Photos: Loretta Lynn celebrates 50th anniversary with the Grand Ole Opry Tuesday night with special guests Miranda Lambert, Pistol Annies, Crystal Gayle
From left, the Pistol Annies, Crystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn and Lee Ann Womack perform Tuesday at the Grand Ole Opry in honor of Lynn's 50th anniversary with the Nashville institution. Photos by Chris Hollo
Loretta Lynn and Trace Adkins
The Pistol Annies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Grand Ole Opry, presented by Human, honored one of its most beloved members, Loretta Lynn, Tuesday night with a show celebrating her 50th Opry Anniversary.
Leading up to Lynn’s closing performance, several of her friends took the stage throughout the night to honor her in words and song.
Among those performing their own hits as well as songs popularized by the guest of honor were Lee Ann Womack (“I Know How”), Crystal Gayle (“Don’t Come Home A- Drinkin’”), Tishomingo resident Miranda Lambert (“Honky Tonk Girl”) and Lambert’s trio Pistol Annies (“Fist City”), who made their Opry debut while Lynn sat cheering the group on from the front row of the Opry House. (The Annies will perform Sunday night at Norman’s Riverwind Casino. For more information, go to www.riverwind.com.)
After Lynn took the stage and performed her hits “They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” Trace Adkins joined Lynn for the Conway Twitty/Lynn duet smash “Lead Me On.” Womack, Gayle, and the Pistol Annies then all filed on stage to join their musical hero in a rousing version of her signature song “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
Before Lynn’s final song of the night, Johnathon Arndt of the famed Johnathon Arndt Gallery of Jewels along with Opry vice-president and general manager Pete Fisher, presented the Opry member with a congratulatory gift of a limited Johnathon Arndt 18 KT. pink gold and diamond Swiss timepiece.
Lynn responded to the gift and to multiple standing ovations from the crowd by saying, “The greatest moment of my life was when they inducted me into the Grand Ole Opry. That’s a feeling you only feel once in a lifetime. And I’m glad I did.”
-BAM
Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Kelly Clarkson, Little Big Town first performers confirmed for 2012 CMA Awards
Jason Aldean (AP file)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Country Music Association announced today the first performers confirmed for its 46th Annual CMA Awards.
Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Kelly Clarkson and Little Big Town are the first group of performers announced for what promised to be a star-studded night.
The 46th Annual CMA Awards, hosted for the fifth year by Brad Paisley and Checotah native Carrie Underwood, will air live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Thursday, Nov. 1 on the ABC Television Network.
Aldean holds the current title for CMA Album of the Year for “My Kinda Party” and Musical Event of the Year for “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Clarkson. This year, he picked up nominations for Entertainer, Male Vocalist, and Single of the Year for “Dirt Road Anthem,” produced by Michael Knox.
There was no place like “Home” for Bentley this year. He received three nominations for Album of the Year for Home, produced by Brett Beavers, Luke Wooten, and Jon Randall Stewart; Single of the Year for “Home,” produced by Beavers and Wooten; and Song of the Year for “Home,” written by Bentley, Beavers, and Dan Wilson, lead singer of Semisonic.
Clarkson, who shares the current CMA trophy for Musical Event of the Year with Aldean, makes her debut in the Female Vocalist of the Year category this year. Clarkson has a previous nomination for Musical Event of the Year with Reba McEntire for “Because of You” in 2007.
Little Big Town made a splash with “Pontoon” in 2012. The popular group was nominated for Vocal Group of the Year in addition to capturing nominations for Music Video and Single of the Year for “Pontoon,” directed by Declan Whitebloom and produced by Jay Joyce respectively. Joyce has produced albums by a diverse roster of artists including Audio Adrenaline, Cage the Elephant, Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, The Wallflowers, and The Whigs.
Tickets for the 46th Annual CMA Awards go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com.
