WEEK IN REVIEW: ashton offends, rascals serenade, and lionel does vegas!

{photo credit: people.com}

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}

is miranda lambert the only sane woman left?

once upon a time, chris brown decided to beat his famous and beautiful girlfriend, rihanna. everyone was shocked at his violence, stupidity, etc. and for three years he was pretty much blacklisted in the music industry, which made way for my not-so-secret favorite person jaysonnnn deruuulo. THEN a couple of weeks ago, the recording academy gave chris brown the best r&b album grammy, let him perform twice at the awards show, and said they were "glad to have him back." THEN a couple dozen idiots (idiot #8 nairee--i'm talking to you. does your armenian father know you're saying this shit!?) thought it would be sexy to say things like "shiiit he can beat me up all night if he wants" and "damn chris brown you can beat me anytime boo."

{photo credit: thehollywoodgossip.com}

but not my lovely miranda! she tweeted immediately after the grammys: "chris brown twice? i don't get it. he beat on a girl," and then again, "not cool that we act like that didn't happen. he needs to listen to gunpowder and lead and be put back in his place. not at the grammys." DAMN RIGHT, GIRL! she then saw this sign (above) being held up by a fan at a concert at the university of massachusetts while she sang her 2008 hit gunpowder and lead and thought it'd be awesome if she held it up and encouraged people to take pictures and post them on their twitter and everything. yall know how much i LOVE country star receptivity and interaction with fans. BUT THIS IS WHERE IT GETS STUPID.

{photo credit: gossiponthis.com}

what does rihanna do after this empathetic and feisty grammy winner gets her proverbial back like whoa?? SHE RELEASES TWO NEW DUETS WITH CHRIS BROWN! in other words, see the picture on the right. oh LORD my nerves are so CRAZED over this! i'm not even going to link you to the remixed singles, that's how worthless they are to me. but i will link you to this insightful article.

i wouldn't be surprised if miranda was like "wtf rihanna! i got your back and this is how you repay me?" not that rihanna owes anyone anything, and not that miranda will stick her nose in rihanna's personal life choices, but nonetheless, this shit is whack! how many times did i say the word "shit" in this article!? ugh. that's how upset i am.  and there's no way to relieve this anger than by rocking out to miranda's kind-of-disturbing-but-really-just-about-girl-power anthem, gunpowder and lead. enjoy!

SPOTLIGHT: the pistol annies.

i saw the pistol annies' debut performance on tv months and months ago and gushed about them to you immediately. now their debut album hell on heels is out and it's on repeat in my car. indefinitely. they are super bluesy and even super bluegrass-y. and very edgy. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if the title track becomes jason bentley's first venture into country music on morning becomes electic. just saying, jason. keep your skinnies on.

their controversial attitudes and song topics have definitely sparked some wholesome country freakouts. they sing about being gold-diggers (tongue-in-cheek obvi. these girls are filthy rich themselves, especially ms. queen of country lambert), not being able to choose among all the adorable boys in the south and how there's no way around it but to just love them all (you know. LOVE them all), and in that same vein, there's a sad little number about a shameful shotgun wedding, one about burning down your house, and another about leasing your trailer to get back at the deadbeat on your couch. yes, it's controversial in the jesus-loving, tractor-driving world of country music, but it's a side of life that should be expressed as well and these girls are hot. they even have nicknames!

{photo credit: cmt.com}

on your left you've got ashley monroe, aka hippie annie, who's done work with the raconteurs in the past, and in my mind, is the indie rock/folk side of this operation.

{photo credit: photo.net}

next is angaleena presley (ummm any connection? i'll check into that stat, i promise), to the right, aka holler annie. i'm kinda seeing her as the head of this gang. she has a super bluesy, sweet voice and often stands in the middle. maybe because she's the brunette.

and of course, let's not forget our little lone star annie, miranda lambert. how awesome for her to start such a fun, folky, and feisty side project (didn't mean for all that alliteration, but let's go with it) even though she and her gorgeous husbie wusbie never need to work again.

