Review: CMA Music Festival Broadcast

The CMA Music Festival aired this past Sunday night on ABC. Billed as "Country's Night To Rock", I'm sure it sent many true Country Music fans running to other networks, dvd's, movie theaters or just to bed early. Not me! I was in the mountains of Northern California, enjoying the peace and quiet of a rustic cabin and the sounds of crickets and a creek outside. There was no television or radio. In fact, I didn't even have cell phone service for three days. So I would have to wait until I returned home to watch this show on my DVR.

I had to go out and purchase new batteries for my remote control after I was done with this show. That's because I spent the better part of the 3-hour program holding the fast-forward button. The majority of the performances from country's top "superstars" were tired, overplayed songs that would normally be forgotten, but for some reason, ABC and the CMA had to remind many of us why we dont' listen to their type of Country Music anymore.

Take country legend, Reba McEntire for example. Oh, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting it's just "Reba" now. She mailed-in a performance of her year-old, dreadful song "Turn On Your Radio". I guess I should be thankful she wasn't ripping off Beyonce or Kelly Clarkson. But this song really sucks. I guess it would be fine if a twenty-something was singing it. But we get this song from the same person who gave us "Is There Life Out There", "Rumor Has It" and "Little Rock"? To say Reba has sold her soul to the corporate devils that now own Nashville would be putting things mildly.

Forget the expression "tried and true". When describing some of the performers and songs from Sunday night, I can only describe this show as "tired and through". Big & Rich? They reminded me of why I couldn't stand them when they first hit the scene. And their song "Fake I.D." from the upcoming remake of "Footloose" should be a pretty clear indication of the kind of flop that film will be.

Then there's Brad Paisley. What can I say? I have a love/hate relationship with this guy. He opened the show with a horrible summer song called "Working On A Tan". I don't know what was worse, the song itself, or the redneck flash mob sequence that occurred when thousands of people tried to dance along with video screen images from 1960's beach movies. Pathetic! At least Paisley redeemed himself when he sang "Old Alabama" (with Alabama) later in the show.

While Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood were missing from this show, there were a few highlights. Like Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson singing their power duet "Don't You Want To Stay". Little Big Town and Lady A. gave pretty good performances, and The Band Perry was very impressive.

The show devoted an entire segment to American Idol winner Scotty Mcreery and runner-up Lauren Alaina. This showed them arriving at Fan Fair, meeting fans and playing in a celebrity softball game. Then the got to sing with two of their own idols, as Scotty sang "Be Your Man" with Josh Turner and an emotional Lauren sang "Anyway" with Martina McBride. But for me, the highlight of the night was the show's final performance. Zac Brown Band sang "As She's Walking Away" and the crowd erupted into the biggest roar of the night when Alan Jackson took to the stage to join them in this great song.

All-in-all, I rate this program as a "typical" program for today's country. Overexposure is the running theme that the format has adopted. With early ratings indicating an increase of one million viewers over last year's show, today's pop-country is still riding a wave where television ratings are concerned. If I was watching the show as it aired, I would have turned the channel early on. Thankfully I had my remote control in hand and watched the program on DVR. And this is the only reason why I was able to avoid trashing Taylor Swift in this review...

...At least until November's CMA Awards.

Album Review: "Neon" by Chris Young

After a two-year wait, Chris Young has released this third studio album, "Neon". This is the follow-up to Young's moderately successful 2009 release, "The Man I Want To Be." And like a fine wine, the 26-year old former"Nashville Star" winner is getting better with time. "Neon" seems to represent a shift in direction for Young, and is his most "country" album to date.

This album is heavy on love songs and light on the rowdy ones. This is a good sign, as Chris Young seems to have finally found his "lane". Make no mistake, with his range, Young can sing just about anything. But his vocal style seems to fit the love songs best.

Take the album's first single "Tomorrow" for example. From those smooth low notes to the high ones, Young's voice seems to soar. The album's best song is the title track, "Neon". Not since 1991's "Neon Moon" made Brooks and Dunn country superstars, have I heard such a great song about neon. Twenty years ago, this song would have been a huge hit. Unfortunately, today's country is different from the B&D days, which means this song probably won't get any radio play.

Getting back to the love songs, Chris sings to (and about) women in a way that takes us back to old school country. And what a breathe of fresh air this is. Songs like "You", "When She's On" and "She's Got This Thing About Her" are perfect songs about love. And the upbeat "Lost" seems tailor-made for country radio, and could be the albums biggest hit, while NOT being it's best song. But none of these songs portray women as sexual objects like so many of today's country hits do.

