The 9513 - Country Music Blog

Up-and-coming bluegrass group Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain has drawn comparisons to Alison Krauss and Union Station and was chosen as an IBMA showcase artist on the strength of their debut album, CHHR. The group returns with sophomore project CHHR2, and the critics already like what they’re hearing:

“Hassler has the potential to be as big as Rhonda Vincent, the reigning queen of bluegrass.”
–Keith Lawrence, Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer

“Energetic and crisp, CHHR 2 is a hard-driving bluegrass album that showcases one of the most talented and imaginative sets of musicians in the genre today. From the album’s opening number, the beautifully sentimental “I Can Go Back Anytime,” Josh Miller’s relentless banjo carves out a sound that strikes a brilliant balance between traditional and progressive, while Jamie Harper’s fiddle underscores a series of tracks that sound familiar but which can only be described as undeniably fresh.”
–Jim Malec, The 9513

“No sophomore let down here.”
–John Walker, Country Standard Time

“Carrie Hassler brings a new energy and freshness to bluegrass that I haven’t heard in years.”
–Kyle Cantrell, XM Radio

We have a Carrie Hassler prize package for four lucky readers. Each winner will receive:

• An autographed copy of CHHR2
• A CHHR t-shirt
• A CHHR cap
• A box of Moon Pies (courtesy of CHHR’s official sponsor)

CHHR2 includes a bluegrass cover of Bob Seger’s Turn the Page, so to enter the drawing reply to this post with the name of the pop tune that you’d most like to hear as a bluegrass song by the end of the day on Monday. Four posters will be randomly chosen to receive the CHHR prize package.

Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain, “Turn the Page:”

For more information on CHHR, visit: Official Website | MySpace

Listen: Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain – “I Can Go Back Anytime”

• Sugarland co-founder Kristen Hall is suing former bandmates Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush for $1.5 million. Hall claims that she had an agreement with Nettles and Bush to share profits after she left the band but has not received her portion of Sugarland’s earnings. (more coverage on Law.com)
• Brady wrote a quick recap of an acoustic performance at the Cactus Cafe here in Austin on Wednesday night that brought together the peachy Georgia harmonies of The Wrights and the East Texas twang of Sunny Sweeney. Definitely one of the coolest song swaps I’ve attended. Check it out in the forums.
• In case you didn’t catch the addition in yesterday’s news roundup, Dixie Chick Emily Robison has finalized her divorce from singer-songwriter Charlie Robison.
• Big Machine Records announced that Taylor Swift’s new album, titled Fearless, will be out on Nov. 11.
  

  In addition, Swift will launch a new Web site, www.TheTaylorNation.com, on Aug. 22, where the album will be available for pre-sale. A limited-edition box set edition, featuring a CD, leather bracelet, T-shirt, picture book and decal, will also be available. The first 10,000 fans to purchase the boxed set and upload their photos will have their pictures included in a mosaic image in the album artwork and on the CD.

• On the eve of the release of his new movie, Beer for My Horses, Toby Keith is defending his hit song of the same name. The dust-up started with an item on the Huffington Post that called the song “a racially-tinged, explicitly pro-lynching anthem” and compared the narrative to the Jim Crow South and the infamous execution of Leo Frank, alleged killer of Mary Phagan. The blogger, Max Blumenthal, repeated those criticism in a subsequent post that also blasted Keith for commenting on the Glen Beck radio program that Barack Obama “don’t talk, act or carry himself as a black person.” Keith responded by arguing that: “It (”Beer for my Horses”) is about the old west and horses and sheriffs and posses and going and getting the bad guys. It’s not a racist thing or about lynching. The song was a hit and the words lynch and racism has never come up until this moron wrote this blog.”
• Speaking of Beer for My Horses, Toby Keith tells The Tennessean that he wrote the movie because he doesn’t like typical Hollywood fare: “Hollywood doesn’t do movies that are often made in the South. Most of them, it’s like right ear, left ear — New York and Los Angeles — and everything in the middle is dead.”
• Chet Flippo says the soon-to-be-released “Mother’s Best” recordings from Hank Williams show a more accessible, down-to-earth side of the legendary singer.
  

  The 143 “Mother’s Best” recordings do much more than just about double his known recorded output of songs. They demonstrate his range and taste in music, which goes far beyond the songs that are usually identified with him.

