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}

country barbecue!

it's barbecue weather, everybody! as i spend the day outdoors, i leave you with two songs about having great food and ice cold beer. enjoy!

chicken fried by zac brown band.

 

something like that (bbq stain) by tim mcgraw

BRANCHING OUT

alright kiddies. for the recalcitrant of you who think you still may not have the stomach for country music, i'm going to ease you into this with my all new "branching out" series. i'll do the footwork and find an amazing not-so-country artist you may already know and love, and then use my human pandora skills to help you branch out to a very-much-so country artist that you will surely learn to adore in time. so here goes:

branching out. by annie a. on Polyvore.com

SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON

composition: mumford + sons is made up of 4 guys from england and the zac brown band is made up of 6 guys from georgia.

sound: both bands have a mandolin player, and mumford + sons even rocks the banjo, which is pretty much as country as zac brown band's all-important fiddle.

awards: mumford + sons was nominated for the best new artist grammy in 2010, the same award the zac brown band WON in 2009.

cool collabs: mumford + sons acted as bob dylan's backing band when he performed at the 2011 grammies, and james taylor performed with the zac brown band on the band's hit "colder weather" at the 2011 acm awards.

moment of truth:
mumford + sons

Little Lion Man at emp3

zac brown band

As She's Walking Away at emp3