The CMA Awards nominees and winners are determined by the 11,000 industry professional members of CMA, which was formed in 1958 as the first trade organization to promote an individual genre of music. The first CMA Awards Banquet and Show took place in 1967. The following year, the CMA Awards was broadcast on NBC television for the first time – making it the longest-running annual music awards program on network television. The awards aired on NBC through 1971 and on the CBS Television Network from 1972 through 2005. The CMA Awards moved to ABC in 2006, where it will remain through 2021.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: George Strait announces “The Cowboy Rides Away” farewell tour, including Oklahoma City date
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Musical icon George Strait announced his plans for his final two-year tour – “The Cowboy Rides Away Tour” – today in a press conference live from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
During the press conference – posted above – Strait revealed the first 20 markets he will
Country music star George Strait speaks at a news conference on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn. Strait announced that he will start his final two-year tour early next year; it has been aptly named "The Cowboy Rides Away Tour." (AP Photo)
visit during the winter 2013 leg of his tour. Additional markets for 2013 and 2014 will be announced later.
Special guest Martina McBride is set to join Strait for the 2013 dates, which begin Jan. 18 in Lubbock, Texas.
The second stop on the tour will be Jan. 19 at Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena. For tickets and information, go to www.chesapeakearena.com.
Strait said he plans to continue recording new music and play select dates around the country following the completion of the tour.
“The Cowboy Rides Away Tour” will offer fans a final opportunity to take in Strait’s live tour show filled with hits from throughout his remarkable career. Strait has thus far yielded 59 No. 1 songs, has earned more than 60 major industry awards, and sold over 65 million albums. He is the only artist in music history to achieve at least one top 10 hit each year during his 30-year career, according to a news release. The King of Country was only the second artist at the time (after Eddy Arnold in 1966) to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (2006) while still actively recording and producing chart topping hits and albums.
Look for more of the story about Strait’s OKC stop on “The Cowboy Rides Away Tour” Thursday here at BAM’s Blog.
The press conference featured a special video tribute to Strait featuring fellow country music superstars Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn, Blake Shelton and many more. Strait takes the stage at about the 17:00 mark of the video.
Also, check out the video of King George performing his 1985 hit and customary concert closer “The Cowboy Rides Away”:
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: RIP Andy Williams
Andy Williams, the smooth-voiced crooner best known for the movie themes “Moon River” and “Love Story” as well as the holiday standard “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” died Tuesday night. He was 84.
Williams died at his home in Branson, Mo., following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, according to the Associated Press.
According to the AP, the Iowa native became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number “Canadian Sunset.” For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as “Lips of Wine” and the No. 1 smash “Butterfly.”
Andy Williams (AP file)
But Williams mostly stuck to what he called his “natural style” and kept crooning throughout his career.
Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature “Moon River.” The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though Audrey Hepburn performed it first in her cherished 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
In addition, Williams made the top 10 with the theme from “Love Story,” the Oscar-winning tearjerker.
But “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” from his beloved Christmas TV specials, is my favorite Williams song. It was playing in the delivery room when my son Gabriel, a late November baby, was born.
Williams had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy award nominations, according to the AP. He was once a constant presence on television with “The Andy Williams Show,” which lasted in various formats through the 1960s and into 1971. It won three Emmys and featured Williams alternately performing his stable of hits and bantering with guest stars.
Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.
After giving up touring, he settled in Branson, with its dozens of theaters featuring live music, comedy and magic acts, and was among the first wave of national entertainers to perform there regularly.
When he arrived in 1992, the town was dominated by country music, but Williams changed that with his classy, $13 million theater in the heart of the entertainment district, where he did two shows a night, six days a week, nine months of the year. Only in recent years did he cut back to one show a night. His most popular time was Christmas, according to the AP.
Williams is survived by his wife and his three children. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and fans.
To read his full AP obituary, click here.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Bigfoot to answer the call at Saturday’s Plaza District Festival
Oklahoma City’s Plaza District will come alive to celebrate local creativity Saturday at the annual Plaza District Festival, presented by Fowler Volkswagen of Norman.
