Sara Evans Divorce Granted: Now We Can All Go Take a Shower

Just go this official word regarding the Sara Evans/Craig Schelske divorce, via a publicist at SonyBMG:

"The parties have agreed that it is in their best interests and those of their children to amicably resolve all issues in their pending divorce. Each wishes the other well in all future endeavors. Both parties are fully committed to raising their children in a cooperative and positive way. Both parties are loving and caring parents. They request that everyone respect the family’s privacy. The parties will have no further comment regarding any allegations of fault or misconduct alleged by either party in these divorce proceedings."

It came with a note saying "the statement filed in court today" would be "the only statement issued." To which I can only reply, "Thank goodness!" Since neither side in these proceedings seemed to have any compunctions about laying out their seamiest suspicions in front of the public before, it's about time they both learned to keep a lid on it. But the real kicker to me, is this sentence from the statement: "They request that everyone respect the family's privacy." You have to ask yourself: "Why in the world should anybody else respect their privacy when Sara and Craig clearly had so little respect for it themselves?"

Review: The Cheetah Girls' TCG

The Cheetah Girls, TCG
Destiny's Kid

Since their first Disney Channel movie came out four years ago, these three Cheetahs have prospered to the point where they can fill arenas with 8- to 14-year-old girls. TCG begins the effort to distinguish Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams from their characters. Irrepressibly poppy R&B tracks borrow from Lionel Richie’s All Night Long and Beethoven’s Ninth, and the songs address romantic relationships in addition to the standard Disney themes of friendship and self-empowerment. But it’s likely the Cheetahs’ target audience will completely miss the irony of Who We Are, in which a made-for-TV pop group with its own clothing line sings the lyrics “It doesn’t really matter what you wear” and “Tell me why my television’s filling me with lies.” (**)

>>Sample: So Bring It On
>>Skip: Do No Wrong

Review: Steve Earle's Washington Square Serenade

Steve Earle, Washington Square Serenade

New urban folk boom

There was a time when Steve Earle would have been expected to set every bridge ablaze behind him as he took the Hillbilly Highway out of Nashville. But on his first album since relocating to New York City, he doesn’t look back so much as look ahead — to life in his multiethnic city of dreams where the ghosts of Woody Guthrie and Joey Ramone still whisper their messages in dark corners. The shambling rhythms of Dust Brother John King’s production distinguish Serenade’s urban folk from its more country-minded predecessors, but Guy Clark and Hank Williams still hold as much sway in his songs as Eric Andersen and Pete Seeger do. It’s an outsider’s album, to be sure — from his arrival in the city to his reluctance to believe that his wife loves him as much as she seems to — but Earle has always relished that role and continues to do so. (* * *)

>>Sample: Days Aren’t Long Enough, a duet with wife Allison Moorer; City of Immigrants, with Brazilian neo-folk group Forro in the Dark
>>Skip: Come Home to Me

This Week's Playlist: This 'Magic' Moment

1. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (Columbia)
2. Steve Earle, Washington Square Serenade (New West)
3. Patti Scialfa, Play It As It Lays (Columbia)
4. Meshell Ndegeocello, The world has made me the man of my dreams (Decca)
5. Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Playlist (Mercury)
6. Richard Hawley, Lady’s Bridge (Mute)
7. Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, Glassjaw Boxer (Everfine)
8. Josh Turner, Firecracker (MCA)
9. Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime (Anti-/Epitaph)
10. Emery, I’m Only a Man (Tooth & Nail)

Reba Rips the CMAs

Reba McEntire's up for the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year. She holds the record (tied with Martina McBride) for the most wins in that category, but she hasn't won the award in 20 years. Hasn't been nominated for it in three.

But Reba's miffed about her competition. Not who's nominated, but who's not. Specifically, Faith Hill.

“Why wasn’t Faith Hill nominated for Female?” she asked rhetorically during our recent interview for a USA Today piece. “She’s been out there in front of more people than anybody. I don’t get it. I don’t get the politics.”

