NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville celebrity gossip

Faith Hill says she won't be returning to sing Sunday Night Football theme

After six years of being the voice of Sunday Night Football's opening song, Faith Hill says it's time to hand the reins to someone new. 

On Monday Faith tweeted: 

Amazing 2 have been part of SNF - an honor. I've just let everyone there know it's time 2 let someone else rock the open.

….Difficult decision. Kinda emotional. Love all u guys at SNF - I'll b watching!!!

Wow, that was sudden. 

So who do you guys think should take Faith's place singin the intro? I've heard Hank Williams Jr. is free.  

 

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill say hi to all the tweeties out there in funny blooper reel

Faith and Tim are human! Who knew? 

The Venetian, where the country power couple have been performing their Vegas show Soul2Soul, just released this funny video of the couple having some trouble recording a message for their Facebook and Twitter fans.

Enjoy.  

 

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Tim McGraw and Faith Hill release matching his and her colognes

Tim McGraw has a cologne out and Faith Hill has a perfume out, now the pair have joined forces and released a his and hers scent set called Soul 2 Soul Vintage for Him and Her.

The perfume/cologne set's Facebook page says: "Soul2Soul Vintage Faith Hill and Tim McGraw celebrate the origins of the couple’s journey, honoring this true love story with a duet of fragrances. Have you already got yours?"

If you prefer Twitter to Facebook, the couple's perfume/cologne empire also has one of those. You can follow it at @FaithTimCologne.

If you'd like to see who carries Tim and Faith's signature scents, you can visit a store locator here.

 

What’s 2013 Set To Hold In Country Music? I Have A Go At Making Some REAL Predictions...

Well, we had my summary of 2012 in country music, and after querying it on Twitter, apparently people would like my take on what’s in store for the bright new year. I’m going to predict things at random. Mostly they’re educated guesses, but we all need a few totally off-the-wall predictions, right?

• Hillary Scott’s baby will be a boy. I have no idea what is telling me this, but something is.
• Another country star will get pregnant. I think Carrie and Miranda (who have often been asked about kids) are more set for 2014/15, but a country star somewhere is bound to get pregnant.
• As for Taylor Swift relationship drama, I think after a couple of months the relationship with Harry will be over (although judging by her most recent tweet, “...’til you put me down.” It may already be), and she will have another two more relationships before the year is out, with a couple of other people she’s romantically linked with in the media but it doesn’t come to anything. Taylor has learned that relationships = publicity so I think her record label will be onto her to keep in the public eye in this way.
• Kellie Pickler’s 2012 album ‘100 Proof’ wasn’t very well promoted by her label, who she then split from last year, but now she has signed with Black River Entertainment I think she will release a brand new single, totally out of left field and blow everyone away.
• Kristian Bush will release an EP of acoustic sessions and a few songs he’s been working on, whilst Jennifer is off on maternity leave with her baby. It just makes sense and I really want it to happen.

So apparently Barbara Walters would like to do Tim McGraw

 

Hahahahaha!

This just made my whole day!

So this is a really old video but this morning was the first time I had ever seen it. Back in 2007-ish, Faith appeared on "The View" to promote her greatest hits album "The Hits." At about the 32 second mark, Barbara Walters says something to Faith that I'm sure many of us think but would probably never have the balls to say to Faith's face. 

I do believe Faith was shocked. 

Hey, it's Barbara Walters, she can pretty much say whatever she wants. 

Behind the scenes of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's new Las Vegas show

 

Tonight's the big night when Faith Hill and Tim McGraw take the stage for their Soul2Soul show at the Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas. 

I'm so jealous of anyone who gets to go. 

This afternoon Tim and Faith both posted the above behind-the-scenes look at the show. If you plan to visit Las Vegas in the near future and would like to take in the show, you can visit The Venetian website to find out more info.

CMAs 2012 – A Summary

It was a night to remember in country music that included Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood doing the ‘Gangnam Style’ dance, singing ‘Moves Like Haggard’, a musical tribute and lifetime achievement award presented to Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton crying and kissing on-stage, the discovery of the meaning of ‘motorboating’ and Taylor Swift giggling when she was complimented and looking totally unamused the rest of the time. It included Blake Shelton winning the biggest accolade of Entertainer Of The Year and the news being so unexpected for him that he’d taken off his jacket and started getting drunk by the time he went to collect the award.

There was a tribute to Bruce Springsteen from Eric Church’s performance, another classic Tim and Faith duet and a mini guitar solo battle between Keith Urban and Zac Brown. Of Carrie’s outfits there were many (10?), and virtually every one of them was absolutely gorgeous, while some performances were plain, simple and unimaginative and were contrasted by Taylor Swift’s efforts to create a period narrative out of nothing.

Neither Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum nor Carrie Underwood won any awards this year, which was a shock for me and I imagine many others that these music giants were snubbed, yet the entire show was a reminder that country music will fight back against the ever-increasing reign of pop. As well as the 5-song tribute to Willie Nelson, the fact that the formerly-mentioned performers didn’t win any awards is perhaps a testament to their commercial elements, particularly Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum. And somehow I think country music will be just fine.

