Too Much ... Everything

Jimmy Carter in CMA Music Fair Recovery

Too hot comes to mind as the first memory. How do these fans do this week?

Teflon, asbestos, well done, broiled fans amaze anyone who watched. How does the CMA staff survive their own week? They all looked like zombies Sunday night, as did I.

It was the best of this new series. It will get better too. It is ambitious and sprawling. There isn't a lot of intimacy in it.

The field stadium show cries out for a catwalk so the stars can get closer to the fans. Like the Stones have done, or 'N Sync and Chesney. ABC doesn't like the look. Get a new director at ABC and do the stage. ABC may be the most negative thing of the whole week. Too much bang in your face ABC promotion!

It's not perfect, but Country music as an industry should be proud of this monster corporate party.

It is sort of reflective of today's music and its stars. Neither good nor bad but reflective.

Yes, I still miss the grassroots feel of the old Fan Fair, but I like Captain Kangaroo over the Teletubbies, Tom Brokaw on the Today show instead of Matt Lauer.

Change happens. Country music is not a neighborhood, back room kind of thing anymore. It is main stream and big dollar.

The Rolling Stones could have easily popped on the LP Field stage any night. I guess that's all a good thing.

Country sure rocks today in the live environment. Ted Nugent was my favorite highlight when he tore into Cat Scratch Fever with Montgomery Gentry. There is something wrong with that being the best memory, but it was. Just like it's wrong that my favorite memory of all the shows I've seen at the Ryman was a Grand Funk Railroad reunion concert.

Like many of today's stars, I was raised on more James Brown, Beatles and Queen than I was Bill Monroe. I grew up and pop stunk, so I discovered country music. It's been the best overall dependable music of the past 20 years!

Watching country music grow up is at times difficult. You want things to grow, but you want them to also respect the past traditions. That is why I like Alan Jackson and Brad Paisley so much. Garth always took the best of the old and made it new. The rock star attitudes of a very few stars is a turn off. No, it's a major turnoff.

The growing isolation of a few top-drawer country artists may just go with today's territory. The ability to walk up to Johnny and June at the airport was great. Now you have to go to the private jet terminal, and good for them, BUT you can't run a total stay-away-from-intimate-contact country music career. Or I sure hope you can't.

A few folks blew off the CMA Music festival, and that's not something they should be proud of. We all know who they are. It's not really an excused absence.

Eddie Montgomery looked into the TV camera at one point and said you all ought to be here thanking these fans who put you in those private jets. I agree.

The dates for next year are already published. Take those private jets and give these fans a few hours. It's important.

Some praise for Carrie Underwood, who personally sat and did those autographs hour after hour. The fan club shows for Brad, Gary Allan, Dierks and others were important to those fans.

Rascal Flatts showed up for the LP Field show, and good for them too. It was something. A gesture. Fans don't need you for a week. An hour is better than nothing.

That's what I don't get. Not even an hour? A year in advance, you know the week is coming. Private jets. A walk-on. It's the thought that counts.

Today maybe that too doesn't matter. I still like the attitude of Billy Ray Cyrus and Taylor Swift on fans. They know they are the reason they have the lives they have.

The news flow is too much as the heat is right now in the Deep South: Sammy Kershaw running for Lt. Gov. in Louisiana? No commentary on that one. Not sure what to say.

New CD of Brad Paisley is excellent. The new book coming from Anne Sharpsteen on Vivian Cash is fantastic.

Trace Adkins hurt his back working on the farm. Note to Trace: STOP working on the farm before you kill yourself.

Tim and Faith out in the great Northwest where it's cooooool ... Niiiiiice.

Farm Aid tickets going on sale for New York City September 9. Good for Willie and others who keep that going. It's a losing war, but a noble one.