Quotable Country – 08/01/10 Edition

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Well? Which dessert did Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher choose? The buttermilk pie from the Yesterday Café in Greensboro, Ga.? Or the cupcake tower from a Nashville area bakery? ●
- – Alison Bonaguro, more than two weeks after the wedding.

The story goes on to say that Lady Gaga has almost removed the music altogether and that “her songs are perfectly blank, mere skeletons to drape herself around.” It would be a very, very sad day if that kind of artist ever made it to the top of the country music charts. ●
- – Hmm… has Alison been watching the same country charts as me? Isn’t “Undo It” at the top right now?

Playing the Opry was amazing. During the first verse of the single the crowd started clapping which has never happened before, so I was thinking to myself ‘Oh gosh, something’s going wrong.’ Thankfully everything was ok. I guess the crowd was just enjoying the song. (from email)
- – Randy Montana was baffled by applause at his Opry debut.

A message to the Nashville music industry:
So Monday morning when you get to the office and you’re looking at your latest chart… Out of the fifty or so names you’ve signed, find me one act that is half the entertainer that my friend @nealmccoy (who hasn’t had a top 5 since May 5, 1997) is…. I just watched him make every flat ironed hair, skinny jeans wearing, sleeveless shirt (baddass) in this business look a bunch of morons!!! HE IS A ENTERTAINER. ●
- – Blake Shelton proselytizes for Neal McCoy on Twitter.

I quit but I never got over it. Anybody who says it’s not habit-forming is a damn liar. I’ve had friends tell me, I can quit marijuana any time I want. Bullshit! (Laughs.) I called a friend of mine, a big music producer whose name you’d probably recognize, and I said to him, “I heard you quit pot,” and he’s like, “Yeah, I did.” I asked him, “Well shit, how long do these goddamn withdrawals last?” And he said, “It lasted 45 days for me. And then I just started smoking again.” (Laughs.) ●
- – Merle Haggard on kicking the marijuana habit, from an entertaining interview with Vanity Fair.

It’s mostly banned. There are a couple stations here and there that are playing it, but I don’t know that anybody has added it in like any kind of rotation. For the most part, it’s banned from radio. ●
- – Bellamy Brother David on the duo’s new song, “Jalapeno,” which is apparently ‘banned’ rather than just, uh, continuing a twenty year trend of these guys not getting played on the radio. (Here’s the song.)

It’s not what you think. I think people are still confused by what’s happening, but the reality is that if you ask Kid Rock or Darius Rucker, you ask any of these guys, they’ll tell you the same thing: country went pop, we didn’t go country. I don’t think Jewel wakes up in the morning and just goes “I want to make a country record.” [...] If you listen to a Keith Urban or Lady Antebellum song, those are straight-up pop songs. There’s that whole wink-wink “I’ll throw a banjo or a mandolin in” thing, but it’s pop. ●
- – Jaron and the Long Road to Love isn’t country: country is pop.

There was a really cute girl who was doing the hair on a photo shoot the day before. She was like, ‘Oh, I’ll give you a little bit of a trim.’ I kept going back for like two hours to have her keep cutting it shorter and shorter and shorter just so I could hang out with her. Everybody was asking me, ‘How short do you want to go?’ I was like, ‘Well I really didn’t want a haircut at all!’ [laughs] ●
- – Jaron and the Long Road to Love (still the dumbest name ever) explains his new haircut.

I’ve kind of decided that [my as-yet unborn daughter] won’t date while I’m alive … I’ve already been practicing my lines. My favorite one so far is, “Whatever you do to her over the course of the night, I’m going to do to you when you get back. So y’all go out and have a good time.” ●
- – Sounds a little kinky, James Otto.

I’m really inspired by country music — my mom wrote country music — and I love Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. I think at some point there might be some country collaborations or records in the future. ●
- – Pop star Ke$ha.

When you try to fight something, it’s more of a struggle. So I’ve just learned to do what I do … spending less time attacking what I don’t like and more embracing what I love. ●
- – Dale Watson is in less of a fighting mood these days. New album out on August 24!

I’ve come to have a strong sense of who I am, and I try to put that in the music. I know I love country songs, but also progressive country songs that have that same soul. You hear Buddy or Julie Miller, and that’s the same kind of heart that was Ray Price or Ferlin Huskey. You hear a Ronnie Bowman song and that’s like the Louvins or the Delmores. ●
- – Lee Ann Womack is a woman after my heart.

I told my record label I care what sells, but I’m sick of singing these poppy country songs. I want to go and make my first country album. I want to do it for the music, the reflection of my soul. I don’t want to go sing a bunch of songs just because they’re poppy enough for radio to play. I want a country album. ●
- – Kellie Pickler sounds pretty serious about this traditional country thing

We definitely throw a lot of [classics] into the show. Country music’s strayed so much from the roots, and it’s really nice to be able to do a show that can introduce the younger generation who has never heard those singers … to real music. ●
- – Kellie Pickler again. This next album better be good.

A few interesting non-quotable tidbits:

• Grant Langston put together a primer on the Los Angeles country/Americana scene, including an exhaustive-looking list of its regular performers.
• You can watch the full PBS American Masters documentary on Merle Haggard online.
• Amazon MP3 has more than 50 country albums on sale for $5 apiece through August, including albums by Lady Antebellum, Old Crow Medicine Show, Eric Church, Tim McGraw, Darrell Scott, Elizabeth Cook, Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and more.
• Trent Summar has been focusing on his staff writing gig at Universal Music for the past few years, but thinks it might be time to get to work on a new Trent Summar & the New Row Mob album.