Underwood’s ‘Ride’ powers through Glendale
Carrie Underwood may see herself as a country singer first and foremost, but her high-energy concert in Glendale on Friday showed how easily the American Idol winner’s music crosses over to pop and rock audiences.
Underwood used an abundance of star power to take concertgoers into all corners of her catalog, which has racked up nearly 11 million in sales with just two albums.
She used a handful of costume changes to set the mood for various segments of the show at Jobing.com Arena, but her vocals were overpowering no matter what the outfit was.
Who will win the CMAs?
Last year Taylor Swift won the best-new-artist award at the Country Music Association Awards. This year she’s nominated for best female vocalist. We asked her to join Star Tribune critic Jon Bream in predicting the winners of top categories in Wednesday’s show.
Music Row ponders a world with no records
Five country music power players à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ two recording artists, a label chief, a manager and the head of the Country Music Association à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ gathered at the CMA building last week to discuss the state of country music’s union.
Around the table: Keith Anderson, a singer-songwriter whose “I Still Miss You” was a Top 5 country hit this year; Rodney Atkins, who will perform on Wednesday’s show and vie for the top new artist award; Tammy Genovese, chief executive officer of the Country Music Association; Randy Goodman, president of Lyric Street Records and president of the CMA board; and Clarence Spalding, CMA board chairman and the president of Spalding Entertainment, which represents Brooks & Dunn, Jason Aldean and others.
Kat and Michael Team Up With the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Hit Manà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬
After all their recent collaborationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ including a performance at her weddingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s no surprise that Katharine McPhee is featured on David Fosterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s new CD/DVD à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Hit Man: David Foster and Friends.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬
Kat actually has two cuts on the CD: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Somewhere,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ which she performed on à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The Prayerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ with Andrea Bocelli (You may recall she dueted with Bocelli when Foster and Bocelli were guest judges on à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Idol.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ). You can also see performances of both of those songs on the accompanying DVD.
But Kat is not the only à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll see on the DVD. You can also see Michael Johns perform à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Beautyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ /à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Man In Motion.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬
David Archuleta CD Review: One Word…Catchy
So if I had to sum up David Archuletaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s CD in one word it would beà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦catchy.
Just as they did with Jordin Sparks, the people at Jive have produced a CD full of catchy pop numbers that are destined to be radio hitsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦
The CD starts out with the first single, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Crush,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ which you guys know Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a big fan ofà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦
The next track, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Touch My Hand,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ starts out a little rough with David using his lower register, but then it gets incredibly catchy. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s been in my head all weekendà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦
Reba McEntire, Kelly Clarkson bring best of both worlds to Van Andel Arena
It was like a musical version of the smorgasbord where you try a little of everything because it all looks mouthwatering. For Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson fans, Saturday night’s buffet of styles and songs was irresistible; the 2 Worlds, 2 Voices tour served up two-plus hours of musical morsels from honky tonk to gritty rock, from Texas swing to TV theme songs.
Everything sounded delicious to the ears of the half-full arena crowd of 5,800. This semi-kooky notion — to pair a country stalwart with a pop/rock hipster — worked from “Sweet Dreams” onward. Certainly, when Clarkson wailed like a blues queen on McEntire’s “Why Haven’t I Heard from You,” early on in the set, you knew you were in for good times.
Simon Cowell’s Ex: ‘I’ll Always Love Him’
Former model Terri Seymour says there will always be a special place in her heart for reality TV’s Mr. Mean.
“You know, I’ll always love Simon,” Seymour tells Britain’s Daily Mail of her ex-beau, Idol judge Simon Cowell. “When you’ve been with someone that long, you can’t help it.”
The British couple spent six years together but only revealed the split on Nov 1. Since then Cowell has sworn he has kicked the female habit.
X Factor Exclusive: Simon Cowell furious with diva Mariah Carey
Simon Cowell was furious after superstar Mariah Carey threw X-Factor rehearsals into chaos – by keeping contestants waiting THREE HOURS for a surprise mentoring session.
The hopefuls had to sit in the bar at London’s posh Dorchester hotel waiting for the US singer, 38. And when they did meet Mariah most were so overcome they CRIED with emotion.
