05.24.06 (AP) BROOKS & DUNN, the most honored artists in the history of the Academy Of Country Music's awards show, picked up a record 20th trophy Tuesday night as Country music's elite gathered to perform and compete for honors. The duo accepted the "Song Of The Year" award for the gospel-tinged 'Believe,' written by Craig Wiseman, who also co-wrote the 2005 "Song Of The Year," 'Live Like You Were Dying.' Brad Paisley, who led the list of nominees with six, got the award he said he wanted, winning album of the year for "Time Well Wasted." Jason Aldean, whose song 'Why' is No. 1 this week, was named top new male vocalist. BROOKS & DUNN and Sugarland had five nominations each and Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood had four apiece. Along with her Sugarland nominations, lead singer Jennifer Nettles also was up for her crossover hit with Bon Jovi, 'Who Says You Can't Go Home.' Sugarland took away honors for top new duo or vocal group. Underwood, the most-nominated woman, won single of the year for 'Jesus, Take The Wheel,' a song she performed during the show. Trace Adkins, dressed all in black -- from his cowboy hat to his leather suit -- added a Las Vegas touch to the program as he performed 'Honky Tonk Badonkadonk' while surrounded by shimmying showgirls. His performance was preceded by a more traditional Country salute to the nation's soldiers that brought many in the audience to their feet. Gretchen Wilson also paid tribute to the soldiers, the Bible, working men and other country traditions in the song 'Politically Uncorrect.' This year's 41st annual ceremony, at the MGM Grand, was the third to be held in Las Vegas after it moved from Los Angeles. Airing on CBS, it went up against part one of the two-part "American Idol" finale on Fox. The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Tuesday that the academy wants to move the awards show to April to escape the conflict with "Idol," TV's top-rated show. The size of the "Idol" audience has dwarfed that for the Academy Of Country Music's awards show the past three years. Reba McEntire hosted this year's show for the eighth time. Besides Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Underwood and Rascal Flatts, other performers included award nominees Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry, Keith Urban, Big & Rich, Martina McBride, Gretchen Wilson and Kenny Chesney. A late addition to the show was a planned tribute to the late Buck Owens, who died in March, with Dwight Yoakam performing his version of Owens' trademark Bakersfield Sound along with Paisley, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, and Owens' son, Buddy.

05.23.06 (AP) Coming from the radio speakers, BOB DYLAN sounds as craggy and weather-beaten as he looks - and quite playful, too. As he reaches his 65th birthday today, Dylan is carving out a new role as a part-time radio disc jockey. His weekly "Theme Time Radio Hour" airs 10 a.m. EDT Wednesdays on XM Satellite Radio, with Dylan as both curator and narrator. Much like his concerts, Dylan's radio shows are a journey through 20th century musical Americana, the sort of thing he would have heard growing up in Minnesota with a transistor radio hidden under his pillow when he went to bed. So far, about the only thing missing is Bob Dylan music, unless you count the off-key verse of 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' that he croaked at the beginning of this week's show on baseball. Each week Dylan builds his show around a theme, like the weather and drinking songs. For Mother's Day, he celebrated moms with an hour that mixed Buck Owens' 'I'll Go To Church With Mama,' Ruth Brown's 'Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean' and LL Cool J's 'Mama Said Knock You Out.' The majority of the music Dylan plays predates his own heyday. "I think it's more akin to the way radio sounded in 1952 than it does in 2006," said Lee Abrams, XM Satellite Radio's chief creative officer. Dylan's entertaining baseball show also mixed in calls from classic baseball games, like Curt Gowdy announcing Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat with the Boston Red Sox. He refreshingly avoids the obvious: Dylan spins Billy Bragg and Wilco's 'Joe DiMaggio Done it Again' and not Simon & Garfunkel's 'Mrs. Robinson.' He plays Buddy Johnson's 'Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball' and ignores John Fogerty's overexposed 'Centerfield.' "If diamonds are a girl's best friend, why do so many girls get mad when you want to go to the ballpark?" Dylan says during this week's show. "You tell me." That sort of absurdist humor is what may most surprise listeners. Dylan told mother-in-law jokes a la Henny Youngman during one show ("I just came back from a pleasure trip - took my mother-in-law to the airport"). He also discussed watching the old Country-flavored musical/variety TV series "Hee Haw." His intro to 'Mama Said Knock You Out' became an old white man's rap. "Here's LL Cool J," he said. "Don't call it a comeback. He's been here for years, rockin' his peers, puttin"em in fear, makin' tears rain down like a monsoon, explosions overpowerin' the competition. LL Cool J is towerin'." And catch this opening to that show on mothers: "Going to pay tribute to that bountiful breast we all spring from, mother dearest," he said. "'M's' for the many things she gave me. 'O' is for the other things she gave me. 'T' is for the things she gave me. 'H' is for her things, which she gave me. 'E' is for everything she gave me. 'R' is for the rest of the things she gave me. Let's talk about mothers." Although you can occasionally hear the shuffling of papers as he talks, Dylan sounds like a natural on the radio. "I was completely surprised" by his radio show, said Jonathan Cott, who edited an anthology of Dylan interviews that was released to coincide with the 65th birthday. "I was surprised when he wrote his 'Chronicles' book. I'm surprised by him all the time. I didn't think he'd ever be a disc jockey."
