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Musings on folk, Americana, country, bluegrass and newgrass


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What ever happened to Jo Dee Messina? Turns out she’s doing ‘alright’

UPDATE: Why don’t you see for yourself? Jo Dee Messina is scheduled to perform July 8 at the Carolina Theatre in Durham.
I was listening to Prime Country on Sirius XM the other day and Jo Dee Messina’s “I’m Alright” came on. Hearing the familiar strains of one of the singer-songwriter’s biggest hits made me realize I hadn’t heard anything new from her in a while. I had the opportunity to interview her in 2000 when she was on top of the country charts and her career. Las Vegas-philes may recall that she was the first country star to perform in the Aladdin Theatre on the Strip after the popular concert venue reopened in 2000.  Turns out, according to a recent interview with Rolling Stone Country, Messina is back to doing alright after a few bumps in the road. After breaking off the engagement mentioned in my following interview and her relationship with Curb Records, she married businessman Chris Deffenbaugh, with whom she has two young children. She also released a new album last year, “Me,” which was primarily fan-funded through Kickstarter. You’ll find her current tour schedule here. Give a listen to “A Woman’s Rant” and you’ll see that she’s still writing clever lyrics, she’s still sassy and she’s still doing “alright.”

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Miranda Lambert robbed

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If you watched the 48th annual Country Music Association Awards, you learned two things: Country music is currently dominated by male artists, all of whom have a similar sound (not surprising given that Nashville has sucked the soul out of most artists in exchange for downloads) and Miranda Lambert was robbed of the Entertainer of the Year Award. I would like the CMA voters to explain how Lambert, who received four awards and surpassed Reba McEntire and Martina McBride for the most best female vocalist wins, was not chosen as Entertainer of the Year. Instead, voters chose Luke Bryan, who didn’t win any other awards, to win the top honor. Is this an example of the “new math”?

As the most decorated female artist in the history of the CMAs, the 30-year-old Lambert now has a total of 11 CMA trophies. On Wednesday, she also took home album of the year for “Platinum,” single of the year for “Automatic” and music event of the year for “We Were Us” with Keith Urban. “It’s really unbelievable,” she told The Associated Press backstage. “I felt like this whole night was about really celebrating music.”

The next chance to catch Lambert performing live is on Dec. 30 at the Belk Bowl at Bank of American Stadium in Charlotte.

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