{photo credit: sweetslyrics.com}

country ink: ANSWERS!

see how you did on yesterday's oh-so-titillating tattoo puzzle!

[photo credit: countrymusicfever.com]

1. the lovely lady with the treble clef on her foot is hillary scott from lady antebellum.

[photo credit: people.com]

 

2. one of the more visible tattoos on country ladies today is the one that adorns miranda lambert's forearm: two crossed 6-shooters with angel wings.

3. dreamy keith urban adorns his forearm with a thunderbird, and has several other tattoos elsewhere.

[photo credit: allaccess.com]

4. definitely the more bubbly half of sugarland, jennifer nettles, bears the inspiring inscription "believe" on the outside of her wrist.

[photo credit: yallwire.com]

5. i thought blake shelton's tattoo was fish swimming upstream, you know, as a sign of determination and perseverance, obvi. (i can't help it. i was an english major in college. my life was the explication of symbolism.) TURNS OUT, he's quite the outdoorsman, and this tat is actually a trail of deer tracks, you know, as a sign of staying focused and following your dreams, obvi. i can't turn it off!

SAY WHAT: live oak.

in the house that built me, which was arguably the hugest country song last year (it won acm awards for song, record, AND video of the year, the grammy for best female country vocal performance, and cma awards for song AND music video of the year), miranda lambert goes back to the house she grew up in to get back in touch with who she really is. of course, someone else lives there now, so miranda asks super nicely, "if i can walk around, i swear i leave. won't take nothin but a memory from the house that built me." (see what she did there? not the house that she built. but the house that built her. that's called anthropomorphism for all you literature buffs).

anywho, so in describing said memories, she includes a memory of her favorite dog being buried "under that live oak." one of the many times i was blasting this in my boyfriend's car, he turned to me and said, "what's a live oak? as opposed to the dead oak in the neighbor's yard?" although at the time i said something along the lines of "get off my miranda, she's PERFECT!" i can now admit i was curious as well.

the southern live oak (also known as the texas live oak, or the evergreen oak) is a species of oak tree that stays beautifully green and "live" looking all year long, unlike other species of oak, whose bare branches look "dead" through the winter months. apparently they are very common throughout the south, and the live oak is even georgia's state tree. so you see, it's actually very crucial that we know exactly what a live oak is if we want to better appreciate country music and our favorite country stars' surroundings from here on out. to hear miranda use it in a sentence, click below.

weekend update!

i didn't mean to be too good for prompt posts now that i'm a juris doctor and all. but this weekend was hectic for more reasons than my graduation: we survived yet another friday the 13th. darius rucker turned 45 (what!? he looks 35 max)! and miranda lambert and blake shelton tied the knot! i will have more detailed posts soon i promise. here are some adorable pics of country's royal couple--from their engagement party to be exact. as for wedding pics, we have to wait for this week's us weekly for those!

{photo credit: krystinhoganblog.com}
{photo credit: engagementcmt.com}
{photo credit: engagementtheboot.com}
{photo credit: engagement.horseracing.msg.com}

girls' night out.

i missed friday night's "girls' night out: superstars of country" special on cbs (which, by the way, won in ratings for the night) because i had a gala to attend. i know, i'm like, REALLY fancy. anyway, unless this baby's hittin netflix anytime soon, it looks like i'm out of luck. however, i did score this youtube video of the debut performance of...wait for it...THE PISTOL ANNIES. i know! what a pleasant surprise. it's like they knew i was coming. its miranda lambert's new side project, and just in case you didn't know, miranda lambert won best everything at this year's acm awards (and by everything i mean top female vocalist, single of the year, song of the year, and video of the year for "the house that built me," which, incidentally, made me cry the first time i heard it). she also won a grammy for that song.

the first minute of this video is precious banter between miranda and her adorable fiance (also a super famous country star), blake shelton. he is most definitely the justin to her britney. and of course the song, "hell on heels" is so playful and sexy. i'm pretty obsessed, what with being the namesake and all. their harmonies and entire performance in general are so tight that at one point in the video, you can see carrie underwood shakin in her boots from the audience. that pun wasn't intended, but i'll take it!