Music exclusive: Kenny Chesney's 'Makes Me Wonder'

Country superstar Kenny Chesney has always been a road warrior, year in and year out selling as many or more tickets to his concerts than any other act in any genre, and he’s never been long off the radio dial since he surfaced  in the early '90s.

But his output as a songwriter has been up and down since the 2005 annulment of his short-lived marriage to actress Renee Zellweger. For a while, Chesney turned exclusively to songs written by others, as if to make sure that gossip-hungry members of the media and the public couldn’t latch on to any of his own words and try extrapolating explanations for the nuptial meltdown.

His own words, along with his voice, began to resurface with 2008’s “Lucky Old Sun” album, for which he wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs, then he pulled back again for 2010’s “Hemingway’s Whiskey,” co-writing just one song, “Reality.”

For his new album, “Welcome to the Fishbowl,” arriving June 19, the Luttrell, Tenn., musician has co-written three of the 11 new songs: the title track, “To Get to You (55th and 3rd),” and the song premiering exclusively now on Pop & Hiss, “Makes Me Wonder.”

In this pulsing country-rock power ballad, which he wrote with Wendell Mobley and Neil Thrasher, Chesney explores a reunion with an old flame that brings up fond feelings and raises the question of where things broke down. Unlike many country breakup songs that serve up variations on the “don’t get mad, get even” philosophy, “Makes Me Wonder” places no blame but is built on the equanimity that’s been a strong part of Chesney’s appeal as a writer, with strong empathy for the woman’s point of view.

Chesney is back on the road on his much-anticipated “Brothers of the Sun” tour with Tim McGraw, which began June 2 and makes its only Southland stop on July 14 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.

He'll also be teaming up with acclaimed director Jonathan Demme, whose latest concert film "Neil Young Journeys" opens a limited run later this month, for a new installment of "American Express Unstaged" that premieres June 20.

Demme, the Academy Award-winning director of "Silence of the Lambs" and other feature films as well as the acclaimed 1984 Talking Heads concert documentary "Stop Making Sense," will direct a livestream performance by Chesney from New Jersey.

“I think it's a unique situation for both of us because odds are we never would have worked together without this thing, you know?” Chesney told the Associated Press. “And I think it's a good thing. I love meeting and working with people who can push me and inspire me creatively in a different way. And I think that all creative people look for inspiration. That's the thing I'm looking forward to the most about this, because it is left of center and it is combining two worlds.”

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Back in the saddle

-- Randy Lewis

Principal's rejection of 'God Bless the USA' 'offends' Lee Greenwood

Country singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood says a New York elementary school principal’s decision to pull his song “God Bless the USA” from a year-end kindergarten promotion ceremony “offends me as a Christian.”

PS 90 principal Greta Hawkins said she decided to eliminate the song from the event because  she  felt that some of the lyrics were “inappropriate for 5-year-olds,” citing a line in the 1984 country hit, which took on new life after Sept. 11, that says, “If tomorrow all the things were gone/I’d worked for all my life/And I had to start again/with just my children and my wife.” She’s also been quoted as saying that she felt the song might offend people of other cultures.

Through a spokeswoman, Greenwood said, “I wrote ‘God Bless the USA’ about the love I have for this country and the struggle we have gone through to remain free.  Our country was founded on the principle that it welcomes people of all cultures and gives them the same rights we have as citizens. However, I feel compelled to echo the faith of our forefathers, who all believed in God and a respect of a higher authority. Personally, denying the children of PS 90 to sing 'God Bless the USA' offends me as a Christian. My song is about hope, faith, spirit and pride. How could that be wrong on any level?"

Hawkins’ superior, City Schools chancellor Dennis Walcott, supported Hawkins’ decision. “I have to rely on the principal’s judgment,” he told the New York Post. “It’s her judgment to make that decision.”

Greenwood also spoke to the Fox 5 “Good Day New York” program Monday and said, “She’s confusing allegiance to worship and, you know, I have a great respect for anybody who wants to worship their god or in the way that they worship, but maybe she should talk to my pastor here at the First Baptist Church in Brentwood and Franklin [Tenn.], who basically could explain the difference between you have allegiance to a country but you worship a god.” But he also said he had no plans to contact the principal to discuss the issue.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to do that,” he said. “I’m sorry for the way she feels and …. I think there’s some issues there that is beyond what we’re talking about.”

Here’s a clip from his "Good Day New York" interview:

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--Randy Lewis

Photo: Lee Greenwood performs in 2001 after his 1984 hit "God Bless the USA" gained new popularity in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Credit: Danny Gilleland / Associated Press.

