Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton to perform on CMA Awards
Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert attend the 2010 CMT Awards in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, June 9, 2010. (AP Photo)
The first round of performers for the 44th Annual CMA Awards has been announced, and Tishomingo, OK, will be well-represented at the Nov. 10 awards show.
Country music power couple Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, who live in Tishomingo, are among the already-star-studded lineup for the Country Music Association’s shindig. Also on the initial list are Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum and the pairing of Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson.
The CMA Awards will air live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville from 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10 on ABC. Checotah native Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley will co-host the show for the third straight year.
Lambert, the top nominee for 2010 with nine nominations, also achieved the most nominations of any female artist in CMA Awards history. She received nominations for Entertainer; Female Vocalist; Album for Revolution produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke; two for Single, “The House That Built Me” and “White Liar;” Song for “White Liar,” which she wrote with Natalie Hemby; Musical Event, for “Bad Angel” with Bentley and Johnson; and two for Music Video of the Year for “The House That Built Me,” directed by Trey Fanjoy, and “White Liar,” directed by Chris Hicky.
Shelton, Lambert’s fiance, is nominated in four categories, including Male Vocalist; and Single (produced by Scott Hendricks); Musical Event; and Music Video for “Hillbilly Bone,” which featured Trace Adkins and was directed by Roman White. Shelton’s latest SIX PAK, All About Tonight, is in-stores now.
Bentley is nominated in three categories this year, including Male Vocalist, Album for Up On The Ridge, and Musical Event of the Year for “Bad Angel,” featuring Lambert and Jamey Johnson. Bentley won the Horizon Award in 2005. He also received the 2008 CMA International Artist Achievement Award.
Chesney, who is nominated for Musical Event of the Year for his performance of “I’m Alive” with Dave Matthews, has won a total of seven CMA Awards. With four trophies to his credit (2004, 2006-2008), he is tied with Garth Brooks (1991, 1992, 1997, 1998) for the most wins in the Entertainer of the Year category. After taking most of 2010 off the road, he returns with his new album, Hemingway’s Whiskey, in-stores now.
Jackson is nominated for Musical Event of the Year for his duet with Lee Ann Womack on “Till the End.” He has won 16 CMA Awards, including three trophies for Entertainer of the Year (1995, 2002, 2003). He will release 34 Number Ones, a career-spanning, double-disc collection featuring all of his No. 1 hits on Nov. 23.
Lady Antebellum, the reigning Vocal Group of the Year, is nominated in five categories this year, including Entertainer; Album for Need You Now; Vocal Group; Single for “Need You Now”; and Music Video of the Year for “Need You Now,” which was directed by David McClister. Group members Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley, and Hillary Scott each received individual nominations for Song of the Year for “Need You Now,” which they penned with songwriter Josh Kear. The group could receive two additional trophies as producers, should they win Single and Album of the Year, which they co-produced with Paul Worley. Lady Antebellum has a career total of three CMA Awards.
Zac Brown Band is nominated for Entertainer; Vocal Group; Musical Event for “Can’t You See” featuring Kid Rock; and New Artist of the Year. The last time an act was nominated for New Artist and Entertainer of the Year in the same year was Ricky Skaggs in 1982. Bandmates Zac Brown and John Driskell Hopkins each picked up an additional individual nomination for Song of the Year for “Toes,” which they wrote with Wyatt Durrette and Shawn Mullins. The group’s new album, You Get What You Give, is in stores now.
- BAM
Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival starts Thursday in Guthrie
Bluegrass music fans listen to the Alaska String Band performing at the International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, OK, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (Photo by Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman Archives)
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Bluegrass fest is worldwide draw
GUTHRIE — True to its name, the 14th annual Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival will bring a global sampling of acoustic music to the state.
The three-day festival, opening Thursday, will feature musicians from across the United States as well as a few other countries.