• Jewel officially went off the market yesterday when she eloped with her rodeo-star boyfriend Ty Murray to the Bahamas where they were wed in a private ceremony.
• Check out Wade Bowen’s new single, “You Had Me At My Best,” on his MySpace page.
• Doug Freeman did a joint review for the latest Copperhead Road and Stardust reissues from Steve Earle and Willie Nelson, marking their respective 20 and 30-year anniversaries.
• Yesterday we linked to Squinty Dan’s call for books on the subject of country music and he received numerous suggestions, so we’re linking to it again so you can go check them out and maybe find a book or two that strikes your fancy. I’ll probably be picking a couple of them up myself.
• Lee Ann Womack’s new album, Call Me Crazy, is scheduled for an Oct. 21 release.
• Rainmaker Productions and McCoury Music are holding a “Living In Moneyland” contest for anyone who wants to create and submit a video for one of the songs on the recently released Moneyland album, featuring songs from Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, Chris Knight and many more artists. Each winner in the different song categories will win $250 with $2,500 going to the best overall video and television exposure for all the winning videos.
• Download songs from Trisha Yearwood, Randy Owen, The Lost Trailers, Jimmy Wayne, Heidi Newfield, Jamey Johnson, Zac Brown Band, Jennifer Hanson, Steve Azar, Carter’s Chord and Shooter Jennings for free, courtesy of People magazine. (via NashvilleGab)
• Original plans to have the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame open by the end of 2008 have been delayed. New estimates project a late 2009 opening to the public.
• Rosanne Cash turned her performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall into more than just a concert. She opened with a short video about her ancestors titled “Mariners and Musicians,” followed by some of her own songs (mostly from Black Cadillac), covers of her father’s songs and others from a list of 100 essential country songs that her father put together and gave her when she was eighteen. NPR has the audio from the “Mariners and Musicians” video along with eleven of the songs she performed. Excellent stuff.
• Also from NPR is this killer acoustic set from Ray Wylie Hubbard on Mountain Stage.

Songwriter: Josh Turner

When a country artist decides to make a song by stringing together a bunch of examples of how great his life is, it’s usually bad news. Josh Turner’s new single, “Everything is Fine,” trods the same ground that has been traversed ad nauseam by new artists of dubious heritage looking to score a quick hit while establishing country credibility: I’m going to tell you how great things are going in a way that conveniently shows how much of a Christian, family and Southern man I want you to think I am.

There is, however, one important difference between Turner and these scores of lesser contemporaries: Turner does it much better, much better. In a radio world that seems increasingly divided between style-less vocal technicians and effervescent but vocally incompetent starlets, Turner is the rare example of an artist who records material that’s both quality and trademark.

More important to this song is Frank Rogers’ production. It turns out that it’s much easier to sing about being country when the song actually sounds country, and Rogers’ decision to lay the vocal over a banjo and fiddle engenders sincerity before Turner hits the first note.

“Everything is Fine” does, however, validate several important criticisms of Turner. It’s essentially a throwaway single from an artist who hasn’t released many memorable songs and reinforces the notion that Turner is a singer with a very limited repertoire who has yet to tackle a true country heartbreaker. None of these criticisms should be levied against this strong single, even if “Everything is Fine” is the latest installment in a career that I continue to follow with more anticipation than appreciation.

Listen: Josh Turner - “Everything is Fine”

With the sound of her children chattering in the background, Melissa Lawson insists to me that she’s just a regular person. And even though she currently has the hottest country song on iTunes (she knows this because she’s checked the charts herself), the John Rich-produced “What If It All Goes Right,” on this day, her first day home in Texas after claiming top honors on Monday night’s Nashville Star finale, the now-famous mother of five is preparing to do something regular for the first time in a long time: go shopping at Target.

Before Lawson was whisked away to perform on the hit NBC series, few people knew her name and she had all but given up on her dream of country music stardom. But the five million viewers who weighed in on the show’s final ballot had other plans, and this strong and passionate woman, who will leave soon to perform at the Olympic Games in Beijing, stands on the brink of a career she not long ago thought impossible.

Jim Malec: First of all, congratulations to you for winning the highest rated season of Nashville Star ever. Has that hit home yet, or is it still a surreal feeling?

