Quotable Country – 07/04/10 Edition

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Well, I love pop melodies, so it’s still going to be rooted in pop melodies. But I’m a storyteller, and I’ve been a storyteller all my life. ●
- – Jaron & the Long Road to Love makes his claim to countryness on the basis of storytelling.

It feels like a lot of people say, “Oh, we’re gonna make a country version of that. We’re gonna put some pedal steel on it.” It doesn’t work like that. And so I use the song. I just think that you can’t make a song into a country song. It’s either going to be there when you write it or it’s not going to be there. ●
- – Apparently, Uncle Kracker and I agree on everything except when it’s there and when it’s not.

There’s some obvious fear for the three of us as this is happening, as it’s moving forward at a pretty rapid pace. We’re goin’, ‘Wow, this is really happening. What does this mean? What does it come with?’ It’s a scary thing, because like anybody, you’ve got your bad days, [but] you’re always representing the band, even in the real world. So even if you got in a bad mood and somebody wants your autograph, you need to be genuine and stuff because that’s what they expect from you. ●
- – Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley on adapting to sudden fame, being genuine and stuff.

Kellie’s show was great, and Rascal Flatts’ show is nothing short of amazing. They have these cool video screens that you just have to see to believe. ●
- – Chris Young on his tourmates, notable chiefly for their cool video screens.

I was big into sports, and the summertime in east Tennessee consisted of playing baseball. They had a big fireworks display after all the games, and I was usually trying to win the affection of some little girl over at the concession stand. [laughs] Things don’t change very much. ●
- – Kenny Chesney on July 4th pastimes and his lifelong pursuit of little girls.

Twitter has become an important vehicle for country artists to maintain a high profile with their core fan bases. But a series of fake celebrities—usually using the word “not” or “drunken” in their online names—pokes fun at the very foundation of Twitter. They’re building a following, but they
have nothing to sell, and no one knows their identity.
The fake stars [...] are a new, warped version of the Elvis Presley impersonator, satirizing celebrities rather than paying homage. The posts range from hilarious to juvenile to mean-spirited to inappropriately sexual. And they’re all tweeted behind a wall of anonymity. ●
- – Okay, Billboard, go ahead and report on the fake country Twitters NOW, but remember that Farce the Music was the first to identify this trend months ago.

There’s been a change in the tone of my voice. I think it’s gotten deeper. I’ve noticed it gets deeper with each child, so it’s as low as it’s going to go! (laughs). Singing more and on the road, your voice gets different texture. It changes. ●
- – Martina McBride discovers the effects of long-term whiskey consumption.

America really is the land of opportunity. It’s the only place in the world that I could try out for some show and win, amongst hundreds of thousands of people, and go on to do great things. It’s the land of ‘anything could happen.’ The people in it are what makes it great. ●
- – Carrie Underwood: America is great for embracing Carrie Underwood.

Q: If you could make one annoying thing about the music business go away, what would it be?
A: Just the fact that just about everybody expects you to have soap star or movie star looks to be a country singer. Like the adage: “video killed the radio star.” It should be if you’re a good singer and a good songwriter, you should have your spot. You get everybody trying to release the prettiest guy, but that doesn’t mean they’re the best artist. Most of the time the true artists are just normal old dudes. ●
- – Randy Houser.

I was walking down the hallway, and Keith Urban called me by him. It was the coolest thing. He was surrounded by people, but I just see him and I walk by and he goes, ‘Danny, come here.’ I went running up there, and he mentioned that his family loves my [previous] single, ‘My Best Days Are Ahead of Me.’ ●
- – Danny Gokey has a fan in Keith Urban.

These guys had a lot to say. Kris Kristofferson songs don’t repeat themselves. There might be one chorus in the thing that passes through once, the rest is all verse. Every single word means something. Growing up around here I didn’t sing them. They weren’t my style. I had to do George Jones, Merle Haggard, George Strait, things to keep people dancing and drinking. The deepest we got was He Stopped Loving Her Today. If you tried Desperados Waiting on a Train they’d look at you funny. ●
- – Mark Chesnutt on the outlaws.

The [first] person that found out about Kyle’s and my engagement was some random older man that was riding on a bicycle. [...] I saw this stranger ride by on a bike, and I went, ‘Hey you! I’m getting married! Woo!’ and he goes, ‘Congratulations! When?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know! I just got engaged!’ And he said, ‘Well congrats,’ and then he ran his bike into the bushes! So that was technically the first person I told. ●
- – Kellie Pickler on breaking the news.

I’m sure not all traditional country fans wanted to accept what we were doing. When we came to the table we brought our stuff with us, and it became part of mainstream of country music. That’s kind of the way it is with all the younger people coming in now. They bring their different approach, their different feels, their different songs, their different sounds, their different music. Eventually, it becomes part of the mainstream. ●
- – Sometimes-cantankerous Charlie Daniels has a surprisingly cool-headed take on change in country music.

I have no qualms about where I am in my career. Especially looking ahead, I foresee a long career. There’s a lot of guys who started when I did who had a hit or two, and everyone kinda knew who they were at first, and now they’re gone. We’re still here. Like a hair in a biscuit, we’re hanging in here. ●
- – Craig Morgan. Like a hair in a biscuit, indeed.

In his own smartass, casual way, Fulks makes a serious, trenchant point about country’s mindless idealization of common people. Simple isn’t inherently better than complicated, rural isn’t inherently better than urban, and the uneducated don’t intuitively have more wisdom than folks with Ivy League degrees. Common people can be kind, big-hearted, and deceptively savvy, but they can also be mean, prejudiced, and petty. ●
- – The Onion A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin on Robbie Fulks’ “Papa Was a Steel-Headed Man.”

When you’re writing with somebody else, it goes a long ways towards helping to keep it fresh. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get writer’s block, like everybody else. There are days I can’t rhyme ‘moon’ and ‘spoon.’ Just ’cause you’ve done it for a long time doesn’t mean they give you a card that says, ‘You’re excused from writer’s block.’ Some days, you just sit there and co-stare. ●
- – Bill Anderson, who also reveals that George Strait has another one of his Jamey Johnson/Buddy Cannon cowrites on hold. “Give It Away” was pretty fine, so we’ll see.

McGraw’s 10-man band the Dancehall Doctors, which included up to seven guitarists at a time… ●
- – SEVEN guitarists at once!? Talk about overkill.