Counting down the days to his self-titled debut, JT Hodges proclaimed August “Prize Month.” On his various social sites, he invited fans to vie for more than 160 prizes, ranging from personalized handwritten notes to autographed guitars, photos, hats, and Copperpeace guitar straps. Fifty lucky winners got their Twitter addresses included in the album’s liner notes.
Clearly, Hodges knows both sides of the music business. That’s no surprise: His parents met as band members. Their son grew up at their high-profile studio in Forth Worth, where he learned the ropes, from cleaning bathrooms to laying tracks. By the time he moved to Nashville, he was ready and eager to launch his career.
Signed in 2010 to Show Dog-Universal Music, Hodges’ rock-toughened style won notice from SDU President Mark Wright, who shares production on the young artist’s debut project, which marries crisp instrumental tracks and high-impact vocals. (One track was produced by Don Cook, Wright and Ross Copperman.)
JT Hodges hits full speed with the opener, “Rather Be Wrong Than Lonely,” penned by Hodges, Mark Collie and Cook. One of the nine songs co-written by the artist, it’s a nonstop four-beat tour de force, with a call to “come on, come on, baby” whisking listeners into an irresistible chorus hook, sung in solid harmony. A similar exuberance permeates the single, “Hunt You Down” (Hodges, Collie and Rivers Rutherford), where a simple I-IV chord sequence gives Hodges space to animate the playful, seductive lyric. “We never talked about tomorrow,” he sings, although people will talk about this gifted newcomer for many tomorrows to come.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
SONG YOU SING IN THE SHOWER
“Depends on the mood. I do whistle ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ theme quite often — haha.”
SONG YOU WISHED YOU’D WRITTEN
“‘Unanswered Prayers’ by Garth Brooks.”
MOMENT YOU’D LOVE TO RELIVE
“The day I first kissed my wife.”
FIRST GIG
“The White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas. Went great … sang a lot of Blackhawk covers.”
WHAT YOU HOPE PEOPLE AY ABOUT YOU 50 YEARS FROM NOW
“He played by his own rules and made music his own way. He was unique.”
Few people on Music Row, if any, possess a more diverse résumé than Kix Brooks. He can be heard weekly as host of the syndicated radio show “American Country Countdown with Kix Brooks.” He co-owns Arrington Vineyards, an award-winning winery just south of Nashville in pastoral Arrington, Tenn. He answers fan questions in a column for Country Weekly. He has launched an acting career and started a film company, Team Two Entertainment, in partnership with his son, Eric, director/producer Dustin Rikert and actor/producer William Shockley.
Then, of course, there’s his music career, which these days finds the Louisiana-born entertainer embarking on a new path. After 20 years as one-half of the multi-award-winning, multi-Platinum duo Brooks & Dunn, he amicably parted with partner Ronnie Dunn in 2010. Dunn released his self-titled project last year, and on Sept. 11 Brooks issued his own 12-song collection, New to This Town.
Brooks actually came to Nashville as a solo artist. He had released a single on Capitol Records, “Sacred Ground,” which peaked at No. 87 in 1989, and was establishing himself as a songwriter when he switched gears and paired with Dunn in 1990. Now, in striking out again on his own, he began by gathering material. Eventually, he wound up with 12 songs, nine of them with his credit as co-writer.
“I had a couple of songs that, being from Louisiana, were pretty rocky and swampy that I wrote early on,” he said. “I just felt they were me and how I was feeling right now. Then I started looking for songs that would complement that stuff and kept trying to write things in that vein. They seemed to have a continuity to them, so I tried to build an album around that that made some sense.”
Recruiting musicians was next. “I cut with the same guys I’ve been working with for a lot of years. I’ve known (bassist) Michael Rhodes for over 30 years; we even played with rival bands down in Louisiana. I’m sure with a lot of new artists, especially if you have studio players, trying to explain to them what you are about and where you come from can be difficult. But I’ve made so much music with these guys, so it was fun to bring some new songs in and they lit up and hit it real hard.”
