- Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert finally got hitched Saturday night at the Don Strange Ranch in Boerne, Texas. There were about 550 people in attendance. Lambert wore her mother’s wedding dress.
- Josh Turner surprised American Idol finalist Scotty McCreery during his hometown concert in Garner, North Carolina, joining him onstage to sing “Your Man” and “Long Black Train.” News channel WRAL caught the surprise entrance and performance on tape.
- Paul W. Dennis’ history-minded Forgotten Artists series, lately renamed the Country Heritage series, has found a new home at My Kind of Country. The first new installment of the revived series is on “She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Doubles)” singer Gary Stewart, one of the ’70s greats whose chart success never quite matched his talents. He committed suicide following the death of his wife in 2003.
- Keith Urban and Bill Anderson got stars on the Music City Walk of Fame over the weekend.
- Holly Gleason wrote a really lovely piece on Matraca Berg and The Dreaming Fields (out tomorrow!) for No Depression. On first meeting (and writing about) Berg 20 years ago:
She was tall, thin, pretty. Giant eyes, brown hair tumbling down around a heart-shaped face – and when she looked, you knew she knew. Everything. She understood. It made her a powerful voice for young women self-reliant beyond their years, banging into real life and realizing the bruises that come with learning the hard way. Romantic in spite of knowing, willing to keep wading into the rivers of real life, she held a light on so many of the unseen: the late middle-aged beautician of “Alice in the Looking Glass,” the lost girlhood of “Appalachian Rain,” as well as the liquid desire of “I Got It Bad.”
- Farce the Music’s latest collection of Country Bumper Stickers riffs on Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean.
- Leeann Ward at Country Universe gives Randy Houser’s “In God’s Time” a grade of A, calling it comparable to (but ultimately better than) Brooks & Dunn’s “Believe.”
- The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hooked up with Daytrotter to record live performances of “Going Up the Country,” “Mr. Bojangles,” “My Walking Shoes Don’t Fit Me Anymore,” and “Speed of Life.” Give the session a listen or grab the free MP3 downloads here.
- Jack Ingram visited Music Fog to share a cool new song called “Right for You.”
- Meanwhile, Ryan Bingham checked in with Rolling Stone for an interview and acoustic performances of “Depression,” “Hallelujah,” and “Direction of the Wind.”
- Andy Griggs, Randy Montana, the Del McCoury Band, and Diamond Rio will all appear on the Tuesday Night Opry this week. Tune in live at WSM Online at 7pm Central tomorrow night.
- Grant Langston sings “I Don’t Give a Damn, She Don’t Have a Clue.”
Shelton and Lambert Wed; Country Heritage Series Continues; New Jack Ingram Song
May 16, 2011 by 3 Comments
Texas, Trailers, and Todd Snider (Links) About C.M. Wilcox
A freelance writer and humorist with an abiding love of country music, C.M. Wilcox's cutting, clear-eyed take on the genre has drawn the attention of Country Weekly, The Washington Post, and The Tennessean in the years since this site began. He lives near Sacramento and can be reached by email at CMW (at) countrycalifornia.com.
Things People Are Saying
Speak Your Mind
Comment Policy: Just don't be too big of a jerk, okay? It's a pretty simple rule.
Matraca Berg’s new album is available today on Amazon for just $2.99
So it is. Good catch.
That’s “Whispering” Bill Anderson to you.