Melissa Lawson: It is finally starting to sink in. I had a couple of moments yesterday that really made that happen. One is that when I was over at Warner Brothers, they showed me the video for the single. And so, while I’m watching the video that’s getting ready to go out to CMT, in the middle of it they show me winning. And of course I hadn’t seen a replay yet of the moment. So I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I did actually win’. And also just the single going on all the radio stations everywhere, and I’ve been having all my friends calling me and going, ‘I just heard you on the radio.’ So it’s starting to hit.

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• Keith Whitley uber fan Bonnie Hill is on a mission to get the late singer recognized alongside all the legends already inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her online petition has amassed nearly 2,000 signatures, including those of Ralph Stanley, J.D. Crowe and Alan Frizzell. Hill knows her petition alone won’t get Whitely in, but she thinks his influence on modern artists like Ashton Shepherd and Kenny Chesney should keep his name in the mix.
• After filming for The Today Show, Blake Shelton put his fame and dignity to the test by walking the streets of New York City to see how many people really recognized who he was.
• Elvis Presley only recorded 20 Christmas songs, yet his 1957 release, Elvis’ Christmas Album, is the top-selling holiday release of all-time. With today’s technology, his Christmas songs are getting a new twist–they’ll be duets. Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes, Gretchen Wilson, Wynonna Judd, Sara Evans, Amy Grant and Anne Murray have all signed on to perform on Elvis Presley Christmas Duets, due out on Oct. 14.
• Richard Skanse conducted a short email Q&A with Jason Boland, whose surgery to remove a throat polyp falls on the same day of his album release.
  

  Any co-writers you worked with on this album that you’d like to talk about? Anyone new, or old favorites that you’ve teamed up with again and again?
  Roger Ray and I wrote a fun one he came up with called “The Party’s Not Over.” We revisit “Alright,” which is a [Cody] Canada collaboration from back in the day. Jonny Burke and Jackson Taylor also gave me their blessing on a couple.

• NBC’s daily video highlights of the Olympics will feature a new song written by Taylor Swift titled “Change.” The song will be available for download on iTunes tomorrow and will be included on her next album.
• AT&T put together a Team USA soundtrack for the Olympics which also includes Taylor Swift along with Lady Antebellum. Video previews of their songs are available on AT&T Team USA website.
• Chris Cagle calls “Never Ever Gone,” his newest single, the only love song with a negative connotation that makes him feel good.
• The Next GAC Star is down to its final six contestants. The finals will be televised on September 3rd and 10th, but for now you can check them out online and watch their music videos.
• In an effort to further his education, Squinty Dan is asking for your reading material suggestions on the subject of country music.
• Travis Tritt told Billboard that he has tentative plans to record a new album with his good friend Marty Stuart, who he’ll be doing an acoustic tour with this fall. Tritt says he’ll probably co-produce the album with Stuart and it will most likely be something stripped down like their tour.
• Chris Gray takes a look at how Texans Miranda Lambert and Hayes Carll fit in today’s country music landscape and how careers of past Texans have played out and influenced Nashville.
• Watch the new video for George Strait’s “Troubador.” The video was directed by Trey Fanjoy, who directed Strait’s previous video two years ago, “Seashores of Old Mexico.”
• Update: Dixie Chick Emily Robison and Charlie Robison finalized their divorce yesterday.

Energetic and crisp, CHHR 2 is a hard-driving bluegrass album that showcases one of the most talented and imaginative sets of musicians in the genre today. From the album’s opening number, the beautifully sentimental “I Can Go Back Anytime,” Josh Miller’s relentless banjo carves out a sound that strikes a brilliant balance between traditional and progressive, while Jamie Harper’s fiddle underscores a series of tracks that sound familiar but which can only be described as undeniably fresh.

It is that freshness which distinguishes Hard Rain from its contemporaries. Bluegrass can quickly wane from engaging to stale, from exhilarating to repetitive, and its arrangements often feel like generations-old retreads. So-called Progressive Bluegrass (or ‘Newgrass’) attempts to address this, but incorporating electric instruments and typically un-bluegrass arrangements and musical structures often results in a sound that is so far removed from its roots that it hardly sounds like bluegrass at all.

