Despite the wave of post-Walk the Line/Johnny Cash hype, things aren't looking so hot for the Cash-inspired musical, Ring of Fire which is set to open on Broadway soon. Like the John Lennon-inspired musical, Imagine, reviews like the music ... but little else. With Ring of Fire, the problem is that the musical has nothing to do with Cash; unlike Walk the Line, it's not a bio-pic. Instead, the musical tells the story of several different couples and Cash's music forms the soundtrack, with over three dozen songs approved for use.

The weakness of the narrative seems to be the main problem that reviewers have with the show and preview shows have been selling poorly. The NY Times reviewer, Ben Brantley wrote: "The man in black turns sunshine yellow in 'Ring of Fire,' the show that strings songs associated with Johnny Cash into an artificially sweetened candy necklace." (Ouch). Let's hope that Walk the Line DVD gets out instead. (Source: LA Times)

After selling millions of albums and make a gazillion dollars off of touring last year, Kenny Chesney is stepping his gig-game up a notch by planning a big arena show in Massachusetts (at Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots play). Just to sweeten the pot, he's inviting a few friends to join him: Gretchen Wilson, Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich and Carrie Underwood. It's like a Countrypalooza (sorry, we know that's a tired joke yet, it still has legs).

Chesney tells CMT:

"My whole attitude has always been the more, the merrier -- and if you want to come be part of the fun and the music, then come on. It's why we try to keep the tickets affordable, why we do as many dates as we do."

(Chesney doesn't actually name what price those "affordable" tickets are going for but we assume they're less than U2 prices). The Boston stadium show is the first of what Chesney hopes will be at least half a dozen big-arena performances. He's also currently looking at: Nashville, Seattle, Detroit, Tampa, Dallas, Chicago, Columbus and Los Angeles. (Source: CMT)

Just goes to show you how far things have changed. The Dixie Chicks are Taking the Long Way with their upcoming album and they're forced to rebuild a fan base left damaged over the 2002 furor following their criticism of President Bush. Back then, criticizing the government was a big no-no in the red states. What a difference four years makes:

Tim McGraw (who's never been shy about his liberal leanings) and wife Faith Hill openly criticized the government's response to Katrina in the Gulf Coast while on a Nashville radio show. McGraw was especially forthright about his feelings on the matter, especially in blaming politicians for advancing their own agendas over the needs of the destitute:

""To me, there's a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions to further their agendas. I don't understand that. When you have a lot of people dying because they're poor and because they're black or poor -- and they're white or whatever they are -- if that's a number on a political scale, then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country ... to let something like that happen and to continue to let something like that happen and to continue to not do anything about it."

When country stars are bashing on the gov't, you know things must be pretty bad for the current administration. (Sources: Rolling Stone, CMT)

There's no question Carrie Underwood's been having what one would call "a good year." For any skeptics who think that American Idol winners are just flashes-in-the-pan, Underwood's meteoric success suggests different. It's not like anyone should anoint her the new Loretta Lynn (or even Tammy Wynette) but she has had the fastest selling platinum album in country history and she's comfortably sitting atop the country charts with Some Hearts.

Underwood's about to her solo tour, a 41 city trip that begins April 5th in Wilmington, North Carolina and then ... sporadically jumps around the country after that. Seriously, is this some country/red state thing? Not like it's a big deal but she goes from NC to CA to AZ to FL then BACK to CA for a few dates, then back to FL, then OK, NB, TN, CO, WI, CA, OH ... you get the point. The tour ends on Sept. 27 in Bloomsburg, PA. Go here for a full list of cities. (Source: CMT)

We knew Garth Brooks sold a lot of records but we didn't know it was this much: the country singer is within 500,000 units of overtaking Elvis Presley as the best-selling solo artist in American history. With the release of his Wal-Mart-only, The Limited Series box-set, Brooks has now moved 116 million records. Yeah, one hundred sixteen million. (I know what you're thinking: "but I don't even own a single Brooks album ...)