"Save Water, Drink Beer" is the lone rowdy-ish song on the album. It's a pretty good song about getting through a drought by drinking beer (That old well is plumb dry/The city put a limit on the water you can buy/We don't mind/'Cause round here/We save water and drink beer).

This CD closes with "She's Got This Thing About Her". Some critics will call this song cheesy, because of its string arrangement. But those would be the critics who blasted George Strait's "I Cross My Heart" for the same reason. Critics who don't get country music should never review it. This song has a nice subtle touch to it and wraps the experience of "Neon" up perfectly.

"Neon" is Chris Young's best album to date. Young co-wrote seven of the ten tracks on the CD. The only problem with the album is that it leaves you wanting more. This is also a throwback to the REAL country days, when albums had only ten songs on them and you wanted more. There is not a bad song on "Neon". Hopefully country radio will embrace this album so that it will yield several hit singles. Those who prefer to download their music must heed my warning and be sure to by the entire album, and not just one or two singles. If not, you will be missing some great music.

Concert Review:Alison Krauss & Union Station, June 25, Berkeley, CA

It's hard to believe more than eleven years have gone by since I last saw Alison Krauss and Union Station in concert. But that's how long it was between concerts for me. This past Saturday night at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, that long wait came to an end. As a first-time visitor to the Greek, I heeded the prior warnings to "bundle up" as the temperature drops once the sun goes down and the fog begins to roll in at this open-air amphitheater.

Alison and the band treated the crowd to a two-hour show featuring many songs from their latest album, "Paper Airplane", along with a bunch of selections from the past ten years. The show opened with the title track of that CD, sang beautifully by Alison and performed flawlessly by the band. Next in line was the 2nd song from the same album, "Dust Bowl Children", which Dan Tyminski sang the lead vocals. Among the other songs from the new album were "Dimming Of The Day", "Bonita and Bill Butler" and my personal favorite, "Miles To Go".

Other highlights from the show included songs from Krauss' last compilation, "A Hundred Miles Or More" as well as albums with Union Station such as "Lonely Runs Both Ways", "New Favorite", and "Forget About It". The band blended traditional bluegrass songs with the more contemporary sound that Alison has become known for during the past decade. Some of these highlights included "Ghost In This House", "Let Me Touch You For Awhile", "Baby, Now That I've Found You", "Oh Atlanta", and Tyminski favorite "Man Of Constant Sorrow", which was made famous when George Clooney "lip-synced" it in the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou".

To listen to Alison Krauss and Union Station (AKUS) perform live is to be transported to a musical world that few get to truly experience. In a world where flashy effects, auto-tune and even pre-recorded tracks are commonly found in concerts, this band had kept it simple and real, while pushing the envelope and boundaries of musicianship. Live or recorded, you will simply find no better a band than this one in music today.

Krauss' amazing vocals shine on every song she sings. But she also plays a mean fiddle on many of their songs. Dan Tyminski sings lead on the more traditional bluegrass songs and plays mandolin and guitar. Ron Block plays guitar and banjo and sings some harmony vocals. Barry Bales plays upright bass as well as electric bass. He also sings background vocals as well. Both Bales and Block have written some of the band's songs. Jerry Douglas joined Union Station as a special guest more than ten years ago. He is a quite simply a master of the dobro and lap steel guitar. Douglas' contributions to the band have been nothing short of amazing and he fits right in with the rest of the group who have been performing together for more than twenty years.

If I had to pick something negative from this show it would be the lack of songs from the earlier years of AKUS, as well as the omission of some of Alison's more well-known mainstream hits. It would have been nice to hear songs like "When You Say Nothing At All" and "Whiskey Lullaby" (even without Brad Paisley). And a show without songs from earlier albums like "I've Got That Old Feeling", "Too Late To Cry" and "Two Highways" would have been welcome at this show, and they would have shown more of the band's versatility.

Opening the show, from Portland, Oregon was a musician who went by the name of M. Ward. His brief set seemed to warm-up the audience as they continued to file into the amphitheater. The Greek Theatre holds about 8,500 people. I would estimate a crowd of near 6,000 at this show. It's hard to tell if the absence of a country music station in the Bay Area had any affect on the crowd size, because Krauss' songs were never played on country radio anyway. Overall, the Berkeley seemed a bit subdued. There was very little crowd participation during the bluegrass numbers, and many people seemed to not appreciate or be familiar with most of the songs. I even noticed several people making early exits before the show ended. Their loss.

But for those like myself who have followed Alison Krauss and Union Station for more than twenty years, this was a wonderful show by an amazing group of musicians. The band is currently touring the U.S. and Canada to support their new album. If you have the chance to catch their show live, I highly recommend that you do. You will not be disappointed.

