Everything Changes ... Holding On and Holding Your Breath

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville

I had to cut off a talk show today. Just too negative. It's like drinking poison. I needed that drink this week of George Strait music.

That show was a total audience winner, but didn't score in the young demos. Has there been a time since the late 1960s that demos were such a radical position.

I saw where the voiceover guy for WLS-TV was canned after years of doing it for a younger sounding guy from LA. Probably cheaper, too. Change is a good thing sometime, but not everything at one time.

You check out a show like the Jamey Johnson show at the Ryman. What a talented guy! Old School, but hip at the same time. Brad Paisley's music is brilliant. The new CD is one of the best CDs I've heard in a long time.

Back to the George Strait salute. Everyone did such a great job. The most honest tribute show in maybe a generation. The sing-alongs by the audience were real and true to heart. It was two hours of dessert! Great job to everyone involved. You wonder why they didn't offer a radio simulcast. Maybe that's not hip anymore.

The Internet is such a weapon of great power and also of mass destruction. The positives are so obvious as a communications tool. The damage it has done to the newspaper and record businesses is mind boggling. Of course, it's the people who do the damage -- not the wires and computers, but you get the picture.

I love the Internet. I hate the idiots who can ruin a good person's reputation with a keystroke. The bad news, the reckless news, the keyboard hacks can spread gossip at the speed of light and put in people's minds ideas that can never be washed away.

Anyone can be a journalist covering Country music or anything else ... there is no license in America. Nor should there be. You wish there was a way of people policing the gossip spreaders, though. Been doing this a long time and I don't make up stories ... I think most people don't really just make things up; they just get things screwed up. Report things they have no real idea of ... and don't understand the true consequences of their words.

The next big concert event is BamaJam; I'm hearing good things on ticket sales. On a few events, I don't hear good things. There is only so much money in the bank for folks this summer. Glad to see people are still having a huge time at the Kenny shows.

Taylor Swift, "superstar ... that's how an AP article described her this week. Kind of took me back. I guess she fits that description, though. The media wheel for the 19-year-old is red-hot. "Dateline" on NBC Sunday at 7p ET takes it to another level. At the "Today" show, that crowd was all 'tweens and girls her age. I doubt many in that crowd watched the news segments of that show. Chasing the kids. The media bosses think that is the way to go ... maybe it is.

Kris Allen will be a contemporary Christian singer within three years. Took me a little bit to come up with that prediction. It is the most honest music for him. All of those "Idols"l this year had a very high opinion of themselves. Maybe too high.

Get well, Kellie Pickler ... she has bronchitis. I still think she can become a big star!

See where Darius Rucker has his own iPhone application? I love my iPhone.

More concert tours go out in the next week or so ... Brad, then Toby.

Summer is here in Nashville. It just needs to stop raining! The car business MUST stablilize and the bosses at all businesses must start thinking about treating their employees with some kind of decency. Never seen employee morale so low. The times are tough but you can't chop the heads off of everyone and have anything left. I hope these times are settling down...

Need more George Strait love-ins like the other night. It was such a two-hour positive, peace-filled, love-filled show.