by | April 2, 2015 · 8:00 am

What will the ACM Awards bring this year?

This Monday, March 30th, the second round of performers for this years Academy of Country Music Awards was announced. This year will mark the 50th ACM celebration so they are going all out with the performers. The academy is bringing back veterans, having new artists perform, and creating crossover duets with pop artists. The ACM’s will take place on April 19th at the AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas.

However, the interesting part of who will be performing is whom they chose for the duet performances. As of right now it is Nick Jonas with Dan and Shay. And then Christina Aguilera is said to be performing with a surprise artist for a surprise duet. Aguilera will also be appearing as a guest star in Nashville, on April 15th. This is especially interesting because the ACM’s are only four days after her country music debut. Granted on the show Aguilera’s character will be an already established pop artist that wants to record a country album.

Last years best duet performance was with Shakira and Blake Shelton. It turned out to be more of a rock tune than country but still people went wild for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1rAVitAwiA

They also performed this song on The Voice. I think that this performance was awesome. Personally, I just like how their two voices blend together because they are so different. With Shakira’s Spanish accent shining through and then Shelton’s country accent, together I think that they create a very unique sound.

For the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards there were two crossover duet performances, the first by Hunter Hayes and Stevie Wonder and the second by Brad Paisley and John Mayer. Hunter Hayes and Stevie Wonder performed “Sir Duke”. Hunter Hayes also did a solo performance of “I Want Crazy”, however, the duet with Stevie Wonder completely overshadowed his solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0jhYZniYeo

Brad Paisley and John Mayer performed “Beat This Summer”. This performance was primarily sung by Paisley. Both Mayer and Paisley contributed to the guitar solo and Mayer took over one verse of the song.

Maybe it is because this is not one of my favorite Brad Paisley songs but I did not enjoy this performance as much. However, I think that the Hayes and Wonder duet was much better, got the audience more into the performance, and had a much better sound to it.

I think that duet performances are unique because of how they bring two different voices together. Especially the duets performed at the ACM’s because they usually take artists from two different genres. This is great because the performances combined two opposite sounding vocals and creates an amazing crossover sound. I am very excited to see how the duet performances for this year turn out.

2 Comments

Filed under Awards, Movies and TV

by | April 1, 2015 · 8:00 am

The Many Sounds of Zac Brown

A few days ago, one of my friends, who is a huge Zac Brown fan, shared a video with me on Facebook. It was of a performance they did a few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live with Chris Cornell. A song from their new album called “Heavy is the Head”.

This song sounds more like a heavy metal song than a country song, and my friend seemed rather shocked with this new Zac Brown sound. I can’t say I really blame him, and he probably wasn’t the only one. I think most people are accustomed to the “Chicken Fried” Zac Brown, and while I also think that he does a phenomenal job writing and performing country music, it’s pretty clear that he’s trying to move on and develop a new sound. I don’t think this is the first step he has made toward developing that new sound, either.

A few weeks ago, I picked up the latest album from the Foo Fighters called Sonic Highways. Now I know what you’re thinking, the Foo Fighters are not even remotely close to being a country band, and I completely agree. However, they have a song on this new album called “Congregation” which was written and recorded in Nashville and features Zac Brown on guitar.

This is clearly not a country song. Even before this new album though, Zac Brown and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters have been playing together. When Zac Brown debuted his song “Day For the Dead” on the 2013 CMA awards, it featured Dave Grohl playing drums onstage with the rest of the Zac Brown Band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhU-fvEMHvM

This song, to me, has a bit more country sound to it, and it features the classic Zac Brown beanie that everyone knows and loves. However, I think this is about the time that Zac Brown started moving out of country music and more into rock. If you go on YouTube, you can find a ton of videos of Zac Brown covering Metallica, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and a lot of other classic rock bands, and he does an excellent job of it.