Brooks produced the entire album except for the title track, which he wrote with Marv Green and Terry McBride. “Jay DeMarcus (of Rascal Flatts) and I are doing a soundtrack for a Christmas movie,” he explained. “We got done a little early. The players were sounding good and the studio was rockin’, so I asked Jay if I could do ‘New to This Town.’ We produced that song together, since we were already working. It came out really good and turned out to be the first single.”
The Eagles’ Joe Walsh added his legendary guitar skills to the track. “That kind of happened by accident,” Brooks said. “Lonnie Napier (Associate Producer, ‘American Country Countdown’) suggested adding ‘some Joe Walsh-sounding guitar,’ so I took a chance. I had met Joe when I was doing those stadium tours with Kenny Chesney. I took the liberty of calling Joe’s manager, Irving Azoff (Chairman/CEO, Front Line Management Group), and asking him if it would be inappropriate to get in touch with Joe about playing on it. He really liked the song and he said, ‘Heck, send it to him.’ And I did.
“Joe was in rehearsals with Paul McCartney at the Grammy Awards at the time,” Brooks continued. “He listened to the track when they were on break, called me up and said he wanted to play on it. He went home that evening, put those great slide tracks down and emailed them to me. I just dropped them in and we were done.”
“New to This Town” peaked at No. 31. “Obviously, I would have wanted it to go multi-week No. 1,” noted Brooks’ longtime manager, Clarence Spalding, President, Spalding Entertainment. “That didn’t happen, but some people who hadn’t really had the opportunity to hear Kix sing alone came back and said, ‘We love that song!’ That’s the ‘new artist’ way of doing things. We’re going to get the consumer to taste this a little bit, and if they like it, we’re going to feed them some more.”
Written by Brooks, Rhett Akins and Dallas Davidson, “Bring It On Home” is the album’s second single. “I’d come up with that chorus the morning they got there,” Brooks said. “Dallas had a title, ‘Speed of Life,’ that we tried to stick onto it, but it was like we were forcing it. So we finished the song, and after they went home I got to banging around on it and came up with that idea of ‘Bring It On Home.’ I called them up and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about going a little more simple?’ They both liked that idea, because that’s really what the song is about. We actually wrote ‘Speed of Life’ the way it needed to be written, so we got two songs out of that one.”
These first singles invite listeners to open their ears and hear what Brooks has to offer on his own. “It’s hard for any singer in this format to stand up beside Ronnie Dunn every night and sing,” Spalding said. “Ronnie will go down in history as one of the greatest singers of all time. Kix got to sing a few songs on each album, but Ronnie’s was the voice that sang more. I think that allowed Kix to sit back, so when it came time for him to make his record, he had a good idea of exactly what he wanted to do. That’s what you hear. You don’t hear a Brooks & Dunn record; you hear a Kix Brooks record. It’s a lot easier being a solo act when it comes to making decisions. You don’t always have to ask, ‘What does Ronnie think?’ It’s ‘I think this’ and you move on with the decision. I couldn’t be prouder of him and all the music on there.”
Spalding also admires Brooks for the range of his interests and energy in pursuing them. “He does the radio show,” he said. “He has his acting career. Everything he does that goes along with his music career makes Kix Brooks who he is.”
“I like to think I can wear different hats,” said Brooks, whose acting chops will be on display with his lead role in “To Kill a Memory,” which will show at the Austin Film Festival on Oct. 23. The title takes its name from a song Brooks wrote with Randy Houser.
Not the least of his interests is the Country Music Association. A respected and productive CMA Board member, Brooks plans to continue to support his passion for Country Music through the organization and is proud of what it has accomplished throughout his involvement.
“I love our business,” he said. “So, to be on the Board and get to hang out every couple of days with the leaders of our business, to hear what everybody is up to and where our business is going and the things that we’re doing, is really fun for me. I enjoy that part of it, but I’m also really proud of the things that we’ve accomplished, like the CMA Music Festival in particular. We’re making a serious effort at helping kids get into music in public schools that otherwise wouldn’t be able to give them an opportunity. This year, we crossed the $6 million mark in contributing to (the CMA music education program) Keep the Music Playing and helping kids who need instruments in school and to teach them how to play music. We also helped victims of the flood two years ago in Nashville.
