Archive for February, 2007
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Billboard has published their annual list – 2007 Billboard Money Makers, which is bewilderingly titled, given the rankings are completely based on 2006 album sales, digital sales and concert ticket sales. Here are the top twenty money makers, which is all the magazine lists, along with their total money made. Country artists are in bold and italics. (Note: Totals don’t include songwriting royalties, and album sales include all units moved of the artist’s entire catalog during the calendar year, not just current releases that are on the charts.)
- The Rolling Stones ($234.1 million)
- Madonna ($175.1 million)
- Bon Jovi ($103.2 million)
- Tim McGraw ($102.6 million)
- U2 ($94.5 million)
- Rascal Flatts ($87.1 million)
- Faith Hill ($83.1 million)
- Kenny Chesney ($75.9 million)
- Celine Dion ($70 million)
- Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘Delirium’ ($69.9 million)
- Barbra Streisand ($67.2 million)
- Nickelback ($60.1 million)
- Billy Joel ($58.8 million)
- Aerosmith ($54 million)
- Elton John ($49.4 million)
- Dave Matthews Band ($48.4 million)
- Johnny Cash ($48 million)
- Dixie Chicks ($46.9 million)
- Red Hot Chili Peppers ($46 million)
- Andrea Bocelli ($42.1 million)
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
I can understand people feeling a sense of deja vu at the 2007 Grammy Awards, particularly country fans, as Vince Gill, Dixie Chicks, Ricky Skaggs and Randy Travis won again in the categories they’ve dominated in recent years. But nobody repeated history quite like Carrie Underwood with her two wins that night. If you weren’t paying close attention, you might’ve thought it was 1997 all over again:
2007 Grammy Awards
Carrie Underwood wins Best New Artist and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female for “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” She is eligible for but shut out of the Best Country Album category. “Jesus, Take the Wheel” wins Best Country Song for its writers, Brett James, Hillary Lindsey & Gordie Sampson. They are also nominated in the general Song of the Year category but lose to “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
1997 Grammy Awards
LeAnn Rimes wins Best New Artist and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female for “Blue.” She is eligible for but shut out of the Best Country Album category. “Blue” wins Best Country Song for its writer, Bill Mack. He is also nominated in the general Song of the Year category but loses to “Change the World.”
If Carrie decides to release the same song as Trisha Yearwood to country radio later this year, then we’re officially in a time warp, people.
Regarding the Grammy Awards page, I’ll be updating the category histories with the 2007 winners and posting a historical list of the top country Grammy winners to make the page a more useful resource between award show seasons. Once that’s up – hopefully by the end of the weekend, but you know my history with arbitrary deadlines – that’ll be it for the Grammys until the next nominee announcement in December, and coverage will shift to…the ACM’s. That’s what happens when you cover the genre of music that gets this much primetime network award show exposure every year!
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Via The 9513, here’s a quote from Loretta Lynn about country music today:
“It’s hard for me to watch what goes on today, knowing how it started. I think what bothers me mostly is the stuff they get by with. You can hear ‘em put a record out, and it’s absolutely not what it should be. But it gets played, and as long as they get played it’s gonna keep happening. A lot of ‘em don’t have the songs. When I started, you had to have the song. It didn’t matter how good you sang it; it was the song.”
Country Universe’s first discussion question is an interesting one. Is Loretta right about country music today? Are the current hits being sold by the singer rather than the song? If true, is that a bad thing?
Talk about it, readers!
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Few mainstream music publications are as inclusive of country music as Blender, an upstart music magazine that is refreshingly lacking in reverence but always demonstrates a wide scope of knowledge about country music. Feature stories that include country music have been covered here before, when the ‘zine named The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born and The Wussiest Songs & Artists of All-Time.
Here are some more recent Blender features that either included or emphasized country music:
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
Lance Miller, “She Really Loves Me”
First off, I love his voice. He’s got a John Conlee style with a twist of Haggard thrown in for good measure. Second, it’s a darn good song. Clever and corny in a way that only good country music can be both, he’s cautiously optimistic that his wife is giving him more time with his friends because she’s finally accepting him for who he is, but also suspects “I’m getting all this rope because she no longer gives a damn.”