Reba wasn’t real happy about the way the Entertainer of the Year nominees shook out, either. She believes that not only Faith but Martina McBride earned finalist spots in that category.

“It was wrong this year,” Reba said. “Martina’s really come a long way. She’s done a lot of great things for country music, and we should’ve supported her. Faith Hill, should’ve supported her. Faith Hill was in front of more people than anybody. Should’ve supported her. We should’ve put her as Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist – now, why wasn’t she either one?”

Personally, I can understand the logic of Faith not getting one of the Entertainer slots. Yes, her Soul2Soul tour with husband Tim McGraw was one of the year’s biggest – and any single headliner pulling those kind of numbers would have been a shoo-in for a final nomination. But, if you’re a CMA voter, how do you vote for one of those entertainers without voting for her/his spouse? If you vote for one, you split the vote – meaning Tim and Faith get half the votes an act of their stature would normally receive. And if you vote for both, you’re casting two votes for one tour. And was Soul2Soul really twice as big as tours from the other acts under consideration?

“It doesn’t matter,” Reba says. “They should’ve been nominated. They’re having the biggest tours out there. What is that called – Entertainers? What is this?

“No, they both should’ve been nominated as Entertainer of the Year.”

Okay, so let’s see what that would mean – and this is an area I couldn’t get Reba to bite on during the interview: If Faith, Tim and Martina all should’ve had Entertainer of the Year nominations, who shouldn't have gotten one?

Let’s assume you keep last year’s winner, Kenny Chesney. He is, after all, the only country act currently filling stadiums. It’s hard to argue with Rascal Flatts nomination. After all, they were the best-selling act in music last year – and this year, only Kanye West has beaten the first-week numbers for Me & My Gang.

That leaves Brad Paisley, George Strait and Keith Urban. Do you lose all three to get in Tim, Faith and Martina? Brad’s tour didn’t outsell Soul2Soul, but did Soul2Soul, with its two headliners, double the business that Brad did? And I don't have figures in front of me, but I’m pretty sure Brad put up bigger tour numbers that Martina. Keith’s CD sales have been a bit of a disappointment and the rehab stint put a serious drag on his momentum, so maybe you switch him out. And George – who’s one of the few artists to ever get an Entertainer of the Year nomination after going into the Country Music Hall of Fame – didn’t have a spectacular year, though he’s stronger at radio than he’s been in a while and he could’ve filled stadiums if he’d wanted to. But, really, it boils down to this: No matter how much you think Faith, Tim or Martina deserved an Entertainer of the Year nomination, do you really want to be the person who says George Strait didn’t?

Review: Hard-Fi's "Once Upon a Time in the West"

Hard-Fi, Once Upon a Time in the West (* * * )

Cinematic Britrock

Following the massive success — at least in Britain — of their Stars of CCTV debut, Hard-Fi’s four ambitious suburbanites use the Clash’s reggae/dub tendencies as the foundation for building a more cinematically orchestrated pop music. But singer Richard Archer sounds as much like Mick Jagger as Joe Strummer, and the band works in bits of punk and electronic dance rock, as well as some American soul and string arrangements that would make Ennio Morricone proud. Perhaps that combination’s a bit too identifiably British to conquer the rest of the Western world, but Anglophiles far and wide should be willing to throw their hands up in surrender.

>>Sample: Suburban Knights, I Shall Overcome, Can’t Get Along (Without You)

Review: The Donnas' "Bitchin''"

The Donnas, Bitchin’ (* *)

Post-teenage runaways

Female punk quartet The Donnas take control of their own destiny, releasing their seventh album on their own Purple Feather label after two major-label discs. Too bad the hair-metal-heavy Bitchin’ spends so much time serving the sadomasochistic fantasies of the band’s male fans. “You can come ... here for the party,” they shout suggestively on one song, elsewhere proclaiming their addictive desire and animal lust for their partner’s sexual prowess. Maybe that’s what makes a great female rock band. And maybe The Donnas didn’t build this album’s best riff on the back of I Hate Myself for Loving You.