“It makes me feel good to see something that we worked real hard on go from the racetrack (at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, former home of CMA Music Festival/Fan Fair) to LP Field and be an event that the whole city of Nashville and fans of Country Music everywhere can be proud of. It accomplishes something that’s really meaningful.”
Whether singing for wine lovers during a night of music at Arrington, writing music to accompany a movie project or answering fans’ questions in Country Weekly, Brooks approaches each endeavor enthusiastically. “What brings me the most satisfaction is what I’m working on at the time,” he said. “Dale Earnhardt told me something when he had a lot of different projects going. I asked him if he was interested in quitting driving and just getting into some of these other things he was into. He looked me in the eye and said, ‘Don’t ever forget the No. 3 car,’ which was his way of saying ‘Racing is what allowed all this to happen for me.’ You can’t take your eye off the ball. Music is my heart and soul and that will always be. As long as people want me to play music, I’ll be doing that.”
Can I be brutally honest? It seems season three of Boardwalk Empire has lost its way. It can still shake things up and get back on track, but there’s too much time spent worrying about a hospital wing and not enough with the gangsters. The more interesting characters seemed to be pushed aside to further explore the dysfunctional relationship between Nucky (played by Steve Buscemi) and Margaret Thompson (Kelly Macdonald). I’m still holding out hope the series will right itself, and I’m probably in the minority in my belief that it’s floundering a bit. Obviously HBO doesn’t feel the same way as they’ve just renewed the critically acclaimed series for season four.
The network just officially announced the renewal, with HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo stating: “Terry Winter, Martin Scorsese and the rest of their outstanding team continue to produce a stunning show thatnever fails to surprise and entertain. We are excited to bring this unique series back for a fourth season.”
Season two averaged 8.6 million viewers per episode, with season three picking up 7.2 million viewers for episode one.
The Plot:
From Terence Winter, Emmy®-winning writer of The Sopranos, and Academy Award®-winning director Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire is set in the 1920s during Prohibition, and chronicles the life and times of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the undisputed leader of Atlantic City.
Stephen Colbert played host on today’s Good Morning America broadcast and while interviewing Jenny McCarthy about her new book, Bad Habits: Confessions of Recovering Catholic, he told her she’s going to hell. The funny exchange took place while Colbert was quizzing McCarthy, who once had aspirations of being a nun, about her status as a Catholic.
Asked if she still goes to mass, McCarthy said she doesn’t but that she still believes in “a lot of things that Catholics do.”
“You know you’re going to hell, right? Listen. I’m just saying,” replied Colbert.
If you’re anxiously awaiting the return of the Munsters to your TV screen…well, the series’ future appears to be a matter for debate. The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline reported the NBC series Mockingbird Lane, based on the characters from the classic The Munsters series, is pretty much dead. However, the remake’s creator, Bryan Fuller, had something to say about that.
After reports circulated that the series had been shelved, Fuller took to Twitter to respond:
NBC just informed me the Deadline article regarding #MockingbirdLane was Dead Wrong.Stay tuned for updates!
The new version was created Fuller and has Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster, Eddie Izzard as Grandpa Munster, and Portia de Rossi as Lily Munster attached to star. The series is said to be aiming toward a more dramatic rather than supernatural tone.
So, right now we suggest you adopt a wait and see attitude.
Because there’s just not enough Twilight stuff already, and definitely not enough written about the cast and the film series (no, I’m not being serious – tone is hard to convey sometimes), EW editors have put together Twilight: The Complete Journey. This Twilight paperback will provide all the behind-the-scenes details that only dedicated Twilight fans could possibly care about, including interviews with Edward, Bella and Jacob – or actually Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner – from way, way back before they became internationally famous for starring in the sparkling vampire series.
According to EW, Twilight: The Complete Journey features the “best of five years’ worth of behind-the-scenes access.” The paperback/book is said to include:
· Intimate interviews with the cast and behind-the-scenes set photos
· Brand-new EW coverage of the films, including spotlights on the Wolf Pack and Bella’s friends and family
· In-depth stories and “By the Numbers” trivia on all five movies
· 5 pullout magazine cover posters from EW’s Twilight issues
Stephenie Meyer wrote the preface – and if I have to explain who Meyer is, this is not the book for you.
