Country Mike Blog

Madness in Music City

Mike Sudhalter  |  December 6, 2007

I watched part of the CMT program Music City Madness, a show where wanna-be stars from all over America compete to be heard. And your host? Bucky Covington. It's kind of ironic that the winner of a talent show, American Idol, is hosting another one, albeit on a lesser stage.

With the success of Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler and others, it makes you wonder how newcomers who aren't on high-profile talent shows can get noticed?

Out of the GAC Top 20 videos, three involve pop artists - The Eagles, Kelly Clarkson (with Reba McEntire) and Bon Jovi (with LeAnn Rimes). There are some good songs/videos in the mix like Brad Paisley's "Online" and "Letter To Me," Josh Turner's "Firecracker" and Underwood's "So Small."

I guess I'm just looking to hear new music, and this isn't a good month for that. Let's get out of the holiday doldrums and have a great country music year in 2008.

High gas prices impact all Americans, but what's the direct effect on West Coast country music fans?

A lot of the smaller tours aren't headed west. I'm guessing that it may have something to do gas. It's pretty expensive to drive trucks of equipment out to the West Coast to do four-five shows, then head back.

When I moved to California, I expected a lot more concerts to come out here. The Northeast gets a lot more country shows, probably due to its relative proximity to the southeast. Well, I guess I'll just have to settle for listening to albums until county fairs and the major tours sweep through town again.