There were rockers, there were ballads, there were fantastic vocals and poor vocals. It was a good show, not amazing, but there was a lot to think and talk about. I decided this year I was going to give my own little award to who I deemed the ‘Star of the CMAs 2012’ and I think everyone will have a similar idea of who deserves this award. It is, of course, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, jointly. The married couple took home 4 awards together, Song Of The Year (for their co-write of ‘Over You’), Female Vocalist Of The Year, Male Vocalist Of The Year and Entertainer Of The Year. Their acceptance speech for Song was both heartwarming and beautiful, and Miranda was crying yet it wasn’t excessive blubbing that has a tendency to turn everything into a cheesy cry-fest. They had written the song about the death of Blake’s brother when he was young, and the fact that they won this award, then went on to win the other three, was so perfect and if you haven’t seen their acceptance speeches, they’re here: Song Of The Year, Male Vocalist Of The Year, Female Vocalist Of The Year and Entertainer Of The Year.

That’s all I can really say for this year, it was a great celebration of country and I love that everyone involved still comes together a few times each year to pat each other on the back and say “well done for an awesome year”. It’s kind of like employee of the month, but cooler. I know we’re all subject to the shoqbiz industry, but there’s something about country music that still feels a little more sincere than the rest. I’m probably being naive. But hey, that’s the appeal, right?

You can continue to watch repeats of the CMAs on CMT throughout November, check your local listings for more details. See you next year?

Posted by Vickye (Guest Writer).
If you want to check out my own blog it's For The Country Record, and you can follow me on twitter @planmymistake. You can email me at vickye.countrymusic@gmail.com.

Check out Faith Hill's new video for "American Heart"

Check out the new music video for Faith Hill's American Heart, her first video in nearly five years. 

 

CMAs Performance Review – Part 3 (the final one I swear!)

This is part 3 of my CMAs performance review series. If you missed parts 1 and 2, you can read them here and here. Now for the final instalment.

The CMAs continued with Jason Aldean performing his hit single ‘Take A Little Ride’. His vocals were okay, much better than on his earlier performance, although actually the backing vocals were pitched wrongly I feel and actually made all the vocals sound out of tune in places even though Jason was on point. I think in this instance they may have needed Jason’s vocals to be louder in the mix, because although he was singing in tune, particularly on the chorus (which should be a peak in the song) they just didn’t stand out and sounded weak. His outfit was nice, the waistcoat-and-casual-shirt-combo suited him, giving it a rustic feel, but as for the setup, well it was an average country-rock staging and lacked imagination at times. The much-talked-about duet of Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill was next, and as expected Kelly’s vocals were great. I don’t think she ever has a bad vocal day! I loved the dress, gothic and on trend, however I felt like the performance was pretty much a reproduction of the studio version (perhaps because it’s a new single and they want to sell records but meh). It was done pretty plainly and simply but you could argue that it was appropriate for the song’s subject matter, promoting taking a back seat and just relaxing. Vince’s guitar playing was definitely a highlight of the performance for me.

The final original performance of the night was from Kenny Chesney, with his monster hit ‘Come Over’. I have to say something about the ‘look’ Kenny goes for nowadays, and personally I think he just looks a little creepy and I feel uncomfortable looking at him or watching him, but I don’t know why that is. I don’t know if it’s just me either. But that kind of ruins perfectly good performances for me. His vocals were on par but the performance itself was pretty basic, although I’m not sure a lot could be done with the song (that’s not to say Taylor Swift couldn’t have made it into a period narrative). I noticed during the night that a couple of performances used the song’s music video for the video footage in the background, and this was one of them. UNIMAGINATIVE! And self-promoting. I know that’s what all this is about but at least try to disguise it a little.

Following this, there was the tribute to Willie Nelson. Lady Antebellum sung two songs, ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Crazy’. Both Hillary and Charles looked incredibly awkward, especially the latter, though it was nice to hear Hillary sing in a more country twang style. Their vocals weren’t too bad, a little case of the flat liveness but that’s to be expected. It was a fairly average performance, modernising the more traditional sounds. Next up was Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s harmonica player) in a trio that stayed fairly true to the Western Honky-Tonk feel of the songs. They performed ‘Whiskey River’ with a rockin’ guitar solo which brought the performance into the 21^st century, but into the final chorus keeping traditional elements. This was very refreshing for a genre so plagued by pop and commercial influences, and especially since Keith Urban was involved in this and he’s usually one of the pop-ish perpetrators. Next was Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, performing ‘Good Hearted Woman’. They seemed to stick as well as they could to the original sound and feel of the song, but incorporated their typical on-stage chemistry of standing very close and singing to each other. It was kept very simple and stripped back, which was nice in comparison to the showbiz feel of the modern industry and these awards.

After this, Willie Nelson came to the stage and joined all the previous tribute performers for a rendition of ‘On The Road Again’. I have to say he never seems to age and his talent never seems to deteriorate! His vocals were still the same quality as they ever were and his guitar solo was right on point. Despite so many performers being on stage, he commanded the stage. It was nice to see such a unified tribute to him, although I found it interesting to honor someone who was previously part of the Western outlaw movement that rejected much of Nashville’s commercial ways and sounds, instead preferring a more ‘traditional’, and ‘true country’ aesthetic. But hey, he’s a legend now and he probably appreciates the recognition.

