KEITH URBAN
Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing

Keith Urban’s much anticipated return to the concert stage is set for Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Center with special guest The Wreckers. Tickets went on sale in February.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the road, to reconnecting with everyone and to doing what it is that I love to do,” said Urban. “To finally be able to present the songs from Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing live, is something that I’ve been looking forward to doing since recording the album.”

The first leg of the “Love, Pain & the whole crazy World Tour” began Friday, June 8 in Phoenix, Arizona before arriving in Austin. The 33-city, 36-performance arena tour promises Urban’s trademark electrifying shows, world-class production and a concert that is sure to feature the hits from his recent multi-platinum release, Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing, as well as many of the #1’s that have defined his career. Sure to be included; “Better Life,” “Days Go By,” “Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me,” “You’ll Think of Me” and his record breaking songs “Somebody Like You” and “Once In A Lifetime.”

In what has been a relatively short period of time Urban has amassed seven #1 singles and 13 Top 5 singles. His latest album, Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country Album Chart giving him his second consecutive #1 album. The first single from the album, “Once In A Lifetime,” set a record as the highest debuting song in the history of the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart. His latest, “Stupid Boy,” recently entered the Top 5.

The Wreckers are on tour promoting their first album Stand Still Look Pretty. Former solo artists, Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp have put together an album that focuses on expressionism of a young heart using the sounds of the banjo and mandolin. The result is modern country at its best.

Tickets for Keith Urban with special guest The Wreckers at the Frank Erwin Center Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30 p.m. are $39.50 and $49.50

GRETCHEN WILSON SCORES #1 ALBUM

One of the Boys 3rd Straight #1 Debut

Country Music superstar Gretchen Wilson maintains a perfect record with her album releases, as her much-anticipated third CD, One of the Boys, debuted at #1 on the SoundScan Country Chart. The Columbia Nashville disc also hit the Top 200 Chart at an impressive #5 on the Top 200 Chart this week. Her first two albums, Here For The Party and All Jacked Up, which have sold a combined six million units, both entered the Country Chart at #1.

“I am so thankful to my fans who have stuck with me on this crazy rocket ride,” said an elated Wilson, “And have to thank my band, crew, management, everyone at the label and especially my family for their support.”

Wilson recently completed a string of media appearances which included performances on “The Today Show,” where she kicked of the popular Summer Concert Series with Sony BMG Nashville labelmate Martina McBride, “Live With Regis & Kelly” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” as well as interviews and appearances on Access Hollywood, Sirius Satellite Radio, the Academy of Country Music Awards and more. She also paid homage to one of her idols Heart when she and popular rock band Alice In Chains performed the duo’s smash “Barracuda” for “VH-1 Rock Honors,” which aired May 24.

Print media has latched onto the new album, with Christian Hoard writing, “On her third album, Illinois-bred country powerhouse Wilson again keeps it real like Budweiser and peeling paint,” in Rolling Stone. The Chicago Tribune opined, “...Wilson reminds us what platinum albums sound like when they come from a woman's real life,” and Michael McCall’s Associated Press review raved, “By showing self-reflection and vulnerability without bowing to cliché or contrived situations, Wilson comes across as confident as ever – and more multi-dimensional to boot.”

Magazine covers and features have already included Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, St. Louis ALIVE Magazine, CMT Life Magazine, American Country and others. The classy San Francisco-based ART WORKS Magazine ran an unprecedented eight-page photo essay in the Summer 2007 issue, and People Magazine’s current issue (dated 5/28/07) has a two-page feature on Gretchen.

On Friday, May 25, Country Music Television (CMT) revealed the real “Redneck Woman” in a new series CMT DIARY. Gretchen introduced her entire “redneck” family whom she employs to take care of her sprawling Nashville ranch while she’s on tour, and then traveled to a small town bar where she played an impromptu show for an unsuspecting crowd. The show also captureed her fulfilling one of her life-long dreams, as this self-taught woman who never finished high school enrolls to get her G.E.D.

