9/17/01
courtesy of Sonicnet.com
New Aaron Tippin
Song To Benefit Red Cross
Singer's
'You've Got to Stand for
Something' was
popular during Gulf War.
NASHVILLE — Aaron Tippin, whose "You've Got to Stand for Something" became
an anthem during the 1991 Gulf War, has recorded a track he hopes will help
in the latest national crisis. Tippin spent the weekend cutting
"Where the Stars and
Stripes and the Eagle Fly."
He wrote the song two years ago with Kenny Beard and Casey Beathard but had
never recorded it.
"We thought it
might be an inspiration to people at thisdifficult time,"
Tippin said in a
statement. "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly" will be sent to
radio stations immediately, and a commercial single, featuring a new
recording of "You've Got to Stand for Something," will be available as soon
as the discs can be manufactured and shipped to stores.
Proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross to aid victims of the
terrorist attacks. As the country works to find a way to combat the
terrorists who struck on Tuesday, Tippin sees parallels to the Gulf War.
During that conflict, he went to Saudi Arabia to entertain U.S. troops with
Bob Hope."This
song is an opportunity to speak to people,"
Tippin said. "I
hope it will be an inspiration to the soldiers, the men and women about to
be [soldiers] and the Americans at home."
— Jay Orr
[ Mon., September 17, 2001 5:25 PM EDT ]
9/15/01
courtesy of
JAM
MUSIC Showbiz
Secret loves
lead Johnson to 'Complicated'
By WALTER CARTER
Being secretly in love
with a friend apparently is a universal experience among country fans,
who've made Carolyn Dawn Johnson's recording of Complicated
a Top 10 hit in the United States and the winner of multiple Canadian
country music awards this week. The sentiments expressed in the song rang
true because they were, in fact, true for Johnson and her co-writer Shaye
Smith.
''When we wrote it a few
years back, we both had friends that we had
crushes on at the same time,''
Smith said. Smith suggested the
idea in a co-writing session and, according to Johnson, ''She
came to the right place. … I've only lived this song at least a dozen times
so far. I always seem to fall for my friends.''
The lyrics came right of out of their conversation about their experiences,
Johnson said. ''Carolyn Dawn had these really cool chords she was working
on,''
Smith added. ''She started humming the melody. We just poured our hearts out
the way that we felt at that moment.'' They still haven't revealed the
objects of their crushes — not even to each other — but Smith did say that
they both still are friends with the men who unknowingly inspired the song.
Complicated ended up on Johnson's debut album and figured into a record 10
nominations she received for Monday night's Canadian Country Music Awards.
The song won single of the year, and SOCAN (a Canadian performance rights
organization) single of the year honors, and also an award for the director
of the video.
On the strength of Complicated, Johnson won additional awards for female
artist, album and rising star of the year. Johnson was raised on a farm in
Deadwood, Alberta, Canada, where she learned to play piano at age 5 and
eventually picked up saxophone, flute, clarinet and guitar. She began
writing songs as a teen-ager and brought them to Nashville in 1996. After
album cuts by Linda
Davis, Kathy Mattea, Lila McCann and Mindy McCready,
she and Smith teamed up to write
Chely Wright's No. 1 hit,
Single White Female. As
Johnson's debut album, Room With a View, was being released, she also was
hitting the charts again
as a writer with Jo Dee
Messina's current hit Downtime.
Shaye Smith grew up in DeWitt, Ark., where she excelled as a high school
athlete, becoming the state's first two-time pentathlon champion and
appearing in Sports Illustrated's ''Faces in the Crowd'' section. She
graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello as an Academic and
All-American basketball player and then, while toying with graduate school,
began a succession of jobs at country radio stations.
She also began writing country songs and making trips to Nashville tomeet
with writers and publishers. In 1993, with $350 in her purse, she packed
everything she owned in a horse trailer and moved to Music City. Two years
later she had her first
No. 1 hit with Collin Raye's One Boy,One Girl,
which she followed with another
No. 1, That's Why I'm Here.Her
songs also have been recorded
by Lorrie Morgan, Shannon Brown and Jessica Andrews.
Walter Carter is a Nashville writer and a member of the Nashville
Mandolin Ensemble.
9/13/01
courtesy of
JAM
MUSIC Showbiz
Music with heart
Stars unite
for fundraising concert
By
ANIKA VAN WYK --
Calgary Sun
CALGARY
-- Last
night musicians used their gift to help heal others as well as themselves.
An unprecedented number of performers came together at the last moment to
put on a free show at the Jubilee Auditorium to raise money for the Red
Cross.
With only a few hours' notice, Calgarians not only pulled together and put
on a moving show, they packed the Jubilee.
At press time $60,000 -- including $6,500 raised from the auctioning off of
the Canadian flag guitar that Paul Brandt used during the CCMA awards show
and was then autographed by all of the performers -- had already been
collected to send south of the border to help the victims of Tuesday's
terrorist attacks.
"The bad guys
win if they throw us off,"
Steve Wilkinson said
before the show.
"I'm taking this
personally -- there are mothers and fathers who aren't coming home to their
kids."
The big
winner at Monday's Canadian Country Music Awards, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, was
obviously moved.
"Basically, it's the
least I can do,"
said Johnson.
"It feels like a
nice unifying thing and I can use my music to help."
Jason McCoy, who was also just coming off a high having won the CCMA best
male artist award, woke up Tuesday morning to the tragic news.
"Winning an award was a high and I've run the full gamut of emotions since,"
McCoy said, "but it means more to me to do something like this with people I
care about."
Not all of the 30-plus artists who performed last night were CCMA
participants.
Calgary's Jann Arden was a notable exception. "This has touched everyone in
the world," she said. "I cried most of the day, and I'm not much of a
crier." Arden, like many, was proud of Calgary and how the people pulled
together.
Musician and actor Tom Jackson, of North of 60 fame as well as the man
behind the Christmas food bank benefit concert the Huron Carole, was one of
the main organizers of last night's event. He was extremely thankful for all
the help they received. "I know Calgary has a big heart," Jackson said.
"Historically people who live in Calgary have a habit of getting involved
and being motivators." Tom Tompkins, another organizer, agreed: "It was
unbelievable how not easy but quickly it came together." Each artist sang
one song before the finale had Brandt lead a rendition of Amazing Grace.
Then all the artists united to sing Will The Circle Be Unbroken.
"It's in
times like these it's great to be able to come together as one and take our
minds off the stress of it all,"
said Lisa Brokop.
And that's exactly what the night seemed to accomplish both in front and
behind the stage, where artists did a lot of hugging, and some simply sat
and quietly wept in the wings.
The night was full of magical moments, some of which came from watching
unique groupings of artists.
Farmer's Daughter joined by Tracey Brown and backed by Prairie Oyster's
Keith Glass as well as Johnson did a beautiful and tender version of Vince
Gill's Go Rest High on the Mountain.
Later Michelle Wright performed I'm Here For You for the first time. She was
backed by the beautiful blending voices of Patricia Conroy, Diane Chase and
Beverley Mahood.
Besides the finale, which brought nearly everyone to tears, the moment that
stirred the most emotions was Johnson's performance of heryet-unrecorded
song Just Another Plane. The song, which she wrote in Calgary, is about
anxiously awaiting for a loved one to arrive on a plane. |
