FeaturesFeatures:2009-04-15T20:13:40ZCopyright (c) 2009, Greg CurryExpressionEnginetag:thecornernews.com,2009:04:15Julianne Hough: Living Her Dreamtag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.64042009-04-15T17:31:39Z2009-04-15T20:13:40ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
“I’ve always wanted to sing country music,” Hough says. “I’ve grown up with country music. I love how real everybody is, not just the artists, but the fans.”
Hough was born in Utah. When her parents separated, she was 10-years-old, she threw herself into dancing. She soon took the opportunity to study performing arts in London. After five years, Hough decided that she wanted to pursue music back in the U.S.
“I really wanted to sing and I knew if I stayed in London, I wouldn’t be able to do that,” Hough says. “I would only be dancing, so I had to make a really tough decision.” -
“‘Do I stay here and pursue a career that I know I’m going to succeed at? Or do I go back home, start from scratch and pursue what I really want to do?’ A lot of people told me that I was crazy and that I’d never make it.”
Hough moved to Los Angeles, knowing she could earn her living as a dancer while pursuing her musical dreams. She then started making trips to Nashville on her time off where she met producer David Malloy. The two recorded “Will You Dance With Me” for an American Red Cross fundraising project that benefited Kansas tornado victims.
“It was so amazing,” Hough says of the experience. “The song received quite a reaction on iTunes and peaked at number eight on their country charts despite never being released to radio.”
Hough then landed a deal with UMGN and a spot on the Mercury Nashville roster, which also represents Hough’s influences, Reba McEntire and Shania Twain. Her self-titled debut album was released in May 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard Country Album chart and number three on the Billboard 200.
Hough’s debut is a collection of songs about the joys and challenges of everyday life.
“I love story songs and message songs,” Hough says, referring to the songs on the album. “But I also love quirky, fun, up-tempo songs that make you want to just get up and move.”
Hough sites the song “Help Me, Help You” as one of her favorite songs on the album.
“That’s a message song and it’s pretty intense,” she says. “It’s about a girl who is trying to help her friend who is an alcoholic. It says what I’d want to say to a friend in trouble.”
Hough recently received an American Country Music award for “Top New Artist.” Hough says that she is right where she wants to be.
“I was scared that people would say, ‘Just because she got a little bit of recognition on the TV show, she thinks she can make a record,’ ” she says. “But I’ve been wanting to do this a long, long time and I hope the music speaks for itself.”
]]>Rodney Atkins: Living His Dreamtag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.64032009-04-15T17:16:38Z2009-04-15T17:26:39ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
“I just didn’t know that it was really possible,” Atkins says.
Then Atkins sang in church in elementary school and it ended up being his first paying gig.
“The woman who played organ at church, Ms. Bebe Campbell, gave me two dollars,” Atkins says. “She said I did a good job, and made good grades on my report card. So I got $2.”
Atkins’s musical journey began as a sick infant. He was adopted twice and was brought back to the orphanage where he once lived because the burden of caring for the sick baby was so great. Then Allan and Margaret Atkins took him in.
“From what I understand, I became more sick than I had ever been during that time,” Atkins says. “But it just never crossed their mind to take me back.”
Atkins grew up to be healthy and learned to play guitar in high school. Soon after he headed off to college, he began making regular trips performing in Nashville.
Atkins credits Garth Brooks as a huge inspiration for him.
“He made me get how music could be magic,” Atkins says. “He really made me see how it could touch folks’ lives.”
Atkins was soon signed to Curb Records and debuted his first album, “Honesty,” in 2003. Atkins had a hit single with the song “Honesty (Write Me a List).”
In 2006, Atkins released his second album, “If You’re Going Through Hell,” and had two hits with “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows),” and “Watching You.”
