Wednesday Video Spotlight No. 1: New Blake Shelton video
Oklahoma country star Blake Shelton teams up with Trace Adkins to charm the patrons of a fancy New York restaurant in the video to their playful duet “Hillbilly Bone.” Gotta love these guys; they’re having so much fun.
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Video: Carrie Underwood kicks off series of TV appearances
Oklahoma native and country star Carrie Underwood kicked off a series of several TV appearances Monday night on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
In the next month or so, Underwood will perform songs from her new album “Play On,” releasing today, on several shows. She also will be profiled in an episode of “Biography,” play two different awards shows and co-host the CMA Awards and host her first Christmas special.
Here is a list of her TV appearances:
Yesterday The Late Show with David Letterman
Today Good Morning America- live in New York
Nov 5 Live! with Regis & Kelly
Nov 10 Good Morning America- live in Nashville
Nov 10 “In The Spotlight with Robin Roberts: Bright Lights. Big Stars. All Access Nashville”- ABC Special
Nov 11 43rd Annual CMA Awards
Nov 12 A&E “Biography- Carrie Underwood”
Nov 16 The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
Nov 18 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Nov 19 Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Nov 22 American Music Awards
Dec 7 “Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special” on Fox
If you want more TV news, check out Penny Soldan’s TV blog at http://blog.newsok.com/television.
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Video: Toby Keith pays tribute to Wayman Tisdale
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Toby Keith pays tribute to the late Wayman Tisdale with the new music video to his song “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song).” The video premiered exclusively this morning on CMT.
The new single may be the most personal and emotionally raw offering of the country music star’s entire career. “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” and its accompanying video offer a heartfelt homage to Tisdale, whom Keith considered a close friend.
An all-American basketball player for Oklahoma and NBA star before launching a second career as a jazz bassist, Tisdale passed away unexpectedly in May from complications resulting from cancer treatments that seemed to have left him with a clean bill of health, according to a news release.
For Keith, Tisdale’s death was a terrible blow unlike anything he’d experienced before, the release states. He poured his emotions into music, writing a song he intended to play at Tisdale’s funeral, but the wound was still too fresh.
“I’ve had some loss in my life, of course my dad, but that’s different,” Keith says in the release. “I’ve lost some friends and acquaintances along the way, but this one was very difficult for me. I wrote this for (the funeral), but I could not get through it. I ended up doing Willie’s ‘Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground’ because I wasn’t attached to that. It was weeks before I could make it all the way through the song. It was tough on me.”
“Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song),” co-produced by Mark Wright, was the most added song at country radio last week, according to Country Aircheck/Mediabase. And the video has been added by CMT in Hot Shot Rotation, and by GAC in its Turbo Track slot.
The video features video and photos of Tisdale from both his careers, as well as scenes of him hanging out with Keith, spending time with his family and getting around on his prosthetic limb after losing a leg to cancer. Those images are intertwined with scenes of Keith singing and playing guitar and jazz star Dave Koz, another friend of Tisdale’s who plays on the track, wailing away on his saxophone.
The video will have you welling up with emotion, particularly if you are an Oklahoman and/or a fan who was touched by Tisdale’s life and luminous smile. It is a fitting visual to go with the tearjerking song.
“Cryin’ For Me” is the second single from Keith’s recently released chart-topping “American Ride” album, following the smash No. 1 title track.
Keith’s “America’s Toughest Tour” continues to draw standing-room-only crowds, and the Norman resident will embark on his first European tour this month.
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Toby Keith’s emotional music video tribute to Wayman Tisdale premiering Monday on CMT
Toby Keith performs at Wayman Tisdale’s memorial service in May. (Associated Press photo)
The emotional music video for Toby Keith’s “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” will premiere Monday morning exclusively on CMT.
The heartfelt ballad is a tribute to Keith’s friend and fellow Oklahoma star Wayman Tisdale. Tisdale, a former University of Oklahoma and NBA standout turned jazz bassist, died in May after a long battle with cancer.
