Country California

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Rascal Flatts make a lot of good country music. But it wouldn’t be all that country if it wasn’t for guys like John Jeansonne. He’s the one who rosins up his bow and plays his fiddle hard during every Flatts show, and he’s been doing it for seven years. ●
– - Meet John Jeansonne, the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dam.

McDaniel was an integral part of the rise of country music during the “Urban Cowboy”-inspired 1970s – 1990s. But the smooth, deep-voiced singer still reaches huge audiences today, evidenced by the Top 10 chart spike in 2007 of “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On,” when it was also ranked the number one country music ring tone in the cell phone market. ●
– - I must have missed Mel McDaniel’s massive comeback in 2007. Or was this only on the Catoosa, Oklahoma country charts? And the ’70s and ’90s were part of the Urban Cowboy era? Color me confused.

There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now. ●
– - Keith Urban’s wife, Nicole Kidman, got some kooky ideas from spending too many years with Tom Cruise.

The sweaty but easy-going South Carolinian proved that he has more natural stage presence and a more distinctive and delicious voice than most of the male singers in Nashville these days. Plus, he has the songs, marked by heartfelt sentiment and a polished style not far removed from Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts. ●
– - Darius Rucker is a hit, but I don’t like the implication that sweaty people are not usually easygoing. Are those really opposite character traits? Also, being compared to Rascal Flatts is a mixed blessing if ever there was one.

As you get older, you hope that your music resonates and is honest. We live in an age where there’s a lot of things that are fabricated and a little on the shallow side, and these people with a lot of years on them have a truth and an honesty about them that young people might find interesting. ●
– - They don’t call Vince Gill ’sweet pea’ for nothing. He has the nicest, most unassuming way of saying that a lot of contemporary country sucks.

Mainstream country music will always push the limits toward pop/rock.  It means more widespread appeal, more public recognition and more money, and it’s been that way for a long time (Alan Jackson’s Gone Country notwithstanding).  But maybe that means we can keep the real cowboy singers like [Neal] McCoy to ourselves. ●
– - Uh, I think you might be confused, mister.

What can people expect on the UK tour?
I’m going to have a band with me. There’ll be something for everyone. Unless you hate my music, in which case there won’t. ●
– - Gotta love the British wit of Teddy Thompson (country connection).

According to Tim and Faith, it’s not that easy to find strong duets that they can sing together. When they do find enough great duets, they then will have to coordinate their separate careers on different record companies to find a time when a duets album would hurt the sales of their individual solo album releases. ●
– - I think I’d like Tim and Faith a lot more if they did willingly sabotage their own careers for the greater good of humanity.

George Jones and Merle Haggard fell out of favor with country radio in the ’80s. Could the same thing happen to you and George Strait? ●
– - Question from a Randy Travis interview. Translation: I actually stopped following your career sometime in the mid ’90s.

In contrast was opening act Jewel, who since her 1995 debut has gone from Lilith Fair folkie to middling pop-rocker and now to country hopeful, with mediocrity her one constant. ●
– - Kudos to Curtis Ross at The Tampa Tribune.

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