Earlier this year Gretchen and her band embarked on a 10-city coast-to-coast “Back To The Bars” tour where she performed in clubs and small theatres and raised over $1.5 million for charity. She kicked off her new “There Goes The Neighborhood Tour” recently with a free concert at the famed Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, where she performed her hits and introduced several songs from One of the Boys. Muzik Mafia-mate John Rich came out and sang her hit “Come To Bed," and Gretchen shocked and delighted the 20,000+ audience by bringing Heart out to perform “Barracuda.” The tour hit Country Thunder in Waxahachie before heading to Valdosta GA, Virginia Beach VA, the Winstock Festival in Minnesota and elsewhere. Check out www.gretchenwilson.com for a complete list of dates.

 

A Platinum Record, Two ACM Nominations, And A Hot New Video Kick Off Lambert's Month

2006 was a banner year for Columbia fireball Miranda Lambert in virtually every aspect of her career, and she is kicking off 2007 with news that her debut album Kerosene surpassed sales of 1,000,000 units. Sony BMG Nashville Chairman Joe Galante and Executive Vice President Butch Waugh surprised Miranda with a plaque signifying the achievement following her rousing performance in front of several thousand radio station programmers at Nashville's annual Country Radio Seminar.

Kerosene debuted at #1 on SoundScan's country chart when it was released in March of 2005. At the time, only six other country artists in the history of SoundScan had ever earned a Number One country album debut on their very first release. Kerosene went on to be the 2nd highest debut for a new country artist in 2005 and made Lambert one of the Top Selling Debut Country Artists of the year.

On March 5th, the songstress learned of her two Academy of Country Music nominations as well. Lambert was nominated for "Best New Female Vocalist" and also the prestigious "Best Female Vocalist" where she joins one of her Idols, Martina McBride, as well as Faith Hill, Sara Evans, and Carrie Underwood in the category."Being nominated in the Top Female category is Thrilling. I feel like I've been validated as an musician. I can't believe I'm in a category with an artist like Martina who I've always admired!" Miranda said.

Miranda also recently shot the video for her first single off her latest album. "Famous in a Small Town" hit radio on March 19th and the video debut shortly after. Director Trey Fanjoy captured Miranda's hard-rocking style and balanced it with a small-town feel. The song reflects Lambert's own experience growing up in the small town of Lindale, Texas.

In the last two years Lambert has toured with Keith Urban and George Strait, and she is currently opening for Toby Keith's Ford Truck-sponsored Hookin' Up & Hangin' Out Tour and Dierks Bentley's High Times and Hangovers Tour.

Her second album for Columbia Nashville, titled "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" will hit stores May 1, 2007. Miranda wrote or co-wrote eight of the 11 cuts, and she also interprets the work of some of the world's finest writers, including Gillian Welch, Patty Griffin, and Carlene Carter.

 

Brad Paisley Accelerates into 5th Gear with New Album Out June 19
5th Gear’s First Single, “Ticks,” Now Climbing All Over the Charts

Brad Paisley is tuned up and ready to shift into the summer with the June 19 release of 5th Gear, the follow-up to Paisley’s hit-filled Double-Platinum CMA & ACM Album of the Year winner, Time Well Wasted.

Time Well Wasted launched three back-to-back #1 hits, and now “Ticks,” the first single from 5th Gear, is on track to do the same. Already a Top 20 smash after only four weeks on the country airplay charts, “Ticks” delivers a completely lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek look at backwoods love.

Penned by Paisley with Kelley Lovelace and Tim Owens, “Ticks” recently sucked praise from Billboard’s Deborah Evans-Price, who cheered, “If the roar of laugher coming from country programmers in attendance was any indication, here is Paisley’s next No. 1. … with what may be the most countrified way ever of expressing lust … Leave it to Paisley to redefine romance, while making country listeners laugh out loud.”

Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Willman tweezed out, “Brad Paisley debuted his romantic new single, the key line of which is: ‘I want to check you for ticks.’ (We’re gonna make the call for a Song of the Year Grammy right here.)”

“Ticks” also latched onto Music Row’s Robert K. Oermann, who lauded, “The song is as clever as all get out. The stuttering, chattering guitar, twittering steel and deep thumping drumming make it even cuter.”

