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(04/16/08 3:01am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Taylor Swift won video of the year and female video for her smash “Our Song” while newcomer Kellie Pickler took home three awards during Monday’s Country Music Television awards.\n“I wrote that song in the ninth grade for a talent show,” said the 18-year-old Swift, who won the night’s top honor over Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Sugarland. “I never thought it would be on an album, never thought I’d record it, never thought it would be a single, never thought it would be No. 1 and certainly never thought it would win video and female video of the year.”\nPickler, 21, won breakthrough video, tearjerker video and performance of the year for “I Wonder,” a song about a daughter’s feelings for her mother that she says connects deeply with fans. Like Carrie Underwood, Pickler is a former “American Idol” contestant.\n“Thank you ‘American Idol,’ you are the rocket that launched my career,” Pickler said from Scottsdale, Ariz.\nPaula Abdul, who introduced Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s performance of “I Need You,” remarked, “There are so many ‘American Idol’ alum here that I feel this is a reunion and I’m a proud mom.”\nTrace Adkins won best male video for “I Got My Game On.” Adkins was something of a surprise winner, topping videos by Chesney, Paisley, Toby Keith and Keith Urban.\n“I’m having a good year. So far it’s been great. I never felt the support from the fans like I do this year,” said Adkins, who recently finished second on NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice.”\nLeAnn Rimes and Bon Jovi won best collaborative video for the steamy video “Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore.” Rimes, who accepted the award without Bon Jovi, cracked, “I had a lot of fun rolling around with Jon in bed.” Then she looked over at her husband in the crowd and added, “Sorry, honey. I love you. You’re hotter.”\nThe show was hosted by “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus and her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The pair performed their duet “Ready, Set, Don’t Go.” During their opening segment, Billy Ray Cyrus joked about his daughter’s popularity.\n“I know what’s going on here, OK. I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday ... it’s pretty obvious what you’re all doing. You’re just using Miley to get to me.”\nAlison Krauss and former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant won for their duet “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On).”\n“I’d like to say how peculiar it is to be here. It’s a great honor to have made a record in Nashville that sounds so good. I’d like to thank Don and Phil Everly for getting me through my teenage years, and I’d like to thank Alison for helping me get through my late 50s,” Plant said. \nPaisley’s “Online” won comedy video, while Sugarland’s “Stay” won duo video. The two were the most nominated artists of the night.\nThe show opened with a skit about Adkins trying to get tickets to the show and featured presidential candidates Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton.\nUrban opened the musical portion with “Raise the Barn” and was joined by Brooks & Dunn.\nSugarland, Little Big Town and Jake Owen performed the ’80s hit “Life in a Northern Town” by the British folk rock group The Dream Academy.\nSnoop Dogg joined Jason Aldean to introduce Alan Jackson’s performance of “Good Time.” The rapper wore a black outfit and cowboy hat in honor of the late Johnny Cash, who he said was the inspiration for his single, “My Medicine.”\nThe fan-voted awards show aired live on CMT from Belmont University in Nashville.
(11/14/07 4:05am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Thousands of “Hannah Montana” fans who couldn’t get concert tickets could potentially join a lawsuit against the teen performer’s fan club over memberships they claim were supposed to give them priority for seats.\nThe lawsuit was filed on behalf of a New Jersey woman and other fans who joined the Miley Cyrus Fan Club based on its promise that joining would make it easier to get concert tickets from the teen star’s Web site.\nCyrus, 14, is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and star of the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” TV show.\nHer sold-out “Best of Both Worlds Tour” is the hottest concert ticket of the year, with shows selling out in as little as four minutes and scalpers getting four or five times \nface value.\nThe class-action lawsuit names Interactive Media Marketing Inc. and Smiley Miley Inc. as defendants and seeks triple damages for all members of the lawsuit and attorneys’ fees. The plantiff doesn’t yet know the size of the class, but based on the popularity of the Web site, it could number tens of thousands of people, according to the lawsuit.\n“They deceptively lured thousands of individuals into purchasing memberships into the Miley Cyrus Fan Club,” plaintiffs’ attorney Rob Peirce said. His Pittsburgh firm and a Memphis firm filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville.\nThe fan club costs $29.95 a year to join, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that the defendants should have known that the site’s membership vastly exceeded the number of tickets.\nNeither of the listed agents for the two companies based in Nashville could be reached for comment Tuesday. Messages left for Smiley Miley Inc. were not immediately returned.\nCyrus’ publicist, Meghan Prophet, said in a statement that fan club members had an opportunity to buy pre-sale tickets, and more than 70,000 club members obtained them as a result of their \nmembership.\n“The Mileyworld Web site expressly states that Mileyworld does not guarantee every member a concert ticket,” Prophet said. “Mileyworld members had far greater access to concert tickets than the general public and other fan clubs, and the claim that the vast majority of Mileyworld members were unable to obtain concert tickets is \nsimply false.”\nThe lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kerry Inman, a New Jersey woman who claims that she tried to log into the site to buy tickets to Cyrus’ Atlantic City, N.J., performance at the moment the tickets went on sale and was unsuccessful.\nThe Web site does not guarantee ticket availability, but represents that members who log on shortly after tickets become available will have a good opportunity to get them, according to the lawsuit.\nOn TV, Cyrus plays high school student Miley Stewart, who lives a secret double life as a famous pop star, Hannah Montana. Her show reaches five million viewers a week.
