Musical Surprises ... Badly Needed, I Might Add

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville.

Fall is always a great time of the year ... with 100 degrees on the front porch thermometer, it's weird this year but hopefully things will look up...

Things are already looking up with new music releases. We went through sort of a dry spell, but boom ... here we go:

Kenny Chesney's new CD is possibly the best he has done. Best on a lot of levels. It's rich and has great variety. Up songs of the beach like you would expect ... some real Country with George Jones ... more than a few musical surprises. Kenny's voice sounds stronger and his delivery simply more mature. What he did before sure worked, but he is continuing to grow as an artist and entertainer. "Hemmingway's Whiskey" out Tuesday 9/28/10 with a lot of TV support this coming week.

The Zac Brown Band going to be the #1 pop and country CD in the week ahead and that has surprised some of the rock people ... Good for them. One-third of the sales digital. That has surprised some people, too. Zac Brown is a different kind of deal and very well liked.

So, good music ... and what a week of primetime TV! The networks have too little too late, but I've watched more TV this week than in a decade. Finally some decent hour dramas instead of all this slime-written comedies and reality shows!

Hawaii 5-0 was good ... Best show was ABC Detroit 1-8-7. That city's homicide detectives. Great show ... Hope they keep up the quality.

SNL is back ... Oprahmania dying down for now. Larry King hype ongoing; he's almost done.

Spin doctors are still trying to figure out the Carrie Underwood CMA EOY snub. Still making news, too. She's been classy ....so has Kenny.

The CMA Awards Vault coffee table book looks great. $44 retail ... Amazon $39, I think. Deborah Evans Price takes you through the 40 years of CMA shows ...144 pages,

Waylon Jennings tribute album coming ... Loretta Lynn, too. How about Taylor Swift getting the auditorium at Hendersonville High named after her? Big deal! She's a good alumni!

Jonathan Cain of Journey living here now ... his daughter Madison already cutting demos be on the lookout for her.

iPad the highest scoring product ever tracked by consumer satisfaction people ... best toy I've ever purchased.

Asleep at the Wheel's 40th anniversary ... best group ever that a lot of people don't know about ... discover them on iTunes if you've never.

Facebook and Twitter both blew up this week ... Twiiter sent you to porn ... Facebook just blew up. Millions angered ... funny how we should live without them, but we press on....

Movies are getting better, too, following our "getting better" theme. "The Town" is the best movie I've seen this year! Best Picture Oscar nominee!

Hurry up, Fall weather!