“I think the songs on the ‘Going Through Hell’ album are life songs,” Atkins says about the success of that album. “They are songs about real life and it wasn’t an attempt for me to be cool or hip. I think there are a lot of folks who live lives pretty similar to mine. I think they are intelligent songs about everyday things. They are songs about celebrating life and the struggles in life – good and the bad.”
On March 31, Atkins released his most recent album, “It’s America.” The album’s title track has already hit the top of the charts.
“We pushed the envelope groove-wise on some of the songs and tried some different things lyrically a little bit, but it’s still pretty consistent with what we did before,” Atkins says of the new album. “That’s part of being an artist. You don’t try to trick people, but you occasionally might color outside the norm of what you do. But this is the territory I sing about and this is what people expect. My family and I are just regular folks, just trying to get through the day and do the best you can and pay the bills, and that’s who we’re singing to.”
Atkins has toured with Brooks & Dunn, Martina McBride, and Brad Paisley, and is currently headlining his own tour taking him coast to coast in 2009.
He has earned the Academy of Country Music’s “Top New Male Vocalist” award, plus five other ACM nominations and two Country Music Association nominations.
Atkins said that he’s looking forward to performing at Sticks.
“It’s always a good time. Everybody just hanging out, singing along – it’s always fun,” he says. “It’s just great to get to come out, with folks camping, hanging out, everybody listening to music all day long.”
]]>Whiskey Fallstag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63662009-04-15T05:45:19Z2009-04-15T05:47:20ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
Having musical influences that range from The Eagles, Alabama, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Cash, U2 and Queen, just to name a few, their “Cala-Bama” music – which they describe as “Hotel California” meets “Sweet Home Alabama” – certainly caught the ears of many record labels in Nashville.
Seven Williams and Wally Brandt began making music together early on in their youth and eventually became proud co-founders of We 3 Kings – an acclaimed film and television music production company out of California. They soon found themselves back and forth to Nashville where they teamed up with some of the town’s top writers including Don Schlitz (“The Gambler”), Frank Meyers (“I Swear”) and Stephanie Bentley (“Concrete Angel”). Raised on the music of the South – Gospel, Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Southern Rock – Buck Johnson grew up singing gospel music with his family. Years later he ventured into the world of songwriting where he found a new level of success when Carlos Santana recorded “Just Feel Better” – a tune which Buck wrote with now bandmate Damon Johnson. Damon, who grew up playing Merle Haggard and Hank Jr., knew from an early age to be as diverse as possible when it comes to music. That paid off for him throughout his musical career, particularly as the singer, songwriter and guitarist for southern rock band Brother Cane.
After taking the suggestion of a mutual friend, Buck and Damon, who knew each other from the Birmingham music scene, met up with Seven and Wally in California where the four were introduced.
When they heard the blend of their voices, they knew they were sitting on something bigger than life.
“It was magical and we felt it,” Seven says. “A lot of times we say it is like singing in one breath when we sing together. There’s something very similar in the way that our tones and voices kind of match.”
With no record label involved, Whiskey Falls, named after a national park in northern California, began writing and recording their songs with no intentions but to record the music pouring from their hearts. After seeing the band perform live as unsigned artists at an industry event, independent label Midas Records signed Whiskey Falls and put them on the road only three days later.
]]>Mark Chesnutttag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63652009-04-15T05:43:13Z2009-04-15T05:45:14ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
Country music reviewers and fans alike need look no further when it comes to Country music basics. If you ask Mark Chesnutt he’ll tell you, “It’s the music and the fans that have kept me around this long.” In a world that sometimes confuses style with substance, Mark Chesnutt possesses both. Remaining true to himself as a traditional country artist while keeping the pace with the ever-changing country recording landscape, Mark Chesnutt has a knack for picking great songs, delivering them with his world-class vocals with real heart-felt emotion. Mark has set the bar for his generation. Mark Chesnutt’s personal integrity as well as his principal to record a genuine country song has made him a fixture on radio and in the honky tonks.
