Bobby Brown, Twisted Sister's Dee Snider, Maureen McCormick go country
Thursday, October 18, 2007 – Bobby Brown, country singer? How about Twisted Sister's Dee Snider or R&B singer Sisqo and former Idol finalist Diana DeGarmo?
That's the goal anyway of John Rich's "Gone Country" show airing in January 2008 on CMT. The six-episode series takes seven established performers from every realm of the entertainment and music industries and immerses them in all things country for a chance to break out as the next big country superstar. Production is currently underway in Nashville.
Brown is better known as a former member of New Edition, Whitney Houston's husband and being in a whole host of legal problems. Sisqo was a member of Dru Hill?
Other participants are Carnie Wilson - singer/songwriter, former member of Wilson Phillips and author; pop singer Julio Iglesias Jr.; singer/actor from The Brady Bunch Maureen McCormick - singer/actor, "The Brady Bunch."
The show uproots these seven musical celebrities and moves them into a Nashville mansion together to embark on a two-week adventure, hosted by singer/songwriter John Rich of Big & Rich fame.
Each singer will be paired up with Nashville songwriters to prepare them for a career in country music. In each episode, the cast competes against each other in challenges that will test them musically and physically to adapt to a country music lifestyle, both on and off the stage. At the end of the two weeks, the artist that is most prepared to impress a country audience, as determined by Rich, will record and release a song.
More news for Big & Rich
CD reviews for Big & Rich
Greatest Hits
Thoroughly unafraid to lead the freak parade for the better part of this decade, Big Kenny and John Rich have repeatedly demonstrated their range in each of their three studio albums, giving voice to tender ballads alongside their over-the-top party hits. That range is well-showcased here.
As is often the case with hits collections, the way you feel about this album will be directly related to how you feel about Big and Rich, a duo that has served to divide the country community between those »»» |
Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace
Big & Rich return with their third album of country music without prejudice, and the album feels stuck between good and bad. The album is divided into two parts, a call back to the Side A/Side B days of yore. The first half starts with a short clip and launches in the B&R's bid for the 2007 wedding market, the single "Lost in This Moment." Then things take a semi-spiritual side with the title track, "Faster Than Angels Fly," "Eternity" (featuring R&B artist John »»» |
Comin' To Your City
Big & Rich opens its second full-length CD with the sing-along line, "Somebody's got to be unafraid to lead the freak parade." It next offers up "a little bang in your yin yang," presumably to support its position as this oddball parade's grand marshal. Later in this title track, it brags of scaring the hell out of Marilyn Manson, which is hardly a believable statement: Big$Rich may be a little extreme when lined up next to the rest of conservative mainstream country »»» |
Editorial: American Idol's Carrie Underwood can sing –
If anyone saw the Super Bowl – what a great great game that was – they would have heard American Idol winner and country superstar Carrie Underwood sing the National Anthem. Underwood did with her voice what Kelly Clarkson did last week with her written words – give it to Scott Borchetta, the head of Big Machine Records,, who tried defending Taylor Swift by knocking American Idol performers. »»»
Concert Review: McBride, Adkins shine sometimes –
As Martina McBride pointed out, the pairing of the country singer with Trace Adkins on their current jaunt was surprising. After all, she's of diva-quality voice, petite, non-controversial unless you call singing songs that empower women controversial. Adkins, on the other hand, has not been afraid to speak his mind with a kick butt attitude.... »»»
Concert Review: Eilen Jewell wears her musical hats well –
Eilen Jewell wears a lot of musical hats. The Idaho native, who now lives in Boston, fronts the Eilen (ee-lin) Jewell Band, a pretty much traditional country band. She's a member the Sacred Shakers, an octet doing gospel country with a country beat. And she has yet another project, Butcher Holler, covering Loretta Lynn songs.... »»»
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Blue Highway's banjo player Jason Burleson acknowledges that their 1995 debut album "It's A Long, Long Road" turned out to be prophetic. It has been quite a journey for the Tennessee-based band that has become one of the "gold standards" of bluegrass, with 8 more "signpost" albums along the way, the latest being their newly-released 15th Anniversary collection on Rounder, "Some Day."... »»»
Elvis Aron Presley, had he not collapsed face first into a shag carpet in his Graceland bathroom on Aug. 16, 1977, would have been 75-years-old Friday. Yet, somehow, his birthday seems all the more important because he is not actually here while others feast at his table. Graceland - a greater cultural icon and more milkable cash cow than even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - is being remodeled for future generations to come, gawk and breathe in a few scant molecules of the King's essence. Do the new overseers really care about Elvis?... »»»
Here it is the top 30 for 2009. This isn't authoritative in case you thought otherwise. It's just one man's opinion about his favorite CDs of the year, which seemed a cut above everything else. It was incredibly hard figuring out a number one CD for the year between the Avett Brothers, Brad Paisley and George Strait. All three were great albums from different perspectives of country and roots music, and at any one time over the past few days, each was my favorite. Come back in a few days, and who knows? Maybe the order will change.... »»»
Haywire
There are two versions of Josh Turner's fourth CD - standard and deluxe. The deluxe has the same 11 tracks as the standard, plus (among other goodies) live versions of previously released songs Long Black Train and Your Man . But don't spend more money than you have to; if it's redundancy you're looking for, there's plenty to be had on the standard version. »»» |
Somewhere in Time
If Rascal Flatts is country music's clean cut, commercially palatable Beatles, then Reckless Kelly is the genre's Rolling Stones; grittier, more authentically influenced, rawer at the core even when their output is every bit as polished. The brainchild of Idaho brothers Willy and Cody Braun, Reckless Kelly was crowned Austin's Best Country Band in the city's 2008 music awards, an incredible honor. »»» |
As He Wanders
Fans of country - and we're using a definition starting just west of real country and stopping a bit south of alt.-country - who aren't sold on Austin's Texas Sapphires four songs in can be suspected of unnecessary stubbornness. Just look what that first third offers. You get both male and female voices: Billy Brent Malkus' is handsome yet tough and wiry enough for a bar fight, and Rebecca Lucille Cannon's is lovely yet, well, tough and wiry enough for a bar fight. »»» |
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