[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]it’s, like, really relationship-y ● - - Taylor Swift offers insight on Def Leppard's “Hysteria.”This song is a shout out to all the country girls out there, living in small towns and big cities from Georgia to Kansas. ● - - Uh, okay, but that's actually only 5 or 6 states depending on how you draw the line. Seems to me Jason Aldean might be unnecessarily limiting his audience.We really got lucky. I think we cut some great … [Read more...]

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]The little guy hit me. ● - - Jerry Montano on taking a blow to the face from a drunken John Rich's beer bottle.And the writers that I'm writing with start playing the guitar and start humming melodies and I'll hum along with them. And the lyrics come so easy. If you don't write a song in an hour, you're not having a good day. ● - - Here's a thought, Ms. Simpson: if songwriting comes that easily for you, maybe it's because you're … [Read more...]

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]That's a mighty fine performance. ● - - George Jones on Patty Loveless' cover of “She Thinks I Still Care.”Hank Williams, Harlan Howard, Alan Jackson. Three names that mean greatness when it comes to writing country songs. Your name, Taylor Swift, can be in the same sentence with these songwriters. ● - - Hazel Smith gets downright blasphemous.The media has had fun trying to match the lyrics to her exes, but Simpson laughs at … [Read more...]

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]I think the [new] record has more texture. 'Waking Up Laughing' was pretty simple musically. It was kind of stripped down. This one has a lot of texture. ● - - Martina McBride has discovered some heretofore unknown definition of the term 'stripped down.' Recall that her most recent album included such rootsy numbers as "How I Feel" and the Hallmark anthem "Anyway."I said that [Obama] had a chance to win it as the [party's] best … [Read more...]

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]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 … [Read more...]

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]Well, you can take those pebbles and stick them up your (expletive) one at a time. I won't be there. ● - - Willie Nelson's wry response when the director of a Pebble Beach golf tournament phoned to tell him that shorts would not be allowed on the course.I think for me, it's traditional country the way I hear it. ● - - Darius Rucker is traditional country, as long as the tradition doesn't go back more than 10 years or so.For our … [Read more...]

[Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.]People started screaming, clapping and chanting "Billy, Billy, Billy" when he emerged, wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots and a fleece "Hannah Montana" pullover. ● - - Nothing says raw masculinity like a fleece Hannah Montana pullover.Is there a standards problem with showing the liquor bottle? ● - - Question from a CMT staffer at the screening for Cyrus' “Somebody Said a Prayer” video. God forbid we show a liquor bottle on … [Read more...]