While a parade of nineties stars grabbed the headlines around him, Strait was quietly making fantastic music. Lead On was one of the strongest studio albums of his career, and produced four big chart hits; any one of the remaining six tracks could have found success at radio, as well. Strait would follow this up with a box set, and then his next two studio albums would win Album of the Year at the CMA’s. This album is better than those two award-winning sets.
RIAA: 2x Platinum
Download This:“Lead On”, “I Met a Friend of Yours Today”, “Adalida”
Olivia Newton-John
North Fork Theatre Westbury, NY
November 8, 2006
Since returning to regular touring in 1998 after an eighteen-year hiatus, Olivia Newton-John has been performing internationally every year. As one of the most popular recording artists of the 1970′s and early 1980′s, Newton-John scored dozens of top forty hits, including five #1 singles, and hit the top ten of the country charts seven times. Today, she’s most fondly remembered for her signature role in the film Grease, but that high-water mark in her career came after many successful years as a pop-country artist, and was followed by many more hits on the pop parade.
Since Newton-John has been writing and recording more frequently in the past few years, and she visits mostly the same venues every year, her challenge is two-fold: to keep the set list varied enough to keep the returning fans from being bored, and to do justice to all phases of her successful career, while still making room for the new music she has been creating. At her performance at Westbury this year, she accomplished both of those difficult tasks.
Opening with “Pearls On A Chain”, the first track from her new spiritual record, Grace and Gratitude, Newton-John showed her confidence in her latest work; previous tours have opened with one of her signature hits. The audience seemed somewhat familiar with the new material, and her clearly evident sincerity won them over quickly. She moved right into her #1 pop single “Have You Never Been Mellow”. She still hit those high, breathy notes without breaking a sweat, and the casual fan sitting next to me lit up with warm recognition, now that Newton-John was singing a song that most AM radio listeners know by heart.
I knew it must be bad when the pop stations in New York City were chattering about Faith Hill being a sore loser at the CMA’s. CMT has even written a remarkably serious news story about the controversy. Am I the only one who could tell she was kidding? I laughed my ass off when she did her obviously tongue-in-cheek diva reaction to not winning. She’s going out of her way to play to the camera:
The idea that Faith, who has lost far more at the CMA’s than she’s won, would suddenly be sensitive to not winning this year, and have such an over-the-top reaction to losing, is beyond ridiculous. Part of the problem is that the camera moved away quickly, so the audience couldn’t see any follow-up, but she is clearly laughing and then putting on a performance for the camera. There must be something better to talk about post-CMA than this inflated controversy. Perhaps the dire need for a balancing out of the BMG vote?
Update (4:50 pm): Faith has responded to the silly controversy.
10:58 Yeesh, you guys shattered the daily traffic record for this site in three measly hours. I need to live blog more often. Let’s end with watching B&D once again not know how to fill up the dead time.
10:54 Kenny came back to win it again. He deserves it, too.
10:52 She’s even wearing the dress they buried her in.
10:48 Wow, they’ve defrosted Barbara Mandrell so she can give out Entertainer of the Year.
10:46 Vince just showed how it’s supposed to be done. Everyone else looks like amateurs now.
10:44 You’re right, Kix. You guys have made him look better the past three years. Hopefully viewers will go get the Vince 4-CD set that just came out. This is one of the best songs on it.
10:41 Don’t be sad, Brad. You just won Album!
10:39 In case you’re wondering, Carrie’s the fourth artist in history to win their vocal award plus horizon in the same year: Last three were Ricky Skaggs (Horizon and ‘Male 82), Alison Krauss (Horizon and Female ’95) and Dixie Chicks (Horizon and Vocal Group ’98)
10:35 Carrie says this is the best night of her life. That’ll get the naysayers in her corner!
10:34 Carrie Underwood! Ha! Did you see Faith do the fake outrage bit?
Here are our final predictions and comments on the 2006 CMA Awards, which airs live on ABC at 8 Eastern/7 Central on Monday, Nov. 7. Check back at the beginning of the show for live-blogging throughout the night!
Musical Event
“Building Bridges” – Brooks & Dunn with Sheryl Crow & Vince Gill
“Like We Never Loved At All” – Faith Hill with Tim McGraw
“Politically Uncorrect” – Gretchen Wilson with Merle Haggard
“When I Get Where I’m Going” – Brad Paisley with Dolly Parton
“Who Says You Can’t Go Home” – Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles
Paul Will Win: Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles
Should Win: Brad Paisley with Dolly Parton Comments: Three very strong nominees, qualitatively I would regard Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles as worthy winners, as would be Gretchen Wilson with Merle Haggard. I suspect that ten years from now the Paisley-Parton collaboration will be venerated.
Kevin Will Win: Brad Paisley with Dolly Parton Should Win:Faith Hill with Tim McGraw Comments:Paisley has won in this category twice before, and partnering with a Hall-of-Famer on a #1 single makes for a shoo-in victory.Parton does her best to sweeten up musical white bread, but the record still sounds lifeless to me.The fireworks on the Hill/McGraw collaboration will have me still listening to that record twenty years from now.
Since Newton-John has been writing and recording more frequently in the past few years, and she visits mostly the same venues every year, her challenge is two-fold: to keep the set list varied enough to keep the returning fans from being bored, and to do justice to all phases of her successful career, while still making room for the new music she has been creating. At her performance at Westbury this year, she accomplished both of those difficult tasks.
Here are our final predictions and comments on the 2006 CMA Awards, which airs live on ABC at 8 Eastern/7 Central on Monday, Nov. 7. Check back at the beginning of the show for live-blogging throughout the night!
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