Country died a little bit more tonight...

[sound dog]

The CMT Video awards

Wasn't going to watch, but had the sound turned down, saw a Loretta Lynn tribute come on so I indulged...wonderful tribute to Loretta...but, then...

I don't care if Gretchen Wilson was helping...Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart doing Crazy On You??? On a Country show???

And the finale with Big & Rich...this extravaganza (complete with gyrating dancing girls) had to have Hank, Lefty, Johnny & Waylon rolling over in the grave...good thing I was alone , I would have been embarrassed to watch this mess with my parents, my son, or my grandson...(I recall a writer back in the 70's saying that Hank Williams Sr. made the only music that he, his father, and grandfather could agree upon as being good music)...

I do believe that all music has to change to some extent, and I TRY to keep an open mind....but CMT should be horsewhipped for some of the stuff on there tonight...or am I just getting old and out of touch????

[andrew]

Originally Posted by sound dog

CMT should be horsewhipped for some of the stuff on there tonight

I agree 100% and I am their target demo being a 25 year old male.

[StratDal]

It can't make up it's mind just like Faith Hill keeps changing her hair. Faith, please leave it shoulder length, curley and blond...please...

[showard44]

I have a pretty open mind about the music even though I do still love the traditional stuff.

But I want to find out if you're talking about the music being embarrasing, or is CMT turning into MTV with it's sex appeal?

If that is the case, I agree that CMT needs to keep things cleaner than the other station does. When I have kids, MTV will be blocked from the channels and I hope I don't have to do it to CMT too.

[GopherTele]

When people bring up the same ol' same ol' that New Country Bad, Old Country Good...

But...

Last night's show was a total embarassment.

The sad thing is that I like Big and Rich and think they have gin-u-wine talent (gorgeous harmonies) but that just plain stank.

[shakedancer]

Country is not and has not been country for a long time. It's gone "Hollywood" so to speak. Very sad!

[Raymond]

I don't listen to country music myself, but a couple of days ago while surfing channels I couldn't believe what I saw in CMT… A video featuring Tim Mcgraw (?) and some rapper, who I think is called Nely, or something like that. They had a start at the top-left side of the screen showing what I believed was some sort of rank, and that thing was like 5 or 6….

Fellows, it's official…. the end is near… That was awful to say the least. I truly hope they didn’t show that last night. They pain would've been unbearable. I'm just a 34-year-old latin dude but this is it. I've decided I won't be open minded anymore… I don't care if they send the PC police after me. This has got to stop!

[Poppatwang]

Glad I missed it.

[TheGoodTexan]

Did anyone catch the Jeff Daniels performance? I didn't watch the show...but the wife and I were out dining at a resturant and they had it playing on the TVs in the bar.

Then I saw Jeff Daniels with a hat and a guitar, and some guy flipping cue-cards over, a la Bob Dylan or INXS.

I couldn't hear it, so I'm not sure what it was about. I searched the web for a video of it, but I didn't find anything.

[chet]

Keith Urban was pretty good- he was surrounded by babes!


It was a dumb idea to have the Wilson sisters singing "Crazy On You" though.

[chet]

Whaa...I missed gyrating dancing girls! :-P

[michael123]

not being a traditional or contemporary country fan, although hank is in my top 3 writers of all time cause good music is just good music, regardless the genre. although i am not a fan of the whole rap/hip hop thing. so i guess i am not as open minded as i think i am.

i am sure that there are some good contemporary country people.

after reading the posts, i must point out the obvious, every thing is about the money and what sells. it is as simple as that. i don't dig 'big and rich' or gretchen. but enough people do and the suits will milk it for all it's worth and then some.

[showard44]

Originally Posted by michael123

not being a traditional or
after reading the posts, i must point out the obvious, every thing is about the money and what sells. it is as simple as that. i don't dig 'big and rich' or gretchen. but enough people do and the suits will milk it for all it's worth and then some.

I agree that it is all about the money for the suits that are selling it, but a common misconception about artists like Big & Rich is they simply do what they do for the money. It couldn't be further from the truth, they do what they do because they love it and were doing it that way and thought that there is no way it would get picked up by the suits, but it did.

If you like it or not, that is a whole different thread.

[guitarplayer51]

So I got to suffer through the whole thing...
Note this is all IMHO
First the Good:

1. Very little if any lip sync/pre records that I could see!
2. The Loretta Lynne Tribute was nice and respectful.
3. Most of the singers remembered the words to there songs and sang in key (most)
4. Alan Jackson did well, seems like he sings live; in key a lot better these days, I think it has to do with having floor monitors VS. the in ear units, but that’s just me.
5. Hearing Trisha Yearwood sing again was a treat. She set the bar a long time ago as far as I am concerned.
6. Jeff Foxworthy did an "OK" job as host. I think he was poking at the Nashville big wigs a little too much for there comfort and got a poor response to a lot of his jokes, but all in all he was OK.

Now for the Bad:
Once again only IMHO.