(09/26/07 1:15am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame has plenty of big names, from Hank Williams Sr. to Bob Dylan to Dolly Parton.\nAnd now, finally, it has a home.\nThe Hall of Fame will share space in a historic Music Row building with students enrolled in a new songwriting major at Belmont University, officials with the hall, the university and the Mike Curb Family Foundation said Thursday.\n“I’ve been a member for many years,” said Parton, who attended the announcement. “It’s nice to know now we have a home.”\nParton, whose hits include “I Will Always Love You,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “Jolene,” told of her early days in Nashville in the ‘60s when she hung out with Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and other struggling songwriters.\n“I saw some great songs come to life, not always knowing if we were going to have a meal the next day,” she said.\nThe building on Music Square East was once home to the Quonset Hut where Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins and Sonny James recorded. Its most famous inhabitant was Columbia Studio A, where Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings and Parton cut records.\nColumbia and Epic Records also formerly had offices there. Most recently, Sony Music Nashville occupied the two-story brick structure.\nRoger Murrah, chairman of the Hall of Fame Foundation, said the hall will honor past songwriters while nurturing the next generation.\nIt will include resources to learn more about songwriters and the craft of songwriting and will be open to the public.\n“Hopefully I’ll get to come and take some songwriting classes myself,” cracked Parton, 61, who had pink streaks in her famous blond hair.\nMike Curb, chairman of Curb Records and head of the philanthropic Mike Curb Family Foundation, told Parton: “You exemplify what every songwriter would dream of being.”\n“I’m never going to retire. I’m a gypsy at heart,” Parton said. “I hope I fall dead right there on stage during a song — hopefully one I’ve written.”
(04/11/06 6:20am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Toby Keith is in the doghouse, and from the sound of things, he won't be getting out any time soon.\nHis wife, Tricia, can't stand the title of his new album: "White Trash With Money."\nKeith says it was inspired by an argument between his teenage daughter, Krystal, and another girl. The other girl's mother intervened, and, to hear Keith tell it, had some harsh words for the Keith clan.\n"This girl's mother said, `I don't care who they are -- they're nothing but white trash with money anyway,'" Keith said.\n"I got to laughing about it, but my wife was offended. I said, 'What's the matter, did she strike a nerve?' I said the shoe fits. We're multi-multi-millionaires because I sing about this very subject all the time. We're not one generation removed -- we're exactly what she said."\nThat's vintage Keith, who works hard to cultivate his image as a truck-drivin', hard-drinkin' tough guy who speaks his mind. Few country artists stir things up the way he does.\nHe released his saber-rattling "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" after the 9/11 attacks, criticized the media for its coverage of the Iraq war and ripped the Country Music Association for snubbing him at its annual award show.\n"White Trash With Money," released Tuesday, was also born of controversy. It's his first release on Show Dog Records, the label he formed after leaving DreamWorks Records last year.\nKeith, 44, bolted from DreamWorks when it was acquired by Universal Music Group, the parent company of his old label, Mercury Records. Mercury had dropped Keith in 1999, and he had no intention of going back.\nKeith had complete control on the new album, and the sound is looser, with lots of slide guitar, organ, accordion, even a kazoo. The first single, a brassy horn-driven tune called "Get Drunk and Be Somebody," is at No. 7 on the Billboard chart.\nAs usual, he wrote or co-wrote all the tracks, most with his longtime writing partner Scotty Emerick. There are drinking songs ("Grain of Salt"), love songs ("A Little Too Late"), serious songs ("Ain't No Right Way") and funny songs ("Runnin' Block").\n"A Little too Late" features a string arrangement by George del Barrio, who has worked with Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire. "Crash Here Tonight" is a ballad that Keith describes as his most tender moment on record yet: "Close your eyes and hum along," he sings, "and I'll sing you one more love song."\nKeith worked with a new co-producer this time, Lari White, a songwriter and recording artist who is also the wife of another of his songwriting buddies, Chuck Cannon. One of only a handful of female producers in Nashville, White softened Keith's testosterone-charged approach a tad.