Therein is the artistic genius of CHHR 2: while Hard Rain may be classified as a Progressive Bluegrass band, its sophomore album generally adheres to the genre’s musical traditions while, at the same time, packing just enough twists and turns to keep things from getting boring. Even more importantly, the individual tracks themselves are so well delineated that each retains its own character and remains uniquely identifiable. “Fickle Heart,” with its persistent banjo track, stands in firm contrast to the nearly mainstream-country “Country Strong,” which is the antithesis of the mournful “If These Walls Could Talk.”

That strong diversity makes for a thoroughly enjoyable album–even though lead singer Hassler’s vocals sometimes feel out of sync with the instrumentation.

Hassler is no hack of a vocalist by any means—she sings with confidence and a high degree of technical proficiency. Indeed, she sounds great on CHHR 2. The trouble is, she just doesn’t sound especially country, and she especially doesn’t sound very bluegrass. Rich and engaging though her voice may be, it possesses not a single drop of high lonesome.

When she sings “I’m country strong, hard to break/Like the ground I grew up on,” her diction is clear and precise, her tones are smooth, her pronunciation is unaccented, and it just doesn’t mesh with the message of the song or with the music which surrounds it. In the midst of a flurry of acoustic, hillbilly music, Hassler often sounds like an out of place suburbanite.

There are two songs on the album in which this effect is particularly drawn out. “I Don’t Want to Wake Up,” which finds the narrator struggling with a cancer diagnosis, and “Stranger in his Mind,” a ballad about living with a spouse who has Alzheimer’s, are both smartly written, and both provide CHHR 2 with a portion of the overall contrast which makes the record so artistically intriguing. At the same time, however, those themes are not typically bluegrass (or typically country), and they emphasize the fact that Hassler sounds more like a folk singer than a bluegrass singer; that she would be more suited to a coffee shop stage than a back-porch jam.

That is not to say that a bluegrass or country singer’s voice must be bathed in twang, or that the material and themes of those genres are, or should be, limited in scope to a narrow list of accepted ideas. To the contrary, Hassler and her band deserve a great deal of credit for making such an adventurous record, and for daring to tackle such tough, outside-the-framework topics.

And although Hassler’s voice may not ooze country like Alison Krauss, that doesn’t hamper its ability to effectively convey emotion–which it does successfully throughout.

Recommended Tracks: “I Can Go Back Anytime“, “Fickle Heart“, “Devil’s Den”

Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain on MySpace

• Sugarland’s sales saw a 45% decline, but it was still enough to take the top spot from Miley Cyrus on the Billboard 200 chart.
• Leave it to Jamey Johnson to turn the often humorous Photocrap blog serious.
• Jamey Johnson makes another appearance on Unplugged at Studio 330 next week, but for now you can go check out Taylor Swift’s interview and song selections for her own Unplugged session.
• Country, California’s John Maglite caught a recent Dolly Parton performance at Sacramento’s ARCO Arena and shares his thoughts on the night’s proceedings.
  

  I saw Dolly Parton live in concert last night. Well, I guess it was her. From my lower-level seat halfway between the stage and the rafters at Sacramento’s ARCO Arena, what I actually saw was a blond wig atop a tiny, expressive, top-heavy body. I never did get to see the face. Given the size of the venue, I had assumed that there would be video screens to bring the action closer to us poor saps off in the distance. Wrong. Still, to Parton’s credit, I never felt like a forgotten observer.

• Cynthia Fuchs reviewed the Johnny Cash documentary, Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music, that aired on PBS last night.
• Laura Cantrell bemoans the lack of women in the Country Music Hall of Fame. She notes that of the 105 member roster, only 14 are women, and two of those weren’t even artists. She also provides an introduction to several less heralded women (Bessie Smith, Mildred Bailey, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rose Maddox, Molly O’ Day, Jean Shepard, Skeeter Davis and Ola Belle Reed) and a link to one of their songs.
• If you enjoyed Paul W. Dennis’ “Forgotten Artist” feature on David Rogers, go check it out again. We added several tracks to the bottom that will hopefully whet your appetite and entice you to seek out more material.

