Music Monday: "Dirty Laundry"

It's not secret around here that I love Carrie Underwood!  Before she released her latest album, Storyteller, in October, I had pre-ordered on iTunes.

Then I started listening to Christmas music, and really only had the chance to give her album a quick listen.  Now that the season of merriment has passed, I've caught up on all of my podcasts, and finished two audio books, I headed back to my iTunes library.

I'm currently obsessed with her song "Dirty Laundry" from this album.  I can't get it out of my head, and I don't want to stop listening to it!

What do you think? :)

Music Monday: Did I Really Listen to That?

I know some of you think it's too early for Christmas music, but not here in my world!  :)  I know that I usually rave about songs and/or albums that I love at Christmas. 

Today, I talk about one that I wish I hadn't wasted my time listening to.  Luckily, I bought it at a yard sale (from my brother, nonetheless) for $1.  

I'm not a huge Kenny Chesney fan.  In fact, I wouldn't even rank him in my Top 10  20 country artists.  I like some of his songs that they play on country radio.  Because of that, my love for country music, and my love for Christmas music, I decided to give this CD a try.

I hated it.  Even the traditional carols weren't very good.  For me, I think this was because they were slowed down unnecessarily.  I mean, I'm sorry, but "Jingle Bells" is supposed to be a pretty upbeat and peppy song, Kenny.  What were you thinking?

And while I do love Bing Crosby's version of "Mele Kalikimaka," I'm not otherwise a huge song of island-y, tropical Christmas songs.  I know that not everyone lives where there's snow, but doesn't everyone still want a white Christmas?!  ("Mele Kalikimaka" doesn't bother me because it's specifically stating that this is the Hawaiian Christmas greeting.  AND it's Bing Crosby!).  So the title track was just irritating to me.  Not to mention that it's really not the most grammatically correct title.

There are actually two redeeming songs on this album.  "Christmas in Dixie" features Randy Owen.  I'm not sure if it's because it's one I've heard before or if it's because there's less on Kenny Chesney singing in the song, but this one is pretty good.  "Just a Kid" is also a beautiful song with a really good message to it.  I just think it would be a million times better is someone else was actually singing it.


Have you heard this album?  What did you think?

Summer Vacation: Nashville Part 5

In case you missed any of my other posts about our vacation to Nashville, you can read about our experience on the historic Studio B Tour, visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Broadway & Karaoke, and the Nashville Ghost Tour.

For the last part of our Nashville vacation, I want to tell you all about visiting the Grand Ole Opry!

Visiting the Grand Ole Opry was a spur of the moment decision....actually...most of the things we did on our trip were.  The only thing we planned for sure in advance was visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and taking the Studio B tour.  Anyway, it turned out that while we were there, Aaron Tippin and Scotty McCreery were performing.  Scott was a fan of Aaron Tippin in the 90s, and I was rooting for Scotty McCreery in his season of American Idol.  (In fact, that might have been the last season of American Idol I watched...)

There were 8 performers that night, and each artists sang three songs.  I made sure to get a picture of each one for the scrap book I'm going to make of our vacation.  I do have the names of each of them somewhere, but I'll be honest, I really don't feel like looking them up right now!  haha :)  

Aaron Tippin

Scotty McCreery

One of the other things we did in Nashville (that wasn't enough for one post) was visit the American Pickers store, Antique Archaeology.  In case you don't know, American Pickers is a TV show on the History Channel.  They travel around the country basically looking for all kinds of cool junk (aka antiques).  It was pretty interesting to browse a shop that we've seen on TV! 

That wraps up our trip to Nashville!  Have you ever been to Nashville?  What did you do there?  If you haven't been to Nashville, what would you LIKE to do?? 

Summer Vacation: Nashville Part 2

On Friday, I shared about my experience on the tour of historic Studio B in Nashville, TN.  I loved Nashville so much that I decided not to overwhelm everyone with a super lengthy post about it.  In this segment of my summer vacation posts, I share a little bit about the Country Music Hall of Fame and museum.

The museum featured displays (some more elaborate than others) giving a bit of information about Hall of Fame artists.  There were artists from the early days of country music to current artists like Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan.

I took a picture of the Hank Williams display because my pappy always loved his music.

Elvis' limo (and that's his gold piano in the back right)

The Man in Black (aka Johnny Cash)

Special Miranda Lambert exhibit

CARRIE!!

Kenny Rogers

As I said, most of the museum was small displays, and featured exhibits.  They also had a really cool area where you could record yourself singing to a few song choices.  You could also design your own album cover, and "mix" songs like producers.  It was probably targeted for kids, but we sure had fun.  As you can see in the above picture, there was a giant guitar.  There was a short set of stairs to get inside of it, and a slide on the other side.  As tempting as it was, I didn't use the slide.  I acted like a grown-up and used the stairs to exit.

The only disappointing part of the Country Music Hall of Fame was the audio tour.  In my previous experience with other audio tours, the audio component provides more information about the displays.  This one really didn't offer much information that we couldn't figure out or didn't already know from the display or our own personal knowledge.

Overall, this was an AMAZING place to visit, and if you're ever in the Nashville area, you should definitely visit!

Stay tuned for our experience on Broadway in Nashville!

Music Monday: Blake Shelton

Since I talked about my favorite Miranda Lambert songs last week, I thought it was only fair that I share my favorite songs from her hubby this week!

Even if you don't like country music, you may know Blake from NBC's The Voice, which I'm actually taking a hiatus from watching this season.

Of course, I LOVE country music, so here are some of my favorite Blake Shelton songs!

"God Gave Me You"


"Honey Bee"

"Boys 'Round Here"

"Sure Be Cool if You Did"

"Doin' What She Likes"

The video for this one is pretty humorous.  :)  Make sure you check that one out!