\n"There are a couple of things that are really brought home from a female perspective," Keith said. "In the studio I sing hard, and she softened that up. On `Crash Here Tonight' she said `You have a rich baritone voice, and I think this song can be just as sexy as all get out. Let's keep it in this register. Let it be sassy and intimate.'"\nWhite didn't smooth all the rough edges, though.\n"Runnin' Block" is about a guy who agrees to go on a double-date with his friend, finds out his date is less than desirable and realizes he's there to help his friend score with her slimmer sister.\n"I tried to drink her skinny, but she's still about 215. Sometimes you've got to bow up, and just take one for the team," Keith sings.\nBesides the new album, Keith is promoting the upcoming movie "Broken Bridges," in which he makes his film debut as a down-on-his-luck songwriter. He's also busy with Show Dog Records, whose roster includes Emerick, Rebecca Lynn Howard and former Little Texas member Tim Rushlow.\nKeith said he leaves the business side of running the label to others but has a hand in all the creative decisions.\n"The reason a lot of independent labels fail is that they have the same costs to operate as the majors, but they don't have the same roster or catalog. They don't have a flagship artist," he said. "With us, I'm the first artist we signed. So we're not dependent on selling records with other artists to keep this open.\n"As long as my career as a singer-songwriter is successful, and we're doing tours and selling out, my record label will go hand in hand. The only thing that will make this fail is when my career is over"
(04/10/06 4:45am)
GALLATIN, Tenn. -- Diesel smoke filled the air as work crews used heavy equipment to clear paths through tornado-strewn debris and victims rummaged for mementos in the \nremains of their neighborhoods.\nClumps of yellow insulation hung from trees like Spanish moss, and the sound of helicopters, chain saws and trucks \ncreated a loud, steady rumble.\nAmong those searching for keepsakes in the rubble Saturday, Jenny Tuck carried a cedar chest and a photograph. "I found an old picture of my mother," she said, holding up the dirty \nsilver frame.\nTwelve deaths were blamed on the tornadoes, which weather officials said were spotted Friday in about 10 Tennessee counties.\nIt was the second deadly storm system to hit the state in less than a week. Last weekend, thunderstorms spinning out dozens of tornadoes killed 24 people in western Tennessee and four others in Missouri and Illinois.\n"After the tornadoes in west Tennessee, I said, 'Lord help us if it comes through a more densely populated area,'" Gov. Phil Bredesen said. "And then it did a week later."\nSumner County emergency officials implemented a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the areas hardest hit areas and National Guard soldiers were brought in to patrol. The worst damage appeared to be in Gallatin and other suburbs northeast of Nashville.\nSteve Hurt and eight others survived by taking shelter in a fireproof room with concrete walls at Lee Electric Supply Co. in Gallatin.\n"You could hear people yelling and screaming outside and the debris hitting the walls," said Hurt, who said one of his co-workers was killed.\nOne tornado chewed up a path about 150 to 200 yards wide and at least 10 miles long, said Jimmy Templeton of the Sumner County Sheriff's Department.\n"I'm amazed we didn't have more fatalities," said Sonny Briggance, rescue chief for the Sumner County emergency management agency.\nSeven people were killed in Sumner County and three in Warren County, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville. Two more people died in a Gallatin hospital, state Emergency Management Agency spokesman Randy Harris said. Hospitals admitted at least 60 people injured in the storms.\nAs many as 1,600 homes were damaged or destroyed in Warren and Sumner counties, according to a preliminary count, Harris said. Several multimillion-dollar homes were pulverized.\nDan Powe took cover in a crawl space with his wife, 4-year-old daughter and a neighbor as a tornado leveled his home. He said he had come home for lunch, and decided to stay after seeing the weather reports.\n"The only reason those girls are safe is that I stayed home from work, because my wife told me that she wouldn't have gotten under the house," Powe said.\nHe hoped to salvage a boat in his garage, about the only part of the home still partially standing.\nNashville Electrical Service reported hundreds of electrical lines down and power outages affecting up to 16,000 customers, mostly in Goodlettsville. About 1,000 customers remained blacked out, and it could take a week to restore all service, the utility said.\nAnother line of severe thunderstorms rolled through Alabama and Georgia late Friday and early Saturday, damaging homes and businesses in Atlanta suburbs.\nTwo people in Alabama were injured by falling trees, but no deaths were reported. Storms also pounded southern West Virginia, blacking out more than 16,000 customers, utility \ncompanies said.\nAssociated Press writer Kristin M. Hall contributed to this report.