1. I heard more four letter words and vulgarity in the first 20min of the show than I have heard in four hr at any local bar. That to my mind is BS; there are a lot of kids that watch this stuff.
2. When you present and award on Natl. TV; for gods sake read the cue cards or at least make up something intelligent to say instead of looking like a bunch third graders at a school play.
3. They start out the show with Kenney Chesny(I wish he would just stay on an island where no one can find him “FOREVER”) The song starts with an AC/DC style Riff(My first clue that I wasn’t in for a country show) and proceeds to some stupid lyric about a keg in the closet. OK?..? He must be reliving college now since he already did the one about high school. How knows, How Cares? Just all around bad….
4. Shooter Jennings and the chick he brought on stage to present an award both looked stoned and proceeded to suck face like Mike Jackson and Lisa Presley on stage. Just inappropriate and disgusting.
5. Dirks Bentley, who I like by the way, sang way out of key, it looked like he was trying to re position his ear monitors, might have been a problem there, who knows??
6. The Dukes of Hazard: This had to be the biggest joke of the whole show. They make a huge deal about this part and here is how it went. Bo, Luke, Daisy, Cooter, Ennis, and Rosco all come out and stand there trying to think of things to say and looking like complete idiots all just to introduce Toby Keith to sing his new single. It might have been cool if he had sang the Dukes of Hazard theme song, but all that just to sing his new song. Whatever….
7. The G Wilson/Heart thing was disaster and far from anything country. Besides, Loretta asked Gretchen to sing Redneck Woman during the tribute.. To my mind, what Loretta wants Loretta gets. That just respect.
8. Big and Rich have been discused so much here that I am not even going to mess with it. But yes; they where BAD too..

Anyway that’s my take on it. It was bad last year, it was bad this year it will be worse next year as will be the ACM, CMA and any other award show. They shoot for the shock factor to rope people in. But as long as we watch it will continue and even if we don’t there are a ton of people who probably thought the whole thing was great. So I guess will be back here next year to gripe again… I love it…

[Sarge]

you're gittin' old and outta touch. Every day a little more country music dies is a better day.

[Geo]

We watched for a bit but it was getting boring so we let it
go after Loretta's award.
It was actually nice to see a few that "dressed up"
a bit for the event.

With MTV there are some pros but to me more cons.
I'm kind of glad they didn't mention Nashville alot
even though it was telecast from here.

The majority of it isn't very representitive of the
local music scene and styles here but more the big
business interest companies. That is what the
populace is into I guess. Still the 20 or so top selling
artists really only account for ~30-33% of the
78 million LPs sold in 2004 so there are still
a lot of sales in the non pop country style areas.

[michael123]

Originally Posted by showard44

I agree that it is all about the money for the suits that are selling it, but a common misconception about artists like Big & Rich is they simply do what they do for the money. It couldn't be further from the truth, they do what they do because they love it and were doing it that way and thought that there is no way it would get picked up by the suits, but it did.

If you like it or not, that is a whole different thread.

i wish i was getting paid big bucks for doing what i love, 2nd best, playing music that i dig. i wasn't slammin 'em, even though it's not my cup o' tea, it doesn't affect me either way, i can listen or not, that's not my point, enough people like it to buy very much of it...as long as that is sustained, you'll be seeing it. if an artist isn't selling a bunch they wouldn't be in the spotlight so much, regardless of the genre.

[Bender]

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

Did anyone catch the Jeff Daniels performance?

So that's who that was! His mike cut out halfway through the song. He impressed me, because he pulled off what could have easily been a train wreak. One of the crew fiddled around with the mike for quite a while. The song could have lost momentum & died but he managed to get right back in the groove and finished fine. I get jittery enough when something goes wrong in the dinky places I play. I thought it was a pretty pro to keep his cool the way he did with that huge crowd- especially playing solo.

No lip synching in that one I guess! :D

[Stan Martin]

Originally Posted by Sarge

you're gittin' old and outta touch. Every day a little more country music dies is a better day.

What? If you don't like the genre try not to belittle the folks that do.

[agent2x4]

Country performers have no business cozying up to rappers, or vice versa. Good grief!

[ye olde fretmonkey]

Originally Posted by Sarge

you're gittin' old and outta touch. Every day a little more country music dies is a better day.

easy there, hoss

[showard44]

Originally Posted by agent2x4

Country performers have no business cozying up to rappers, or vice versa. Good grief!

Who says? And why not?


If they didn't call it country when they did, would that be okay?

[Sarge]

Fret Monkey and Stan.....everyones intitled to an opinion, no one is being belittled ......."hoss".

[jjh37854]

Man I am glad I missed it, I have barely recovered from B & R's performance at the last awards show, but for once I will be positive here, there was one bright spot this past weekend, anyone see the Opry????

Vince Gill, although a little liquored up was great, (even without the tele in his hands) twin fiddles and really featuring the steel guitar, then Joe Nichols, who is damn good an very country did his current single whis is trad and then did Farewell party, damn good, and a big long steel break. Then they had to have some woman out there singing about puppy dogs and ice cream, then Vince did some overly dramatic gospel thing, which I guess is cool if thats your thing, but all in all the best Opry show I have seen for a long time.