Country music disappears from Grammy spotlight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lady Antebellum landed an unexpected knockout of Eminem and took the night with five Grammys last year, including record and song of the year for "Need You Now." Taylor Swift and Zac Brown Band broke through in the general categories the year before.

Yet this year only one country nominee made the cut in the prestigious all-genre categories: new artist entry The Band Perry.

Some might suggest a country snub, but Jason Aldean, a first-time nominee who's up for three awards, including country album of the year, doesn't see this year's deficit as out of the ordinary. That the focus is on the likes of Adele, Bruno Mars and Rihanna is not surprising to him, even though he and Swift had two of the year's top-selling albums.

"All those artists are great and having a killer year, so it's hard to argue with what they're doing," Aldean said. "But I think it's something country music has fought for years and years. I don't think it's anything new. I don't think at least from my perspective it's something that I'd be shocked about. It's the way it always is. It's not going to change. It's just how it goes."

Aldean proves himself an astute student of country music history with that statement. The genre's ascendance in the last half of the last decade at the Grammys is an aberration, a statistical oddity based on the overwhelming crossover success of a handful of songs and artists who dominated pop music at the time of their wins.

Mainstream country has scored just 13 general-category trophies since the first Grammys in 1958. Just three of those came before 2000.

Lady A's win in the record of the year category in 2010 was just the second by a country artist. The Dixie Chicks, fresh from the band's excommunication by country radio after remarks about President George W. Bush, won three general category awards at the 2007 Grammys.

Aldean notes all those winners have something in common: crossover success. Especially Swift and Lady A.

"(Swift) was just as big in the pop world as she was in the country world," Aldean said. "That was just one of those you can't really deny. As an awards show you almost look stupid if she's not there. And I think Lady A last year, without a doubt they had one of the biggest songs, if not the biggest song, of the year. ... They had a huge year, a huge record. It's kind of hard to deny that."

Members of Lady A, up for country album of the year, said it didn't really matter in what categories their nominations fell. Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley are just happy to be back and able to spend time with good friends like Aldean, country song of the year nominee Dave Barnes, Eric Church and others.

"We'd be lying if we said we wouldn't be disappointed after such an incredible year there last year if we didn't get invited back to the party," Kelley said.

"It's fun to be able to support our friends in the industry, as well," Scott said. "There are a lot of our really close friends in the business who will be there that we can celebrate with and just enjoy the night."

Gary LeVox, lead singer for Rascal Flatts, thinks that's the right attitude to have. Rascal Flatts landed one of those coveted all-genre song of the year nominations for "Bless the Broken Road," but over time he's learned not to take it too seriously. It's in no way an exact science, after all.

"I know some Grammy voters that are actually friends of mine that only listen to country music, but they vote on categories in the rock world," LeVox said. "They don't know anything about the rock world and they'll tell you, 'I don't know. I've just heard of Maroon 5 so I just voted for that.' And those are my friends. I think some of that happens."

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AP writer Caitlin R. King in Nashville contributed to this report.

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Dierks Bentley new album brings country fans "Home"

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - If the single "Home" is the cornerstone of Dierks Bentley's latest album of the same name, then the song "Thinking of You" is the CD's hearth because the fire within it warms both body and soul.

Bentley wrote the song for his 3-year-old daughter, Evie, who sings on the track of the new album that went on sale on Tuesday.

"I'm not someone to put their kid on their album," Bentley, the father of two daughters, told Reuters in an interview. "I got this email on my birthday when I was out on the road and it was Evie singing that song back to me. It just about broke my heart. It was the best and worst birthday present ever.

"It's so real and honest and I just couldn't take it off the track once I heard it. You know in country music there are sad songs about drinking and love gone wrong but there's another whole level of sad when you're missing your daughter. That's a whole range of emotion there I'd never felt before."

The 36-year-old Bentley's passion shows through whether he is singing about his daughter or a relationship ready to leap to the next level, or delivering fun-loving tunes like the new album's first single, "Am I The Only One?"

The singer's ninth album follows his highly successful offering "Up on the Ridge" that landed Bentley three Grammy nominations last year, including for Best Country Album. All told, Bentley has had eight No. 1 singles, including "Feel That Fire" and "Sideways."

He said "Up on the Ridge" gave him a chance to stretch out.

"My fans allowed me to experiment and do things a little different, and I still think the record opened the landscape creatively for me," Bentley said.

