Bring On The Christmas Music!

Though Christmas comes but once a year, the plethora of Christmas songs that have been written over the years would lead one to believe that its a year-round event.

Whether the songs are from generations past, or new to the year at hand; whether they're traditional, or barely resemble a holiday tune, they're all out there, just waiting for someone to come along and have a listen.

Sometimes the old is meshed with the new, literally, and those old songs get a breath of life and return to the airwaves during the holidays.

A couple of great examples, (at least in my opinion), are "Baby It's Cold Outside", originally recorded by Dean Martin, and years later, re-released as a duet with country artist, Martina McBride; and Frank Sinatra's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", updated as a duet with Cyndi Lauper.

Rather than being re-recordings of these songs, Martina and Cyndi's vocals were actually recorded, then blended with Martin's and Sinatra's original recordings.

It seems that every year I hear a new song, or version of a song, that catches my attention, and becomes a new favorite.  And each time I think, "I've never heard that before, it must be brand new", only to find out it *isn't* brand new at all; it's usually been out a few years, and I'm just hearing it for the first time.

The 2015 holiday season is no different for this happening to me.  In the past month I've heard two remakes of songs that I hadn't heard before; and each has actually been around a few years.

The first song is the John Lennon classic, "Happy Christmas".  While I've heard several versions of the tune, none have quite lived up to the original.  Then I heard Maroon 5 do the song, and wow!  Still maybe not quite as good as Lennon, but still the only other version I've liked well enough to want to hear again and again.

The second song is "Mele Kalikimaka", written by Robert Alex Anderson in 1949.

While there have been many versions of this song over the decades, my current favorite is by country artist, Jake Owen. Like with Maroon 5, Jake's rendition has been around for a while, and I'm just now hearing it.

Funny thing too, as a fan, I usually can recognize Jake's voice, but I didn't, and was surprised to hear the DJ on the radio say it was him.

With only a few more days until Christmas, I'm not sure I'll hear anything new  this season.  I look forward already to next year though, to see what treasures will be unearthed for my listening pleasure.

47th Annual ACM Awards

Watching the Academy of Country Music Awards Sunday, April 1, 2012 may have seemed like a bit of an April Fool's joke to some.

For one, there are actually 35 awards handed out, from awards to radio stations, and air personalities, to Entertainer of the Year. However, of these 35 awards, how many actually made it on to the three hour broadcast Sunday evening? Nine, yes, that's a single digit, nine; less then a third of the awards presented actually were broadcast on the air.

The rest of the broadcast was made up of performances, between artists at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and others at the "Fan Jam" at Mandalay Bay.

Granted, performances are definitely a large part of what draws viewers to these type of shows. I guess it's just me that feels, if it's an *awards* show, the awards should actually be what's featured the most.

Also, I won't deny that I love all genres of music, and I'm as big a KISS fan as anyone; but seriously, what was the point of them being at the ACM Awards? Had there been some legitimate reason given, (other than they're KISS), maybe I'd understand; there wasn't though, so I'm still left wondering. It was cool, but still...

Hosting duties were once again handled by Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton. Both did an excellent job as hosts, despite some of the lame jokes they were given to say.

Two performances that were hyped quite a bit were by Toby Keith and Rascal Flatts.

Toby's live performance of "Red Solo Cup" was touted as having "Las Vegas entertainers", joining the singer singing the song. While Toby wandered through the audience at the MGM Grand, singing his hit, the only entertainers I saw were Carrot Top, Wayne Newton, a show girl and towards the end of the song, the Warren Brothers.

Except for Wayne Newton, where were the "Las Vegas" entertainers? It's not like there aren't plenty of them! And as Earthquake Jake pointed out on KUPL this morning, it would have been really cool if Garth had been part of the performance; after all, he does perform in Vegas now.

Rascal Flatts' performance of their new single, "Banjo" was to feature comedian and grammy winner, Steve Martin, performing with the band. Well, Steve was there, and he played the banjo; but that was it. He stayed in the background, barely moved at all, and basically just blended in with the other musicians.

I would think, if you're going to plug Steve Martin as a guest performer, he'd have been given a bigger role. Especially since another banjo player with the band had a featured solo spot. Why wasn't Martin given that spot?

Both of these presentations were very lackluster in producing what had been promised.

On the other hand, one really cool presentation was when Martina McBride and Train's Pat Monahan sang "Marry Me" while a couple was actually being married on stage behind them. Not a way I'd want to be married, but for a Vegas wedding, it was pretty nice.

As far as the actual awards are concerned, for me, there were a couple nice surprises, along with some of the obvious winners for the night.

Though they were surprised with the award the night before the show, I was happy to hear that Thompson Square had won for "Vocal Duo of the Year".

Another pleasant surprise was the Eli Young Band winning, "Song of the Year", for "Crazy Girl". Love the song, and the band!

The 2012 ACM Awards actually added a new award to their list, the first new addition since the 1960's; "Songwriter of the Year".

