NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville gossip

Brad Paisley has Time Magazine's #1 album for 2009

Time Magazine has come out with it's top 10 lists for 2009 and there are a couple of country singers who made the cut. 

TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009

1. American Saturday Night by Brad Paisley
2. Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors
3. Crack the Skye by Mastodon
4. Revolution by Miranda Lambert
5. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
6. Love vs. Money by The-Dream
7. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt 2 by Raekwon
8. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear
9. I and Love and You by the Avett Brothers
10. The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga

TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP 10 AWKWARD MOMENTS OF 2009

1. Balloon Boy Spills the Beans
2. Kanye West Doesn't Let Taylor Swift Finish
3. The Beer Summit
4. Artie Lange Steals Joe Buck's Show
5. Mark Sanford's Mea Culpa
6. Ryan Seacrest's Regrettable High Five
7. Joaquin Phoenix Bombs on Letterman
8. The Colonel Is in the House
9. Joe Jackson Works the Red Carpet
10. Categorizing Caster Semenya

TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP 10 SONGS OF 2009

1. "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson
2. "Two Weeks" by Grizzly Bear
3. "No Line on the Horizon" by U2
4. "The Fear" by Lily Allen
5. "Crown on the Ground" by Sleigh Bells
6. (Tie) "Stillness Is the Move" by Dirty Projectors and also Solange
7. "White Liar" by Miranda Lambert
8.  "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" by Jay-Z
9. "Sabali" by Amadou and Mariam
10. "Mad World" by Adam Lambert
    

Decorating Christmas trees with babies should definitely be illegal

 
I sometimes read what famous people say and get visions of things in my head that make me chuckle.  My mind works in mysterious ways sometimes. 

Case in point.... Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman were recently spotted at a Home Depot doing a decidedly normal, all-American family sort of thing .  Well I guess it's a shock to people's systems to see Nicole Kidman doing something like shopping at Home Depot.

Nicole explains a friend's reaction and then explains what she and her Keith were doing there.

"A friend of mine sent me a photo, saying, 'Were you at Home Depot?'" Nicole told Access.

"We bought our Christmas tree there," the actress explained. "And we bought all of our Christmas decorations and decorated our tree with our baby."

My first thought when reading that quote had nothing to do with Home Depot, instead I had visions of a Christmas tree being decorated with cute little babies in bright white diapers and babies swaddled in pretty blue and pink blankes.

Yeah, that's how my mind works.

Oh, and in case you were wondering why the Urban-Kidman family chose the Home Depot for all their Christmas decoration needs, Nicole says, "They have really good pre-lit trees!"

Grand Ole Opry tickets winner

Little bit late getting these drawn, but better late than never.  So without further adieu the winner of the tickets to tomorrow's Grand Ole Opry show featuring Rascal Flatts is....

Rhonda. 

Enjoy the show Rhonda.  And remember if you'd like to buy tickets you can get $10 off your tickets by entering NASHGAB when ordering. 

And as always, thanks everyone for entering. 

Jacob reviews Natasha James - Tequila Time

Natasha James - Tequila Time

In a radio climate full of loud, heavily produced songs filled with guitar riffs straight out of the 80's, it's very refreshing to come across a country album that sounds a little bit country. Natasha James delivers a throw back album that makes me long for the days when they played fiddle and steel on country radio, and not in the "See, look, we're country, we have fiddle!" kind of way. Sadly, it seems as though we have to look somewhere besides the Nashville city limits to find it.
  
    Based out of California, Ms. James makes it clear that there is still a little bit of Gram Parsons and the Byrds alive out along the West Coast, as well as some Fleetwood Mac. "Tequila Time" is a country rock album to make Laurel Canyon proud. At 15 songs, this record runs the gamut of topics, from the all knowing regret of a foolhearted decision in "Straight To Hell", to the frustration we all know of staring at an airport runway for hours on end in "Stuck In Atlanta".

    Fine playing and very original writing graces this album, though Ms. James singing leaves a little to be desired for my taste in places, mostly on the slower, sparser songs where there isn't quite as much of that playing to accent her voice. Most of the songs here are written solely with her own pen, allowing for a lot of consistency in the personality throughout, though trying to keep that personality led to a couple of misses in song choice (see "Takes Alotta Love" and "Tequila Time"). All in all, a pretty good album, despite it's few flaws in vocals. It's a shame Ms. James is all the way out West, she'd fit right in here in Nashville.

http://www.natashajames.com/

Toby Keith in the presence of the President

Toby Keith is set to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize concert tomorrow in Oslo, Norway, but today Toby spent the day at the ceremony honoring President Obama as he received the Peace Prize. 

If you care to you can watch the concert live on CNN.com starting at 2 PM central time tomorrow, December 11th.

