Thursday, September 22, 2016

"Forever Country"

2016 marks 50 years of the Country Music Association, (CMA), presenting country artists with awards for greatness.  In honor of this milestone, the CMA has put together a video featuring over 30 award winning artists, performing a mash-up of three iconic country hits, John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads", Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", and Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You".

The video, titled "Forever Country", shows the artists singing part of one or more of each song, while standing in front of a green screen.  The green screen allows for various backdrops to be placed around the artists, from cityscapes, and buildings, to forests and hay fields, and everything in between. The scenery is as awesome as the performances, making for a  perfect blending of sight and sound, with neither overstepping the other.

I first learned of "Forever Country" from reading about it on a couple of local radio stations' websites.  98.7 The Bull's Jake Byron noted in his write up that only 1% of people would be able to recognize every country artist appearing in the video.  I was already interested to watch the video, and upon reading about the 1%, wanted to see if *I* would be able to name all of them.  I'm proud to say that I was able to.

Even if I hadn't been able to name everyone though, I'd still be writing this post, because this video is too awesome not to share with others.  Watch "Forever Country" for yourself, and see how many country artists you recognize.  And be sure to tune in on November 2, 2016, to watch the 50th annual CMA Awards show live on ABC.