(11/08/05 5:44am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Pete Rose Jr., the son of baseball's all-time hits leader, pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he distributed GBL, a drug sometimes sold as a steroid alternative, to his minor league teammates.\nThe 35-year-old Rose appeared before a federal judge and said nothing but "yes, sir" when asked if he understood the charges and his plea.\nRose could be sentenced to 21 to 24 months in federal prison and fined up to $1 million under terms of his deal with prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul O'Brien said. Rose is free on his own recognizance until the Feb. 20 sentencing hearing.\n"This is a tragedy. Anyone who knows this young man knows he is a very, very fine young man," Rose's attorney, Jeffrey Brodey, said outside the federal courthouse. "The use of this stuff is common. It's used as a sleep aid by many people in sports. It was legal. And he got caught in a time warp because it was legal up until 2000. He came forward and immediately confessed and accepted his responsibility."\nBrodey and Rose refused to answer questions from reporters before driving away in a sport utility vehicle.\nThe Drug Enforcement Administration said Rose's arrest was part of a larger investigation into a major GBL trafficking organization. Rose surrendered to authorities shortly before he entered his guilty plea.\nThe indictment said Rose admitted he received GBL from a person in Tennessee while a member of the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.\nHe also said he supplied half the players on that team with the drug. Rose said his teammates would take GBL to "wind down" after games, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.\nLookouts assistant general manager John Maedel said Rose was on the Chattanooga roster in 1997, 2001 and 2002, and the team is aware of the story.\n"We don't know anything about it and can't comment," he said.\nReds spokesman Rob Butcher added: "We do not comment on active law enforcement investigations."\nAccording to evidence presented to Judge Robert Echols, Rose began purchasing GBL in July 2001, receiving about five cases from July 2001 to May 2002. Rose told investigators he was using it as a sleep aid because he had been having trouble with some knee injuries. Rose also admitted to selling the drug.\nGBL, or gamma butyrolactone, is sold under the counter at retailers and gyms with claims to build muscle, improve physical performance, enhance sex, reduce stress and induce sleep. When taken orally, GBL is converted to the "date-rape" drug GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate.\n"It's really more of a recreational drug that people use to give them a high, take the edge off," said Dr. Todd R. Schlifstein, a sports rehab physician at New York University Medical Center's Rusk Institute. "People who use steroids use this drug as well. A lot of times power lifters, weight lifters will use it."\nSchlifstein said the drug can have dramatic side effects, including seizures and death.\nO'Brien said GBL products were legal and sold in health food stores until they were banned in 2000. The chemical was used as an industrial solvent and was "never intended for human consumption," he said.\nRose Jr. has not been involved with the Reds' organization since playing nine games in the minors in 2002.\nRose played most of his career in the minor leagues, but made it to the majors for 11 games with the Reds in 1997. Last season he played for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League.\nPete Rose Sr. holds the major league record of 4,256 hits. He agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 following an investigation that he bet on games; after 14 years of denying it, he admitted in his autobiography that he bet on Reds games while managing them in the late 1980s.\nRose Sr. served a five-month sentence in federal prison in 1990 and 1991 for filing false tax returns by not declaring income he received from signing autographs, memorabilia sales and gambling.\nThe GBL investigation began in 1999 and has included one of the largest seizures of GBL in U.S. history.\nDEA agents seized about 280 gallons of GBL from a storage unit in Murfreesboro in January 2004. Further investigation revealed that Murfreesboro resident Bruce Michael Wayne was a nationwide distributor of the drug.\nThe DEA learned Wayne was supplying Rose Jr. with the drug and that Rose was distributing it to teammates, Payne said.\nWayne was arrested by DEA agents in January 2004 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute GBL and money laundering charges. But Wayne failed to appear for sentencing and is a fugitive.\nO'Brien said the nationwide investigation began when several people became ill after using GBL products purchased in health food stores in Detroit.\nA search of Wayne's belongings revealed thousands of invoices, including some for Rose, O'Brien said.\nAuthorities said Rose would order the drugs through an associate, who would then get them from Wayne.\nTo date, the investigation has resulted in charges against 18 other people and seizure of more than $1.2 million in drug proceeds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
