Finally someone asks!

From a recent newspaper interview with Blake Shelton:

Q. Why'd you whack your long hair off -- and has anybody complained?

A. I've had long hair since I was 12. I was just sick of it, to be honest. It was like taking off a wet pair of pants. It was miserable. I didn't ask anybody. I just did it and I didn't care what anybody thought. The people that work with me don't have the nerve to complain about something like that, but every now and then, a fan will say they wish I hadn't done it. On the other hand, some say they're glad I did it.

Who's the dumpee?

Renee broke Kenny's heart, right?

Welcome back, Garth & Chicks!

In this week's hurricane relief telethon, Garth and Trisha and the Dixie Chicks were ace -- so glad they're back on the scene. Missed Tim McGraw on Fashion Rocks but I'm sure he rocked most fashionably!

More Evidence Rascall Flatts Suck

Here's another review of someone who agrees with me:

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Rascal Flatts' '80s rock show a sellout
Concert review

By Chris Varias
Enquirer contributor
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Rascal Flatts is country the same way Shania Twain is country, which is to say Rascal Flatts is hardly country at all. Unless a flourish of mandolin here or banjo there is enough to qualify the group’s music as such, Rascal Flatts is a pop band not in the tradition of country music as it was once known but in that of ‘80s balladeer rockers like Journey or REO Speedwagon. “Country and roll,” the band likes to call it.

Of course, ‘80s rock is today’s commercial-radio country, and Rascal Flatts is positioned right where Twain was about a decade ago, standing tall as the hottest act in what passes for country music. The band – comprising two cousins Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus (both from Columbus, Ohio) plus Joe Don Rooney – played Riverbend Friday night in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,500.

Rascal Flatts is truly a phenomenon, and it’s hard to figure out why. Riverbend sellouts are rare. This year’s list is Jimmy Buffett and Dave Matthews and, now, Rascal Flatts. LeVox, the band’s singer, told the crowd the band just recently sold its seven-millionth album.

What are people getting for the price of all of these tickets and CDs? Cliché-riddled lyrics, sappy ballads, “rock” songs that don’t rock, mediocre musicianship, the guitar-face grimaces from six-string poser Rooney and his bass-playing partner DeMarcus. Worse of all is LeVox’s voice, a contrived country drawl wound so tight he sounded like one of the Chipmunks, as a person sitting near the reporter noted.

But that discerning Riverbend customer and the reporter were about the only two people who saw it that way. The crowd ate up Rascal Flatts’ 90-minute set, from the up-tempo show-starters “Here’s to You,” “Love You Out Loud” and “Praying for Daylight,” through versions of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire,” the Beatles’ “Let it Be” and Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places,” on to the land of ballads – “Bless the Broken Road,” “I’m Moving On,” “These Days” and more.

Rascal Flatts isn’t the first group to be very bad yet extremely popular, but it really needs to address its encore of “Born in the U.S.A.” at the very least. The band joins the dubious ranks of those who mistake Bruce Springsteen’s song for a flag-waving anthem instead of a critique on how this country failed Vietnam veterans.

Blake Shelton played second on the bill and provided a more free-spirited set than the headliners’, kicking things off with the one-two covers punch of the Bellamy Brothers’ “Redneck Girl” and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.”

Show opener Blaine Larsen proved he could write, sing and play during his 20-minute, new-trad-styled set. During the song “That’s Just Me” he sang that country music needs more “Alan, Brad and George,” a reference to traditionalists Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and George Strait. It would be interesting to know if the fellers in Rascal Flatts agree.
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Copyright 1995-2005. The Cincinnati Enquirer, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper.

Tim McGraw has a BBQ stain on his white Tshirt

Did you watch the NBC hurricane relief telethon? Interesting to hear Tim McGraw sing acoustic. His choice of doing his BBQ stain song (never remember the real title!) was interesting as it starts by mentioning Labor Day (timely!) and mentions going to New Orleans, but somehow it seemed odd with all the spiritual music that was sung. Still, it was noteworthy to hear him sing it that way.

Both he and Faith were clearly emotional, but what the show needed was Garth, a man who can really emote suffering and salvation. Faith belted out her gospel numbers with teary eyes, but her voice isn't really evocative. Where's the heart and soul?

Of all the perfomers, it was Aaron Neville (a bad dresser to the extreme) who made the best song choice with the flood song. I read somewhere it was a Randy Newman song. It would have been great to hear Tim tackle that song!

Lastly, why didn't they point out that Tim's been working with the Red Cross for quite some time and is not a johnny-come-lately to the cause? He should have been one of the major spokespeople on the special.

And although it has nothing to do with country music, Kayne West was the most important performer on the entire program. He's like the Toby Keith of the rap world -- not afraid to say what's on his mind and in doing so express what a lot of people are thinking.