Picture via Bam's Blog

Julianne Hough on Regis and Kelly (minus Regis)

 

 

 

Trisha Yearwood Christmas Special airing on PBS

From Trisha's MySpace...

 Schermerhorn performance will be nationally broadcast on PBS December 23

Belmont University announced today that three-time Grammy Award winner and Belmont alumna Trisha Yearwood will serve as host for the 2009 "Christmas at Belmont" performance at Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center. The program will air nationally on PBS on December 23 (check local listings).

"Christmas at Belmont," a production of Nashville Public Television (NPT) with funding from the Beaman Family Foundation, features a collage of familiar carols, classical masterworks, world music and light-hearted seasonal favorites. More than 400 student voices will join Yearwood, the Belmont School of Music faculty and the Nashville Children's Choir to present the annual holiday production. Previous hosts of "Christmas at Belmont" include alumni Melinda Doolittle and Josh Turner as well as recording legend Brenda Lee.

more at www.TrishaYearwood.com

Introducing a pregnant Mrs. Rich

John Rich held a political party at his Nashville Home this weekend and low and behold he had is very lovely pregnant wife Joan there. 

Thank you to the reader who wished to remain anonymous for sending this my way. 

Big Kenny shows us How It's Made

One of my family's favorite shows that we can all sit down and watch without any whining is How It's Made.  It's a great TV show that has short little segments that show how everything from eyeglasses to batteries are made.  Well Big Kenny's latest video is a cool behind-the-scenes glimpse of how vinyl records are made.  It takes place at United Pressing and if interested, you can get your very own copy of The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy on Vinyl here: http://bit.ly/QuietVinyl.  

Carrie Underwood Plays On with Craig Morgan and Sons of Sylvia

Uhmm, Sons of who? 

First off, Carrie Underwood has just announced her Play On Tour which will launch spring of 2010.  It's not coming to my city, but it's coming within a couple hundred miles so I think I may just have to make a road trip.

“I am getting so excited about next year as we are currently working through all the big plans for the tour,” Carrie says. “I cannot wait to perform new music and see familiar faces across the U.S. and Canada!” 

Carrie will be bringing along Craig Morgan and a new group called Sons of Sylvia.  I did a little digging to see who they were and let me tell you they're very cool (website at SonsofSylvia.com).  They formerly called themselves The Clark Brothers so maybe you've heard of that name.  If you've listened to Carrie's Play On CD then you're already familiar with the boys since they sang with Carrie on What Can I Say (see video below).

Tickets for the first 45 shows starting March 11 will go on sale December 18th. Please go to www.carrieunderwood.fm for up to date tour information.

• March 11   Reading, PA   Sovereign Center
• March 12   Albany, NY    Times Union Center
• March 13   Providence, RI   Dunkin Donuts Center
• March 15   Portland, ME    Cumberland County Civic Center
• March 16   Bridgeport, CT   Arena at HarborYard
• March 19   Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
• March 20   Mashantucket, CT MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods
• March 21   Worcester, MA DCU Center
• March 23   Hamilton, Ontario Copps Coliseum
• March 24   Kanata, Ontario Scotiabank Place
• March 26   Trenton, NJ Sun National Bank Center
• March 27   Amherst, MA Mullins Center
• March 29   Wilkes Barre, PA Wachovia Arena
• March 31   Rochester, NY BlueCross Arena
• April 1    Pittsburgh, PA Petersen Civic Center
• April 3    Pikeville, KY Eastern Kentucky Expo Center
• April 6    Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
• April 7     Peoria, IL Peoria Civic Center
• April 9    Indianapolis, IN Conseco Fieldhouse
• April 10 Rockford, IL Rockford MetroCentre
• April 12     Ft Wayne, IN Allen County War Memorial
• April 13 Saginaw, MI Dow Events Center
• April 14     Lansing, MI Breslin Student Events Center
• April 23 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
• April 24 Toledo, OH Lucas County Arena
• April 25 Cincinnati, OH US Bank Arena
• April 27 Richmond, VA Richmond Coliseum
• April 28 Charleston, WV Charleston Civic Center
• April 30 Fayetteville, NC Crown Coliseum
• May 1    Columbia, SC Colonial Life Arena
• May 2    Augusta, GA James Brown Arena
• May 4    Tallahassee, FL Tallahassee County Civic Center
• May 5    Pensacola, FL Pensacola Civic Center
• May 7   New Orleans, LA Lakefront Arena
• May 8   Lafayette, LA Cajundome
• May 10     Beaumont, TX Ford Park Events Center
• May 12 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center
• May 13 Corpus Christi, TX American Bank Center
• May 15 Tucson, AZ Tucson Arena
• May 18 Fresno, CA SaveMart Center
• May 20    Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
• May 21    Reno, NV Reno Events Center
• May 22 Las Vegas, NV Orleans Arena
• May 29     Everett, WA Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center
• May 30    Spokane, WA Spokane Arena