"This Just In....Taylor Swift Is A Nine Point Favorite to Win The Super Bowl..."

It's Grammy Sunday.

So I'm sure you, like me, are thinking just one name.

Benjamin Franklin.

Uh...what?

It was Ben who said " "but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."

Two things certain.

Actually, there's a third.

"And the winner is...

...Taylor Swift...".

SPOILER ALERT: I'm about to commit a little blasphemy.

But, first, a little prologue.

The rise and success of Taylor Swift has, by any conventional measure, been phenomenal.

And it can be said with reasonable certainty, I think, that by that same measure, Taylor Swift, herself, is a phenomenon.

Webster's defines "phenomenal" as "...extremely unusual; extraordinary; highly remarkable..."

Again, when applied to Taylor Swift, I'd offer those are valid descriptions.

But this is where things get a little tricky.

And the aforementioned, forewarned blasphemy comes into play.

And print.

I remember reading, once, someone's pointed observation about another old saying.

"Things always happen for a reason."

"Yes," the observer observed pointedly, "but notice the saying says nothing about it necessarily being a good reason."

Which brings us back to the definintion of phenomenal.

And a checklist of application as regards the ubiquitous Ms. Swift and her career accomplishments.

Extremely unusual?

Check.

Extraordinary?

Check.

Highly remarkable?

Check.

But, to paraphrase an observation, "notice it says nothing about the phenomenon necessarily being any good...".

In a literal sense, applying the three criteria necessary in the definition, Gilbert Gottfried's voice is phenomenal.

But I doubt any of us are going to enjoy hearing it ad nauseum.

Nor are we going to give him every award known to man.

Nor are we going to rush out to buy his latest recordings, greeting cards, play hookey from work to be first in line if he appears in a movie or live in gleeful anticipation of any future guest shot he might do on any or all "C.S.I" episode.

Here's the thing.

I agree that the success of Taylor Swift is a phenomenon and, in a certain context, applaud her accomplishments.

My personal take on it, though, is that the phenomenon is not the talent.

But the phenomenon itself.

Taylor Swift seems like a pretty nice kid with a reasonably nice sing songy voice who uses a few basic guitar chords to write and sing reasonably nice songs about the travails and tribulations of growing up teenage in this age.

You go, girl.

But I can't help but be fascinated by the fact that you can't turn on a TV or a radio or walk through a music store or walk by a magazine rack or watch an awards show without hearing about or seeing the image and/or sound of a pretty nice kid with a reasonably nice sing songy voice who uses a few basic guitar chords to write and sing reasonably nice songs about the travails and tribulations of growing up teenage in this age.

It's...amazing.

No, actually....

It's phenomenal.

"..Who Is It Who's REALLY Not Ready To Make Nice...?"

For years, I've suspected that, underneath it all, country music wants to have it both ways.

Standing up proud, and sometimes, loud for basic and essential down home, small town, mama/papa/family focused middle American values.

Not the least of which is...freedom.

While, at the same time, not being totally averse to a little controversy if it helps folks pick up a CD and find their way to the cash register.

Because, after all, whether it's the pop music business or the country music business, the common thread is the word "business".

I can't testify to it in court, but I'd be willing to bet that record label marketing meetings on 16th Avenue don't usually sound like this...

"We've asked the singer to drop that song from the CD because of that lyric about the black dress hitting the floor...that's not the kind of song down home/small town country fans want to hear..."

Lately, the envelope of sexual reference in country music seems to be getting a new push if what Chris Young and Luke Bryan, among others, are up to.

And the chart success of these, and other, folks testifies that the "country music audience" seems ready to embrace the naughty along with the nice.

This just in...sex finds its way into country music...film at 11.

One down, two to go.

But don't count on the trifecta.

Because I'm pretty confident that it will be at least a generation or two before the other two taboos find any open ears on Mama and Daddy's Ipod.

Religion. Politics.

Not counting, of course, any songs/music of praise and/or songs that boil the process politic down to putting a boot in the ass of any foreign threat to our way of life.

And, speaking of Toby Keith....

The Dixie Chicks are in the news.

Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks have recorded an album under the name Court Yard Hounds, according to Rolling Stone. The band name is a reference to the novel, City of Thieves. Recorded largely at Maguire's home studio in Austin, Texas, the album is scheduled for May and will feature Robison on lead vocals for the first time, with an appearance from the Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan. The sisters will also perform as a duo at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin in March. As previously reported, Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines will not appear on the album, but Robison and Maguire emphasized to Rolling Stone that the Chicks have not formally parted ways.

This news pretty much puts to rest the discussion that fired up this week about whether The Dixie Chicks without Natalie can be considered The Dixie Chicks.

Unasked, I offer my opinion.

Uh, no.

The Dixie Chicks without Natalie are Sugarland without Jennifer, Lady Antebellum without Hillary, Brooks and Dunn without....

You get the idea.

Oh and as far as the whole "controversy" that sent The Dixie Chicks down the rabbit hole a few years back?

I get my political perspective from CNN, MSNBC, FOX and a variety of blog/newspaper, etc sources.

Not to mention my own personal processing and interpretation of political events.

I don't really care what Natalie Maines thinks about the political landscape.

At the same time, I'm not really interested in hearing Rush Limbaugh break into a chorus of "Wide Open Spaces."

Either way, though, the whole business of banning music from the airwaves because of a performer's opinions is, at best, silly and at worst...

Contrary to that most prized down home, small town, mama/papa/family focused middle American value.

Freedom.

"And I Heard Her Exclaim, As She Walked Out Of Sight...MAN! I Feel Like A WOMAN!..."

New year, new decade.

Inevitably a time of looking back.

I was doing that just this morning.

And wondering whatever became of Shania...

Despite bitterly cold, windy weather, Shania Twain carried the Olympic torch through her Canadian hometown of Timmins, Ontario, and into a celebration at a city park. Enduring the minus-30-degree wind-chill factor, more than 1,000 fans cheered and screamed as the five-time Grammy winner, 44, ran onto a makeshift stage wearing a white torchbearer's uniform.

After stopping for a quick photo op, Twain jumped up and down, smiled, waved and lit a ceremonial cauldron to kick off a show.

"There is a lot of excitement surrounding the voyage of the Olympic flame as it makes its way through our beautiful country," the Canadian-born Twain said before the chilly spectacle. "I am proud to be a small part of the flame's journey to its final destination at the games in Vancouver" – where the Olympics will commence Feb. 12. "I will never forget this honor and cherish the privilege," she said.

For a period of time in my misspent youth, I was not just a fan, but, I daresay, a champion of Shania Twain.

When her CD "The Woman In Me" arrived on my desk, I went out of my way to make some calls to industry friends and hip them to what I heard as a very fresh, very unique (at the time) mixture of great country, pop, blues, jazz, etc. I even called a pal at Mercury Records and told him that I thought they should get behind her in a major way.

The rest is history and while I don't, for a second, have any illusions about having had any effect on her success, I know that she and the label gang were sufficiently appreciatve of my efforts that they arranged a little surprise "thank you" meet and greet with Shania at the Mercury office in Nashville.

Hey, I've got the autographed pic and platinum CD framed on my office wall to prove it.

Shania was very pleasant and very gracious.

And I remained, and remain for that matter, a fan of Shania.

Truth be told, though, I don't really care much for SHANIA!

I like performers.

I don't care much for STARS!

Between globe trotting between her luxury homes in Switzerland and the U.S. and vacationing in the Carribbean and Europe, et al, and assuring everyone who visits her website that she is holding up bravely from her divorce from Mutt Lange and subsequent romance with the guy whose wife left him to take up with Mutt Lange, causing Shania to dump Mutt and take up with the guy whose wife dumped him to take up with Mutt, Shania doesn't do a lot of performing these days.

SHANIA! pops up from time to time, though.

Mostly, in interviews for US and People poignantly sharing with all of her many fans around the world that she is holding up bravely from her divorce...yada, yada, yada.

And, of course, photo ops that any celebrity with a savvy press agent would never pass up.

Like carrying the OLYMPIC TORCH!

And then heading back to Switzerland to bravely hold up.

Safe travels, SHANIA!

Tell Shania I said hello and happy new year...

"What Goes Around...."

Three days left.

2009 is about to become history.