>>Sample: Don’t Wait Up for Me

>>Skip: Give Me What I Want

Review: Mae's "Singularity"

Mae, Singularity (* * * )

Brains and brawn

Having sold a quarter-million copies of their two indie-label releases, Virginia rock quintet Mae connects with Capitol Records to make a play for the big time. They may be too smart for their own good, but they make up for it with a fetching sense of melody and rhythmic shifts that recall Anberlin and Jimmy Eat World.

>>Sample: Sometimes I Can’t Make It Alone, Sic Semper Tyrannis

>>Skip: Release Me

This Week's Playlist: The 'Magic' of the Internet

Don’t know who leaked the new Bruce Springsteen album, but I’m sure glad they did. And, yes, I plan to buy it the day it comes out, too.

1. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (Columbia)
2. Hard Fi, Once Upon a Time in the West (Atlantic)
3. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (MCA)
4. Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, Glassjaw Boxer (Everfine)
5. Motion City Soundtrack, Even If It Kills Me (Epitaph)
6. Emery, I’m Only a Man (Tooth & Nail)
7. Mary Gauthier, Between Daylight and Dark (Lost Highway)
8. Kane Welch Kaplin, Kane Welch Kaplin (Dead Reckoning/Compass)
9. Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime (Anti-/Epitaph)
10. Josh Turner, Firecracker (MCA)

Kenny Chesney — Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates

Few country singers have made more out of memories than Kenny Chesney. To hear his singles tell the story, his life has progressed from a string of high school girlfriends to a series of rum-fueled Caribbean vacations. But banking on memories can mean mortgaging the future, and while Chesney sometimes has seemed determined to enjoy himself whatever the cost, he has rarely counted those costs.

He does so on Poets and Pirates, for himself and also, in the case of the single mother/stripper in Dancin’ for the Groceries, in the prices some people pay for others’ pleasure. “I’ve been blessed, I know, but at the end of the day I go home alone,” he sings in Wife and Kids, allowing himself a moment of self-pity in those unfulfilled dreams. But the song also comes as a remarkably vulnerable admission from a man whose one marriage fell apart so quickly and so publicly.

Elsewhere, Chesney sings that he’s “better as a memory.” Those who look forward to his latest for its island rhythms and guest spots from Joe Walsh and George Strait might agree, but the ones who come listening for the man may come away with more than they expected. (***)

>>Sample: Dancin' for the Groceries, Wife and Kids, Demons

This Week's Playlist: All the LaVette You Can Get

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I put anything up here. I certainly did a few things – had a great phone interview with Betty LaVette for one thing. I’m sure I’ll write about that at some point, and there’ll certainly be a piece in USA Today about it. I guess I just didn’t make the time to post.

But I’m determined to keep my playlist up to date. So here’s the new and recent stuff I’ve been listening to for the past week.

1. Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime (Anti/Epitaph)
2. Hard Fi, Once Upon a Time in the West (Atlantic)
3. Ike & Tina Turner, The Ike & Tina Story: 1960-1975 (Time Life)
4. Kane Welch Kaplin, Kane Welch Kaplin (Dead Reckoning/Compass)
5. Kenny Chesney, Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates (BNA)
6. Dwight Yoakam, Dwight Sings Buck (New West)
7. Bruce Springsteen, “Radio Nowhere” (Columbia)
8. The Redwalls, The Redwalls (Mad Dragon)
9. David Crowder Band, Remedy (INO)
10. John Ralston, Sorry Vampire (Vagrant)

This Week's Playlist: Paramore and More

I’m determined to start putting enough stuff on this blog to make it worth visiting occasionally. Today begins what I hope will be a weekly entry of the albums and tracks I’m listening to lately. Mostly, it’ll be new stuff, some of which may not yet be available. Every once in a while, though, I get obsessed by something that’s been around a while – like the Britpop phase I went through a couple weeks ago – so you may see some of that stuff, too.