(10/27/05 4:22am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The family bluegrass group Cherryholmes was tearing through a song last summer at the Ryman Auditorium when a guitar string snapped.\nThe lanky young picker in a white cowboy hat began working furiously to replace it on the fly. In just a few moments, the new string was in place and the group never missed a beat.\nThings happen fast for the Cherryholmes clan of Los Angeles.\nOnly six years ago, the group consisting of Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes and their daughters Cia, 21, and Molly, 13, and sons B.J., 17, and Skip, 15, didn't exist. Three of the four children didn't even play instruments.\nThey practiced and performed relentlessly, though, and today find themselves the hottest new act in bluegrass.\nOn Thursday, they're up for the International Bluegrass Music Association's emerging artist award and the night's top prize, entertainer of the year -- the first time in the awards' 16-year-history that an artist has been nominated in both categories.\n"It's kind of a mindblower," said Jere, a stocky man with a shaved head, tattoos, earrings and a long gray beard. "It's happened so fast."\nAnd so unexpectedly.\nIn 1999, Jere and Sandy's oldest daughter, Shelly, died from chronic heart problems at age 20. To lift their spirits, the family went to a bluegrass festival where Grand Ole Opry stars Jim & Jesse and their group the Virginia Boys were performing.\nThe festival was their first real exposure to bluegrass, a musical form that seemed foreign in their tough Los Angeles neighborhood, where the children did homework crouched between twin beds because of frequent drive-by shootings.\n"On the way home, I told Sandy that we ought to get the kids together and play music like that -- not form a band and perform somewhere, but do it as a pastime, something to keep the family close together," Jere said.\nAt the time Jere played guitar and bass, Sandy played the piano and Cia some guitar. But church performances were about the extent of their experience, and the three younger children didn't play at all.\nSandy was homeschooling the kids and began incorporating music into the lesson. The children were assigned instruments: B.J. and Molly the fiddle, Skip the guitar and Cia the banjo. Jere and Sandy took what was left, bass and mandolin, respectively.\n"We made time during the day with the goal of learning a song, so everyone had a reason for what they were doing," Sandy said. "We'd teach the parts and then at night we'd have jam time when Jere came home to make the parts fit. We could play two to five hours a day all week long."\nThey started winning local contests and landed a regular gig on Saturdays in the San Bernardino Mountains. As their reputation grew, so did their bookings.\nBy 2002, with momentum building, they had to make a decision. Jere retired from his job as a carpenter with the Los Angeles school system and sold the house, and the family -- all except the oldest son, Tyson, who was already on his own -- struck out as a full-time musical act.\nThey relocated to Arizona where they lived without electricity and running water and played the bluegrass festival circuit in the West.\nWhen they felt they'd honed their skills enough, they moved to Nashville, Tenn., the center of the industry.\nThey stay on the road about 300 days a year. When not traveling, they park the tour bus at a friend's house in Goodlettsville, Tenn. Jere and Sandy sleep on the bus and the children on Army cots in a garage apartment.\n"Like any family, it's a family and we have days where we all want to go and do something completely different," Cia said. "But we're very close. We always have been."\nLast month, they released their self-titled debut on Ricky Skaggs' Skaggs Family Records. The album, which has nine original songs, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard bluegrass chart behind Nickel Creek and Alison Krauss & Union Station.\nJere said the group's success is way beyond anything he imagined when the family began playing music together for fun and fellowship.\nSometimes, he can't help but wonder whether his late daughter has had something to do with it.\n"People ask me 'Do you think she's up there pulling strings?' That doesn't necessarily go with my theology so much, but it's an interesting thing to think about"
(11/10/04 5:35am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - "Live Like You Were Dying," a song that became the biggest hit of Tim McGraw's career, won song of the year at the Country Music Association awards Tuesday night.\nWritten by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman, the song spent much of last summer at No. 1. \nThe song, about living life to its fullest, was special for McGraw, who lost his father, former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Tug McGraw, to cancer in January.\nThe lyrics tell of a man in his early 40s who learned he doesn't have long to live and is asked how he handled the news. McGraw sings, "Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying."\n"The day we wrote this song started like any other day," Nichols said. "Now it's been like no other day."\nIn announcing the award, Shania Twain said, "Country music always comes down to a really great song, a song that speaks to us -- all of us."\nThe song was chosen over Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman," Josh Turner's "Long Black Train," Alan Jackson's "Remember When" and the Brad Paisley-Alison Krauss duet "Whiskey Lullaby."\n"Whiskey Lullaby," written by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall, won for musical event of the year.\nIt's a dark tale about a woman who breaks a man's heart, watches him drink himself to death and then is so guilt-stricken that she too -- as the songs says -- "put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger."\n"I want to thank country radio for playing this," Paisley said. "It says a lot about the great people in our format who will take a chance on a double suicide in a drinking song."\nAlso during the show, Toby Keith and his daughter, Krystal, performed "Mockingbird" together, and Kix Brooks of the duo Brooks & Dunn paid tribute to the late Ray Charles.\n"He really was one soulful country singer. Bless you, Ray Charles," Brooks said.