Brad Paisley will perform during "The 46th Annual CMA Awards" on Nov. 1, airing live on the ABC Television Network from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Co-host Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, and Zac Brown Band have been confirmed as performers on the 46th Annual CMA Awards to be held on November 1, 2012 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. They join a line-up that already includes Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Kelly Clarkson, and Little Big Town.
The CMA Awards are voted on by 11,000 industry professionals with the final ballot due back from voters on October 22, 2012. Tickets to the Country music star-studded event are still available through Ticketmaster or at the Bridgestone Arena Box Office.
Details on the Latest Performers Added to the Show’s Roster [Courtesy of CMA]:
Paisley is nominated for Entertainer of the Year. Paisley’s nomination keeps him third on the list of artists with the most career nominations in CMA Awards history. He has been nominated every year since 2000 and has now amassed an incredible 58 nominations.
Bryan is making his debut in the Male Vocalist category. Bryan enters the elite list for the first time in 2012. Bryan also picked up a second nomination for Album of the Year for tailgates & tanlines, produced by Jeff Stevens and Mark Bright. Bryan was nominated for CMA New Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2011.
Lambert, received four nominations including a shared nomination with Blake Shelton for CMA Song of the Year for “Over You.” Lambert was also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year; Album of the Year for Four The Record, produced by Frank Liddell, Chuck Ainlay, and Glenn Worf; and Music Video of the Year for “Over You,” directed by Trey Fanjoy.
The Zac Brown Band is a 12-time CMA Awards nominee with a 2012 Vocal Group of the Year nomination, their fourth consecutive nomination in the category. The band was named CMA New Artist of the Year in 2010.
Next, Christina Applegate from Up All Night (which also features SNL alum Maya Rudolph) will be SNL‘s October 13th host. While Applegate has handled the job before, the October 13th episode will mark the debut of Passion Pit. The group’s sophomore album was just released and debuted at #4.
And then on October 20th Bruno Mars will be spreading himself thin as both the host and musical guest. Mars’ second album is coming out on December 11th, and the first single (“Locked Out of Heaven”) was just released today.
Benicio Del Toro would vote yes on cats (even though they’re up to something) and 3 4 day weekends. Zac Efron votes to permanently keep tigers out of schools and that there should be more high 5s. Edward Norton thinks that North Carolina and South Carolina should have to come up with their own original names. And Jonah Hill believes we should pass a law that makes dogs pick up our poop and that he’d vote to have people quit touching his stuff.
So, none of those items will be on the upcoming election ballet, but the Vote4Stuff campaign (a nonpartisan campaign created by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire) is spreading the word that it’s important to voice your opinion and vote. They even want you to get involved by creating your own video about voting.
Here’s the details [Courtesy of Vote4Stuff’s Facebook Page]:
If you could vote for anything in the world, what would you vote for?
We want to hear from you! Tell us what you would vote for – from the outrageous to the serious. From unicorns to universal health care, from teleporting research to tax reform – share with us here, on Twitter, and YouTube.
We are partnering with bipartisan nonprofits focused on the election in order to drive as many as possible to register to vote and get out to the polls on November 6th.
In 2008, our “Don’t Vote” campaign led to over 800,000 young people registering to vote and we hope to top that this year.
This new behind-the-scenes video from Skyfall focuses on the film’s underwater fight sequence. Diving coordinator Dave Shaw talks about the 1.2 million liter underwater stage that’s globally unique. First assistant director Michael Lerman reveals how difficult the underwater stunts were and that Daniel Craig (‘James Bond’) was game for anything that was needed. Craig spent days working on the underwater fight scene, and stunt coordinator Gary Powell said it was extremely difficult for Craig as he had to concentrate on both the stunts and on acting. We’re also treated to a look at how the scene was lit and shot in this Skyfall videoblog.
Can I be brutally honest? It seems season three of 