A reliable source tells me the video is sure to break hearts and put lumps in throats, so my advice is to have some tissues handy on Monday morning.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: More film trailers
Since the holiday movie season is approaching, and the studios soon will be rolling out films worthy of awards consideration, I’m again posting trailers and TV spots for upcoming movies in this week’s Video Spotlight:
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Video: “Amelia” donation
Check out a clip from the new biopic “Amelia” and see costumes from the movie that Fox Searchlight has donated to the Oklahoma City-based Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots.
I shot this video at the Essex County Airport in Fairfield, N.J., where the news conference for the film took place. The studio brought in a rare Lockheed Electra, the kind of plane Amelia Earhart fly on her ill-fated final flight, for the event.
Thanks to our talented editor Grayson Cook for putting this video together.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Trailers for upcoming movies
Occasionally for Wednesday’s Video Spotlight, I highlight some of the trailers for upcoming films that look interesting to me. Here’s what has caught my eye lately; note the unusual quotient of George Clooney featured here.
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Friday Featured Track for Oct. 16, 2009
Garth Brooks (Associated Press photo)
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Ain’t Goin’ Down (’Til the Sun Comes Up),” Garth Brooks, from his 1993 album “In Pieces.”
With all the news breaking this week about the Oklahoma superstar, it’s hard to imagine that I wouldn’t have significant portions of his discography running through my head.
Brooks announced Thursday that he is coming out of retirement to become a headline performer in Las Vegas. On Saturday, he will be honored as one of the 2009 inductees into the Oklahoma State University Alumni Hall of Fame. (The other two are Barry Sanders and Robin Ventura.)
This rowdy tribute to teenagers gone wild has always been among my favorites of Brooks’ many hit singles. It seems somehow appropriate as the Owasso resident proves that even after nine years mostly out of the limelight, his music career isn’t riding off into the sunset anytime soon.
Click here to view the video.
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“Lovely Bones” film to get royal premiere
Oscar winner Peter Jackson’s adaptation of “The Lovely Bones,” has been selected for the Royal Film Performance 2009. The world charity premiere will take place in late November in Leicester Squar, according to a news release
The highly anticipated film is based on the critically acclaimed best-selling novel by Alice Sebold. It stars Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg (as Jack Salmon), Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz (Abigail Salmon), Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (Grandma Lynn), Stanley Tucci (George Harvey), Michael Imperioli (Len Fenerman) and Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan (Susie Salmon), many of whom are expected to attend along with members of Britain’s royal family.
“The Lovely Bones” is a DreamWorks and Film4 presentation of a Wingnut Production and is distributed by Paramount Pictures worldwide, on general release in the U.K. in January 2010. It opens Jan. 15 in the U.S.
The film centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family – and her killer – from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
“I am honoured that ‘The Lovely Bones’ has been selected to be this year’s Royal Gala film, in support of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund. This film has been an extraordinary journey, for myself as a filmmaker and for all of those who worked on it. On behalf of everyone involved, we are thrilled that Their Royal Highnesses and the CTBF audience will be amongst the first people in the world to see it,” Jackson said in the release.
The Royal Film Performance is the principal fundraising event of The Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF). All money raised from the event will go directly to the charity, which supports film and TV employees and their families in times of hardship. For more information, go to www.ctbf.co.uk.
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Video: Garth Brooks coming out of retirement
I’m in New York City today for the “Amelia” film junket (look for stories on that next week), but my excellent colleague Assistant Entertainment Editor George Lang and NewsOK host Angi Bruss discussed today’s big news that Oklahoma music superstar Garth Brooks plans to come out of his nine-year retirement.
In this NewsOK video, George talks about the rumors that Brooks will become a Vegas headliner and about other recording artists who have taken similar lucrative gigs.
He also breaks down the Oklahoma native’s impressive track record, which makes this news huge for not just country music but the music industry at large.
The Recording Industry Association of America honored Brooks in 2007 with a career award after he passed Elvis Presley to become the top-selling solo artist in U.S. history. At the time, he had sold more than 123 million albums.
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