When We Get Where We Are Going...

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville

Spring break is underway for some, done for others, and musically it's had some highlights. All highlights from where I stand/sit.

Taylor Swift playing tonight at the Houston Livestock show and rodeo; 70,000-plus screaming girls as this tall girl singer keeps on getting big scrapbook pages for her senior years.

What an exciting year for everyone involved with Taylor. Around the world she has impressed, with the Aussies the latest to fall under her spell. She does need to get some new subjects to talk about in interviews. The girl is about interviewed-out on all the routine stuff. Need to reinvent that as we move forward.

Spring is a renewal time with Nashville now in full tree bloom and everyone is itching and sneezing from the mass of tree pollen. Jennifer Nettles in Europe has endured some voice issues and Willie Nelson is presently on the sick list, canceling shows.

Spring with music like keith urban is in full bloom. They are running him to clubs before the tour/TV circuit begins. I discovered ILIKE this week. Interesting music web site. Not sure what the point is but I went and heard a few of keith's new songs and they are very commercial.

Chesney has burned up the Spring break season with shows in Tuscaloosa, Nashville, Panama City and Key West. A video shoot in Miami had him showing off his baldness to the watchful eyeballs of the paparazzi. I hope Kenny will loosen up with the press as time goes on. He is such a wonderful entertainer with very little else if anything to prove. He is the best at what he does!

The L.A./N.Y. publicists serving many of our Nashville brands are not and do not serve them that well. Take the LeAnn Rimes situation this week. That sure doesn't feel controlled to me. US Magazine and its co-conspirators sold her out. Who was running that? Or is this the ultimate staged PR event? Some think so. Regardless, not well-handled. Adultery has been the subject of many Country songs, so we shall see how this plays out. I hope someone is in charge.

I don't get the publicity controls on Urban and Faith Hill. No cameras here ... no cameras there. Rules for this. Rules for that. How did Bob Hope EVER survive his career without all these rules? This singer can't take questions here, can't take questions there ... what's that about?

Nashville has never treated things that way until the "big time" PR people came in the last 10 years and started putting Hollywood controls in place. Country music is not a Hollywood feature film. Or at least it shouldn't be ... relaxxxxxxxx.......

The stars of Country music now use TV a lot. "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol" seem to be the big spots for the alien singers to roost. Jury is still out on this, but it does work for Chuck Wicks this year.

Brad on "Idol" was oay,k but can someone cut out the mosh pit with the waving girls in the front. That has been VERY cliché! Invasive and often simply odd. The synchronized clapping can go, too ... even if it is fake and sweetened inside the mix.

The ACMs are up next. The world seems a little award show-weary as we go into that soon. Just a feeling. CBS is hanging in there, though, against FOX and ABC's reality shows. NBC is lost and it doesn't look like "Nashville Star" is in their future.

Some a capella singing show for eight weeks in the summer is the peacock network's latest bad idea. Or it sounds bad on paper. We shall see...

Not sure why Garth was on the Tonight show singing "Rodeo" on Obama night. But he was there ... barely. What is his game plan or is it what he said it was? Nothing until kids get out of school?

Anyone read Charlie Daniels' blog on Mexico? Go Google that; he is a man not afraid to speak his mind!

Classic Opry things coming on Thursdays in the weeks ahead. Larry Gatlin, Lorrie Morgan and others ... Check the Opry website.

You better be figuring out all this Twitter/Facebook/iLike/MySpace/iPhone apps, etc. etc. techno stuff, or you'll be left holding your Herb Alpert 8-tracks.