(04/23/04 4:27am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. --Toby Keith took home three awards Wednesday in Country Music Television's Flameworthy Video Music Awards show, including video of the year for his patriotic song "American Soldier."\n"This is a very important award for me because this is voted on by music lovers all over the place," Keith said. "I thank you all ... Don't forget our brothers and sisters overseas making it free for us tonight."\nKeith said the song is dedicated to the soldiers fighting in Iraq and their families.\n"It's a really nasty thing going on over there right now," he said. "All the anti-war people are standing around saying 'I told you so,' but there were a lot of reasons for them going over there and they had no choice."\nThe video for Keith and Willie Nelson's hit duet "Beer for My Horses" won in the collaborative video and director of the year categories.\nDolly Parton hosted the live fan-voted annual awards show, which included performances by Keith, Parton, Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, Alan Jackson and Keith Urban. Kenny Chesney captured the hottest video award for "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems."\n"I want to thank a bunch of people in the British Virgin Islands for letting us invade for a week," Chesney said. "I had more fun making this video than any other video shoot, basically because we were in an environment that I loved."\nChesney also won male video of the year for "There Goes My Life."\nDierks Bentley won breakthrough video of the year for "What Was I Thinkin'," while Brad Paisley's "Celebrity" received the cameo award for appearances by Jason Alexander, Jim Belushi, Little Jimmy Dickens, Trista Rehn and William Shatner.\n"I'm surprised. I was beginning to wonder if there was an age limit for nominations and stuff," cracked Dickens, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star.\nThe video for Rascal Flatts' song "I Melt," nominated for four awards, won for group/duo video of the year. Shot in Miami's South Beach, it caused a stir because it shows guitarist Joe Don Rooney's backside, and revealing shower and bedroom shots of a female model.\nShania Twain's "Forever and For Always" won female video of the year. Twain said she enjoys the behind-the-scenes, creative process of making videos, but not the repetition of being in front of the camera.\n"It's a tough thing to do," Twain said. "If you're a live performer it's tough to do the same thing over and over and over and over again."\nReba McEntire received Country Music Television's Johnny Cash Visionary Award. The award was renamed this year in honor of Cash, who died Sept. 12. The award recognizes an artist's musical vision, innovative videos and pioneering initiatives. The Dixie Chicks won it in 2002, the first year it was given, and Cash received it last year. McEntire, a successful singer and actress, said the award has extra meaning because of Cash.\n"Johnny Cash was the ultimate visionary for country music," she said. "He took country music around the world and probably had some influence on every artist in this room."\nLast year's awards show drew one of the largest audiences in CMT's history with more than 8.3 million viewers.