The Kruger Brothers, a Swiss band now based in North Carolina, are festival favorites, while the Louvat Brothers of Belgium are making a return visit after playing the inaugural event. The Toy Hearts from England and Turquoise, whose members are French, Italian and American, are first-timers to the festivities.
“It’s good for Oklahoma. A lot of people come from all over the world to Guthrie … just for this festival,” said internationally known Guthrie fiddler Byron Berline, the event’s founder and president.
Along with traditional bluegrass, the festival spotlights a variety of acoustic music, from Frenchie Burke’s Cajun fiddling and the Red Dirt Rangers’ eponymous music to Hankerin’ 4 Hank’s Hank Williams tribute and Jim Garling’s cowboy songs. Berline’s band will play all three days.
Country singer Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers will headline the festival and perform Saturday night. It will be his first time to play the event.
Other performers who will make their festival debuts are Virginians Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie and Texan Brett Graham.
The event also will include an open mike, random band jam, workshops, children’s tent and young musician contests. Instrument auctions at 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday will help fund scholarships for musically talented youths.
Byron Berline (Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman Archives)
“It’s very rewarding. Some of these kids that took our scholarships are playing professionally now,” he said, including members of the Hunt Family Bluegrass of Orlando, OK, who are on Thursday’s lineup.
Many of the performers will play Sunday in a golf tournament to raise money for the nonprofit festival.
The nonprofit festival offers a relaxed atmosphere where people can enjoy acoustic music and Oklahoma’s autumn ambiance, he said.
“The crowds are great. The ones that come are really into it. … Campers love it,” Berline said. “It’s kind of a nice time because the weather’s starting to change a little bit. There’s a little excitement in the air, you might say, about everything.”
Going on
14th annual Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival
When: Activities begin at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
Where: Festival grounds on Cottonwood Creek, State Highway 33 at U.S. 77, Guthrie
Admission: Advance tickets are $25 for Thursday, $30 for Friday, $35 for Saturday and $70 for a three-day pass. Tickets at the gate are $30 for Thursday, $40 for Friday or Saturday and $80 for a three-day pass.
Information: 282-4446 or www.oibf.com.
-BAM
Joey + Rory touring in support of “Album No. 2,” playing Oklahoma Thursday
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Despite success, country duo Joey + Rory remain true to selves
Even when they’re doing red carpet interviews, posing for album cover photos and playing awards shows, Joey Martin and Rory Feek don’t look much like emerging country stars.
Feek, an accomplished Nashville songwriter still adjusting to his role as a performer, continues to wear his uniform of overalls and work boots, even on those red carpets. For her part, Martin, an old-school country crooner enjoying success that eluded her as a solo artist, prefers jeans, Western shirts and boots.
“Honestly, sometimes awards shows and red carpets and things like that, they’re a little bit stressful. We just try to think of them as a date night for us so we just get dressed up and we show up. … But we still wear overalls and jeans and belt buckles. That’s who we are, and we stand out like a sore thumb,” on the red carpet,” Martin said with a laugh in a phone interview before a show in Fayetteville, N.C.
While the husband-and-wife team known as Joey + Rory still thinks of themselves as “normal people,” more red carpets are in their future. After winning top new vocal duo at spring’s Academy of Country Music Awards, they will compete for vocal duo of the year at the Country Music Association Awards in November. Feek also earned a CMA Award nomination for co-writing Easton Corbin’s hit “A Little More Country Than That.”
Last week, Joey + Rory’s sophomore record, aptly titled “Album Number Two,” debuted in the top 10 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. And the couple is following a recent tour with the white-hot Zac Brown Band with a string of shows with Country Music Hall of Famer Don Williams. They will launch their tour opening for Williams Thursday night at Rose State Performing Arts Center.
“Don is such a legend and he’s one of our hugest heroes of all time,” His career that he’s had and the path he’s taken and the song that he sings and what he’s about, we’re just in love with that,” Martin said. “Rory when he was 11 or 12 he went out and bought a Don Williams music book and that’s how he learned guitar.” He learned to play Don Williams’ songs.”