That was the final of the performances and it was a great way to end the show, despite the fact that the three-hour televised event didn’t start all too well in my opinion! There were ups and downs throughout, although I certainly enjoyed it, it’s great that country music continues to come together to celebrate a few times a year, even if some people don’t perform too well!

So what did you think of the performances? Do you agree with my opinions? Was there anyone you think should have performed and didn’t?  Did you enjoy the show? Let us know in the comments!

Posted by Vickye (Guest Writer).
If you want to check out my own blog it's For The Country Record, and you can follow me on twitter @planmymistake. You can email me at vickye.countrymusic@gmail.com.

CMAs Performance Review – Part 2

This is part 2 of my CMAs performance review series. If you missed part 1, you can read it here. Now let’s get down to business.

Luke Bryan was next to perform. There was notable effort put into the staging, and neon ruled this Vegas theme, making it very different to those that went before. The vocals were very close to that of the studio version, but were clearly live, rendering his vocals some of the best of the night, and I was impressed as sometimes he, like many country stars, can be a little flat live. Musically, he kept it simple, but his showmanship was obvious as he commanded the stage, remaining active and interactive with the audience throughout. However, I can’t say it was a favorite since I’m not as keen on that particular song, and his stupid hat just about ruined it for me. I’m sorry, I just hate backwards baseball caps. How old are you, 8? Following this Hunter Hayes produced what was an odd performance for me. His first at the CMAs, his vocals were fairly weak and straining (nerves, that’s accepted, no points deducted for that) and they needed to turn up his mike. However, the backing was clearly either a backing track or a total instrumental reproduction of the studio version, except that all you could see was Hunter at a piano, seemingly playing it, although I don’t believe it was hooked up to any PA system. It’s a shame because it’s a nice song and it would have been better to either have seen the full band playing the song or to have done a totally stripped down version live with just Hunter playing. Maybe they wanted the stripped down artistic feel but didn’t feel that Hunter could pull it off all by himself.

Faith Hill performed ‘American Heart’, and we were back to the leather pants. The candle-like lights descending upon the stage were pretty, but that didn’t detract from the fact that Faith was clearly not at her best vocally that night. It’s unfortunate because I know she is a fantastic singer, but particularly towards the end it was uncomfortable to listen to, visibly straining to get the notes in the key change. Perhaps, and what I am beginning to suspect, her age is playing a part. She is, after all, 45 years old, and for most people the voice does tend to deteriorate as they get older, and perhaps this is just the first sign of that. Otherwise the performance was fine, although for such a ‘country’ themed song the outfit seemed a little ‘New York’ for my liking, but hey, each to their own. Brantley Gilbert changed it up a bit after that on the middle stage, interacting with the fans and dressed almost identically to what I always see him in. This was a pretty predictable performance for me, and I was disappointed he didn’t rock out a bit more, although he did pace up and down a little and threw the horns once or twice.

Zac Brown returned to the stage to duet with Keith Urban, for something I can only describe as ‘nice, but nothing special’. There was a ‘nice’ accompanying video, but the best thing about it was the guitar solo battle, as it reminded me of Keith and Brad Paisley a few years back on their performance of ‘Start a Band’. Zac and Keith have a fairly good chemistry and it was pleasant but nothing more. Brad Paisley was next up and personally this was when I sat up and took notice. He began the performance with a cover of Jay Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind’ as a tribute to those affected by Hurricane Sandy, which was a lovely last minute touch and was met with rapturous applause. This also cleverly merged into Southern Comfort Zone with some great guitar work. One thing I was really impressed with this time around with Brad was that his vocals were really on point throughout the song, even on the high notes, which historically he does have trouble with live (I’m remembering his performance of ‘Then’ a few years ago). In fact, he was much better vocally than many of the singers that night, and although much of the performance was a bit same-y, his vocals and command of the stage and electrifying guitar solo made it a highlight for me. In addition, the huge choir that filled the many aisles of the arena, filing through towards the stage, was an impressive sight and slightly awe-inspiring, building the big sound that he ended with.

Brad’s fellow host, Carrie Underwood, was another I was looking forward to as her performances are always strong. I felt the smoke machine was a little cheesy (okay, a lot cheesy), but it didn’t detract from her vocals which got better as the song progressed. I would almost argue that she is one of country music’s best vocalists ever, but I imagine that would be met with heated debate. I loved the dress she was wearing, it was a lovely color that kind of matches the color of a storm, I guess, and had very beautiful intricate details that almost distracted me from the performance (particularly the cheeky leg she always has on show)! Confetti added more drama at the end but I felt like with such a dramatic song more could have been done to build the mood and atmosphere. It was a safe and solid performance however.

That’s it for part 2, but don’t worry, part 3 is on its way soon, so don’t forget to look out for it.

Posted by Vickye (Guest Writer).
If you want to check out my own blog it's For The Country Record, and you can follow me on twitter @planmymistake. You can email me at vickye.countrymusic@gmail.com.