Not only that but his 1998 album, Double Live (packaged with the boxset) has now stacked over 20,000,000 units sold, meaning that it's overtaken Shania Twain's Come On Over as the most successful country album ever. (Source: Contactmusic.com)

How hot are gay cowboys right now? Not only has Brokeback Mountain impressed the film community but now even Willie Nelson is getting in on the action, uh, figuratively speaking. Just in time for Valentine's Day, Howard Stern played the song, "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)," recorded by Nelson last year (before all the Brokeback hype) on his satellite radio show yesterday. (It's now available, exclusively, through iTunes).

The song was originally written all the way back in 1981 by Ned Sublette and includes lines such as ""What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out."  Nice, nice...  Anyways, the song was given to Nelson a few years later where it apparently languished for 15 years or so until the country icon decided to record it last year. As it is, Nelson actually appears on the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack (but not with this song). (Source: CNN)

How big was Garth Brooks' album the other week? Well, it's hard to say. Garth Brooks: The The Limited Series was only sold through Wal-Mart and Billboard, the magazine that typically charts album sales, does not do tracking for albums sold through only one outlet, especially since, historically, it was near impossible to imagine that a single outlet would have that much clout; oh, the wonders of conglomeration!

For their part, Wal-Mart says the album sold 500,000 in its first week; phenomenal numbers especially when considering that the box set cost $25. It also would have easily made Brooks' album the #1 in the nation last week since System of a Down only scared up less than 400,000 units sold. However, Wal-Mart is not releasing their SoundScan numbers (SoundScan being the industry standard for retail sales data collection) so there's no way to independently verify if that number is accurate or inflated. However, as Billboard editor Geoff Mayfield told the L.A. Times,

"When you announce your new album on 'The Tonight Show,' and then make multiple appearances on 'Good Morning America,' I would not be surprised if he made the kind of numbers they're reporting."

Given the size and power of single retailers like Wal-Mart, iTunes, etc., many of which are signing exclusive deals similar to Brooks', Billboard should reevaluate some of their charting standards to reflect the new music retail reality. Says Mayfield, "When we first came up with the rule, there was no anticipation that someone with this kind of sales power would lock into an exclusive deal like that." (Source: L.A. Times by way of Coolfer.com)

The big news from yesterday is that after weeks of anticipation and hype around Nashville-comes-to-New-York angle, the Country Music Awards finally took place at Madison Square Gardens. Country Music Times has a run-down of some of the bigger events and anecdotes from the past week (including revelations that, *gasp*, some New Yorkers actually like country! What's next? People in Nashville liking hip-hop?! Note: we're teasing very gently here).

As for the winners, Keith Urban and Lee Ann Womack were the night's top awardees. Urban scored the Entertainer of the Year honors, beating out heavyweights like Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley. Urban made special point to thank Chesney (who has the #1 album in America this week), who had Urban open for him on tour: "I want to thank Kenny for being so good to us and for teaching me so much about entertaining," said Urban.

Elsewhere, Lee Ann Womack's old school country album (though we think they would describe it as "traditional"), There's More Where That Came From picked up Album of the Year and one of its singles, "I May Hate Myself In the Morning," was Song of the Year (Womack also won for her collaboration with George Strait on "Good News, Bad News").

According to the CMT, the show itself ran mostly smoothly though they complained that the constraints of having to broadcast it nationally meant that many acceptance speeches were cut short and that, in particular, Hall of Fame inductees Alabama got short-changed as a result. And you thought that only happened at the Oscars.<p>Also worth noting: Chesney himself wasn't that crazy about the move to NYC, unsure as what benefit the decision has had for country music. (Sources: CMT, Monsters and Critics)

Given the impending arrival of the Country Music Awards to that most country of all places (not), New York City, the NY Times Kelefa Sanneh explains what's going on: "it's a publicity stunt." In noting that the city "doesn't even have a country radio station," Sanneh is arguing that, "organizers are hoping to galvanize the area's fans, but they also know that temporarily relocating the awards from Nashville is a way to make noise nationwide."