Like the countrypolitan balladeer, Feek started his career in Nashville as a songwriter; since 1995, he has penned chart-toppers like Oklahoman Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach” Clay Walker’s “Chain of Love” and Corbin’s breakout hit. For Martin, hearing Feek perform his work at a songwriters’ showcase first attracted her to her future husband.
For the first five years they were married, Feek continued to write while Martin and her sister-in-law started a restaurant, Marcy Jo’s Mealhouse, near their farm in Pottsville, Tenn. In 2008, a friend suggested the couple audition for CMT’s reality TV show “Can You Duet.” They came in third place, and their debut album, “Life of a Song,” sold nearly 300,000 copies and spawned a Top 30 hit with the feisty “Cheater Cheater.”
The same wily sense of humor is immediately evident on “Album Number Two” with the title track, which takes a lighthearted view of the high-pressure expectations often put on sophomore albums.
“Our whole attempt is to take all of it a little easier — the road, awards show, everything about it — just take it with a grain of salt,” Feek said. “When it comes to recording the album, we tried hard to just be ourselves. … That song is part of it, just laughing at the situation a little bit and not taking it too seriously,” Feek said.
Like their debut record, “Album Number Two” weaves humorous yarns like “You Ain’t Right” and “Baby I’ll Come Back to You” with fervent songs about faith and family such as the lead-off single, “This Song’s for You,” which Feek penned with Zac Brown. The single’s heartfelt video features many of the couple’s Maury County neighbors, including customers and employees of Marcy Jo’s, where Martin still sometimes helps in the kitchen.
“We’re normal people, but we’ve been given the opportunity to live an extraordinary life. And if you don’t share that someone and just keep it to yourself, then what’s the point?” Martin said. “So we’re really honored and thrilled to have the ability to share it with the people that we love and our community.”
In concert
An Evening with Don Williams featuring Joey + Rory
When: 7:30 p.m. S30 Thursday.
Rose State Performing Arts Theatre, 6420 SE 15, Midwest City.
Tickets and information: 297-2264 or www.myticketoffice.com.
- BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Sept. 29, 2010
Flyleaf
Today’s featured event:
Hear Flyleaf with Story of the Year at 7 tonight at the Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S Eastern Ave.
For more information, go to www.diamondballroom.net.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
New releases for Sept. 28, 2010: “The Killer Inside Me” debuts on DVD
Michael Winterbottom’s controversial film adaptation of “The Killer Inside Me,” filmed in and around Guthrie, Oklahoma City, Enid, Tulsa and Cordell and based on the pulp novel by Anadarko native Jim Thompson, is among the new releases on DVD this week. The violent and dark film stars Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson in the tale of a small-town Texas sheriff whose pleasant demeanor conceals psychopathic tendencies.
For lighter viewing, the blockbuster “Iron Man 2,” comedy “Get Him to the Greek” and the documentary “Babies” also are new on DVD.
Here is a list of new CDs, DVDs and books, from Amazon.com and VideoETA.com:
CDs
Eric Clapton, “Clapton.”
Neil Young, “Le Noise.”
Kenny Chesney, “Hemingway’s Whiskey.”
Soundgarden, “Telephantasm.”
Jimmy Eat World, “Invented.”
DVDs
* Babies
* The Cleveland Show: The Complete Season One
* Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – The Tenth Season
* Dark Night Of The Scarecrow
* Family Guy: Partial Terms of Endearment
* Frozen
* Get Him to the Greek
* Good
* Iron Man 2
* The Killer Inside Me
* Legend of the Seeker: The Complete Second Season
* Legendary
* Scrubs: The Complete and Final Ninth Season
* Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
* The Thin Red Line
Books
Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy) by Ken Follett.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris.
The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America by Daniel Hannan.
Naked Heat by Richard Castle.
Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan.
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett.
- BAM
“Lost”‘s Maggie Grace, newcomer Mackenzie Foy joining “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” cast
Maggie Grace (Associated Press file photo)
The cast of “Breaking Dawn,” the two-movie finale of “The Twilight Saga,” continues to fill out.
