Too Fit Or Not To Fit? ... That Is The Question...

A couple of days from the Vegas ACMs ... the PR machines have awakened and the pace is picking up around a still-not-very-Spring feeling Nashville.

New songs today from Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean got the day rolling and the CBS Morning News did a feature on the new Johnny Cash-inspired album, Forever Words.

Heard a strong review about a concert Thursday night in Corpus Christi, TX featuring Chris Young, Kane Brown and Morgan Evans. Heard it was a very strong show with Kane Brown's set getting good grades for band, lights and everything else...

The whole is so-and-so Country? Toby Keith interview this week and said "Should've Been A Cowboy" was 25 years ago and people said that wasn't very Country. Toby said, "They were punching us in the face saying we were too pop" ... Things always change and Toby went one step farther saying what I've heard several artists say: "I'm not going to cut a Hip-Hop Country song just for a 'quick hit' ... wouldn't be true to myself."

Toby is 100% right and how many artists do you know who are facing that dilemma right now? They have a sound and the tastes in music change, leaving them to change or not to change with the times. I've told a few it's better to be on the front end of the horse instead of the back. You are who you are. Hits come usually in a finite period of time. Even the money rolls in at the max level for a finite period of time. It's a fickle and tricky business.

People on the outside just see the shiny paint. Backstage there is pressure. Lots of pressure ... Reinventing yourself is often necessary unless you want to be Jimmy Buffett. He rolls on but Buffett hangs out these days on Broadway. He's nursing his musical. You have to keep evolving.

The Summer, I'm told, is just around the corner. Nashville's used to have four seasons, but these years it's Summer and Winter with short Falls and Springs. Fourth of July is 90 days or less away and Music City's fireworks show this year has free music from Lady A and Chris Janson.

The newest music festival is coming to Colorado on Labor Day. Seven Peaks. Buena Vista, Colorado with Dierks and Miranda and many others ... 8.000 feet up is where the stage is ... hmmmm

I'm sure the pictures will be out of this world. Air might be a little thin FYI.

If you remember some big features out this week in Variety and another West Coast-based publication about Country music today ... Google: Do Country Music and Message Songs Mix? ... Also check out the one: Living Gay in Nashville, Talking to Country Music Insiders. Chris Willman is the reporter ... Let's see if these articles get any of the news networks to take a shot ... Very well done stories and for some, very eye-opening.