This isn't a criticism on Sanneh's part; he's essentially suggesting that it's part of a larger attempt for country music to suss out its own identity given how massive – and diverse – it's become in the last decade or so:

"The genre's biggest current names include arena-packing rock stars like Kenny Chesney, self-styled rebels like Gretchen Wilson and proudly old-fashioned singers like George Strait. (Some performers, like the troublemaking, arena-rocking part-time traditionalist Toby Keith, fit all three categories.) These competing tendencies have made country music one of the nation's most exciting genres, as performers figure out what to do. Should they rap? Sing power ballads? Record duets with Jimmy Buffett or Nelly? Follow the rebellious example of Merle Haggard? Leading country stars are trying all of the above, with mixed, but generally entertaining, results.

(Source: NY Times)

Dolly Parton gets to sing about a lot of things when she rolls into Las Vegas but apparently, promoters have asked her to leave a few things off her playlist ... namely anything about poverty and heartbreak as to not depress the gamblers in attendance.

"The Jolene singer recalls one night when she was asked not to perform her hit "Me + Little Andy," about the death of a girl and her puppy, because club bosses feared fans would be so upset they wouldn't gamble after the show."

Says Parton, "The casino wanted the audience to drink more and lose more money - they didn't want to bring 'em down (and) me singing about some little kid whose daddy's a drunkard, it's just too much."

Question: if they don't want to depress gamblers, why are they hiring country acts to begin with? Aren't like ... half of all country songs about heartbreak and/or poverty?

Vegas has this all backwards: they need more rappers, spitting lines about bling and Bentleys to get the competitive spirit going. Less Dolly, more Diddy. (Source: Monsters and Critics)

What's in a name? Apparently a great deal of politics. Some legislators in West Virginia's state senate have wanted to rename a part of Route 16 in Fayette County as the "Hank Williams Sr. Memorial Road." It's widely believed that Williams died in his sleep while being driven down that road back in 1953 and given the popularity of the legendary country singer in those parts, residents and lawmakers thought it might be nice to honor Williams with the re-naming.

Not so fast though: apparently, this plan has rankled a whole different set of legislators in the state house who feel like West Virginia roads should be named after famous West Virginians. Williams, alas, was from Alabama. Moreover, they also think naming should be conferred for accomplishments and it seems that dying in a car is not considered enough of an accomplishment to warrant a road being named after you. Now it's gettin' ugly:

"The House's refusal to consider that measure prompted senators to retaliate by killing a number of House-passed naming resolutions."

Beef, beef, beef! Hank Williams controversial? Who would have seen that coming? (Source: MSN Music News)

The Country Music Awards just released their list of this year's nominations and two names dominate: Brad Paisley and Lee Ann Womack. Each artist scored six nominations apiece, followed by Keith Urban and Toby Keith (4), as well as Gretchen Wilson, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts and George Straight (3). Both Paisley and Womack are up for song of the year honors, for "Alcohol" and "I May Hate Myself In the Morning" respectively.

The Awards ceremony come to New York's Madison Square Garden for the first time, airing on November 15th.

August isn't traditionally a month for big releases - this week has few marquee albums coming out, though veteran singer/songwriter Michael Penn drops his sixth album, Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947. The biggest pop release of the week belongs to crossover country star Faith Hill however, with her new Fireflies, the follow-up to 2003's Grammy-winning Cry.

The Associated Press' Paul Griffith has one of the earliest reviews of the album out, a favorable nod which describes Fireflies as:

"[toning] down Hill’s trademark bombast, relying instead on laid-back grooves, subdued vocals (comparatively speaking) and state-of-the-art Nashville songwriting."

The review also makes mention of some eclectic touches, such as the "Latin-infused," "Sunshine and Summertime," but with country producing giants Big and Rich and newcomer songwriter Lori McKenna each behind a handfull of songs, don't expect this to deviate too far into left-field. Our quick perusal revealed a preponderance of easy-going ballads, making Fireflies more apt listening for a warm summer afternoon than the fuse to spark off the nights. (Source: MSNBC)

Also read Billboard's story on the album.

Guess what other all-American pop star is also readying a country-influenced album?