"With 'Home' I was trying to make a country record that was really representative of me, what I do in country music that is unique. There are certain things I'm known for, like the party songs and the fun songs, and there are songs on this record that are in the same vein, like 'Tip it on Back' and 'Come a Little Closer.' Then there is new ground for me, like 'Thinking of You' and 'When You Gonna Come Around.'"

The lyrics on the title tune can be interpreted in many ways, which is what the Arizona-born singer wanted.

COMING HOME

"Home for me can be coming back to Nashville after I've been on the road. But for soldiers it's seeing that shore for the first time after a year or more in a foreign country," he said.

"People who hear it will interpret it according to what is going on in their life at the moment. Some of the most touching stories I hear are from the soldiers who come up to me and talk about what it's like to be flying back to the States and seeing that piece of land for the first time."

Written with Dan Wilson and Brett Beavers, Bentley gave substantial credit to his co-writers.

As Bentley tells it, the three were working on a lyric when he was called away by his wife asking for help starting her car. When he returned, Wilson and Beavers had stopped working on the other song and come up with a melody for the verse of "Home," intending it to be about America or a place everyone calls home.

"When I'm on tour and hanging out with people I see that there is a lot more in common among us than we might think. So we thought we could write a song about that and that it might be a really interesting take on a patriotic song," Bentley said.

The album's first single, "Am I The Only One," about a guy ready to head out on a Friday night who cannot find any of his buddies to party with him, might be more typical for Bentley. But his duet with Karen Fairchild of the band Little Big Town on "When You Gonna Come Around," broke new ground.

The sexy tune pairs Bentley's rough edge with Fairchild's sultry vocals to convey the message that this is a relationship ready for the next step.

"I love Karen's voice," Bentley said. "Little Big Town is one of the most talented bands out there today. I saw her at a party in Nashville and asked if she'd come sing on this song and she said yes. A couple days later she came in and it turned out perfect."

Bentley is touring in the United States, then embarks on tours of Canada in late February and Australia in March. He resumes his "Country & Cold Cans" tour at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on April 13.

(Reporting By Vernell Hackett; Editing by Andrew Stern and Bob Tourtellotte)

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Jamie Lynn Spears Talks Country Music Career & Hurtful Teen Pregnancy Press: 'I Did The Best I Could'

The unexpected pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears shocked fans of the then-16-year-old Nickelodeon star in 2007.

Now almost 21, Jamie is speaking out about her struggles as a teen mom and the painful press that came along with her very public pregnancy.

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"I had to make a decision that I could sleep with every night. I did feel responsible for the young girls and the mothers who I probably confused and let down. I apologize for that," Jamie told Glamour magazine in an interview for their latest issue, of deciding to keep her baby. "But I wasn't trying to glamorize teen pregnancy. I hated when [the tabloids] said that. Everybody is dealt a hand of cards. It was my choice to play them the way I played them. But the hateful comments hurt."

Jamie, who split from daughter Maddie's father Casey Aldridge in 2010, said watching the tabloids having a heyday with sister Britney Spears' tribulations made her decide to move out of Los Angeles to escape stressful scrutiny.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Jamie Lynn Spears

"I just wanted to get away from it as much as I could, to just go away and be a mom and figure out what I wanted, and to earn a sense of respect back for myself," she told the mag. "Move to a town in the middle of nowhere and just raise my child. All I could be was a good mother. If anybody had anything to say after that, there was nothing I could do."

Jamie also opened up about the difficulties of being a teen mom.

"There were so many times -- especially when Maddie would get sick -- when I would cry to myself and think, 'I really don't know what to do,'" she said. "It takes bravery to be a young mom, and it does take bravery to let the world watch."

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Former Child Stars

Now an aspiring country singer, Jamie Lynn resides in Nashville, Tenn., with Maddie, 3, and finds music a helpful outlet to express everything she's gone through in the last five years.

"I was a kid who did a kid show. Then I went away and raised my child, and the world has never met me as an adult," she said. "This is the first time anybody is really meeting me as a grown woman and grown mother making a decision about what to do with my life... My music will speak for itself."

VIEW THE PHOTOS: A Look Back: Britney Spears’ Early Years

For the full interview with Jamie Lynn, head over to Glamour.

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Country star Merle Haggard repeat again after illness

(Reuters) - legend of music Country Merle Haggard is repeated with his group of long date, The Strangers, and prepares to return to the road after having been ousted by a bout of pneumonia and other conditions.

Haggard, 74, was hospitalized on 17 January, after illness requires him to cancel a show in times of just the Georgia before taking the stage. Doctors treating for double pneumonia in a hospital in Macon more later discovered a number of other conditions.