Review: CMT Music Awards

Last night, Country Music Television (CMT) presented its annual awards show from Nashville, TN. This program has evolved over the years into a large-scale production for the cable network. Long before this program became what it is today, the show got its start as the Music City News Country Awards. That show was very much along the lines of the CMA and ACM awards shows of the day.

The CMT Music Awards are still following in the steps of the CMA and ACM shows. It's become a miserable representation of country music. In fact, last night's program was about as country as a concert headlined by Justin Bieber, with special guest, Ludacris. The show had all of the drama (none) as its CMA and ACM counterparts, with the same amount of predictability. To call this a celebration of country music is an insult to country music fans everywhere.

The show had a nice start, opening with its traditional pre-taped c

omedy sketch. This one featured Taylor Swift and Shania Twain in a spoof of the film "Thelma and Louise". Filled with several cameos by the likes of Chord "Glee" Overstreet, Donald Trump and the show's host, Kid Rock. Ater the five-minute skit was done, we were stuck with two and a half hours of off-key performances and the aforementio

ned predictable awards.

Kid Rock started his hosting duties in very awkward fashion, with a scripted segment with Wynonna Judd that culminated in a strange duet. What followed were performances by several of today's so-called "hip" country acts. The only veteran in the house was Toby Keith who did the first performance (not bad).

As the show progressed, Kid Rock got a little bit better. He had several outfit changes and even more drinks to mellow him out. Awards went to all the usual suspects. Lady Antebellum, Sugarland, Justin Bieber. That's right! The teenage pop star took home an award for his video with Rascal Flatts, who appeared on stage for Bieber's acceptance speech, to worship the teen idol. The scene was quite pathetic.

The biggest winners of the night were not even on hand. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert won Male and Female Video, respectively. Blake pre-taped a speech, while Miranda was a no-show. The most predictable award for Video Of The Year went to Taylor Swift who accepted the award via video from a concert. Normally I would be overly angry at Taylor Swift winning the top award of the night, but this is only CMT, so it doesn't really matter.

Performers included a who's-who of today's country superstars such as Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan and of course Ludacris. After-all, what's a country music show without a hard-core rapper? I guess Cowboy Troy wasn't available. One of the lone musical highlights from the show was the return of Big & Rich. They performed a song from a backstage set that was made to resemble "Tootsies" bar, and then magically stormed on stage to the rousing applause from a crowd that broke into a flash-mob sequence, dancing along with some hoochi-mama dancers that appeared on stage with Big Kenny and Jon.

Most notably absent this year were stars

like Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. Maybe they decided to steer clear of this train wreck. Or perhaps the country music establishment decided those three were no longer relevant in "today's new country". The only other let-down for me was that Lady Gaga did not make a special appearance. That's OK, though. The CMA's are only five months away. I'm sure they will be able to book Gaga or Eminem for that show.

I guess it's pretty obvious how I feel about this year's CMT Music Awards. The words "pathetic" and "joke" come to mind, but I don't want to go off on a rant here. As far as awards shows for music videos go, this show made the MTV Video Music Awards show look like the Oscars. Wait a minute. Does CMT even show music videos anymore. Guess they

are more like MTV than I thought.

Sometimes The Good Guys Win

It's true! It's true! Patience actually pays-off and good guys really do win. At least that's how I feel about my recent victory in a small, but important Facebook war. As I have documented on this blog, another person who once was a good friend of mine, stole my ideal for "Country Music Front Porch" and used it to name his own page on Facebook. I tried using a different name for my blog and other country music entities over the past year, but was not happy with the fact that somebody else was using a name I created.

So I took my concerns to Facebook, and filed a complaint, citing infringement of my intellectual property and violations of Facebook user policies, and an investigation ensued. As of this writing it appears that the fraudulent page has been removed from Facebook, leaving my page as the only front porch on the site. Now I will begin the hard work of building a larger fan base on this and other pages.

A special thanks to Facebook for resolving this issue and doing the right thing.

What's The Deal With The Name?

Please don't be confused.  YES, I have changed the name of my blog.  I decided to claim what is rightfully mine, and take back the name that I originally created to use on my blog and on my future endeavors.  "Classic Country Front Porch" was a nice name, but I was settling for something and was not completely satisfied.  You may remember from my original post on this blog, the story about the former friend of mine who hijacked my original "Front Porch" concept and created a page on Facebook with the name "CountryMusic Front Porch.

