Right, so what happened in music this year?
To the best of my recollection....
Jack White (photo: Dipti Vaidya/The Tennessean)
-Sorry, Cleveland: Nashville became rock ’n’ roll central, with big-deal albums and big-ticket tours from Jack White, the Black Keys, JEFF the Brotherhood and more. Also, Cleveland: Sorry about the Indians, the Browns, the weather, LeBron James and the rust belt economy.
-Country star Jason Aldean got caught flirting with a woman in a bar, which made a bunch of us upset, because it had a lot to do with our lives.
-Super-famous blog guy Bob Lefsetz (What, you’ve never heard of him?) wrote that Taylor Swift had alienated her core audience, and he wondered in writing whether she had “jumped the shark.” Swift’s “Red” sold more copies in one week than any album had sold in a decade, her “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” spent more weeks atop the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart than any single in history from a female artist, and she went the entire year without using out-of-date expressions like “jumped the shark.”
Taylor Swift (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
-Lefsetz also blogged plenty of insightful things, by the way, and I happily subscribe to his “The Lefsetz Letter.” But he’s got it in for Tay-Tay, who continues to make some people angry by writing and recording songs, inspiring young folks to play music, being a big star and generally being nice about the whole thing.
-There was a presidential election, with Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z campaigning hard for Barack Obama, Meat Loaf and John Rich campaigning for Mitt Romney and the year’s biggest country stars whispering the mantra, “I am Switzerland, and I will not be Dixie Chicked.”
-Hoping to woo contemporary country voters, both Obama and Romney came out in strong support of pickup trucks, cruising and partying down by the lake. Obama went so far as to suggest songs by Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line were his prime motivations in bailing out the automobile industry.
-Hank Williams Jr. wasn’t afraid to voice his political opinion, telling audiences that President Obama hates freedom, farming and fishing. (I’m not making this up.) However, the liberal media let Obama get through all three presidential debates without asking one fishing question. Whatever. If Obama is coming for Bocephus' tackle box, he'll have to pry it from his cold, dead fingers.
Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere perform at the Ryman Auditorium in 'Nashville' (ABC/Chris Hollo)
-Music City got two excellent new music venues, in west Nashville’s The Stone Fox and The High Watt upstairs at One Cannery Row.
-Jay Knowles and Adam Wright wrote my favorite commercial country song of the year — the Alan Jackson single “So You Don’t Have To Love Me Anymore” — and were rewarded with a Grammy nomination.
-ABC made a soap opera called “Nashville,” about contemporary country music performers. They got it all wrong. The music on the show is way better than what’s on FM country radio, and in real country music there’s much more backbiting, lust and interpersonal drama.
-Acclaimed Nashville rocker Daniel Pujol had a better year than former National League MVP Albert Pujols.
Rahsaan Barber (photo: Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean)
-Randy Travis cried for help in about 17 different ways. Let’s hope someone’s helping.
-Sax man Rahsaan Barber became sax man/impresario Rahsaan Barber, launching Music City Jazz, which could become an important label for our city’s often-overlooked jazz musicians.
-After spending the past couple of years giving every indication that they were on their way to world domination, award-winning Nashville duo The Civil Wars broke up.
The Civil Wars (photo: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
-Elite songsmith Jason Isbell won the Song of the Year prize at the Americana Music Association Honors & Awards show. Also, he moved to town and got engaged to fine singer-songwriter-fiddler Amanda Shires. He credited his run of success to the fact that he looks exactly like not-quite-elite NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford.
-In December, Luke Bryan won nine ACA trophies, causing country music fans to Google en masse, “What’s an ACA trophy?” The online answer came back, “That was the show you turned off in the first five minutes because the sound was so poor you couldn’t understand what anyone was saying or singing,” causing country music fans to think to themselves, “Oh, yeah, that one.”
-Your favorite columnist wished you a happy and peaceful holiday season. Really, Gail Kerr told me to tell you that.
Reach Peter Cooper at 615-259-8220 or pcooper@tennessean.com
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