"I feel good and ready to go back on the bus," Haggard said Wednesday in a statement released by his publicist based in Los Angeles Tresa Redburn.

"Thanks to all for their powerful prayers that led to my speedy recovery." "I am repeats with the Group and look forward to Playin'TV ' and sing again," said Haggard.

His first show will be February 28 at the Fox Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. The dates of January he had to postpone his illness will be composed in April, Redburn said.

Even after physicians had his thinning pneumonia, singer remained in the hospital for several days to recover after eight polyps were removed from his colon and for the treatment of ulcers of the stomach and diverticulitis in his esophagus, which all have been discovered by the medical staff of Macon, three said Redburn.

Upon his release, Haggard credited Macon medical team for probably saving my life."

Known for songs such as "Mama tried", "Okie from Muskogee" and "the Fightine side of Me, the members of the Country Music Hall of Fame was released from the hospital in Macon on 26 January and stole home in Northern California to continue convalescence.".

With influences ranging from Lefty Frizzell to Bob Wills to Jimmie Rodgers, Haggard is an architect of so-called "Bakersfield Sound." country music

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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New album Dierks Bentley brings fans of country "Home."

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - If the single "Home" is the cornerstone of Dierks Bentley's latest album of the same name, then the song "Thinking of You" is the CD's hearth because the fire within it warms both body and soul.

Bentley wrote the song for his 3-year-old daughter, Evie, who sings on the track of the new album that went on sale on Tuesday.

"I'm not someone to put their kid on their album," Bentley, the father of two daughters, told Reuters in an interview. "I got this email on my birthday when I was out on the road and it was Evie singing that song back to me. It just about broke my heart. It was the best and worst birthday present ever.

"It's so real and honest and I just couldn't take it off the track once I heard it. You know in country music there are sad songs about drinking and love gone wrong but there's another whole level of sad when you're missing your daughter. That's a whole range of emotion there I'd never felt before."

The 36-year-old Bentley's passion shows through whether he is singing about his daughter or a relationship ready to leap to the next level, or delivering fun-loving tunes like the new album's first single, "Am I The Only One?"

The singer's ninth album follows his highly successful offering "Up on the Ridge" that landed Bentley three Grammy nominations last year, including for Best Country Album. All told, Bentley has had eight No. 1 singles, including "Feel That Fire" and "Sideways."

He said "Up on the Ridge" gave him a chance to stretch out.

"My fans allowed me to experiment and do things a little different, and I still think the record opened the landscape creatively for me," Bentley said.

"With 'Home' I was trying to make a country record that was really representative of me, what I do in country music that is unique. There are certain things I'm known for, like the party songs and the fun songs, and there are songs on this record that are in the same vein, like 'Tip it on Back' and 'Come a Little Closer.' Then there is new ground for me, like 'Thinking of You' and 'When You Gonna Come Around.'"

The lyrics on the title tune can be interpreted in many ways, which is what the Arizona-born singer wanted.

COMING HOME

"Home for me can be coming back to Nashville after I've been on the road. But for soldiers it's seeing that shore for the first time after a year or more in a foreign country," he said.

"People who hear it will interpret it according to what is going on in their life at the moment. Some of the most touching stories I hear are from the soldiers who come up to me and talk about what it's like to be flying back to the States and seeing that piece of land for the first time."

Written with Dan Wilson and Brett Beavers, Bentley gave substantial credit to his co-writers.

As Bentley tells it, the three were working on a lyric when he was called away by his wife asking for help starting her car. When he returned, Wilson and Beavers had stopped working on the other song and come up with a melody for the verse of "Home," intending it to be about America or a place everyone calls home.

"When I'm on tour and hanging out with people I see that there is a lot more in common among us than we might think. So we thought we could write a song about that and that it might be a really interesting take on a patriotic song," Bentley said.

The album's first single, "Am I The Only One," about a guy ready to head out on a Friday night who cannot find any of his buddies to party with him, might be more typical for Bentley. But his duet with Karen Fairchild of the band Little Big Town on "When You Gonna Come Around," broke new ground.

The sexy tune pairs Bentley's rough edge with Fairchild's sultry vocals to convey the message that this is a relationship ready for the next step.

"I love Karen's voice," Bentley said. "Little Big Town is one of the most talented bands out there today. I saw her at a party in Nashville and asked if she'd come sing on this song and she said yes. A couple days later she came in and it turned out perfect."