Cool record. I want to hear more from him.
Grade: A-
Listen Now: She Really Loves Me
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
Lee Brice, “She Ain’t Right”
“God shook His head the day he built her”, he sings, and it’s all downhill from there. Brad Paisley has some competition in the backhanded love song category.
Come to think of it, this is just Clay Walker’s “She’s Always Right” rewritten with more forced attitude – the girl’s a badass instead of a dumbass, but same basic song.
Grade: D
Listen : She Ain’t Right
Buy: She Ain’t Right
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
Nary a month ago, I reported with mixed feelings that Sony BMG was reissuing three Dolly Parton albums from the 1970′s – Jolene, Coat of Many Colors and My Tennesee Mountain Home – with bonus tracks. The first two have been reissued on CD before, and while Mountain home hasn’t been issued domestically, it was paired with Jolene on a 2-for-1 CD in England. Even better, Coat was paired with Joshua, another Parton classic that hasn’t seen release stateside.
I have two issues with this that I’ll revisit again, if you don’t feel like clicking through to my original rant:
1. Dolly Parton’s albums are short enough to be able to fit two on one CD, so even with bonus tracks, a full-price CD that runs thirty minutes or so is a waste.
and
2. With so much of this legend’s catalog not currently available, it’s ridiculous to be doling out unreleased tracks before the ones that were actually released.
So what do I discover while working on the Coming Soon feature today?
The U.K. branch of BMG is releasing six(!) Dolly Parton albums on three CD’s on March 8, none of which have been reissued on CD to date:
All I Can Do/New Harvest…First Gathering
Great Balls of Fire/Dolly, Dolly, Dolly
Burlap & Satin/Real Love
That’s right. Six albums, three CD’s, one release date. Even taking into account that these are imports, Amazon’s charging $13.99 per CD. That works out to $7.00 per album, which is an awesome deal. Compare that to the $11.98 that the new set of Dolly reissues in the U.S. are going for, even though they have only one album per CD, and you can figure out why I’m so frustrated. Sure, they’re Dolly’s pop-era albums, but I’d rather buy her lesser albums that I don’t have than spend twelve bucks for a classic I already own to get one bonus track.
Let me be clear. When I’m a fan, I’m a fan. The artists that I like, I want to own everything of. For the artists that I grew up with, that’s pretty easy. Even though some of those albums have gone out of print, I bought them when they came out, and used CD’s from the nineties are easy to find. I even found a way to get Above & Beyond the Doll of Cutey transferred to CD – I’m willing to bet I have more music by Pam Tillis than she does.
But as for the legends before my time? You can’t even find the vinyl cheap anymore, and you shouldn’t have to. Digital distribution has removed barriers. The limitations of vinyl and cassette and compact disc and manufacturing are all gone. With country sales and record sales in general in the crapper, now is the time for labels to tend to their catalog in a meaningful way, rather than just selling us the same old thing with a bonus track or two.
There’s a great debate going on over at The 9513 regarding the uselesness of hits collections with new tracks, and I think it’s just as relevant when dealing with reissues. Music is too accessible now for consumers to settle for music they already own in a nice new package. Give me something worth my money, or I’m going to spend it somewhere else. That my Dolly dollars are going to London instead of Nashville shows just how much the U.S. labels are screwing up their own catalog management.
Monday, February 19th, 2007
I couldn’t help but think about how sour grapes can turn into whine when I read this news bit, via City Girl, Country Girl:
Rascal Flatts used their concert in Baltimore on Thursday to take some pot-shots at the Dixie Chicks, who won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year (for which Rascal Flatts was also nominated). The Baltimore Sun reports:
Lead singer Gary LeVox cattily sang the title of the Chicks’ hit “Not Ready to Make Nice” then made a disgusted face.
“The difference is that we love country music,” he said, and the packed house roared.