• Watch the new video for Carrie Underwood’s “Just A Dream,” and then go voice your opinion in the forums.
• The proceedings for a lawsuit filed against Tim McGraw over a year ago were moved to Nashville last week. James Martinez filed the lawsuit in Texas, claiming McGraw copied his hit “Everywhere” from Martinez’s own song “Anytime, Anywhere Amanda,” but McGraw’s lawyers told TMZ that Martinez’s claims are “totally without merit.”
• Congratulations are in order for Lois Lewis–known to The 9513 readers by her screen name “Double-L.” Lois has been named Music Director at Kiim-FM 99.5 in Tucson. (via All Access)
• Brooks & Dunn were immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday.
• Dan Evans, a contestant on the fifth season of The Biggest Loser, will release a new country album on September 30th.
• Also on Sept. 30th, Starbucks’ Hear Music label plans to release a new James Taylor covers album aptly titled Covers. Among the songs are George Jones’ “Why Baby Why,” John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind,” Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” and the Dixie Chicks’ “Some Days You Gotta Dance.”
• David Cantwell writes that Johnny Cash’s hit “There You Go” has always been one of his favorites, but these days it hardly gets the same attention as other early Cash hits despite being a fairly important record for him at the time.
  

  It’s also a reminder of how mainstream country has abandoned most of its interest in life’s dark and stormy side, how it’s jettisoned unhappy endings altogether, in favor of songs that incessantly preach carpe diem and (mostly) unearned uplift.

• Roughstock’s Matt Bjorke posted an exclusive interview with Jeff Bates. He talks about being compared to Conway Twitty, the state of country music and the internet’s role in the modern music industry.
• The new video for Kenny Chesney’s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” was filmed on the island of Jamaica and will feature Bob Marley’s band The Wailers. Talk about perpetuating the stereotype.
• Michael Corcoran stirs the pot by claiming that the latest LP from The Mother Truckers, Let’s All Go To Bed, is as good as any Dixie Chicks album since 1999’s Fly, and says it’s the best Austin album of the year so far.
• The Los Angeles Times‘ Randy Lewis has a nice review of Dolly Parton’s generous two-and-a-half hour set on Sunday night. Meanwhile, Marc Malkin focused on Parton’s humor-laced stage banter.
• Sony bought out Bertlesmann Music Group’s stake in Sony BMG for $1.2 billion.
• Thanks to Stephen H. for letting us know that Jamey Johnson’s song “In Color” is the iTunes Single of the Week (opens in iTunes), which means it’s free.
• Beverly Keel has a fantastically informative article on Jamey Johnson. For instance, she says Johnson booked the recording session with his band in April of 2007, but when they got there, they spent the first couple of hours passing whiskey and trading stories.
  

  “I was ready to just pay the bill and book them again, ‘Let’s try again next week,’ when somebody said, ‘Well, I guess we better go cut something.’ We ended up spending most of the night in there and got this album cut that night with the exception of a few songs.”

• Listen to Texas Music Matters’ David Brown talk to Glen Campbell about his time as a lucrative session player and his newest album, Meet Glen Campbell, in which he covers songs from the Foo Fighters and Greenday to Tom Petty and U2. If you make it to the end, you can hear Campbell sing a cover of Scottish Indie pop band Travis’ “Sing.”

David Rogers (1936-1993) is proof of the adage that it’s great to be on a major label, but only if the label is truly behind you.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, during the depths of the Great Depression, Rogers began playing guitar when he was eleven, and shortly thereafter began appearing in local bands. He successfully auditioned for Roger Miller in 1956, but was drafted before getting the opportunity to join Miller’s band.

In 1962, after Rogers’ was discharged from the service, he landed a regular gig at the Egyptian Ballroom–a gig which lasted several years. While performing there he recorded a demo tape which eventually came to the attention of Frank Jones at Columbia, and a recording contract was not far behind.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s Columbia was home to a great many country artists, including Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Ray Price, Carl Smith, Stonewall Jackson, Lefty Frizzell, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Carl Butler & Pearl, Lynn Anderson, Jimmie Dickens, Johnny Duncan, Barbara Fairchild and a host of other minor artists. The label also controlled significant back catalogs on artists such as Ted Daffan, Gene Autry, Bill Monroe and Bob Wills.

With that array of artists (which doesn’t even count those on sister label Epic), there simply wasn’t much promotional oomph left for the likes of an aging bar-band singer, and so the recording of Roger’s albums was left to independent producer Pete Drake.

Drake, a great steel player famous for his “talking” steel guitar, used the “Country Cocktail” production style of Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton on Rogers’ records. Background vocals and symphonic strings were heavy, but because of Drake’s personal instrumental specialty, steel guitar played a far more prominent role than in the typical Sherrill or Sutton production.