Bentley is touring in the United States, then embarks on tours of Canada in late February and Australia in March. He resumes his "Country & Cold Cans" tour at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on April 13.

(Reporting By Vernell Hackett; Editing by Andrew Stern and Bob Tourtellotte)

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Country music great Haggard hospitalized with pneumonia

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - Country music great Merle Haggard has been admitted to a Georgia hospital suffering from pneumonia and postponed the rest of his concert dates in January, his spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Haggard, 74, entered the Macon hospital on Tuesday night after he canceled a show in that Georgia city seven minutes before he was to take the stage because he was too ill to perform, said Frank Mull, his tour manager and close friend.

A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Haggard is best known for songs including "Mama Tried," "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me."

Haggard had been scheduled to perform again on Wednesday night in Columbus, Georgia, but that show and the rest of the January slate will be rescheduled for April, according to Haggard's Los Angeles-based publicist Tresa Redburn.

Redburn said the singer was receiving fluids intravenously. She said she spoke with Haggard by telephone "and he sounded pretty good."

Haggard will take time off to recover and resume his tour in February, Redburn said. Haggard lives in Northern California.

The singer was unwell when he left his California home to begin the tour, but did not want to disappoint his fans, Mull said. "He thought he was well enough to work and he did work three dates, and he got progressively worse," Mull said.

With influences ranging from Lefty Frizzell to Bob Wills to Jimmie Rodgers, Haggard is an architect of country music's "Bakersfield Sound."

(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Will Dunham)

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Country Music - The Soulful Rhythms

No matter what your preferences are, no matter what kind of disposition you have- you simply cannot refrain yourself from being mesmerized and enticed by music. Since its inception, music has been the most loved source of entertainment and people with different tastes and likings admire several kinds of music. It has different kinds and forms. Across the world different kinds of music has evolved with the emergence of distinctive civilizations and the characteristic nature of the people in different countries etc. The influence of music can be felt in every corner of the world. Various genre of music like rock, pop, classical, jazz etc have been immensely applauded by the people.

Country Music is also well accepted and admired by the music listeners across the globe. This highly melodious and mellifluous form of music is awesomely pure and subtle. Unlike the conventional pop and metal music, this genre is known for its flawless and soft rhythms that are soothing to the ears and pleasant to the soul. Many popular artists have given amazing performances and great albums that have remarkable influences from this music. These albums have achieved admirable success and recognition from the listeners.

Country music is a remarkably enticing genre of music that focuses on the melodies and the rhythms. It is identified by its immensely mellifluous tones and upbeat numbers. It is a blend of various distinctive music forms from across the world and mainly has influences from the music that was originated in the southern parts of the United States and the region of Appalachian Mountains. Around 1920, this category rapidly evolved and gained popularity among the masses. This kind of music has its roots in the various traditional and classical types like folk music, old times music, Celtic music, gospel and the blues. In the southern United States the various ethnic groups created music of different styles and the combination of all these styles emerged as the Western Music that comprises a major part of the country and western music.

There have been a number of artists and performers who have gained immense popularity with this genre of music. Elvis Presley, who was earlier known as The Hillbilly Cat was one of the biggest pop icons in the history of music. He won recognition through his immensely admirable country music performances. He was featured on the radio program Louisiana Hayride where he used to give amazing performances based on this music. Similarly Garth Brooke is one of the most appreciated Country Music artist whose albums were chart toppers. He made short debut in other genres too. This genre saw its greatest high in the year 2006 when the country albums sales increased by the 17.7 percent to a whopping 36 millions.

The country pop has its roots in the soft rock and the country-politan which emerged as a sub genre of this music in the 1970's. It was well accepted by the wide variety of audiences during the same decade. The singers like John Denver, Glen Campbell and Anne Murray were some of the most admired artists of this genre. "RhineStone Cowboy" by Campbell is amongst the best and biggest crossover music hits. The songs in this music CD are still hummed by the teenagers and youngsters. Olivia Newton John is considered as the best female country vocal performer.

Outlaw country revolutionized this genre of music completely with the derived Honky Tonk sounds of late 1950's. After 1935, the Western Swing Big Band leader Bob Willis used drums as the major instrument in his band Texas Playboy. The drums were readily used by the country musicians and the rockabilly groups till 1955. Later, they became significant in the country bands also. The electric guitar was used in the bands that were originated in the beginning of 1938. Arthur Smith achieved immense success with the Guitar Boogie a MGM records album that declared the beginning of guitar as the most influential instrument in the country band.

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