country music anthem, which puts justin in the running with brantley gilbert, as discussed above. BUT justin goes above and beyond by also having a stereotypical sobfest single, which is precisely what if heaven wasn't so far away is. a new artist covering both of these bases is rather impressive! so brantley better watch his back! and just take another look at that photo. hottie with a body much?
david nail
so i didn't hear much of david nail until pretty recently with his single let it rain. let's just say a song about infidelity isn't the straightest way to my heart. even if it's a song admitting that you're the lowest scum of the scum. nonetheless, check out the video below, which does that super literal translation of the lyrics that i love about country music videos. it fulfills the same guilty pleasure as watching soap operas does. i'd definitely vote for this guy over aaron carter hunter hayes and jt hodges, so there that is.
jerrod niemann
[photo credit: cmt.com]
man oh man, you guys know how jerrod niemann is my weakness. what do you want is one of the sexiest songs i've ever heard in my life! and definitely the sexiest one country radio played in the last year, that's for sure. is that enough to get jerrod new artist of the year though? it just might be...
thompson square
thompson square is touring with lady antebellum and darius rucker this
year, which is such a prestigious ticket to be on. i'm going to see them
at the staples center in april so i am BEYOND excited. thompson square
is a great husband and wife duo, and although i have at times called
them the poor man's lady antebellum, that's not exactly a bad thing!
[photo credit: countrymusicnewsblog.com]
in fact, maybe poor man's sugarland would be more accurate. but that's besides the point! lady a is so unbeatable that it's compliment enough to even be compared with them. and unbeatable isn't even quite fair to say in this context, because although lady a won the american country award for group of the year, thompson square won best single by a duo or group, best single by a breakthrough artist, AND best music video by a new artist! so i kind of think this fab duo is the expected and favorite to win.
i heard some justin moore on the radio this morning and thought to myself, "how many of today's country superstars are actually from small towns in the south, dreaming of making it big in nashville?" so i did some research and here are the quaintest of the quaint, with most of them being smaller than the population of my high school!
toby keith hometown: clinton, OK population: 9,033
9,000 is a respectable size for a little ol' city.
miranda lambert hometown: lindale, TX population: 5,024
5,000 is just over the population of my high school. i'd say that's enough to inspire miranda's 2007 hit, famous in a small town.
carrie underwood hometown: checotah, OK population: 3,481
alright. we are officially below the glendale high school mark.
george strait hometown: poteet, TX population: 3,305
tim mcgraw hometown: delhi, LA population: 3,066
trisha yearwood hometown: monticello, GA population: 2,428
brad paisley hometown: glen dale, WV (not to be confused with glendale, ca, home of yours truly) population: 1,552
915 is about the size of the senior class at my high school. wowza.
justin moore hometown: poyen, AK population: 272
martina mcbride hometown: sharon, KS population: 158
the troubadour in west hollywood holds a capacity of about 450 people on the main floor and the balconies. this means that you could fit EVERYBODY in justin moore's and martina mcbride's towns COMBINED if they did a joint concert there. WHAT DO YOU EVEN MEAN!?