And while I've made no secret of the fact that I'm not the "make resolutions" type, I've decided, in the spirit of the season, to make a vow, of sorts.

Come midnight, December 31, I'm all through picking on George Jones.

Although it really didn't get a lot of mainstream buzz this past year, I think one of the more interesting stories to come out of the country music world was the interview George gave in which he pretty much told "new" country singers like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift and Keith Urban that they were interlopers, not "real" country singers and they needed to put Nashville in their rear view mirrors.

I thought it interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, George is just an interesting guy.

Second, that "cranky" stuff reminds me of my paternal grandfather.

But, third, and most telling, I think George was really putting a face and a voice on an attitude that sort of bubbles under with a lot of country music fans and/or performers.

In other words, he ain't alone in feeling that way.

I wrote an earlier piece here about the amusing irony of George Jones dissing "pop" music in the year 2009 when one of his first, now iconic, hits, "White Lightnin" was written by J.P. Richardson, the "Big Bopper" of "Chantilly Lace" fame.

I haven't changed my mind about what I said then. What I have come across, though, while doing some research for something else was this "moment in history" thing about the evolution of country music.

The "Nashville Sound," defined by its string arrangements and grand ballads, reached its heyday in the 1950s and 60s. The RCA and Columbia Records staffs, which included Chet Atkins, is credited with its creation. Country stars like Jim Reeves, Ray Price and Eddy Arnold were icons of the genre.

Jim Reeves is credited with recording the first song recognized for having the Nashville Sound. "Four Walls" was a number-one hit for the Galloway, Texas star in 1957.

Perryville, Texas native Ray Price hit Nashville in the early 1950s, scoring his first number-one in 1956 with "Crazy Arms." His Cherokee Cowboys band boasted such members as Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck and Roger Miller at different times. His biggest hit to date is the Kris Kristofferson tune "For the Good Times."

Eddy Arnold was successful before becoming part of the Nashville Sound, but with the release of the 1965 string-filled hit "Make the World Go Away," the country crooner's career experienced a second surge.

I was too young to hear whatever pissing and moaning probably came from the purists back in those days, but I do remember the cycle, and appropriate p'n and m'n, coming back around in the 70's and early 80's with the "countrypolitan" sound of folks like Kenny Rogers, Lee Greenwood, Barbara Mandrell, et al.

And I believed then what I believe, and have shared on the air, now.

That, at the very least, the upside to widening the demo on country music is that it only benefits it.

The young people who listen to Taylor Swift might never have had the pleasure of discovering the pioneers of country music like Hank, Sr and Patsy, Conway and Loretta, Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold and, yes, even George Jones if they weren't tuning into, and discovering, country music.

That, I would offer you, goes a long way towards taking the light of country music out from under the bushel.

And, truth be told and faced, we live in high tech world of Mp3, Ipod and downloadable music, Internet access and satellite/cable TV, all of which are making the "lines" between styles/formats of popular music thinner with each passing logged on day.

In the very best sense of bringing us all a little closer in our appreciation of those styles, it's can't be anything but a good thing that...

"The Times They Are-A Changin".

Words and music by Bob Dylan.

One of those "pop" fellers.

I'm done pickin' on you now, George.

Happy New Year.

"After All, They Never Wrote...'I Want To Hold Your Other Hand'...."

George Jones is right.

Sort of.

A while back, I wrote a piece about George's unhappiness with the state of contemporary country music.

In a nutshell, he thinks that country ain't all that country these days.

While he singled out folks like Alan Jackson and George Strait and gave them props for doing their part to keep "traditional" country music alive and on the air, it was pretty obvious that, without naming names, he didn't have much use for the likes of Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, et al, the current crop of country superstars who are, and lets just be honest like mama and papa would want us to be, about as "country" as Madonna.

My take on it has, for a long time, been that a lot of what constitutes "country music" in this period of music history is really just pop music with fiddles and/or steel added to the mix to "authenticate" it.

And my personal opinion has been, and remains, that pop singers have wandered into Nashville to make their music because they simply have nowhere else to go.

The top 40 is largely dominated by predominantly black, urban, hip hop, dance, etc...

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

...and pop...simple, infectious but not overly baked pop songs and singers dont have a "genre" they can call their own.

