"Chicken-Fried" Parrotheads Are Birds of a Feather

Jimmy Buffett fans don't need to grab their flip-flops or mix their margaritas for this. All they need to do is sit back and relax and watch their favorite singer come together with Zac Brown Band for their upcoming CMT Crossroads. It doesn't air until March 2010 but it is taping next month in Nashville [...]

Tim McGraw Says He Appreciates Strong Women

Sandra Bullock. Faith Hill. It doesn't matter who she is, Tim McGraw just wants to be around women who rule. In his new movie, The Blind Side, Bullock plays his wife who takes charge of every situation. McGraw tells Parade.com that he was at home with that. "In our family, my wife Faith Hill is [...]

Reckless Kelly Wins in Nashville

Winning and losing isn't something that usually comes to mind when thinking about music, but the guys in Reckless Kelly say that sometimes at the end of a concert you get one feeling or the other from a crowd. They definitely won Thursday night (Nov. 19) at Nashville's Exit/In. Opened by Scott Miller, the show [...]

"A Country Christmas" Sparkles in Nashville

Though it's not even quite Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but feel the Christmas spirit last night (Nov. 19) as my husband and I stood outside Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel. We were sipping hot apple cider and waiting anxiously with hundreds of others gathered to witness the ceremonial lighting of more than two million sparkling lights. [...]

Charlie Daniels Spreads the Christmas Cheer

Charlie Daniels is already spreading the good tidings of Christmas. First of all, he's released a new holiday album, Joy to the World: A Bluegrass Christmas, with guests like Jewel, Kathy Mattea and Aaron Tippin, as well as Suzanne and Evelyn Cox, the Grascals and Dan Tyminski. Instead of a duets project, Daniels lets the [...]

Jaron Lowenstein Offers a Prayer for Your Ex

If you have fans, you have everything. Yes, record labels and money and relationships help but this is a story about how the fans matter the most. Take this guy, Jaron Lowenstein. Never heard of him? Me neither, until I heard some radio people talking (OK, Facebooking) about his new song, "Pray for You," saying [...]

Miranda Lambert Wants Heroes to Hear Revolution

I've loved Miranda Lambert's music since day one so this kind of shocked me: She told The Tennessean newspaper that her latest album is the one she would hand out to her heroes. She said, "The fact that Patty Loveless knows my music at all, that made me really pumped. This is the first time [...]

What Would Be Your Perfect Set List?

Let me preface this entry by saying that I love, love, love country concerts. I do wish, however, that an artist would ask me for advice just once on making the perfect set list. I know these artists have to do their big hits -- the ones everybody is paying big bucks to hear. And [...]

Lady Antebellum's Sales Run After CMA Awards

If you've ever wondered what performing on the CMA Awards would do for your career, I have three words: triple digit spikes. That's what happened for Lady Antebellum, Sugarland and Jamey Johnson. After winning two awards and performing the snowy "Need You Now," Lady Antebellum had their biggest sales week ever and a 130 percent [...]

John Fogerty's Determination Pays Off on Guitar

Some of my earliest memories of really connecting with music come from a Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle Vol. 1: The 20 Greatest Hits CD that my mother owned, and usually it started with a guitar lick. The riffs that John Fogerty wrote with Creedence were so iconic and natural that I never gave any thought [...]