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05.16.06 (AP) A ranch-style Memphis, Tennessee home that ELVIS PRESLEY bought in 1956 as his career was taking off has sold for $905,100 on the online auction service eBay. Peter Gleason, a New York attorney and retired firefighter, posted the high bid in the final seconds before the 8 p.m. deadline Sunday. Gleason said Monday that he is a partner in a group that includes Israeli psychic Uri Geller. Their interest in the home is in restoring it to its 1956 luster, down to the original wallpaper and floor coverings, and eventually opening it to the public. "The present owners have done a phenomenal job starting that process," he said. "We want to piggyback on that and take it to the next level by turning it into a museum-quality piece of Americana." The most recent public appraisal for tax purposes valued the house at $261,000, said Stephen Shutts, who facilitated the eBay sale. The current owners, Mike Freeman and Cindy Hazen, paid $180,000 in 1998. Lance Cowan of LCMedia, a Nashville firm that publicized the auction, said more than 225,000 hits were recorded and 71 bids posted since bidding began April 14. Presley, then 21, bought the four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot house at 1034 Audubon Drive with his early song royalties. The singer, his parents and grandmother lived there for a year before moving to a two-story colonial house already known as Graceland, the house that Elvis would make famous. A month after moving into the Audubon Drive home, 'Heartbreak Hotel' hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, ultimately ending any privacy Presley had in the neighborhood. Fans lined the suburban street and police frequently had to be called in. A Life Magazine article from August 1956 had pictures of teenage girls sitting with their ears pressed to his bedroom wall and picking through the grass in his yard for souvenirs. The commotion became so intense that Elvis moved his bedroom to the back of the house. Gleason will use photos from the era to help restore the home to its original appearance, a project he estimates will cost $500,000 to $750,000. Despite the eBay sale, the home, which was built in 1953, still must go through the standard steps of a real estate transaction, a process that could take several weeks.

05.10.06 (MusicPortal.com) "Jerry Lee Lewis: A Half Century Of Hits," the first-ever complete career retrospective on the music icon, will be released on June 13th via Time Life, Inc. Personally overseen by JERRY LEE LEWIS himself, the collection will include the first two tracks he ever recorded, neither of which has ever been released before. "Sometimes I can't believe all the things I've done - some seemed like a good idea at the time," Lewis reflects. "The Time-Life story is the truth and, if I do say so myself, makes for interesting reading and great listening." A charter inductee into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the uncompromising Lewis mixed his Gospel roots with Country music and roadhouse R&B, impossibly coming up with a raucous, startling and entirely compelling new type of Rock 'N' Roll that forever changed the face of music. His recordings and riveting live performances matched only by his larger-than-life personality, Jerry Lee Lewis has scored 65 Country hits, placed 22 albums in the Country Top 20, won a Grammy award, and was immortalized in the hit film "Great Balls Of Fire." Lewis describes it best himself: "Just point me to the piano. In fifteen minutes, I'll have 'em shakin', shoutin', shiverin' and shackin'!" This specially designed 3-disc CD box set is not only filled with his career defining Rock hits like 'Great Balls Of Fire,' 'High School Confidential,' 'Breathless,' and the original hit version of 'Whole Lot Of Shaking Goin' On,' but every major Country hit, three previously unreleased live recordings, additional rare performances, and the very first two tracks Lewis recorded (also the first original Jerry Lee Lewis composition), 'New Orleans Boogie' and a cover of Lefty Frizzell's 'Don't Stay Away.' No one has ever heard those two songs since the day he sang them at a "record your own voice" studio in 1952 when he was just sixteen years old. The acetates, belonging to Lewis' friend, Cecil Harrelson, had been held back from release until such time as Lewis wished them to be distributed to the public and were painstakingly transferred by Country Music Hall Of Fame sound engineer Alan Stoker exclusively for "Jerry Lee Lewis: A Half-Century Of Hits," which features 66 tracks in all. Other highlights include rare outtakes from sessions done for the Sun Records label and even a heated argument between Lewis and Sun founder Sam Phillips about whether Rock 'N' Roll was the Devil's music. "I got the Devil in me," Lewis yells, while Phillips tries to convince him that he can be both a believer and a Rock 'N' Roll star.