Brad Paisley to sing on “Dancing With the Stars”; can Cody Linley make it through another week without Julianne Hough?
Disney-owned ABC knows the wonders of promotion.
The network is having Brad Paisley (pictured) perform on Tuesday’s “Dancing With the Stars.” It’s a great way to plug the CMA Awards, which Paisley will co-host Wednesday on ABC.
Paisley will have a chance to promote his music, too. He will sing “Ticks” while siblings Lacey and Benji Schwimmer dance. (Yes, it’s a moment to savor for fans of “So You Think You Can Dance.”) Paisley also sings “Let the Good Times Roll.” Dancing along will be pros Cheryl Burke, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Kym Johnson, Alec Mazo, Genya Mazo, Karina Smirnoff and Edyta Sliwinska.
Heh, I was just about to mention that quote you posted Trixee. I’d toss that review onto the same pile with the EW one. When the bias/agenda is that obvious, I tend to dismiss those reviews (whether I agree with them or not).
Congrats to Elliott on “Wait For You” being certified platinum. His ringtone for “Wait For You” was recently certified Gold in Japan. (His CD was certified Gold in the USA and in Japan.)
LOL! Im liking the Love-Hate reviews on Archie’s debut album……I wonder if they conduct a poll on the results?………..Love vs. Hate? ooops Im not giving anyone any ideas here…although I would love to see the findings in this section tomorrow morning……….Go Big D!
For an example of a fair review that’s not all sparkles and sunshine, try the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/arts/music/10choi.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
This reviewer cared enough to listen to the album and understand what the songs were about. He didn’t love everything–the album is pop and it’s made for radio, so I don’t expect reviewers to be extolling its innovative virtues–but he understood the make and model of the album. What he says about innocence in pop being boldness is quite true. Half of the things Archie is dealing with right now as far as credibility is concerned is the fact that he is who he is–unapologetically gracious and good. Sweet in the way that makes more cynical folks confused. And that comes across in the songs. See, he used the person but tied it back to the music, rather than using the person as a means to ignore, disregard or dismiss the music.
I do like how one of the songs he points out as good writing was one that Archie co-wrote (he doesn’t mention this though). And he does well by mentioning Archie’s voice.
Oh, and he heard hints of Coldplay. Heh.
Lisa! OMG. hahahahahahaha! {high five!}
^^ LOL. {hive five back}
From idolforums:
“Crush debuted on MTV ASIA 4 weeks ago and entered the chart at 12 (12-9-4-1). Now he finally reached that number 1 spot just in time for the album to be
released in parts of Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea) this week. I’m buying the album tonight after work!!!!”
Jabkmc you night shift again?
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LOL I thought the NY times was pretty funny! ok he is also about the persona and a little condescending using words like “gooey” and even “gosh”. He found something to like, I guess. I like the TPain review. Um, isn’t the NY mag’s review a satire? They’re like The Onion, it has nothing to do with the music.
Correction. He never used “gooey” I got caught up in the visual of “smiles in wistful acknowledgment of the eternal mystery of everything.” Hee. Funny stuff.
Four pages of discussion about reviews? Let me add just couple of words, there is no review like objective one, that’s it. And no review will tell you that you surely will or won’t like an album. Too bad at least two that have been mentioned are based only on whole AI past and turns to mean attacks about it, not on actuall songs from the album. I guess Love-Hate relationships are just inevitable and don’t be suprised seeing booth good and bad reviews.
Somebody mentioned that good reviews didn’t help Taylor to sell the albums, they didn’t help Blake either and bad ones didn’t hurt Carrie. Dang, I had never read any albums’ reviews until this year when I became an AI fan and still I own pretty big amount of various original records. What would hurt is lack of promo and bad managing and we’ve been having pretty good experiences about this part of selling records by D.A.
I wonder if he was referring to the song “Don’t Let Go”, since he mentioned it. That’s the best song on the album, for my money, and the one that would fit into an adult oriented format like Coldplay would.
Are you talking about the NY Times or NY Mag? Or are you referring to the NY Mag conversation from a few pages back? *Confused* I don’t think the NY Times review was intending to be funny. Light, but not funny.