“How many people were here the last time they were here?” asked bassist Jay DeMarcus. “Oh, the both of you.”
The jokes are easy enough to make. Hell, Country Nation already made the best one, responding to LeVox’s passionate declaration of love for country music: “You should try singing it sometime.” I have trouble even taking seriously the musings of a man who changed his last name to LeVox because it was French for “the voice.”
But the more I thought about it, the more sad the whole situation seemed to me. Here is this band that should be on top of the world. They had the top-selling album last year, ticket sales are brisk, they’re raking in the CMA and ACM and CMT awards. Radio can’t play enough of them. Why be bitter about losing at the Grammys? Heck, you got to sing some Eagles classics with Don Henley himself in the audience. How many kids dream of growing up to be music stars, wishing to be as successful as Rascal Flatts is right now?
Maybe it was reading it at the Dolly Parton of country music blogs, but it reminded me of something Parton wrote in her 1994 autobiography, My Life and Other Unfinished Business:
I have always found it true that the more real talent a person has, the more secure he is in that talent and the less likely he is to be a jerk. Most of the tantrums people throw don’t really come out of anger with others as much as from an insecurity within themselves. Some of the nicest, genuinely warmest people I have dealt with have been those with the greatest talent and success. And some of the biggest jerks have been people on the perimeter of success who have bluffed their way to where they are.
I felt kinda bad for Rascal Flatts when they were invited to announce the Grammy nominations, but ended up listening to the Dixie Chicks rack up the noms in one category after another as they scored only one nomination. But after this rant, I wish to kindly remind the boys that they were lucky to be in that category in the first place. Not only did the Chicks give a better performance, but so did The Wreckers, Little Big Town and The Duhks. If they hadn’t sold so many records, I doubt their Mark Wills cover would’ve gotten even the one nod that it did. After their debacle of a performance of “Hotel California”, I doubt they ever have to worry about gracing a Grammy stage again.
Rascal Flatts, your success has already wildly exceeded your actual talent. You might want to keep your eyes pointed toward the ground and keep your complaints to yourself. Given the actual quality of your music, you should be grateful that anybody is listening to you at all.
Hat Tip: The Widening Geier, for inspiring the title of the post.
Saturday, February 17th, 2007
When I was in ninth grade, I ditched Social Studies class to go get Kathy Mattea’s autograph at the WYNY station office in midtown Manhattan, a good year or two before they switched from country to dance music. Three weeks later, I picked up Country Weekly – you know, back when it was weekly – for some light reading on the train ride back to Queens.
The feature story: “Kathy Mattea Takes Manhattan.” The guy standing to her left as she signs her page on a tacky country music stars anthology book: me.
Thirteen years later, I’m still having those WTF? moments, though nowadays it’s just when I’m smacked with the realization that people are actually reading this blog. Usually we just get comments about how wrong I am about the latest crappy country single being crappy, but today Paul and I have collectively been deemed: The Roger Miller of Country Music Blogs!
Why Miller? For my remarkable wit and musical genius, of course. Oh, and because I cover the Grammys and he won a lot of them. Okay, fine, just for that last reason. I’ll take what I can get!
Thanks for the shoutout, 9513! Now y’all head on over to read the rest of the list. There are some incredible sites out there, some of which I’d never read before but are now on my blogroll. Now excuse me while I go and brag about knowing Dolly Parton back when she was just starting out.
Saturday, February 17th, 2007
Big & Rich, “Lost In This Moment”
This doesn’t sound like Big & Rich at all, as we’ve come to know them. John Rich is singing out front, there’s nothing off-beat going on. Just a killer mid-tempo wedding ballad. They just sound like a fantastic country duo. I’d be disappointed in how conventional this was if they didn’t knock it out of the ballpark anyway. I can see this becoming a huge hit.
Grade: B+
Listen Now: Lost In This Moment
Buy Now: Lost In This Moment
More Big & Rich:
Best Country Singles of 2006
100 Greatest Contemporary Country Albums: #100-#91
Top Twelve Debut Albums
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