The Country Music Association caused a stir when it announced its nominations for the 46th CMA Awards – and pop star Kelly Clarkson was on the ballot for Female Vocalist of the Year. It’s an odd move, to be sure, and unfounded in my books.
But this? This is exquisite.
(Bonus points for wanting to make out with Vince Gill's voice.)
Ellen's my homegirl. Read on:
“I hate writing. I love having written.”
-The late Dorothy Parker, of whom I was reminded by fellow Houston Press blogger Pete Vonder Haar. Check out his great post on the trials –and rewards– of a career in writing.
“There is no excuse for being so ignorant. Not in the globalized world we live in. Not in the richly diverse country that we live in. Not when we have so many thousands of years of recorded history where dividing a nation’s population into “us” vs. “them” has resulted in so many horrific acts of violence, genocide, and oppression. Not when there are so many other marginalized groups that are dismissed, devalued, and degraded because they are “them” and not “us.”
From the Iowa State Fair stage on Friday night, Hank Williams Jr. made a blatant appeal to the most base and vile instinct that lurks in the darkest parts of us: “You are not like me. You do not believe what I believe. You are the enemy.””
-Kevin Coyne in this from-the-gut post. A must read.
It’s been a lovely, chaotic summer – the best kind. Here are a few gems that caught my eye (and ear) over the past month or so:
This wine:
…from a winery on the outskirts of this incredible city:
(I spent a little over a week in Switzerland, Florence and Venice last month. Needless to say, it was an inspiring trip.)
This anthem from the Zac Brown Band’s action-packed new album,Uncaged (give it a listen and you’ll understand what I mean):
This funky, new-ish song by British group Graffiti6:
This kick ass and deserved title that Houston just nabbed. And yeah, we already knew we were the coolest. Why?
“I’ve never seen a city where people blend more gracefully than Houston.”
This surprisingly moving performance by tenth place finisher Erika Van Pelt (at the Idols Live concert I caught in Dallas):
This crazy-cool local band that I was jazzed to interview for Houston magazine.
This Kelly Clarkson cover of my favorite band’s breakout single:
…and finally, this wonderful milestone that Country Universe –my country music home– recently hit. I couldn’t be more grateful to have found my way into the CU family three years ago.
I’m stoked to announce my latest freelance adventure – I’ll be blogging for the Houston Press on topics related to pop culture and music. You can read my first post below, the spawn of my discovery that pop star Carly Rae Jepsen is four days older than me (26). Read on…
An awesome way to remember one of my top three favorite seasons and arguably the best season in “Idol” history, even if I didn’t agree with the last man standing. You can read my full thoughts on Season 11 in my latest post for CultureMap Houston: Five lessons from “American Idol” Season 11.
The other highlight of the finale? This absolutely ridiculous performance by runner-up Jessica Sanchez and legend Jennifer Holliday. Run, don’t walk, to watch it.
Remember them? They’re heading back to country radio with a pretty stellar comeback single:
“How I Met Your Mother engages in a certain amount of magical thinking. It believes in signs, in the power of coincidence and the broader meaning of things that seem unimportant. It’s not afraid of fairy dust and the idea that if the sad, difficult things hadn’t happened, the good things wouldn’t have happened either, because everything is part of a whole.
It doesn’t always work … But when they get it right, it’s a very elegant and thoughtful larger story about how crushingly sad things have to be placed into a context beyond themselves. It doesn’t really have to show you the mother; it’s not a show about her, even though its storytelling structure is critical. It’s a show that has a specific vision of how life works, and that vision is basically a happy one. It might be one of the happiest shows on television, and I continue to be grateful for that.”
- Linda Holmes in this beautifully written NPR post that captures the reasons why I fell in love with the show. It was written a few months before I discovered the show (how it took me seven years, I’ll never know), but I stumbled upon it when I mined the “HIMYM” writers’ Twitter feed. Yeah, it’s like that.
For Carrie Underwood fans, it’s been a fun week of promo for her fourth album, Blown Away, which came out this past Tuesday. The album is a healthy creative departure for Underwood – darker, more challenging and more thematically diverse than anything she’s released so far. I’m not sure if it’s the album I’ve been waiting for from her –the one that showcases a fully realized artist– but it’s a bigger step in this direction than I expected. I’m particularly excited about the commitment she shows to creativity and to finding new ways to sculpt her massive instrument.
It’s no surprise that my two favorite songs off of the album are nothing alike. The first is a gorgeous, desperate country ballad that, true to the genre, swirls together themes of alcohol and heartache. The second is a southern gospel-flavored tale of revenge and murder. Check out her performance of the latter at her IHeartRadio concert in New York City (at which she also killed her definitive “Idol” song, “Alone”):
But my favorite tidbit from this past week is related to a song from back in theCarnival Ride era. I’ve blogged before about why I’ve been able to connect with Underwood’s music on a personal level, but I always find it difficult to explain. Sometimes it’s easier to point to the things that touch me the most – like this:
Oh, and I can’t resist. Love this:
“My husband calls me ‘the queen of awkward moments.’ If something can be said to make an awkward moment even worse, I’m going to say it.”
I dig pop culture.