]]>Craig Morgantag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63642009-04-15T05:40:46Z2009-04-15T05:42:47ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
But THAT’S WHY Morgan is one of country music’s most beloved performers. It doesn’t matter if he’s jumping out of airplanes, putting gallon jugs on a refrigerated shelf or singing hits like “Redneck
Yacht Club,” “Almost Home” and “Tough”—his honesty, humility and work ethic stand out as strongly as his talent. THAT’S WHY, the long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s Little Bit of Life, is Morgan’s
fifth album and BNA Records debut. From the evocative and instantly familiar single “Love Remembers” to the rural rally cry of “Sticks” to the church-choir epic “Ordinary Angels,” it’s the sound of an artist soaring to new heights as both a vocalist and songwriter, but with his steel-toed boots still firmly on the ground (the same cannot be said, however, for the tires of his Kawasaki motorbike). As Music Row’s Bob Oermann wrote, “Craig Morgan is country music’s champion of the Everyman—a loyal husband and father, unblushingly sentimental, tough enough to kick your butt if you cross him, and the kind of friend everyone would like to have.”
More information at rodneyatkins.com
]]>Gretchen Wilsontag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63622009-04-15T05:34:15Z2009-04-15T05:36:16ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
"The reason I've been successful is that I've been genuine from the get-go," she says, "and I continue to try to do that. I'm an open book."
It helps that the identity she wears so guilelessly is one that resonates strongly with fans of country and Southern rock--the independent, take-no-guff, hard-working and hard-partying country woman. Gretchen's ability to inhabit that persona publicly, as well as her flair for tailoring songs as gorgeously rough-edged as she is, have given her the kind of "I am what I sing" originality few women in country music history--Loretta, Tammy, Dolly and Tanya chief among them--have ever been able to achieve.
Set as it was within the broader scope of the Muzik Mafia, a talented and audaciously original ensemble, and like-minded entertainers from Kid Rock to Hank Jr., her rise was part of a genuine musical and cultural groundswell. Her first single, "Redneck Woman," spent six weeks at #1; her debut album, Here For The Party, sold more than five million copies; she won across-the-board awards including a Grammy and ACM, CMA and AMA nods for best female vocalist; and she toured to large and raucous crowds around the world.
Her second CD, All Jacked Up, rode enthusiastic reviews to platinum status as Gretchen's accomplishments continued to stack up.
Over the last three years, she has been featured on “60 Minutes,” “Dateline NBC,” “20/20 Primetime” and CNN’s “People In The News,” and she has appeared on virtually every morning, noon and late-night television show on the air. Magazine covers and major news features could paper an entire wall.
Such is her cross-medium viability that her first book, the autobiographical “Redneck Woman: Stories from My Life,” landed her on the prestigious New York Times Best Seller List.
Now, with the release of her third album, One Of The Boys, Gretchen Wilson solidifies her position as one of contemporary country's most original and multi-faceted female artists, a woman in whom ambition and ability come together in every aspect of her career.
]]>Adam Grant & Robert E.tag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63612009-04-15T05:32:04Z2009-04-15T05:34:05ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.comrandaproductions.wetpaint.com
]]>Shenandoahtag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63602009-04-15T05:26:47Z2009-04-15T05:28:48ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
More information at shenandoahband.com
]]>Granger Smithtag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63592009-04-15T05:24:38Z2009-04-15T05:26:39ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
"Music is what I do" says Smith. "If I can help someone get lost in the moment of a song long enough to forget the worries of the world or long enough to remember what's most important, then I've done my job." Granger's musical contributions are not limited to the exotic travels or remote locations. Since his early teens, the native Texan has been writing, singing and honing his craft as a musician. At 19, his work paid off by landing him a deal with EMI Music Publishing in Nashville. Smith, a former member of the Cors of Cadets at Texas A&M, followed his dream on what would be a five year stay in Tennessee. "That experience at 19 years old was critical in developing who I am today as an artist," says Granger. "I tried to soad in the craft of songwriting like a sponge from the older guys I was paired with. I credit so much of my learning to those mentors."