Maggie Grace of TV’s “Lost” has joined the cast as Irina, a vampire of the Denali clan, allies of hero Edward Cullen’s (Robert Pattinson) family, according to
Mackenzie Foy (Kelsey Edwards photo)
EW.com. But Irina holds a grudge against the Cullens, whom she blames for the death of her mate, and her actions set off the harrowing events of the book’s final part.
In addition, EW.com reports that relative newcomer Mackenzie Foy, 9, is close to signing to play Renesmee, Edward and Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) vampire/human child. “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer centers “Breaking Dawn” largely around Renesemee, so casting of this role obviously is critical. Foy’s previous credits are single episodes of the TV shows “‘Til Death” and “FlashForward,” so she’s largely an unknown, though she does look the part of Edward and Bella’s daughter.
Renesmee matures at an accelerated rate in the book, so it will be interesting to see how director Bill Condon handles that aspect of the “Breaking Dawn” films.
It also will be interesting to see how old she gets in screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg’s adaptation. In the book, Renesemee ages to the point she is still a baby but looks like a kindergartner; does the casting of a 9-year-old indicate Rosenberg will expand the story to when Renesmee is older?
The final two installments of the “Twilight” franchise are scheduled to start filming in November in Baton Rouge, La. Summit Entertainment plans to release “Breaking Dawn – Part 1″ Nov. 18, 2011, with the second part opening in November 2012.
-BAM
Watch Flaming Lips mini-documentary “Blastula” this week
For this week only, Pitchfork is streaming the short documentary “Blastula: The Making of Embryonic.”
George Salisbury and Wayne Coyne directed the 21-minute film during the recording of the band’s 2009 double album “Embryonic.” It premiered over the summer at the deadCENTER Film Festival.
- BAM
Sugar Free Allstars to play Austin City Limits Festival
Oklahoma kindie rockers The Sugar Free Allstars have won the SonicBids contest to perform at this year’s Austin Kiddie Limits, the family-friendly venue that’s part of the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival in Texas.
Blending New Orleans funk, Memphis soul, Hammond organ-drenched gospel, with the occasional disco and hip-hop beat for good measure, The Sugar Free Allstars present a “funky fresh” soundtrack for any party. Their new CD is called “Funky Fresh and Sugar Free.”
The Allstars will play the Austin festival at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9 and 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 10. Kids ages 10 and younger get free admission to the Austin City Limits Festival.
For more information on the Austin City Limits Music Festival, go to www.aclfestival.com.
The Sugar Free Allstars are Chris “Boom!” Wiser (lead vocals, keyboards, saxophones and bass clarinet) and Rob “Dr. Rock” Martin (vocals, percussion). The duo has been making funky-fresh music for families for five years. Their first family music CD, “Dos Ninos,” received national critical acclaim and regular plays on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio. The new Sugar Free Allstars song “Tiger in My Backyard” and other tunes get regular rotation on Sirius-XM’s “Kids Place Live” show.
See the Allstars’ bouncy new animated video, “Cars and Trucks,” after the break.
Video: First teaser trailer of Coen brothers’ “True Grit” remake
The first teaser trailer for Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of “True Grit” has made it onto the Internet, and the Oscar-winning filmmakers have clearly put their distinctive mark on the project.
Judging from the 75-second clip, the film boasts moodily beautiful cinematography of rugged Western landscapes and evocative old Southern gospel songs, along with the all-star cast featuring Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon.
The Coens have said they plan to make their version more faithful to Charles Portis’ novel than the 1969 film that won John Wayne his best actor Oscar. I guess we will find out Dec. 25 how much overlap exists between the two films.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Sept. 28, 2010
Today’s featured event:
Hear Michael Franti and Spearhead at 7:30 tonight at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center, 425 E California.
For more information, call 235-1205 or go to www.ticketstorm.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