Personally, when I got to high school I kind of started listening to more classic rock along with some country music, and to see someone like Zac Brown who seems just as comfortable performing new country music as he does performing oldies rock hits is pretty awesome. There are some people who probably think of Zac Brown as a purely country artist, but the truth is he and his band are extremely talented. With that kind of talent, I say if they want to mix in some rock and roll with country, more power to them.

3 Comments

Filed under Country Rock, Live Music, Music Videos, Southern Rock

by | March 30, 2015 · 8:00 am

Death in a Country Song

Country music has always been known for telling a captivating story. While many people believe that all country song are about beer, girls, and trucks, artists are still writings songs that break the norm and touch people’s heart. Country music tells beautiful stories about birth, intriguing stories about life, and unfortunately the sad truths about death. After doing my album analysis of Martina McBride’s Eleven, I started thinking about how many country songs cover the tragic story of death and sickness.

Martina McBride’s “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” is about a wife and mother of three who finds out she has breast cancer. The song follows her before, during, and after her treatments. Luckily, the woman in Martina McBride’s song doesn’t die, but instead pushes through the treatment with the support from her husband. This song ends on a happy note because no one passes away, but unfortunately not every song has such a happy ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1yOHzuNskY

Alabama’s “The Christmas Shoes” played on my iPod yesterday and I couldn’t help but tear up. This emotional song is about a young boy who is trying to buy some shoes for his mother for Christmas. The listener quickly learns that the mother is very sick and not expected to live past Christmas. The boy doesn’t have enough money to pay for the shoes, so the man behind him at the cash register helps him cover the cost. This is another song where someone is very sick, but instead of making a healthy recovery, the family is doing whatever they can to make the mother more comfortable.

Carrie Underwood’s “Temporary Home” also ends with someone close to death, but instead takes a more inspirational turn when the man tries ensure everyone that he is going to a better place. This man’s temporary home was Earth and now he has stated that his is going home to heaven. I have seen Carrie Underwood perform this song in concert twice and each time I can’t help but think how comforting it must be to anyone who is about to, or already has lost a loved one.

The last song I will talk about is “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry. I had never really listen to the lyrics of this song until heard The Band Perry preform it live last summer. This is a very sad song about a person deciding how they want to be buried if they were to die young. Most young people never even consider this, but this song is about the singer not being afraid of death.

Most rap or hip-hop song are about living life to the fullest, but country songs do a beautiful job of tackling the more emotional topics that many artists don’t like to think about.

2 Comments

Filed under Lists, Live Music, Music Videos, Reflection, Reviews

by | March 29, 2015 · 12:29 pm

Luke Bryan is Checkin’ Out of Spring Break

As a college student who just got back from the sandy beaches of spring break, I was stunned when I heard the news that Luke Bryan is calling an end to his domination as the spring-break-southern-state-country-music-concert-phenomena. After seven years on the spring break concert scene, Luke Bryan says it is time for him to let it go of his infamous spring break series, now that he is nearing forty years old (I don’t care what he thinks, I would see him in any concert any day no matter how old he is).

timthumb.phpI was shocked by this news because of the hype I realized he received while on my freshman year spring break trip, just two short years ago. Some friends and I had road tripped all the way down to Gulf Shores, Alabama and the entire car ride my friends played Luke Bryan’s 2013 Spring Break album Here to Party. To this day, I hear one of those songs and I can’t help but smile at the memories of lying on the beach and touching my toes in the Gulf of Mexico for the very first time. While I never got the chance to see any of his spring break concerts live, the song “Just a Sip” from that 2013 album will always bring me back to that very sunny trip to Alabama.

Luke Bryan’s reign as a country music spring break all-star started in 2009 with his album With all my Friends. From there he went on to have six more albums, and with each album came concerts in places like Gulf Shores, Alabama andluke-bryan-spring-break-ep-cover Panama City, Florida. The next six album tours were Spring Break: Hangover Edition, It’s a Shore Thing, Suntan City, Here to Party, Like We Ain’t Ever, and Checkin’ Out. His songs have been an anthem for students travelling down the beaches of America while they escape from the reality of school, homework, tests, and real life for just one week. And now, although his reign his over, those anthems will be sure to live on.