(10/31/03 4:52am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The nominees for next week's country music awards are a bit more old school than some predecessors and a lot more brawny.\nFor the first time in some 20 years, male singers took all five slots in both the entertainer of the year and newcomer categories.\nSome say the nominations reflect a shift from pop-leaning, crossover acts such as Faith Hill and Shania Twain to the more male-dominated, traditional sounds of Joe Nichols and Buddy Jewell.\n"I think the pop crossover songs are going to be out there. It's still an important part of the overall picture of the country music format, but the difference now is those songs will have to be phenomenal to cut through," said Joel Burke, program director for Denver country station KYGO-FM.\nThe Country Music Association's 37th annual awards show airs live from the Grand Ole Opry House at 8 p.m. EST Wednesday on CBS.\nThis year's nominees chosen by 5,000 industry insiders who belong to the CMA include a few classic country artists and several others who continue that tradition. Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Patty Loveless, Randy Travis, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and Johnny Cash are up for awards, as well as newcomers Jewell, Nichols and Gary Allan.\nToby Keith, who's had a string of testosterone-charged hits with "Who's Your Daddy," "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue" and "Beer For My Horses," leads all artists this year with seven nominations.\n"We see that pendulum we're always talking about swinging again," said Ed Benson, the CMA's executive director. "In the last year or so, there's been a return to traditional country in sound and production. And I think the voters are trying to recognize a more real, traditional side."\nMen are leading the way. During the first six months of this year, female artists accounted for only four of the 34 top 10 hits on Billboard magazine's country singles chart, according to Billboard. Only the Dixie Chicks managed a No. 1 hit.\nThe story was similar last year, with females scoring five top 10s and two No. 1s in the same period.\nBut in the first six months of 2000, women were strong on the charts 10 top 10 singles by female artists, three of which hit No. 1. Back in 1998, women scored 14 top 10s in that period, half of them No. 1s.\nBenson thinks the trend toward men began with a spate of patriotic anthems after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Country artists --mostly men -- were among the first to capture the mood in song.\nBenson also believes males have became a larger share of the country music listening and buying audience.\nWhatever the reasons, "the state of the female country singer is a little scary right now," said Dawn Michaels, assistant program director at country station WYGW-FM in Cincinnati.\nIn this year's CMA female vocalist category, Loveless and Parton are nominated with Terri Clark, Martina McBride and Alison Krauss. But Hill and Twain -- each with successful albums and tours -- received not a single nomination.\n"I don't think country audiences were responding to it," Michaels said. "The Faith project especially. There were a lot of big ballads. Nothing like 'This Kiss' songs that are fun."\nMeanwhile, Loveless and Parton have received critics' praise in recent years for music that veers toward bluegrass, but neither has been a commercial force in a long time. Loveless' latest album, "On Your Way Home," came out in September and is her first mainstream country record in two years.\n"I never expected to be nominated in that category, especially not this year," Loveless said. "The CMAs are about country music, and for two years there I was in the bluegrass and acoustic music world."\nBut McBride, the most pop-oriented artist in the female vocalist category, said the strength of industry-voted awards like the CMAs is that they recognize diversity within the genre and are not based on sales. Like motion pictures' Oscars, country music's CMAs don't always go to the big-budget blockbusters.\n"It shouldn't be a popularity contest," McBride said. "I think it's great that these classic artists are still being recognized for their art"
(09/15/03 5:00am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Johnny Cash's rugged voice championed the downtrodden and reached across generations. His legacy will survive as long as there's music, says his friend and fellow country music singer Glen Campbell.\n"I don't see any stars on the horizon that are like Johnny Cash," Campbell said. "He was so unique. I miss him."\nCash, "The Man in Black," died Friday from diabetes that resulted in respiratory failure.\nIn his songs, Cash crafted a persona as a dignified, resilient voice for the common man -- but there was always a dark edge.\nOne of the most haunting couplets in popular music comes from "Folsom Prison Blues," which went to No. 4 on the country charts in 1956: "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."\nForty-seven years later, Cash's arresting video for "Hurt" was nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards, winning one.\n"He is the patron saint of every kid with a guitar," said singer-songwriter Tom Waits. "Songwriters learn how to write songs from listening to each other. He's like a wise old tree full of songs. I spent many days under his branches."\nHis deeply lined face fit well with his voice, which was limited in range but used to great effect to sing about prisoners, heartaches and tales of everyday life.\nAs news of his death spread, musicians praised Cash for his independent, rebellious streak that made him a powerful influence in country, rock, folk and gospel music.\n"When I went to Nashville 40 years ago to record my first country song Johnny was a welcoming figure and became a lifelong friend," Ray Charles said. "He made a giant contribution to music, not just country style."\nCash had been released from the hospital Tuesday after a two-week stay for treatment of an unspecified stomach ailment. The illness caused him to miss last month's MTV awards, where his "Hurt" -- a cover of Trent Reznor's song with Nine Inch Nails -- won for cinematography.\n"To hear that Johnny was interested in doing my song was a defining moment in my life's work," Reznor said. "To hear the result really reminded me how beautiful, touching and powerful music can be."\nCash had battled a disease of the nervous system, autonomic neuropathy, and pneumonia in recent years. His second wife, singer June Carter Cash, who co-wrote Cash's hit "Ring of Fire," died in May.\n"Not only has the world lost a legend, but we in country music have lost one of our family," said Loretta Lynn. "I know both Johnny and June will always be looking down and watching over us all. The stars in heaven are just a little brighter"