George actually alluded to that himself in the infamous interview.

Not to put words in his mouth, but, in so many words, what he basically was telling the wandering popsters was "God bless ya, but ya'll don't belong here, now, ya'll move along and find yourself another place to hang out..."

The musical equivalent of "yankee, go home", as it were.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the flow of pop music into the country mainstream.

But, then, I was raised on a mixture that was about 20% George and Tammy and 80% John, Paul, George and Ringo.

And while I think it's a bit narrow minded of George to exhibit high society snobbery to protest the fact his new neighbors aren't small town enough, I'll give him this much.

As far as current country music is concerned, there's room for improvement.

But, for me, it ain't as much about the "what" as it is about the "what, again?"

To wit...

Here's a list from CMT of their take on the ten greatest songs in country music. And while I'd tweak the list here and there, as would you, I'm sure, it's close enough to make the point I'll make shortly.

1. Stand By Your Man
2. He Stopped Loving Her Today
3. Crazy
4. Ring Of Fire
5. Your Cheatin' Heart
6. Friends In Low Places
7. I Fall To Pieces
8. Galveston
9. Behind Closed Doors.
10. Blue Moon Of Kentucky

And, scattered throughout the next twenty or so, such classics as...Coal Miner's Daughter, The Chair, The Gambler, Harper Valley PTA and modern work like Independence Day.

Take another look at those song titles and see if you see the common thread that I see.

No?

Right.

Because, fact is, there isn't a common thread.

While all of those songs, in one way or another, touch on basic and shared human values and virtues like love and heartbreak and happiness and sadness, etc, they are all unique in their approach, their style and their "slant", as it were.

Each one an audio painting, if you will, quite unlike any of the others.

Fast forward to the current country charts.

In just the last twelve months or so, the following songs have all appeared on the air and the charts...

Big Green Tractor
Small Town USA
Small Town Southern Man
Ladies Love Country Boys
Country Boy
Bonfire
Little More Country Than That
Boots On

And the list, like the boots, goes on.

Don't think you have to be a musicologist to see the thread there.

Small town, down home, country-fied and country fried, each of those songs, to a song, is, give or take a lyric, pretty much the same song with a different melody.

And you don't have to be a financial analyst to see the motive here.

If at first you succeed... sequel, sequel, sequel.

I don't agree with George Jones, in so far as feeling like the pop folks should keep on driving as they pass through Nashville.

But I understand how he feels.

Country music doesn't sound like it used to.

Oh, the steel guitars and fiddles are still up front in the mix most of the time.

But there's this annoying sound in the background that, no matter how you try, you just can't tune out.

Ka-ching.

"...Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Pyre..."

Christmas is, obviously, about Christ.

But, it's not just a little bit about Nat King Cole, too.

Not only because he sang "The Christmas Song".

And sang...and sang...and sang...and...

But because he fathered Natalie Cole.

Who, years after her dad's death, pioneered the idea of being able to duet with the dearly departed and was "morphed into" both the song and video of the classic "Unforgettable."

Which brings us to Christmas.

Were it not for Nat King Cole, who sang "The Christmas Song" (and sang and sang and...) fathering Natalie Cole who was in a video with her dad years after her dad died, it's possible that we wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience the lovely and talented Martina McBride sharing a stage and song with...

...the lovely and talented Elvis Presley...

...who died when Martina was just shy of 11 years old.

Is the idea of singing "live" with deceased people just a scoche creepy?

Yeah.

Is it fun and totally cool?

Dead right.

"...It's A Mustache...Only Right That It Tickles Us..."

Brad Paisley owes Roger Miller.

And Heartland owes Brad Paisley.

Roger was the first real mainstream country star to bring an obvious sense of humor to his hits without crossing over the line into Homer and Jethro territory.

Dang Me. Chug A Lug. You Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd.

And Brad has carried on the tradition by bringing an obvious sense of humor to his hits without crossing over the line into Cledus T. Judd territory.

I'm Gonna Miss Her. Online. I'm Still A Guy.

And now Heartland puts boot firmly to pedal, pedal firmly to the metal and tongue firmly in cheek.

My guess is that Roger is proud of all ya'll...