Fans saw more on “Ticks” in the March 30 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

And while the song is infested with Paisley’s characteristic humor – and meant to be taken as such – it’s important to note that non-musical ticks present a potential health hazard. For more information on prevention and remedies, consult a reputable resource such as the Centers for Disease Control at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/ticktips2005/.

Look for Paisley to preview more music from his upcoming disc when he kicks off his 2007 concert series, Hershey’s Presents Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour, beginning April 26.

 

Fess Parker: Pushing the Boundaries

by:Vicky Rose / Special to CLM

José Enrique de la Peña was right. Davy Crockett did not die at the Alamo. He went to California, became a motion picture and televison star, and now owns a beachfront resort hotel in Santa Barbara.

Fess Parker’s portrayals of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone for film and television are so entrenched in the public’s mind, seeing pictures of the real things are often an unpleasant surprise. They don’t look nearly as authentic as this six-foot-six-inch man with the kind eyes, a full, persausive lower lip and a long straight nose holding wide nostrils that seem to breathe in gulps of everything that life has to offer. So maybe Parker wasn’t king of the wild frontier and didn’t kill a bear when he was 3. This quiet, unassuming San Angelo native has made a huge success of his life, and he thinks being a Texan had everything to do with it.

Parker was born in Fort Worth, but his family moved westward when he was 3 months old. His father held a variety of jobs in San Angelo, working as a tax assessor, a feed storeowner and as a hotel employee. Fred Gipson, author of the popular novel, Old Yeller, was a friend of Parker’s father. Gipson worked as a reporter for the San Angelo Standard Times when Parker was selling newspapers on Saturdays to make pocket money. At the time, he had no way of knowing the later influence Gipson would have on his career. To him, Fred Gipson was just “a fellow I knew my dad knew.”

World War II was still going on when Parker graduated from San Angelo High. He tried to be an aviator, but the cockpits weren’t big enough to hold a man of his height. Instead, he became a cadet at Texas A&M University. Because it was not a coed school at that time, Parker spent his weekends with his thumb in the air hitching rides to Austin, where the pretty girls were more plentiful. “A lot of times,” he said, “I didn’t wait for the weekend.” Consequently, he and the dean came to an agreement that A&M might not be the best place for him.
The draft board told him their quota was full at the time and advised him to take another semester of college. This time, he went to Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. Starring in a one-act play, his size again caused him trouble. His teacher told him he was too tall to be a stage actor. Instead of deterring him, Parker began to think that his unusual stature might actually be an asset somewhere else, namely Hollywood.

In the meantime, the military stepped back into his life, and Parker spent almost three years in the Navy. The Navy never was quite sure what to do with him. It would be a crime to send a man so much taller than other men into battle, think of what a target he would make. They did, however, give him a preview of California by sending him there for training. He liked the idea of becoming an actor, but did not know how to go about it.

After the war, Parker returned to Hardin-Simmons. He had made it through the war unscathed, but the lonely highways of West Texas proved a much more dangerous battleground. Taking a girlfriend home from seeing a movie, a car came up behind him and without warning, bumped him. Then the driver pulled up alongside and began to scream curses at him. Parker said in typical understatement, “Well, that made me a little aggravated.” He decided to follow the man home and find out just what was his problem.

The intoxicated man waited for him in his driveway, standing with one hand behind his back. Parker asked him why he did it. “He told me I was a stupid s.o.b.; I told him to take off his glasses.” Instead of removing his glasses, the man pulled out a knife and slashed Parker’s throat, severing 20 veins. “He intended to kill me,” Parker said. “But he didn’t quite make it.” Parker forced the man to drive him across town to a hospital, knowing if he did not receive immediate medical attention, he would die.

At the grand jury, it became a case of word against word. The man, a butcher, claimed Parker had knocked him down repeatedly, and he had stabbed him in self-defense. Parker told the jury, “I’m six-six and I weight about 225 pounds, and I don’t think there is anybody on this grand jury that I could knock down three times and could get up and cut me.”

The jury chose to let it go. “I spent the next year in trauma,” Parker said. “Every night I would relive the incident until I finally realized that talking about it was the best way to get rid of it. So if anybody asked about it, I would tell them how it happened.” His face was partially paralyzed for months, and it ended any thoughts of playing athletics in college.

