We’ve just listened to Scotty McCreery and his “Five more minutes”, 4th track of his 4th album “Seasons Change” published by Triple Tigers Records, his new recording studio after departing from Mercury Nashville during his American Idol era. Scotty won the tenth season of this talent show with his crooner voice.
He began singing as a kid in North Carolina. Soon to be spotted as a talent with his country twang and deep baritone vocals, became an audience favorite and eventually won the competition in May 2011. The song we just listened was released in May 2017 as the first single. He wrote this song next to Frank Rogers, the producer of the album. The song was inspired by the death of McCreery’s grandfather and how you want to spend more time with a loved one. It reached #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, meaning the first ever number one hit in his career, and #4 in the Hot Country Songs. At 25, Scotty McCreery has a great future in country music provided he focuses on real country music production.
Another famous country musician who reached mainstream fame was the winner of the fourth edition of American Idol, back in 2004. We’re talking of the Oklahoman singer Carrie Underwood, born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, town famous for the iconic song Okie from Muskogee by Merle Haggard.
Carrie auditioned in the summer of 2004 for American Idol in Saint Louis, Missouri, at 21, singing “I can’t make you love me”. Here’s the moment that changed her life:
From that moment, her popularity started growing. Underwood’s music career began with her first single, Inside Your Heaven, reaching #1 short after, song included in her debut album Some Hearts. Since then, six albums have been released, with her last one Cry Pretty released merely 3 months ago by Capitol Nashville, her new record label. The album hit #1 of the US Billboard 200 chart, making Carrie the first woman to hit the top of this list with 4 country albums, even though I don’t really understand why, because I have had the chance to listen to the whole album and, honestly, there’s not a single song which deserves to be played in this podcast and I would really be ashamed of calling it country music at all.
Long gone are the days when she was American’s girl next door and the Grand Ole Opry offered her the chance to be a member of their tradition. Today we will go back 11 years to her second album “Carnival Ride”, from 2007, to play the second track “All-American Girl”. Carrie Underwood.
As I said before, Carrie Underwood was invited in 2008 to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry, of which Carrie has celebrated the 10th aniversary. She was invited by Randy Travis, one of the most iconic voices in country music in the 1980s.
Born Randy Traywick in North Carolina, like Scotty McCreery, our first guest today on the show, in 1959, he not only became famous as a singer and songwriter, but also as an actor in more than 20 films here and there, apart from several Television movies and series from the 90s onwards.
This 59 year-old singer has won many awards, highlighting 6 Grammys, 8 ACM Awards, and 5 CMA awards, with a total of 36 awards recognizing his talent.
Active since 1978, he has released 20 albums in his career, some traditional and some religious country music, with more than 50 singles in the Billboard Hot country Songs, including 16 #1 hits.
Notwithstanding, Randy Travis has had some encounters with the law in his career, especially leading to his divorce in 2010, problems including hearth conditions from which he recovered as early as 2016, when he was able to perform at his own induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame two years ago.
Today, to honor Randy Travis, we will go back to 1989 to listen to the song “Heart Rock Bottom of Your Heart”, which spent 4 weeks at #1 of the Hot Country Singles & Tracks of the Billboard Magazine, being the first single to do that in more than a decade. So, we’ll put a coin in the jukebox, and we’ll travel in time to 1989, album “No Holding Back”, song “Heart Rock Bottom of your heart”.
Many have been the country singers who have had a flirt with Hollywood. Examples like Randy Travis that we just listened, or more recently Tim McGraw, who played next to Sandra Bullock in the blockbuster “The Blind Side”, role which led to an Oscar Award for the latter for her outstanding performace in a female leading role.
Our last guest has had many roles in Hollywood movies, especially in westerns, from the 90s and even in this century. We’re talking about the 62 year-old country singer Dwight Yoakam, born in the state of Ohio. 22 movies and 13 series or TV movies up to this day, and 16 country music albums, are not enough proof of the talents of this extraordinary singer, songwriter, actor and director.
When he began his career, Nashville was oriented towards pop “urban cowboy” music, and Yoakam’s brand of hip honky tonk music was not considered marketable. Writing all his own songs, he started to work on his own sound “hillbilly” (as he called it). Finally in 1986, he was able to record his first album “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc” on Oak Records, an independent label. He started to blend rockabilly, country honky-tonk roots, bluegrass, to create a unique sound, his sound. Today, to finish Grand Country, we will visit his third album, “Buenas noches from a lonely room” to listen to Dwight’s first #1 song, “Streets of Bakersfield”, famous by Buck Owens, Dwright’s favorite artist, this time in a duet between Dwight and Buck. This was Dwight Yoakam’s first number 1 song in his career. Bakersfield sound mixed with Tex Mex in 1988.
Comentarios