I am soo glad that Reba is having sucess now with her duets album, I hope that “Every Other Weekend” becomes another Reba smash! Now that she has such a bigger audience I hope her next studio album (hope its released in 2009!) will become an even bigger hit (and i hope Reba makes an album that is as good as or better than “What If It’s You” and “For My Broken Heart”!!!!!

Which is a shame, really, as Family and Heaven, etc. are easily two of the best mainstream country albums of the last year, Yearwood’s record, in particular. If radio play were actually any gauge of real quality, at least half of the tracks on that album would be top 10 singles. But I have a hard time seeing how even a masterpiece like “The Dreaming Fields” goes any higher than top 25, which seems to be the current ceiling for Yearwood’s airplay. It’s tempting to cite something like Sugarland’s “Stay” as an example of how radio programmers will occasionally make a good decision even when it runs counter to current trends, but Sugarland has been one of radio’s A-list acts for a solid three years now so they already have an “in” that an artist like Yearwood no longer has.

Unrelatedly: Emmylou Harris’s album was released on June 10, not April 1, unless there was a digital-only pre-release that I wasn’t aware of. And I love that she’s outselling the bearkiller.

I also agree that radio, on rare occasions, will break from its own short-minded template. But I’m afraid that the very people who would connect so deeply with this song and push it to great commerical heights have already abandoned country radio due to its current nature.

Anything to boost Trisha’s commercial profile would be A-OK in my book.

While I have been a long time appreciator of George Strait, I don’t see that he warrants the constant, repetitive airplay he gets. It’s as if it’s automatic that whatever he puts out, it’s played… and played. Pretty much the same for Alan and B&D.

All that to say that for a female to get such guaranteed placement, she has to have a song out that is just off the charts… literally. Reba (w/Kelly), Martina (“Anyway”), Lee Ann Womack (“I hope you dance”), LeAnn Rimes (“How do I live”) all showed that for a female to get played consistently, they basically have to have a crossover hit. Carrie and Taylor as well but with more than a single recent song.
Country music is definitely still a good ole boys club.

LeAnn Rimes is an interesting artist. She was wildly popular when she was not making the best albums. Now her albums are better, but she is not as popular. However, because her career started when she was so young, she is still young enough to make a commercial comeback. Perhaps all the greatness predicted for LeAnn is yet ahead for her.

When the country boom of the early 90’s was in full swing one of the complaints was country radio never played any older artists new material. Well that seems to still be the case. Of the all artists who debuted before 1992 (as Trisha Yearwood did) it seems only George Strait, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Brooks & Dunn are getting any kind of radio play for new material.

It may be that radio has just decided that of all the older artists (yes, these are now the older artists), George, Alan, Reba, Garth, and B & D are the only one who will get new material played a great deal. It may not matter how good her material is or how hard Big Machine pushes her, radio may simply have decided Trisha Yearwood’s time has past.