While it is always sad to think of the end of an era, it may just be a positive transition for Luke Bryan in to a new artistic light. He’s criticized with being “too bro country” for country music, but this could be a turning point in his career. He is gifted with a good voice, a pretty face, and the ability to make people want to sing along to his catchy songs. I would love to see some more out of him than just the party anthems he is most famously known for. Recently, he has dabbled in to some more somber themes that reflect on some of the hardships in his life, such as the song he sings about the loss of someone close to him “Drink a Beer.”

Luke-Bryan-CountryMusicIsLove-e1423094611227Although it is a bit bittersweet that Luke Bryan is ending his era as the Spring Break tyrant, I think that there are good things that lay ahead for him. I’m a Luke Bryan fan ‘til the end, and will remain loyal to him through whatever bro-country controversy that he may bring upon himself. But it is my hope that he now takes this newfound maturity at the age of almost 4 decades to reach out to more listeners with his music and show how talented he truly is.

6 Comments

Filed under Bro Country, Country Pop, Dancing, Live Music

by | · 8:00 am

The New Zac Brown Band

A few weeks ago Saturday Night Live had Zac Brown Band as their musical guest. I hadn’t heard much from them lately, but I’ve been a fan ever since their album debut The Foundation. Their 2010 album You Get What You Give was another one of my favorites, and it sounded largely similar to the first one. I found out through their performance on SNL that they have a new album coming out called Jekyll + Hyde, scheduled for release in April. Since it had been a couple years since I’d seen ZBB perform I was expecting to see the signature Zac Brown beanie and to hear a couple bluegrass-influenced songs similar to “Chicken Fried” and “Whatever It Is”. Boy was I to be surprised.

The first performance was actually more like Zac Brown Band of old, as the band played the first single from the album, “Homegrown”, a country song about being proud of where you’re from or something along those lines. But even though the song sounded like a typical ZBB song, the appearance of Brown was different, simply because he ditched his beanie for a top hat. In addition, it seems as though Brown is trying to convey a “cleaner” look, with well-groomed facial hair rather than his scraggly beard.

Old Zac Brown

New Zac Brown

So it was obvious to me that Brown is trying to change his image, to what though I wasn’t sure. Then the band was introduced for their second song, and instead of a feel-good song like “Knee Deep” or “Toes”, the band played the second single from the new album called “Heavy is the Head”. The song is absolutely nothing like the Zac Brown Band we’re all used to, and my mind was blown. The song even features guitarist Chris Cornell from the rock band Soundgarden.

If you’re like me after watching this video, you’re thinking “Is that really Zac Brown Band?” I mean, that distorted bass line is nothing like we’ve ever heard from ZBB. This is a full-fledged heavy metal song. What’s even wilder is Brown’s “mad-hatter” top hat, complete with the feather.

ZBB

I’m not sure what Brown’s intentions are with this “personal rebrand”, but it seems like he’s ready to distance himself from the previous image of the band. It’s worth noting that most of their songs on the upcoming album will be more along the lines of what we’re used to, including the single “Dress Blues”, which is softer and more like a country song. Still, I don’t think they released “Heavy Is the Head” for no reason. To me, ZBB is trying to send a statement that they’re more than a country band, they can be rock stars too.

Another interesting fact about this song is that it’s the first Zac Brown Band song released to rock radio, rather than country. It’s also the band’s first entry on the Billboard Rock charts, debuting at number 37.

Even though I was shocked to discover the new sound/image of Zac Brown Band, I quickly learned that they have been a versatile band for a while. I found videos on YouTube dating back as far as 2009 featuring the band covering artists including Pink Floyd, Snoop Dogg, Rage Against the Machine, and Metallica, and they strangest part was that all of these covers were good. I never knew how talented the band really was, and although I prefer their original sound I would love to see them in concert.

4 Comments

Filed under Country Pop, Movies and TV