This is my porch and I am not going to let a fraud keep playing like he created it.  If you are a "fan" of the other page on Facebook, please think about how little interaction that person has had with his page.  My pages are pretty busy when I have the time to devote to them. Having a full time job outside of this hobby keeps me from adding content more frequently.  But I hope to spend more time on my pages in the very near future. Until then, please rest-assured that "Country Music Front Porch" and "Classic Country Front Porch" are one and the same. I am just renaming everything "Country Music Front Porch".  After all.  It was my idea in the first place.

No more crying over "The Wolf"!

Last December I posted a review of the San Francisco radio station at 95.7 FM, KBWF, also known as "The Wolf".  I pointed-out many reasons why I thought the station was performing so poorly in the ratings and also predicted an eventual format change for the station, taking country music away from San Francisco listeners.

On April 15, "The Wolf's" parent company Entercom Communications did exactly what I had hoped for, and what many Bay Area country music fans dreaded.  They changed the format of KBWF from "today's country" to sports talk.  While many people don't understand how something like this could possibly happen, I completely do.

Endless bad decisions by station management, as well as their own deep-rooted arrogance led to Entercom making this decision.  In the end, it was about money.  But as it relates to the state of country music, I believe there is more to this story.  But first the business part.  KBWF was losing money, BIG TIME!! Advertising revenue at the station was down by more than fifty percent.  Ratings were also dropping steadily and consistently for months.  Some have blamed the addition of the "Fitz In The Morning" show for this.  I think importing the Seattle-based Fitz show to San Francisco was more of an effort to save money, rather than spend it.

After the station's locally-based Ken and Kory morning show was dropped last fall, management chose NOT to replace it with a local program.  Expanding the already-established Fitz show to San Francisco was a win win for the station because it saved the money of producing a local show with new talent.  This was an indicator that Entercom was most-likely planning a format switch for a long time.

Another thing The Wolf did was drop the syndicated (and dreadful) Second Shift with Alan Kabel earlier this year.  They replaced Kabel with their own part-time dj, Ali Wilder, which filled void for the rest of The Wolf's time on the air.  Despite all the changes at the station (or perhaps because of them), KBWF's monthly ratings and position among Bay Area radio stations continued a steady plummet.  And worst of all, the very important CUME (cumulative audience) ratings have seen a huge drop since last Fall.

Earlier this month, "The Wolf" began carrying the live broadcasts of Oakland A's baseball games, along with the A's radio network's pre and post game shows, giving roughly five hours of daily programming to the Oakland A's throughout the baseball season.  For me, this was the final clue that something big was about to happen.  No music stations give up four years of programming for sports.  This just doesn't work.  But some would say that having sports on FM radio is also a big mistake.  Not Entercom...

Entercom has dabbled with FM sports programming in other markets and they have found success.  So the flip of the KBWF from country music to sports talk is not that big of a stretch.  And considering Entercom's  recent activity in the Bay Area market, this move was a right on track.  In February, the company sold-off its very popular classical music station KDFC, to a non-profit organization.  The station moved down the dial, but Entercom kept the 102.7 frequency and moved it's south-bay based classic rock station to that spot.  This may have put the company in a better financial position to go after the A's.

This format change leaves the nation's 4th largest radio market without a country music station.  Of course I have pointed-out in the past the fact that KBWF's "The Wolf" was hardly a "country" station.  The format featured what has been referred to as "country-pop" or "top-40 country".  It's a far cry from traditional country.  While this move is tough for Bay Area country music fans, it could signal the end of so-called "today's country".  Which means this could be the start of a major downhill slide for country music that will hopefully lead to a revival of the genre on the scale of the 1980's rebirth after the disaster that was known as the "Urban Cowboy Craze".

If you saw the telecast of the Academy of Country Awards from earlier this month, you should know exactly what I am talking about.  Country music is dead.  It has been replaced with a replica that doesn't resemble this great American musical genre one bit.  The ACM awards the Grammy's version 2.0.  I mean really? Rihanna, Steven Tyler and James Taylor all performing on the same show as Taylor Swift, Sugarland and Carrie Underwood.  It was a line-up that Ryan Seacrest would be proud of.  In fact, he WAS proud of it.  As Seacrest took the stage to present the final award of the night, he said "this night has not been about country music, it's been about American music."  Boy was he right.

If Bay Area country music fans are unhappy with the demise and end of their country station, they should take heart in the fact that they have plenty of other places to get their country from.  My hope is that after "today's country" fades into oblivion, some of today's real country performers like Chris Young, Sunny Sweeney, Easton Corbin and Zaz Brown Band will be left standing.  I also hope that the next incarnation of country music will bring back some of country's missing talents like Trisha Yearwood, Marty Stuart, Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss, Alan Jackson and others.  And of course I will work to make sure that when country comes back, it won't forget the legends who paved the way for everyone else to enjoy a career in this business.