 

CMT Music Awards: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Carrie Underwood, more

The CMT Music Awards, which celebrates the best country music videos of the year, took place Wednesday night in Nashville and, unsurprisingly, superstar singer Carrie Underwood snagged the top awards.

The singer earned the video of the year award for her fashion-heavy music video for "Good Girl," which presents Underwood in different outfits while she sings a country rock song (more rock than country, really) about the perils and pleasures of being a bad girl. She won a second trophy in the collaborative video of the year category for her work with Brad Paisley on "Remind Me."

The event proved itself a "big tent" under which many different affiliations fit; not only did Underwood's commercial, relatively twang-less "Good Girl" get attention, but performances from the Pistol Annies, whose "Takin' Pills" also focuses on perils and pleasures -- of pharmaceuticals -- and Journey, whose non-country song "Don't Stop Believin' " was gentle enough for a twang crossover, offered evidence of the oft-slippery genre-distinctions. 

Too, in a highly anticipated across-the-aisle moment, both President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney briefly appeared during the ceremony's opening moments via video, where both treated with faux-seriousness the selection of either Toby Keith or Kristin Bell as the CMT host.

The president, seen staring out the window of (presumably) the White House, called the choice "one of the toughest decisions I've had to make since I've been in office." On a ballot, the president circles the two contenders, before saying, "I want them both." (Both candidates did this spineless gesture and opted for both -- when Keith obviously should have been sent packing.)

A full list of winners is below:

Video of the year: Carrie Underwood -- "Good Girl"

Male video of the year: Luke Bryan -- "I Don't Want This Night to End"

Female video of the year: Miranda Lambert -- "Over You"

Group video of the year: Lady Antebellum -- "We Owned the Night"

Duo video of the year: Thompson Square -- "I Got You"

USA Weekend breakthrough video of the year: Scott McCreery -- "The Trouble With Girls"

Collaborative video of the year: Brad Paisley with Underwood -- "Remind Me"

CMT performance of the year: Jason Aldean -- "Tattoos on This Town"

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President Obama, Mitt Romney to cameo on CMT Awards

-- Randall Roberts
Twitter: @liledit

Photo: Musicians Ashley Monroe, left, Angaleena Presley and Miranda Lambert of the Pistol Annies perform onstage at the 2012 CMT Music Awards on June 6, 2012, in Nashville. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images

President Obama, Mitt Romney cameo on 2012 CMT Music Awards

It may be hard to imagine President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney agreeing on anything, but apparently they’ve found common ground in country music.

The rival presidential candidates have taped what’s described as “a comedic opening segment” for tonight’s 2012 CMT Music Awards show running at 8 p.m. on the country music cable channel.

Obama has previously shown himself to be a capable crooner of the blues (he sang a snippet of “Sweet Home Chicago” during a recent salute to the blues at the White House) and silky R&B (a tidbit of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a fundraiser in Harlem earlier this year). Meanwhile, at a January campaign stop in Florida, Romney showed off his vocal skills on “America the Beautiful.”

It’s not the first presidential presence at the CMT awards. During the 2008 election year, the three leading candidates -- Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- also delivered taped cameo appearances.

Album review: Alan Jackson's 'Thirty Miles West'

The difference between Alan Jackson and so many other contemporary country singers is crystallized in “Long Way to Go,” one of the half dozen songs he wrote for his new album "Thirty Miles West" — the first for his new Alan Country Records label after two decades with Arista.

It starts out as the standard-issue country number in which the protagonist decides to run away and drown his heartache in saltwater, sand and alcohol. But Jackson’s smart enough to know that escapism never works for long, and handles it with wry humor: “I got a bug in my margarita/Seems bad luck won’t leave me alone.”

His writing is rarely florid, his singing never needlessly showy; instead, the Newnan, Ga., singer and songwriter has smartly adapted the Randolph Scott man-of-few-words movie-cowboy persona to country music, also evident in his choice of Adam Wright and Jay Knowles’ plain-spoken love song “Nothin’ Fancy.”

There’s nothing drastically different here than what Jackson’s been doing quite well since he first entered the country charts in 1989. Two dozen No. 1 hits later — most from his own pen — he sticks with what works, but never sounds as if he’s simply exploiting a formula.

That’s most bracingly evident in the closing track, “When I Saw You Leaving (for Nisey),” a song he wrote after his wife, Denise, was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. Although she’s cancer free now, which leads to the song’s happy ending, the sobering realization of the fragility of life that comes with such news isn’t diminished in the least.

