Quotable Country – 06/13/10 Edition

Click the bullet after each quote to visit the original source.

Umm, I did not excel in reading. I am not a strong reader, but I think if we keep to the basics of the English language and if you don’t throw any big words at me, I might be able to muscle through it. ●
- – Kid Rock predicts how he’ll do as host of the CMT Music Awards. Final verdict: Damn near unwatchable.

Why is Terrell Owens here? Does anybody like him? I don’t think so. I don’t like him for shit.
- – Trace Adkins backstage at the CMT Awards, as reported in Country Aircheck.

Quit following the herd. Record some good songs. Take a close look at the country singles chart. Very few of those songs will be remembered six months from now, let alone six years from now. There’s a good reason Miranda Lambert’s”The House That Built Me” is doing well. It’s a well-crafted song with some real human feeling in it. Listen to your heart and your ears and quit cutting what you think country radio wants. ●
- – Chet Flippo offers some advice for artists.

Because this is boring. ●
- – Blake Shelton, asked why he was tweeting during a record label panel at Billboard’s Country Music Summit.

I just recorded a song with Kid Rock for his new album. It seems like an odd pairing, but I love that he sees the real redneck in me. There’s a rapper called T.I. who raps the third verse. Kid Rock sings the first verse, I sing the second verse and T.I. raps the third verse. Crazy, but it’s really uplifting and it’s a cool melody and it feels good. It makes sense. If I was rapping the third verse, that would not make sense. ●
- – Sober Martina can be every bit as surprising as her drunken counterpart.* (Thanks to Chris D.)

There are people working at the 7-Eleven who can sing circles around me. ●
- – Tim McGraw on competition in Nashville.

It doesn’t move me very much. Occasionally something will, but it’s another generation, and every generation should be able to make the music they want to make. ●
- – Ronnie Milsap on country music today.

I don’t think I’ll ever achieve perfection, but I want to keep looking for it. I feel like [album title] ‘Getting Dressed in the Dark’ is having faith in yourself and just saying, ‘When I emerge into the light, hopefully I’ll get it right.’ … The title models itself after my journey and foray into country music. ●
- – Jaron & the Long Road to Love. Getting Dressed in the Dark, huh? Well, that does explain the Zack Morris inspired ensemble at right.

It’s a very smart, progressive bunch, these people that make country music. They’re not country hicks sitting behind a desk with a big cigar giving out record deals and driving round in Cadillacs with cattle horns on the front grille: it’s a bunch of really wonderful, open-minded, great people down on Music Row that make this music. ●
- – Brad Paisley fights the stereotype.

He’s one of the singers I feel like is for real. ●
- – Gene Watson on Chris Young.

I’m from the old Hank Cochran school of writing. Hank used to say, ‘You can’t put your title in a song too many times.’ I always believed that, but today, you’ve got to fight to do that. I never counted the number of times that we said ‘give it away’ in ‘Give It Away,’ but I bet it was in there 25 times. So many of these writers today are influenced not by old country music, but by rock music and evidently the rockers don’t subscribe to that theory. They’ll put the title in there at the end of the chorus maybe and kind of hide it. I always liked to come back to it. Tell them what you’re writing about. Drive it home. ●
- – Bill Anderson on songwriting.

My guitar player and I take more crap on the bus because we both watch ‘Desperate Housewives.’ Everybody in the band makes fun of us. We fight back, saying, ‘Every woman on there is hot!’ That’s how we justify it. It’s an awesome show! It’s hilarious! I’ve been watching it for quite a while now. ●
- – No shame in Justin Moore’s game.

This could be a big deal for a number of reasons. But there’s a piece of it that’s a little puzzling. For Dierks to want to pull what’s in his heart out and put it on an album and tour with it is a wonderful gesture, but that’s what artists should be doing. That should be the norm, rather than us scratching our heads and wondering, ‘How does this happen?’ ●
- – Dan Hays, International Bluegrass Music Association executive director, on Up on the Ridge.

I don’t want to compete with today’s pop radio, where the young pop artists are. That would be ridiculous for me to try to stay there. I like the fact that country music allows artists over 40 to have radio airplay, and I like the fact that country artists are writing lyrics that matter. ●
- – Kenny Loggins mulls a country turn.

Asked to describe his new disc, released this spring and titled “I Am What I Am” Haggard said, “It is what it is.” ●
- – Merle gives quite an interview.

CB: Who would be your dream collaboration?
EW: I have always wanted to do a duet with Tom Petty. I think Jamey Johnson would also be great. I am always struggling with what Emily I want to create. Where do I want to brand myself. I love old school country. I think we should all chill out and listen to some old school depressing country. To sing with Little Big Town would be amazing since their harmonies are like smooth cashmere silk. ●
- – Emily West is feeling a little scattered.

There’s no artist that this didn’t happen to. Not one. Well, maybe George Strait… Anyway, people like different things. My grandfather said, ‘If people all liked the same thing, everybody’d be hitting on your grandma.’ ●
- – Vince Gill on losing his spot on radio playlists.

Uh uh uh uh uh
Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
Uh uh undo it ●
- – Country Haiku keeps it simple.

* Gotcha! There’s no such thing as a sober Martina.