Granger is an adept presence both on the stage and through the speaker, and with the continued rise of popularity will soon be seen and heard throughout America. However, the imminent question must be asked: Is the world ready for Granger Smith?
]]>Chuck Wickstag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63582009-04-15T05:18:25Z2009-04-15T05:20:26ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
Though he recently began taking the country format by storm with his hit debut single, “Stealing Cinderella,” Wicks spent several years paying his dues by parking cars and writing songs. He developed his craft, apprenticing with some of the top songwriters on Music Row. That hard work pays off on “Starting Now,” Wicks’ RCA Records debut, which showcases the depth of his artistry as a vocalist and songwriter. “If it wasn’t for the Music Row community and a lot of the songwriters around town, there’s no way I would be where I’m at now,” says Wicks, who wrote or co-wrote every song on his debut album, except one.
Growing up on his family’s farm in Smyrna, Delaware, Wicks immersed himself in a variety of music from traditional country to R&B and cites a diverse array of influences, among them Alan Jackson, Kenny Rogers and Brian McKnight. As much as he loved music, he really didn’t give much thought to making it a career. Like many young men, sports dominated his world, and he dreamed of being a professional baseball player. He moved south to attend Florida Southern College and play baseball, but it was during his senior year that the desire to play music began eclipsing his athletic aspirations.
“My passion for country music just kind of took over and I learned about Nashville,” recalls Wicks, who began performing during college. “I decided to take a couple of trips there and figure out how to get into music. I quit college two classes short of graduation and ended up getting a development deal on RCA.”
Long on desire and talent, but short on experience, the timing just wasn’t right, and that initial development deal didn’t lead to an album. As Wicks would learn, it takes so much more than talent to achieve success in the country music arena. If good looks and a great voice were the only ingredients necessary to launch a career, small town America wouldn’t be littered with the broken dreams of every aspiring artist who gave up and went home.
]]>Ashton Shepardtag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63572009-04-15T05:10:49Z2009-04-15T05:17:50ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
The pure, clear, country voice of Ashton Shepherd lilts through the evening air in Leroy from a place called The Pickin’ Shed. It’s a cabin behind her house situated on seven acres of cropland. After the day’s chores are over, she and her husband and her brother-in-law break out their guitars and fill the Shed with songs.
And what songs they are. Ashton Shepherd writes in a style that is as refreshing and direct as her personality. You won’t hear many “kiss-off” songs with more sass and attitude than “Takin’ Off This Pain.” Her bell-like voice chimes with innocence on the charming rural celebration “Sounds So Good.” She’s a feisty, fun country gal on the loose “I Like Being Single” and “Not Right Now.” “Old Memory That Don’t Remember Me” and “Whiskey Won the Battle” are classic-sounding “weeper” ballads that could have been written a generation ago.
Her moods range from a touching story song like “How Big Are Angel Wings” to a fiery hillbilly rocker like “The Bigger the Heart, the Harder They Fall.” The drenched-in-steel love ballad “Lost in You” contrasts beautifully with her striking, woman-to-woman saga “Regular Joe.” Her beloved “Pickin’ Shed” is the subject of one particularly friendly ditty, and her powerful housewife lyric “I Ain’t Dead Yet” is another page from her autobiography.
All of these potent tunes are on Sounds So Good, the debut Ashton Shepherd album from MCA Nashville. All of them were written before she turned 21.
“This is what I was born to do,” says Ashton in her honey-smooth, deep-Alabama accent. “I’ve always been singing, but it didn’t come from me. I didn’t just teach myself to sing. I’ve always sung. The songwriting is the same. As soon as I was big enough to write on paper, I was coming up with stuff. I’ve got notebooks where I was writing down songs when I couldn’t even spell correctly, from the time I was five, six, seven years old.”