Rogers’ first single, “Forgiven Fruit,” was release in 1967, but failed to chart. The next single, “I’d Be Your Fool Again,” checked in at #69, and the one after that, “I’m In Love With My Wife,” (bundled with “Tessie’s Bar Mystery”) finally cracked the top 40. Progress was slow but steady. In 1969, “A World Called You” hit #23. Meanwhile, Rogers made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry and started appearing regularly on the WWVA (Wheeling, WV) Big Jamboree, where I first heard him many Saturday nights on the radio.

Rogers’ breakthrough hit was 1970’s “I Wake Up In Heaven”, which peaked at #19 on the Cashbox Country Chart (Billboard had it at #26). The song was very strong in selected regional markets, hitting #1 in places like Orlando, FL, and Norfolk VA. The follow-up single, “She Don’t Make Me Cry” (#19 Billboard / #4 Cashbox) continued the upward momentum, and “Ruby You’re Warm” held place (#21 Billboard / #13 Cashbox).

According to Billboard, the next single, 1972’s “Need You,” was Rogers’ biggest hit, reaching #9 (it went to #5 on Cashbox and, again, hit #1 in many markets). (”Need You” was a remake of the 1958 Donnie Owens pop hit and is, in fact, my favorite David Rogers recording.)

After that peak, Columbia apparently lost interest in Rogers as his next two singles barely cracked the top 40 on either Billboard or Cashbox. By 1973, Rogers was off Columbia and had signed with Atlantic Records, hardly a power in the world of country music, though the label was trying to penetrate the country market as they signed Willie Nelson at this time.

Atlantic actually had more success with Rogers than with Nelson–Rogers achieved one top ten single with the late 1973 single “Loving You Has Changed My Life,” which peaked at #9 on both Billboard and Cashbox in January 1974.

Both Nelson and Rogers were gone from Atlantic by the end of 1974. Nelson, of course, went on to bigger and better things, but Rogers would slowly fade from the public eye. After recording one album for United Artists, he moved on to a series of minor labels including Republic, Kari, Music Master and Hal Kat, where he charted singles until 1984, with only 1979’s “Darling” cracking the top twenty.

Recordings

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, none of David Rogers’ albums have ever been issued on CD, so you’ll need to do vinyl hunting (there may be some digital download available).

The three Columbia albums (A World Called You, She Don’t Make Me Cry and Need You) are quite good, especially the latter two. The Atlantic albums, which were again produced by Pete Drake, are also worthwhile, though they differ from the Columbia albums in that most of the “Country Cocktail” trappings were abandoned.

My favorite album from the Atlantic years is Farewell To The Ryman, issued in 1973 to commemorate the Opry’s move to Opryland. The track-list is a cornucopia of classic country songs: “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Great Speckled Bird,” “I’m Movin’ On,” “I Can’t Help It,” “Walking The Floor Over You,” “Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On,” “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” “Release Me,” “Mexican Joe,” “Wondering,”, “I Walk The Line,” and “Satisfied Mind.”

Aside from the Republic records, Music Master issued one Rogers album titled The Best of David Rogers, a two record set comprised of 11 re-makes of his Columbia and Atlantic hits and nine new songs written by Harold Shields. The new songs aren’t bad; two of them–“Hold Me” and “Crown Prince of the Barroom”–charted, and the remakes are decent, finding Rogers in good voice.

It’s the day that I’ve been waiting for since I first heard Underwear Boy sing: the season finale of Nashville Star!

Since early in the competition I’ve felt confident that Melissa Lawson will prevail, and I still predict that she’ll come out on top. However, a significant part of my psyche is telling me to not discount Gabe Garcia. The voting block for these shows is composed primarily of tweens and grandmothers, and those two groups actually agree a surprising amount of the time. However, in this instance, I foresee the grandmother vote breaking for Melissa and the tween vote going to Gabe, and the balance between those two populations will determine the outcome. The only outcome that would surprise me is a Shawn Mayer win.

While you’re waiting for the finale to begin, be sure to check out my Melissa Lawson commentary in today’s Fort Worth Star-Tribune and visit our brand new forum to add your commentary on Nashville Star and anything else that holds your interest today. The finale and live blog begin at 8 9 p.m. central.