The injustice devastated Parker. He decided to leave Hardin-Simmons and study law at the University of Texas. But as the nightmare faded, so did the idea of becoming an attorney. Instead, Parker switched his major to history and worked such odd jobs as a janitor, an agent of a dance band and a water ski instructor on Lake Austin.

It was at U.T. that fate again intervened in his life, this time not so drastically. Adolphe Menjou, a veteran movie actor best remembered as the crotchety old man in the Disney movie Pollyanna, came to the campus as a guest speaker. Parker’s Russian professor, who was to be Menjou’s guide, didn’t have a car. He asked Parker to drive him and Menjou, a staunch anti-communist, around town. Later, Parker invited the two men to his fraternity house for dinner. Menjou spoke to a crowd of 8,000 in Gregory Gym, and the next day, Parker took him to the train station, wondering how he could approach him about working in the movies. Menjou saved him the trouble by turning to him and unexpectedly asking if he would like to work in Western films. Of course, Parker said “yes,” and Menjou offered to introduce him to his agent if he came to Hollywood.

Although Menjou did keep his promise, it did not automatically open any doors to Parker once in Hollywood. He kept trying, and in the meantime, he took classes at the University of Southern California in history of the theater. His break came when he got a job onstage touring with Henry Fonda in Mr. Roberts. A few bit parts in movies came along, and then he struck a mother lode. Walt Disney saw Parker in the science-fiction movie Them! Passing over the star of that movie, James Arness, Disney signed Parker to play Davy Crockett in what ended up being a five-part miniseries.

Davy Crockett made Walt Disney so much money; it pulled him out of the debt he had gone in to for Disneyland. Children went wild for coonskin caps and anything that had a coonskin cap and the words “Davy Crockett” on it. Fess Parker was a star, but there was a downside. Disney became reluctant to loan him out or put him in anything that might detract from the Davy Crockett mystique. Disney did give him a small but good part in another mega-hit, Old Yeller, but refused to loan Parker out for a starring role with John Wayne in The Searchers. To a western actor, this was like a kick in the groin. Parker was also asked to test for a role in Bus Stop, playing opposite Marilyn Monroe, but Disney nixed that too.

Once Parker was out of his Disney contract, television producers wanted him to star in a Davy Crockett series. Disney disapproved and they backed down, instead putting him back in the coonskin cap for Daniel Boone. The show ran for six very successful years. Little children who had been singing about Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier, now sang about the big man, Daniel Boone.
Parker’s memories of Disney are only slightly bittersweet. He said, “I couldn’t complain. He was unbelievable at giving me the opportunity. When I left films, I left with a certain regret that I hadn’t been as much of a success as I had hoped to be in terms of different kinds of roles and so forth, but looking back on it, the thirty years since I’ve been in films, I wouldn’t change much. I was lucky. I had a good time. I made a living. Had a lot of good friends.”

Like his father before him, when one job fizzled out, he got another. This time, he went into real estate development, and where his father had once worked for a hotel, Parker built one, the Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort Hotel on 32 acres of Santa Barbara beachfront property. The park next door to the hotel is land that Parker and his family donated to the city of Santa Barbara.
Searching for a project that he and his son could do together, and perhaps remembering rural Texas summers spent at his grandparents’ farms, Parker bought a 714-acre ranch in California’s Santa Ynez Valley and created the Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard. He said, “When we first started out, we didn’t know what we were doing.” That state didn’t last long, however; and today, Fess Parker wines are consistently rated “very good” to “excellent.” They won two first places and a double gold at the 2006 San Francisco International Wine Competition. They have been served in the White House and at the Reagan Library opening. Liz Taylor gave it to her guests at her last wedding.

Nowadays, Parker spends time at the luxury inn and spa he and his wife built at their winery in Los Olivos, where the Texas flag flies in front. He hasn’t retired. He’s working on another beachfront hotel that will adjoin his other one.
Parker is proud of his Texas heritage and attributes it to his success. “Texans…don’t buy the boundary of a challenge. They make their own challenge, and it doesn’t matter if it makes a lot of sense to anybody else. Texans have a persistence, a perseverance. They look at something, and they say, well heck, I can do that better.”

Spoken like a true son of the Alamo.