The words come spilling out of her in a chatty rush. Ashton has an open-hearted candor that is instantly endearing. She speaks exactly like the country girl she has always been.
]]>Julianne Houghtag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63562009-04-15T05:03:44Z2009-04-15T05:09:45ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
A triple threat as a singer, actress and dancer, Julianne is already known to millions of fans as the two-time professional dance champion on ABC-TV’s top-rated Dancing with the Stars (DWTS). The show, which pairs professional dancers with music, sports, film and television celebrities, has become a cultural phenomenon and Julianne its top star.
Though Julianne has been winning world dance titles since her early teens, her ultimate goal has always been a career in country music. Her newly signed deal with Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) is providing her the vehicle to realize that dream. “I’ve always wanted to sing country music,” says the 19 year-old blonde. “I’ve grown up with country music. I love how real everybody is, not just the artists, but the fans.”
]]>Jason Michael Carrolltag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63552009-04-15T04:28:30Z2009-04-15T04:57:31ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
But to look at the rangy 29-year-old is to see a twinkle in the eye of a kid who could be just as at home on a surf or skateboard, a bit of mischief and kicked-back cool that says suburban sprawl and good times found where they fall.
Carroll not only isn’t afraid of the contradictions, he leans into them with a freewheeling abandon. To listen to the thump’n’bump of “Waitin’ in the Country,” with its great big, descending bass-line and big-flanged electric guitars; the chuggingly insistent “I Can Sleep When I’m Dead,” with its turbo-diesel chording; or the romping, universal whirl of “Anywhere USA,” with its sawing fiddles and wailing steel guitar, is to understand this is a young man who likes to have economy-sized fun. Yet just as quickly, he can sink his teeth into the fight-for-the-one-you’re-meant-to-be-with intensity of “Love Won’t Let Me,” the celebration of life and enduring love in “Livin’ Our Love Song,” or the resolved acceptance of life on its terms with “Let It Rain,” which speaks to a seriousness that exists below the obvious inside the emerging singer/songwriter.
Nowhere is that seriousness more powerfully reflected than in Carroll’s debut single, “Alyssa Lies,” a song about child abuse – told from the perspective of a classmate – that has an impossibly sobering end. Though not the feel-good “rocking country” that Carroll – a devotee of Steve Wariner, Randy Travis, Radney Foster and especially Garth Brooks – naturally is drawn to, it was a realization that the dedicated father of four couldn’t sidestep.
]]>Diamond Riotag:thecornernews.com,2009:index.php/features/19.63542009-04-15T04:25:47Z2009-04-15T04:58:48ZGreg Currygcurry@thecornernews.com
That wasn’t enough: The song went all the way to #1, making them the first country group in history to top the chart with a debut single. They piled on enough successive hits to warrant a Greatest Hits album and now, 15 years into their career, Diamond Rio has taken that trip up the national charts so many times that the band is looking at… gulp… Greatest Hits II, a landmark that seems almost insane when the band reflects on the odds.
“Sometimes you can’t believe we’ve done so much,” bass player Dana Williams marvels, recalling that not so long ago, he and his five band mates were among those thousands vying for that one glimmer of success. “It pretty well blows your mind.”
Diamond Rio has indeed accomplished much. In addition to two compilations worth of hits, they have achieved gold or platinum sales with each of their studio albums, racked up 13 Grammy nominations, 15 consecutive Country Music Association nominations for Vocal Group of the Year, more than any country group in CMA history, two-time Academy of Country Music and four-time CMA Vocal Group of the Year.
Greatest Hits 2 provides a real opportunity to reflect on the band’s journey. With the emotional “One More Day,” the sonically inventive “Beautiful Mess,” the lively “Unbelievable” and the poignant “I Believe” leading the way, the album features some of the most identifiable material of the last decade—in part because Diamond Rio is so unique and non-conformist in its approach.