Participants in this year’s festival can enjoy 40 artist booths, live music, children’s art activities and a variety of local concessions. The annual event celebrates the progress of the Plaza District, a district once blighted by urban decay, now boasting a renewed energy embraced by creative and diverse culture.
Apparently, that creative and diverse culture extends to the art of Bigfoot calling. That’s right, for the seconds straight year, the Fowler VW Tent at the festival will feature a Bigfoot calling contest, and Jonathan Fowler, general manager of Fowler VW in Norman, assured me this week that the allegedly mythical creature will be lurking around the festival Saturday, just waiting for the right call.
Participants can watch the 1987 film “Harry and the Hendersons” for inspiration or devise an original Bigfoot call, he said. Or perhaps the video embedded here from last year’s Bigfoot calling contest will inspire festival-goers.
Look for my full preview of the Plaza District Festival Friday, and in the meantime, go to www.plazadistrict.org for more festival information.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Jimmy LaFave “Living in Your Light”
Check out this video of Austin, Texas-based red dirt singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave, who grew up in Stillwater, performing “Living in Your Light” from his new album “Depending on the Distance.”
That’s folk/blues musician Radoslav Lorkovic, who has appeared at several installments of the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, on accordion.
Jimmy LaFave
“Depending on the Distance” is LaFave’s first collection of new material on his own Music Road Records, the Austin, Texas-based label he co-founded in 2008 with Dallas businessman Kelcy Warren.
“I’ve been so busy getting the label kind off the ground the last few years … and the label’s finally moving along on its own well enough now that I can kind of get back to make my own music on it,” said LaFave, who has been busily touring with his Guthrie tribute show “Walking Woody’s Road” during this year’s centennial celebration of the folk hero’s birth.
“You know, some people they end up working on albums for 10 years and I didn’t want to turn into one of those people,” he added. “It was 70 percent done for about a year or so, I just needed to really go in there and knock out the other 30 percent. So I finally just did it. I just said, ‘I’m not gonna do anything until I get this done.’ So I pretty much just went in nearly every night ‘til I finished it off.”
To read more of my recent interview with LaFave, click here.
To read my review of “Depending on the Distance,” click here.
-BAM
Interview: Jimmy LaFave sings of the “Red River Shore” on new album “Depending on the Distance”
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Jimmy LaFave sings of the ‘Red River Shore’ on new album
The acclaimed Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter, a red dirt music trailblazer who grew up in Stillwater, has just released ‘Depending on the Distance,’ his first album of new material in five years.
Throughout his life and career, Jimmy LaFave has made his way on both sides of the Red River.
So it’s appropriate that one of the highlights of the singer-songwriter’s first album of new material in five years is a poignant cover of Bob Dylan’s epic ballad “Red River Shore,” even if the waterway dividing Oklahoma and Texas might not be the one Bob the Bard had in mind.
“The song ‘Red River Valley,’ the famous cowboy song, is actually about the Red River that runs through Minnesota. And since Dylan’s from Minnesota, I have a feeling he was thinking of his homeland. That’s just my opinion. Then again, you never know. He’s been to Texas and Oklahoma, too. But for me, definitely it brought up memories of the Oklahoma-Texas connection and the Red River that I’ve crossed so many times,” LaFave said in a recent phone interview from the Americana Music Festival & Conference in Nashville, Tenn.
“The lyrics are so cool to that song, too, if you really start listening to what he’s singing about, the nine minutes fly by pretty quick.”
Time also flies when you’re starting your own record label and preserving the legacy of Oklahoma music icon Woody Guthrie, the acclaimed red dirt musician has discovered. It took LaFave, 57, two years to record his new album, “Depending on the Distance,” released last week. It actually is his first collection of new material on his own Music Road Records, the Austin, Texas-based label he co-founded in 2008 with Dallas businessman Kelcy Warren.
