A swarm of new videos!

Head over to CMT’s website today, and there are 10 music videos that are premiering. Those would be “Southern Voice” by Tim McGraw, “I’m Alive” by Kenny Chesney & Dave Matthews, “White Liar” by Miranda Lambert, “Keep You” by Sugarland, “Consider Me Gone” by Reba McEntire, “That’s How Country Boys Roll” by Billy Currington, “Hit The Ground Runnin’” by Keith Urban, “Sooner Or Later” by Michelle Branch and “Cowboy Casanova” by Carrie Underwood (Click the links to get to the videos, as of now, the Kenny Chesney video doesn’t seem to be working…). The Chesney, Urban, McGraw and Currington videos are all either half or mostly performance videos, so this time around the girls have better videos. Here are my 3 favorites:

“White Liar” by Miranda Lambert
I saw it was a wedding scene, and I knew it would be awesome: it doesn’t disappoint. Look at the preacher… You might see another country star!

“Keep You” by Sugarland
A simple video set in a theater, for some reason Jennifer Nettles cuts her hair in the most depressing way possible. It kinda makes sense, but looks gorgeous and has an amazing song, so it’s still good.

“Cowboy Casanova” by Carrie Underwood
Definitely a pop video with dancing and outfits, but the retro vibe is awesome, and at the end that guy has to be freaked out. Random synchronized dancing terrifies me.

What do you think of the new videos? Anybody else think that Michelle Branch really looks like a Hippie? Will Keith Urban make more than one non-live video per album?

CD Giveaway: George Strait – ’50 Number Ones’

Update: And the winner is … Pat Amo. Congratulations, Pat, we’ll be emailing you shortly.  Thanks to everybody who commented, and keep looking for a special Patty Loveless package giveaway soon, and of course stick around as we spotlight Patty’s career throughout the month of October.

George Strait has had a longer run at the top than any other country star, past or present.  Since his first single release, ‘Unwound’ in 1981, the man called ‘King George’ has been consistently releasing chart-topping albums and singles for the past 28 years.  Along the way, he’s given us some real country chestnuts and keepers too.  The 1980s saw Strait as a leader in the New Traditionalist movement of the time, and as the 1990s dawned, he continued his hit-making streak among a whole new crop of competitors.  This decade has included some of the biggest honors of his storied career, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and recently being named the Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music.  George Strait continues to be one of country music’s most successful artists – he is up for three prizes at this year’s CMA Awards ceremony, bringing his total nominations from the association to a staggering 76 nominations.  Of these 76 nods, he has taken home CMA trophies 22 times, including back-to-back Entertainer of the Year Awards.  I could go on and on about George Strait’s accomplishments – he’s the 9th best-selling artist of all time, in all genres, he has more gold albums than everybody except Elvis among solo performers, has the most #1 albums, the most #1 singles, and world-wide sales of over 75,000,000 units.

His 1995 Strait Out of the Box set also holds the distinction of being the best-selling box set of all time, with over 8 million units shipped according to the RIAA, and is an excellent starting point for anyone new to the music of George Strait. But since that set cuts off at 1994, we’ve decided to offer you a more recent collection of Strait’s hits, his land-mark 50 Number Ones, which includes the first 51 of his 57 chart-topping hits – with the addition of a new song, ‘I Hate Everything’, which also reached the summit.

To enter for your chance to win a copy of George Strait’s 2-disc 50 Number Ones set, leave us a comment telling us why you think George Strait has endured on the country charts so long?  Is it his particular style of singing?  The songs?  Or just plain luck and perserverance?  What do you think?

*Comments must be posted by 11:59 PM on September 30, 2009.

Classic Rewind: Ralph Stanley & Patty Loveless – ‘Pretty Polly’

Album Review: Billy Yates – ‘Bill’s Barber Shop’

Billy Yates managed just one top 40 hit with ‘Flowers’ back in 1997, but since losing his major label deal he has released a string of records on his own MOD label, as well as forging a successful songwriting career.

Billy’s music is firmly rooted in mainstream traditional country. His voice is not exceptional, but it is good with a pleasing twang, and he is a very accomplished writer with a good ear for playful lyrics, writing or co-writing all the material on his latest effort. It opens promisingly with the plaintive honky tonking ‘Famous For Being Your Fool’, in which the protagonist, formerly happy in obscurity, finds himself a public laughing stock thanks to the woman he is hopelessly in thrall to.

Several songs tackle faltering relationships with an undercurrent of suspicion. The best of the songs tackling this theme is the slow ‘Tell Me I’m Wrong’, written with Carson Chamberlain and Billy Ryan, as a husband vainly hopes he may be reading wrongly all the signs of a woman on her way out of the marriage:

“That note you left was hard to read
Through the teardrops in my eyes
I think it said you’d rather be alone
Tell me I’m wrong

You can say I’m crazy, that I’ve lost my mind
Tell me what I’m seeing is a sign I’m going blind
And those bags sitting right there by the back door
Lead me to believe that you don’t love me any more”

Well, yes. Equally desperate not to see what is in plain view to everyone else is the protagonist of ‘I Just Can’t See It’, written with Irene Kelley, who admits,

“If I look for trouble, then trouble is what I’ll find”

but claims he “can’t see a single cloud up in the sky”, before finally declaring:

“My love is strong and that will never change
And that is why I look the other way.”

The protagonist of the neatly constructed ‘Get Ready, Get Set, She’s Gone’, is a little more prepared for heartbreak, as he engages in a conversation with his heart:

“Get ready, ’cause we’re about to break
Get set for the steps she’s about to take
Hold on, be steady,
One of us has to be strong
Get ready, get set, she’s gone.”

The mid-tempo ‘It Goes Without Sayin”, written with John Raney, is the most contemporary sounding song, and is probably my least favorite as Billy seems to be glossing over the heartbreak beneath the lyric. Much more convincing is the straightforward heartbreak of the one solo composition on the set, as the subdued protagonist tries to conceal ‘This Pain Inside Of Me’ from the woman who has caused it.