Sounds prestigious, for sure, and you would think, being a new award, it would have been on the broadcast part of the show; not the case.

Not only was the award not broadcast, it was relegated to one of the awards that the winner is notified ahead of time, so they can be in Las Vegas, or not, if they didn't win.

Of this year's inaugural nominees: Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip, Dallas Davidson, (the three are known collectively as "The Peach Pickers"), Luke Laird, and David Lee Murphy; Dallas Davidson walked away with the award.

One thing I did notice this year also was that, except for Thompson Square getting a brief mention for winning "Duo of the Year", the off camera awards weren't announced during the show.

In the past, though they're given out before the broadcast, artists, producers, radio stations, air personalities, etc., were all at least mentioned during the broadcast as having won.

Over all, the show was mostly entertaining. It had it's good moments, and it's not so good ones; and things I'd like to have seen done differently, for sure.

For those who missed the show Sunday evening, here's the complete list of winners, including those that weren't aired during the three hour broadcast:

Vocal Event of the Year: “Don’t You Wanna Stay” by Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean

Video of the Year: “Red Solo Cup” by Toby Keith

Songwriter of the Year: Dallas Davidson

Song of the Year: “Crazy Girl” by the Eli Young Band

Single Record of the Year: “Don’t You Wanna Stay” by Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean

Album of the Year: “Four the Record” by Miranda Lambert

New Artist of the Year: (American Idol winner) Scotty McCreery

Vocal Group of the Year: Lady Antebellum

Vocal Duo of the Year: Thompson Square

Female Vocalist of the Year: Miranda Lambert

Male Vocalist of the Year: Blake Shelton

Entertainer of the Year: Taylor Swift


Small Market Radio On-Air Personality of the Year: Bill Barrett, Tim Fox, and Tracy Berry from KKNU-FM in Eugene, OR

Medium Market Radio On-Air Personality of the Year: Roger, Tom, and Melissa on WPCV-FM in Lakeland, FL

Large Market Radio On-Air Personality of the Year: Big Dave and Chelsie from WUBE-FM in Cincinnati, OH

Major Market Radio On-Air Personality of the Year: Kelly Ford and Rider from KYGO-FM in Denver, CO

National Radio On-Air Personality of the Year: Lon Helton for the CMT Country Countdown USA

Small Market Radio Station of the Year: WUSY-FM in Chattanooga, TN

Medium Market Radio Station of the Year: KATM-FM in Stockton, CA

Large Market Radio Station of the Year: WQDR-FM in Raleigh, NC

Major Market Radio Station of the Year: WQYK-FM in St. Petersburg, FL

Specialty Instrumentalist of the Year: Aubrey Haynie

Steel Guitar Player of the Year: Paul Franklin

Piano and Keyboard Player of the Year: John Hobbs

Guitar Player of the Year: Kenny Greenberg

Fiddle Player of the Year: Stuart Duncan

Percussionist and Drummer of the Year: Shannon Forrest

Bass Player of the Year: Michael Rhodes

Audio Engineer of the Year: Justin Niebank

Producer of the Year: Frank Liddell

Promoter of the Year: Brian O’Connell from Live Nation

Talent Buyer of the Year: Jimmy Jay from Jayson Productions Inc.

Venue of the Year: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN

Nightclub of the Year: Billy Bobb’s Texas in Ft. Worth, TX

Casino of the Year: Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV

Jaida Dreyer @ the Bing Lounge--3-9-12

Even though I'd heard the name, "Jaida Dreyer" more than a few times over the past couple years, I honestly didn't know anything about the singer/songwriter. So when I heard Jaida was going to be in the Bing Lounge March 9, 2012, I knew I had to go.

Jaida was born in Ontario, Canada, but raised in the U.S.; having lived in several states by the time she was in her teens.

During her early years, Jaida had a passion for showing horses. She became a world champion at age five, and by thirteen she was a professional.

It was a hard life for a young girl and her mom, but it's the life Jaida knew, and loved, before turning her interests to music.

This brings us to March 9, 2012, and the Bing Lounge. From the moment Jaida took the stage, she had the small crowd that gathered captivated with her stories, songs and charm.

She began her set with her soon to be released single, "Guy's Girl". At one point during the song, I thought, "wow, she kind of sounded like Dolly Parton for a moment". Turns out, I wasn't the only one who caught it, and thought the same thing.



Throughout the rest of her set, Jaida in turn sounded not only like Dolly, but at times Martina McBride, Loretta Lynn, and other notable female artists. Yet, despite the resemblances, Jaida honestly does have her own style of singing; thus not locking her into a "sounds like" status. She's been blessed with a beautiful voice, and an amazing songwriting ability for someone so young.

I'm really glad I was able to see Jaida Dreyer perform in the Bing Lounge; and I know I'm not the only new fan she gained that day. I see a bright future for this young lady in the music world.

So be on the lookout for Jaida Dreyer everyone, she's the real deal!