Alan Jackson

“Thirty Miles West”

(ACR Records/EMI)

Three stars out of four

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— Randy Lewis

Video exclusive: Sara Watkins' 'Take Up Your Spade'

Fiddler, singer and songwriter Sara Watkins often comes across as a favorite little sister, especially to those who have monitored her growth from an older-than-her-years member of the boundary-breaking San Diego bluegrass trio Nickel Creek to her subsequent family endeavors with brother Sean and her frequent solo outings with various collaborators, many of them at Largo in L.A.

Several members of her extended musical family have turned up on her recently released second solo album, "Sun Midnight Sun," and a couple also help out with the video for the album's closing track, "Take Up Your Spade," premiering on Pop & Hiss. The song itself is a gentle benedictory ode to the notion that every moment brings with it the possibility of renewal.

The video, also featuring Jackson Browne, Fiona Apple (one of those Largo regulars) and producer Blake Mills, consists of home-movie-like footage of the recording session, and backyard basketball breaks, at Zeitgeist Studio in L.A.

"I have known Jackson almost as long as Fiona," Watkins tells Pop & Hiss. "I met both of them at Largo. I just sort of found myself on stage with them, and both have become frequent guests at our Watkins Family Hour show" -- the monthly residency she and her guitarist-singer brother Sean have been holding at Largo for nearly a decade.

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Guitarist Doc Watson dead at 89: A 1-2-3 video primer

Guitarist Doc Watson, who died Tuesday at age 89, leaves an extensive legacy that documents his wide-reaching influence in the world of guitar playing and folk music.

"Doc Watson sort of defined in many ways what Americana has become," Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Assn., told The Times. "He played different styles of American roots music."

He received a National Medal of Arts in 1997 and a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2004.

Watson was well into his 40s before he began a serious music career. Ultimately, his example inspired a generation of musicians to upgrade their instrumental technique.

Here are three examples of his artistry in different settings. He was a commanding soloist and an always amenable collaborator. The first video highlights his take on "Black Mountain Rag," which traditionally has featured the fiddle. But Watson transformed it, as he usually did, into a thrilling guitar showcase.

 

Watson also loved playing in the company of other guitarists, and for decades was accompanied on tour and in the recording studio by his son, Merle. But after Merle died in 1985, Watson continued with his career, often sharing the stage with other masters of the instrument. Here's a 1987 performance from Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion," for which Watson begins with his version of Eddy Arnold's "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)," then is joined by six- and 12-string ace Leo Kottke for "Last Steam Engine Train."

 

Finally, in a trio setting, below is a historic string-instrument summit meeting of Watson with bluegrass banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs and neo-traditionalist singer, mandolinist and guitarist Ricky Skaggs from a "Three Pickers" in which they serve up the country gospel traditional "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms":

 

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Doc Watson in March 2000 at his home in Deep Gap, N.C. Credit: Karen Tam / Associated Press.

Guitarist Doc Watson, who died Tuesday at age 89, leaves an extensive legacy that documents his wide-reaching influence in the world of guitar playing and folk music.

"Doc Watson sort of defined in many ways what Americana has become," Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Assn., told The Times. "He played different styles of American roots music."

He received a National Medal of Arts in 1997 and a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2004

Watson was well into his 40s before he began a serious music career. Ultimately his example inspired a generation of musicians to upgrade their instrumental technique.

But here are three examples of his artistry in different settings.

An appreciation: Doug Dillard was 'my mentor,' John McEuen says

John McEuen, one of the founding members of the Southern California-based Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, helped forge an early bridge in the 1970s between the then-distinct worlds of rock and country music with the group’s 1972 triple-record set, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” McEuen had a profound interest in traditional country and folk music and found inspiration watching L.A.-area appearances by the Dillards, and banjo player Doug Dillard played a key role in McEuen’s musical education. Here is what McEuen wrote about Dillard after he died last week in Nashville at age 75 after a long illness.

“Douglas Flint Dillard -- my mentor.  He is the person who showed me that music was exciting and fun to play onstage for people; the one who was 'impickable' with the execution of his art. Douglas Flint Dillard, whose grin would hit the back of the wall from any stage he was on, has passed away.

“There were many times, after I became a 'hanger on' at 17 years old, that the Dillards allowed me to hang out in their dressing room as they tuned up to go on for yet another sold-out L.A. club show. I would sit there, pretending to read a book, but listen as intently as a hawk watches, trying to pick up new nuances of notes. Often, on the way to the stage, Douglas would turn to me and play an incredible previously unheard lick to impress me, and I would ask where it came from. He'd mention another player he was emulating at that moment, and tell me to check them out, which I did. Then, he’d turn back around, walk onstage and play his own style that kept me mesmerized.