“I’ve been so busy getting the label kind off the ground the last few years … and the label’s finally moving along on its own well enough now that I can kind of get back to make my own music on it,” said LaFave, who has been busily touring with his Guthrie tribute show “Walking Woody’s Road” during this year’s centennial celebration of the folk hero’s birth.
“You know, some people they end up working on albums for 10 years and I didn’t want to turn into one of those people,” he added. “It was 70 percent done for about a year or so, I just needed to really go in there and knock out the other 30 percent. So I finally just did it. I just said, ‘I’m not gonna do anything until I get this done.’ So I pretty much just went in nearly every night ‘til I finished it off.”
Red River connection
Born in Wills Point, Texas, about 30 miles east of Dallas, the future roots music champion had a rhythm going behind a Sears & Roebuck drum kit by the time he was in junior high. When he was a teenager, his family moved north of the Red River to Stillwater, where he finished high school and began to dig even deeper musical roots.
His mother traded a drawer full of green stamps for his first guitar, and LaFave found inspiration from J.J. Cale, Chet Baker and especially Woody Guthrie. Although he has made his home in the musical hotbed of Austin for a quarter-century, LaFave still remains closely associated with Oklahoma’s fertile red dirt scene, which he pioneered back in Stillwater with the likes of the Red Dirt Rangers and the late Bob Childers.
He tips his hat to his Sooner State upbringing with the boogie-woogie track “Red Dirt Night,” in which he names “about every town in Oklahoma I can think of that’ll fit into the rhythm of the song.”
“About 90 percent of those are Native American … but there’s not many states that have such colorful names especially if you go into the W’s: There’s Watonga, Wewoka, Wynona, Weleetka,” he said with a laugh. “It was kind of fun because a few of ’em I kind of researched just ’cause I got curious about what the heck this means … so it became like a little mini history lesson for me in Oklahoma town names.”
But most of the album finds the folk bard in a contemplative mood, as reflected in the title.
“Depending on the distance can determine a lot of how you see a situation. … You know, you could be in the middle of a divorce right now and you hate the person that’s your ex. But 10 years down the road, depending on the distance, you may look back and laugh about it or actually realize you were the one that was mainly at fault,” he said.
“It took so long to record the record that I even changed my perspective lyrically on a couple of things and changed some words here and there.”
Originals and covers
LaFave penned eight of the tracks on “Depending on the Distance,” including the pensive ballad “A Place I Have Left Behind,” the plainspoken social commentary “It Just Is Not Right” and the folksy lover’s plea “Talk to Me.”
“I like people to be able to relate to my songs. I don’t like to make it so abstract or personal they don’t even quite understand what I’m talking about,” he said.
“My songs are always kind of composites, so no matter what song it is, there’s bits and pieces of a lot of things I’m up to. There’s places I’ve been in every song I write.”
The gospel-inspired nostalgia anthem “Bring Back the Trains” features buoyant backing vocals from Austin jazz/soul chanteuse Tameca Jones.
“She has an incredible voice. She’s just someone I heard in the clubs down in Austin and I really liked her voice and brought her in to sing on that one,” LaFave said.
Folk songbird Eliza Gilkyson, another Austinite, prettily backs LaFave on his rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams.” Along with “Red River Shore,” the album also features covers of two more Dylan songs, “I’ll Remember You” and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.”
He looked across the Red River for help with the album’s most surprising cover, a rootsy remake of John Waite’s 1984 chart-topper “Missing You.” The ode to lost love has been covered by artists as divergent as Alison Krauss and Tina Turner, but LaFave said his distaste for Brooks & Dunn’s countrified 1999 version led him is to record his soulful rendition, featuring Oklahoma guitarist Travis Linville.
I thought ‘That song just has to have some better reading than this,’” LaFave said. “I thought to bring a little more Okie vibe to the record, I’d get Travis to play. … We did our best to try to rescue it from how far it’d fallen.
“It’s an interesting study in the life of the song.”
