Damn, James Otto delivered. One guy, one guitar, big stage and an original voice. Folks paid attention because he sounded GOOD! Dude, we know very little about you but you rocked.
We hope country can embrace Darius Rucker, who sort of gives country a soulful, Dave Matthews vibe. His voice is totally unique. And we don’t care what the purists said, the music of Hootie still resonates. It’s beautiful and fun and it makes us so happy when we hear it.
He deserved the warm reception.
In other news: Taylor Swift. Now SHE looks like a teenager. Fresh. Age-appropriate and truly talented.
For our money, Reba McEntire still has top vocal chops. She puts a real emotional voice on any song, ya know. Her vocal signature is golden, even after all these years. Lots to learn from her.
Brad Paisley……again, he’s a sexual zero. Jake Owen, seriously cute, but who manages this dude cause his potential seems way untapped? Did not think the George Strait record was better than the Chesney disk, but Strait is so iconic and a defender of the old school that he gets a lot of props. We can dig it.
So, we are watching the CMA Awards and super-underwhelmed thus far. For our money, committed Michigander Kid Rock put on a better show than nearly everyone on the stage. And he ain’t exactly country. But he is always entertaining and his unit is super-tight.
Most of the performances were dreadful. We like Kelly Pickler a lot, but man, she was out of key for most of her song. A lot of the other acts were dull, too. What’s with the leather get-ups? A few ladies there seem a little long in the tooth for that. We’d like also to mention that Jennifer Nettles needs a little better eye make-up. She looks natural, but we think she could use a bit more glam. Loved her dress. Miley Cyrus… just looks a bit rough for a teen, no? Perhaps she’s just tired from all of the acting, singing and dating and teen-queening. Or something. She just should look a bit fresher and yet she seems leagues behind her years.
The state of country is kinda lame. We think that lead singer for Lady Antebellum is kinda sorta cute, but country lacks truly attractive male stars these days. Some talented heartthrob deperately needs to break. Keith Urban can’t be the only hottie in the line-up. A lot of these dudes are just chubby and gimmicky. Kenny Chesney can’t be the only keeper of the fit body, right? He certainly has made the most of his assets, but the rest of this show crew is a little doughy. And candidly, a lot of the back-up musicians and singers are 7-times cuter than the stars. Didya see Jason Aldean’s band? We rest our case, cuter than the headliner.
Brad Paisley, probably not the greatest choice of a host. His music is Grade B, but not an engaged personality. We prefer Vince Gill but he’s always the host. Paisley’s little wife seems funny tho…..more later. We’re on a tangent and still watching.
Didya see the TMZ footage of country star Kenny Chesney bald as a baby’s butt as he roams around Malibu in the off-season? It looks like he’s makin’ it his new post-tour getaway and keeping out of the Caribbean where he keeps a second home and gets chased by rabid fans.
But seriously, he looks a helluva lot better without the hat tricks, no? He doesn’t need to hide behind a baseball hat. Bald is fine. He’s 40 and mega-famous. Rock steady, dude.
We liked all of the stupid pinko political comments from Hollywood’s big brains, but other than that, and Jeremy Piven’s moment of truth, we pretty much thought this year’s show sucked.
Three hours and about two jokes that worked. Maybe the writers should strike again and work on being FUNNY.
We did think Emmy voters got a lot of things right, tho. We can’t argue with the winners, even if some came from shows we haven’t yet seen.
We do give major snaps to Christina Applegate, who looked fabulous and no worse for the wear after her double mastectomy. She is a real comic talent who hasn’t yet gotten her due, we think.
As for Piven: He once told us to our face that our DVF dress looked like his shower curtain. So it would seem art does imitate life or vice versa.
Loved Brooke Shields’ hot pink dress — VERY DIVALICIOUS. More fashion commentary later.
And finally…..our boys DJ AM and Travis Barker are gonna live and perhaps are less injured than we initially thought. That is GREAT news and we send those boys our continued prayers as they recover. Their physical injuries aside, the mental toll of surviving such a tragedy is probably significant. Can you imagine being the only survivors walking out of a burning plane?
We can’t either. Much love to those boys in Georgia. Glad to see their family and pals gathering round.
As we type, Adam Goldstein (known professionally as DJ AM) and musician Travis Barker are in an Augusta, Ga. hospital being treated for serious burns after their Lear jet crashed on takeoff from Columbia, S.C.
We met Adam several years ago at a party he was working at the Delano Hotel in Miami. We’d known about him — he was involved in a relationship for a time with Nicole Ritchie — but were very surprised to find out that he was not a spoiled brat celebrity but a supernice guy.
We went up to his DJ booth and asked him if he had some specific music. He laughed — it was older and out of his spectrum that night — but offered to come up with some other stuff we might like. And he didn’t blow us off. He chatted, asked US about OUR life and got to work playing our songs.
On the celebrity ego spectrum, he had NONE. He was a sweet boy with a great, low-key personality and seemed totally real.
And so we pray for Adam and for Travis, who was on the plane, and for the families of the others who died in this crash. It’s been a long time since we had a celebrity plane crash, so to speak, but this one looks like it’s shaping up to be a real tragedy.