I’ll try to comment on the music every once in a while, but if you see something that gets you curious, post a comment, and I’ll go into further detail.

Paramore tops the list this week, because I just finished writing an article about them (see below) and 'cause they're local folks.

Here's what else is in the iPod/laptop/CD player lately:

1. Paramore, RIOT! (Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic). The more I listen to this, the more I realize how much better it is than All We Know Is Falling - and that generated a lot of buzz for this young band out of Franklin, Tenn. I'm also still listening even though my story on them has already run. That's always a good sign.
2. Dashboard Confessional, The Shade of Poison Trees (Vagrant)
3. John Fogerty, Revival (Fantasy)
4. Dwight Yoakam, Dwight Sings Buck (New West)
5. Betty Lavette, The Scene of the Crime (Anti/Epitaph) Co-produced by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Tuckers and recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, the place Aretha Franklin started cutting I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You. Not that it's up to that level, of course, but I figure name-dropping Aretha and the DBTs ought to give you a pretty good idea of the sound they're going for.
6. The Redwalls, The Redwalls (Mad Dragon)
7. Will Hoge, Draw the Curtains (Rykodisc)
8. Brooks & Dunn, Cowboy Town (Arista Nashville)
9. Hard Fi, Once Upon a Time in the West (Atlantic)
10. Koop, Koop Islands (Atlantic)

Trisha Yearwood and Babyface

Went to the Trisha Yearwood/Babyface taping for CMT Crossroads at Belmont University's Curb Event Center. They did five of his songs (including a cover of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," a song that will appear on Babyface's Playlist covers album, out Sept. 18) and five of hers. What's the connection? Garth Brooks - Trisha's married to him and Babyface worked on the Chris Gaines project. The show will be the premiere of Crossroads new season this fall - be sure not to miss their duet on "Change the World," which started out sounding like Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" and then went places I only wish Eric Clapton had explored with his version.

Paramore: There's a RIOT! Going On

Talking to Hayley Williams and Josh Farro from Paramore, it’s sometimes hard to remember that they’re only 18 and 19, respectively, and it’s even harder to imagine that they’ve been together in some form since they were 13 and 14 (and since drummer Zac Farro was just 11).

Dig a little deeper, though, and you notice they possess an appealing combination of youthful enthusiasm and burgeoning professionalism. It’s one of the reasons, I think, that so many people get so excited about this band and start doing things like comparing Williams to Gwen Stefani (of course, there’s always the hair, which probably has something to do with it, too).

One telling moment that didn’t make it into my recent profile of the band for USA Today came when I asked Hayley and Josh about their defining moment as a band. Josh talked about being in Times Square for an MTV appearance and seeing two-story likenesses of the band covering the MTV windows, then seeing the band’s “Misery Business” video start to play on a giant screen across the street.

“You sort of want to jump up around like a kid, but you can’t,” he said.

Hayley’s defining moment, however, came when she was trying to write the song that became “For a Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic,” the lead track from the band’s second album, RIOT! Josh had written the music for the song moths before, but Hayley just couldn’t seem to find lyrics that fit.

“I was seriously on my hands and knees, like, ‘This sucks; I cannot write anymore,’” she recalls. Finally, just before the band went into the studio to start tracking songs, she determined to basically lock herself in a room and not leave until she had something. She came out with “For a Pessimist” and a good chunk of “Born for This.”

“So we go back to the studio the next day and show [producer David] Bendeth,” she says. “He’s, like, freaking out and stuff. Two weeks later we started tracking everything, and that was one of the first songs that I sang. To hear that song mixed for the first time and loud in the speakers at the studio, I was, like, ‘This took so much work, and it’s one of my favorite songs.’ It’s my favorite song to play live. And to think it almost never happened.

“That was a big moment for me.”