“I went to see them so often, sometimes two to three times a week when they did the L.A. club circuit (usually a week at each place, and there were eight of them), that my mother told me after that first year or two that I should change my last name to Dillard. The fire to be a musical performer had been ignited. As you can imagine, changing my college major from math to banjo was an easy decision that came along with that.

“The Dillards’ albums took me out of Orange County on roads that led to starting a band. Their appearances on 'The Andy Griffith Show' (Mayberry) as the Darling Family were anxiously awaited by all, and Douglas’ session playing on many soundtracks and hits brought the banjo to even more people. Later, he ventured into country-rock, which helped set the tone for that emerging form of SoCal music that I was a part of. The many accolades that Douglas received were always high praise, especially for his friendly, human qualities.

“One night at an after show picking party at a club owner's house, Doug broke a string on his banjo. I always brought mine along, but never played in front of him. I spent many hours studying his attack, strings, setup of his instrument, method of playing, stance and tone, all in vain to try to make mine sound like his. My banjo just did not sound like his. I offered him the use of mine while I changed the string. He started playing it, and it sounded just like his. That is when I learned that, 'it's the archer, not the bow.'

“I am grateful to have been able to call Dillard a friend. There would not have been a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with me in it if it had not been for Doug. Consequently, there would not have been a ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ album if not for him. Thank you, Douglas, for what you did for me.”

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-- John McEuen

May 21, 2012

Top photo of John McEuen with bluegrass banjo great Earl Scruggs in 1972 during the recording of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Courtesy of William E. McEuen.

Second photo of Doug Dillard. Credit: A&M Records.

Taylor Swift pledges $4 million for Country Hall's education center

Taylor Swift, the country superstar who became a professional songwriter at 14, scored a record deal at 15 and released her first album at 16, is kicking in $4 million toward the creation of an education center that will bear her name at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, part of the museum’s $75-million expansion.

The Taylor Swift Educational Center will increase the museum’s educational facilities seven-fold, officials said in announcing her pledge Thursday.

“Taylor Swift represents country music’s best traditions,” museum Director Kyle Young said in a statement. “By stepping forward to fund our education center, she has once again demonstrated that she has an eye on our industry’s future. …It is not an overstatement to say that the Taylor Swift Education Center will have a profound impact on our museum, our new campus, our city and even our country.  It will truly be the heart of our living museum, educating and inspiring young people and families, teaching them country music history and helping them to make meaningful connections between the music and their own lives.”

It is being designed to include three classrooms and a children’s exhibition gallery. The museum’s capital campaign has raised $56.8 million to date. The expansion is scheduled to be completed early in 2014.

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Taylor Swift receives Nickelodeon's Big Help Award in March from First Lady Michelle Obama. Swift was honored for her philanthropic work. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images.

 

Banjo picker Doug Dillard dies at 75; appeared on 'Andy Griffith'

Banjo player Doug Dillard, an influential bluegrass musician who played with many rock outfits, appeared on "The Andy Griffith Show" and with his family band the Dillards, died Wednesday in Nashville after a long illness, the group's longtime publisher Lynne Robin Green said Thursday. He was 75.

Dillard and his brother Rodney began playing music together with other members of their family in the 1940s growing up in Salem, Mo., but hit their stride after moving to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and signing with Elektra Records.

The Dillards were among the first bluegrass acts to use amplified instruments, and their music and faces became familiar nationwide when they began appearing on “The Andy Griffith Show” as a band called the Darlin’ Boys. Griffith encouraged them to use their original songs as often as possible on his show. Here's a clip of them joining Griffith on "Doug's Tune":

 

Their popularity on the TV sitcom led to guest spots on musical variety shows hosted by Judy Garland, Tennessee Ernie Ford and others.

Living and working in Southern California in the 1960s, they were around at the birth of what would become known as country rock, and Doug Dillard, who had been profoundly influenced by banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who also died recently, played for a time with the Byrds, then formed a band with ex-Bryds member Gene Clark called Dillard and Clark.

A full obituary on Dillard will be posted later and will appear in Friday’s Los Angeles Times.

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo: The Dillards, from left, Dean Webb, Doug Dillard, Mitch Jayne and Rodney Dillard, in a 1963 episode of "The Andy Griffith Show." Credit:  Retroweb.com.