05.08.06 (AP) FATS DOMINO tipped his hat to thousands of cheering fans, briefly appearing on stage during the final day of the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival. But the headliner did not perform. "He wasn't feeling well, so we took him to the doctor. He's OK, but he doesn't feel up to performing," long-time friend Haydee Ellis said Sunday. Domino lost his home, his pianos, his gold and platinum records, and much of the city he loves during Hurricane Katrina. His scheduled performance at the 37th annual festival was to be his first since he was rescued by boat from his flooded home in the Ninth Ward after the devastating storm struck last August 29th. Last week, Domino, 78, canceled an autograph session for his latest album "Alive and Kickin'," saying he was fatigued and wanted to rest up for the Sunday performance. Heinz Tumeltshamer flew from Austria to see the Hall Of Fame performer. The 63-year-old Tumeltshamer, wearing a T-shirt that read "Fats Forever," first saw Domino as a teenager and was disappointed Domino did not perform. Still, he was grateful for the appearance. "It was a pleasure just to see him," Tumeltshamer said. Local musicians and others including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett and Paul Simon performed at the six-day event that spanned two weekends. Organizers declined to say how many people attended the event, which typically draws about 500,000 people, but as in past years the lawns and sidewalks were crammed every day. Many performers said the festival was part of rebuilding the city, which suffered devastating flooding and the loss of neighborhoods. "We've gotta get this town back together, and this is one way to do it," said Jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain before taking the stage Sunday. The 75-year-old was saddened to learn that Domino canceled his performance. "When you've been through a lot like he's been through ... it's just a shame," said Fountain, who also lost a home in the storm and then had quadruple bypass heart surgery in March. Fountain's home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina along with his gold records, memorabilia, and 10 musical instruments. His New Orleans home has been repaired.

05.01.06 (MusicPortal.com) THE DUHKS proudly accepted a 2006 Juno Award for their self-titled album in the "Roots & Traditional Album Of The Year - Group" category at a recent ceremony in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The band will put the finishing touches on the follow-up to their breakthrough, self-titled album in Nashville after their appearance at Merlefest 2006. The group recorded the album with acoustic icon Tim O'Brien and engineer/co-producer Gary Paczosa, which is slated for release sometime in the Fall. The five practiced, risk-taking twenty-something musicians and singers who make up this singular new band out of Winnipeg, Manitoba will, if asked, good-naturedly toss out some of the attempts at labels astonished listeners have turned to... In the two years that they've been a unit, many have tried to describe The Duhks' music - "contemporary acoustic," "progressive soul-grass," and "kick-ass rock/folk fusion" being just a few of the attempts to classify the group. There are elements appropriated from Irish fiddle tunes, Canadian French and Scottish/Maritime Folk, and Appalachian Old Time string band in their high-energy music--but from the first sight of The Duhks (pronounced "The Ducks"), you know that no stab in the classifying dark can quite capture the synthesis and musical attack of this crew. That phrase "contemporary acoustic" doesn't readily suggest -- until the moment you see The Duhks enter and go at it live -- a drummer (Scott Senior) pounding dance rhythms, even graceful salsa polyrhythms, on a handmade cajon drum right out of Havana, or a striking, soulful singer up front (Jessee Havey) awash in tattoos, cooing, crying and shouting like a Punk-era Gladys Knight or India.Arie. That their Salsa and Soul regularly intertwine with turns on banjo (Leonard Podolak), fiddle (Tania Elizabeth) and guitar (Jordan McConnell) out of traditional instrumental Folk music only underscores that this band is essentially something else again, with sounds of their own making, working a potent new North American vein of World Music. Festival fans have been found dancing and banging on the front of the stage during their sets, in spontaneous full-on, working mosh pits. For all of the delicacy that The Duhks bring to their quieter... [full story]
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[Country News: April 2006]
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