(08/28/03 5:48am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Toby Keith got seven nominations for the Country Music Association Awards Tuesday, with Johnny Cash picking up four, two involving his rendition of a song by rock act Nine Inch Nails.\nKeith led all nominees, with nods for best entertainer, male vocalist, and album of the year for "Unleashed." "Beer for My Horses," a collaboration with Willie Nelson, was nominated for best song, single, music video and vocal event.\nThe nominations were announced at the Grand Ole Opry House, where the awards show will be held Nov. 5. Martina McBride and the group Rascal Flatts made the announcement.\nCash, 71, has been battling health problems in recent years and is mourning the death in June of his wife, June Carter Cash.\nHe is also nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards and may attend that show in New York on Thursday. \nCMA voters nominated Cash for best single and video for "Hurt," a song about drug addiction written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The video features a frail Cash along with his wife at his now-closed museum in Hendersonville, Tenn.\nCash also was nominated for best album ("American IV: The Man Comes Around") and vocal event of the year for "Tears in the Holston River" with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.\nBrooks & Dunn and Brad Paisley also received four nominations each.\nBesides Keith, the other nominees for entertainer of the year were Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw. Best male vocalist nominees were Keith, Chesney, Jackson, McGraw, Paisley and George Strait. There are six instead of five nominees in that category because of a tie in preliminary voting.\nCrossover stars Faith Hill and Shania Twain were shut out of the best female vocalist category. Nominated were McBride, Terri Clark, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless and Dolly Parton.\nGary Allen, Buddy Jewell, Joe Nichols, Blake Shelton and Darryl Worley were nominated for the Horizon Award, which goes to an act that CMA voters believes has a bright future.\nAlabama was nominated for best vocal group as the quartet continues its farewell tour. Other nominees in the category are Diamond Rio, Lonestar, Rascal Flatts, Lonestar and the Dixie Chicks.\nThe Dixie Chicks were also nominated for best album for "Home," in a year in which negative comments about President Bush by lead singer Natalie Maines caused some radio stations to stop playing their music.\n"Nothing comes close to illustrating the enormous depth and appeal of our format than this outstanding collection of nominees," said Ed Benson, executive director of the CMA.\nThe CMA is a trade organization which promotes country music. About 6,000 members nominate and vote for award winners.
(04/23/03 3:59am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Felice Bryant, who with her late husband wrote "Bye Bye Love" and other Everly Brothers hits and the hand-clapping bluegrass standard "Rocky Top," died Tuesday. She was 77.\nBryant, who had been diagnosed with cancer, died at her Gatlinburg home, said Caroline Davis, spokeswoman for the songwriters' licensing agency BMI.\nHer husband, Boudleaux, who died in 1987, and she wrote or co-wrote 800 recorded songs cut by more than 500 vocalists. Their songs have accounted for approximately 500 million in sales.\nSome of their other big hits include the Everlys' "Wake Up Little Susie," "We Could," recorded by various artists including Jim Reeves and Al Martino, and "Raining in My Heart," recorded by Buddy Holly, Dean Martin and Ray Price.\nOthers who recorded songs by the Bryants included Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, the Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, Simon & Garfunkel, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison and Sarah Vaughan.\nThe couple began writing songs together when Boudleaux Bryant set his wife's poetry to music. Their first major success was "Country Boy" by Little Jimmy Dickens in 1948.\nThey were among the first in Nashville to make songwriting a full-time career. The Bryants were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1991 and inducted into the National Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986.\n"Rocky Top," written in 10 minutes in 1968 and recorded by the Osborne Brothers, became a state song in 1982, joining "Tennessee Waltz" and others. It has been the fight song for the University of Tennessee athletic teams since the early 1970s, whipping football crowds into a frenzy at Neyland Stadium.\nThe song, with a bouncy beat, is about a secluded spot in the Smoky Mountains where there's no "smoggy smoke" or telephone bills. "Corn don't grow at all on Rocky Top, dirt's too rocky by far," the song says. "That's why all the folks on Rocky Top get their corn from a jar."\nHer husband did most of the melody writing and she provided the lyrics. Alone, Boudleaux Bryant also wrote "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Devoted to You," both recorded by the Everly Brothers, and "Love Hurts," recorded by Orbison.\nFelice Bryant was born in Milwaukee. She sang on the radio as a child but her true passion was poetry.\nSurvivors include two sons.