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Sept. 26, 2012: Hear Mount Eerie at The Opolis
Mount Eerie
Today’s featured event:
NORMAN – Hear Mount Eerie with special guests Everending Kicks and Penny Hill at 9 tonight at The Opolis, 113 N Crawford.
For more information, go to www.starlightmints.com/opolis.html.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
New releases for Sept. 25, 2012: “The Avengers” assemble on DVD and Blu-ray
The record-setting No. 1 movie of 2012, Marvel’s “The Avengers,” debuted on DVD and Blu-ray today.
As previously reported, “The Avengers” smashed the domestic revenue record like Hulk smashing through a Manhattan skyscraper with its $200.3 million debut back in May.
The superheroic teaming of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) made a much bigger bang with their bow than even The Boy Who Lived’s film finale: “The Avengers” posted the biggest opening ever, blasting past the previous record of $169.2 million for the debut of last year’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.”
To date, the movie has hauled in more than $622 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
Speaking of The Boy Who Lived, J.D. Rowling will release her first non-Harry Potter book, and first book for adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” on Thursday. To read more about Rowling’s new novel, click here.
Also, rocker Neil Young released his memoir “Waging Heavy Peace” today.
For music fans, this week marks the drop of new albums from Mumford & Sons, Green Day, No Doubt and more.
Here is a release of the new CDs, DVDs and books, from Amazon.com and VideoETA.com:
CDs
Mumford & Sons, “Babel.”
Green Day, “Uno.”
No Doubt, “Push and Shove.”
John Hiatt, “Mystic Pinball.”
Emerson, Lake and Palmer, “Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Deluxe Edition).”
Deadmau5, “> Album Title Goes Here <.”
Lupe Fiasco, “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap.”
Joe Bonamassa, “Beacon Theatre: Live From New York.”
Gary Moore, “Blues for Jimi: Live in London.”
Lee Ritenour, “Rhythm Sessions.”
DVDs
American Horror Story: The Complete First Season
Asylum Blackout
The Avengers
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1
Big Miracle
Bond 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Bond
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – The Twelfth Season
CSI: Miami – The Final Season
CSI: New York – The Eighth Season
Damsels in Distress
Desperate Housewives: The Complete Eighth & Final Season
Family Guy: Volume Ten
Gossip Girl: The Complete Fifth Season
Law & Order Special Victims Unit: Year 13
The Letter
Portlandia: Season 2
The Samaritan
Silent House
The Tall Man
Wanderlust
Books
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Thursday)
Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young
Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles
Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy by Ted Widmer, Caroline Kennedy
Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War by Dakota Meyer, Bing West
One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season by Tony La Russa
-BAM
NBC renews “The Voice” for fourth and fifth seasons
With its first fall run off to a strong start, NBC has announced that it is renewing its hit reality series “The Voice” for fourth and fifth seasons, according to Deadline.com.
With the announcement, the peacock network has indicated that it intends to stick with the current cycle of running the singing contest in both the spring and fall TV seasons.
We already knew that the musical show would return for Season 4: “The Voice” was already on the NBC midseason schedule presented to advertisers in May, and the network recently announced it would add a couple of new celebrity coaches for it.
But the early pickup of a fifth season to air in fall 2013 represents a vote of confidence for the unscripted series, reports Deadline.com.
As previously reported, Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green will take off Season 4, with Usher and Shakira taking their spots alongside original coaches Adam Levine and Oklahoma country music superstar Blake Shelton.
“This pickup will assure the many dedicated ‘Voice’ fans that this innovative show will continue to bring some of the most talented new voices to the world’s attention through all of next year,” NBC chief Robert Greenblatt said, reports TVLine.com.
“With the addition of Usher and Shakira as rotating coaches to join Christina, CeeLo, Adam and Blake in the next cycle, we know that this incredibly addictive program will remain even more relevant as we move forward through this exciting season.”
According to TVLine.com, “The Voice” is averaging 12.9 million total viewers/a 4.5 demo rating and 12.5 million/4.3 with its Monday and Tuesday outings, respectively.
-BAM
