Entertaining Posts

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Nashville marks 40 years of country music festival

By Vernell Hackett

NASHVILLE, Tenn | Tue Jun 7, 2011 9:06am EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - The capital of country music lives up to its nickname beginning on Thursday where some 70,000 fans get the chance to mingle with their musical heroes at the CMA Music Fest.

The June 9-12 music festival, which is celebrating its 40th year, aims to get fans as close as possible to obtain autographs, photo opportunities, and a snatch of conversation with performers.

"Music Fest is a time for all of us to thank the fans and be here for them," said Miranda Lambert, who attended the event as a fan before performing in it as a star.

The music plays practically nonstop in Nashville from 10 a.m. to midnight on stages set up from Fifth Avenue to the Cumberland River and across the river at a stadium.

The projected 2011 lineup of more than 150 performers includes Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Kelly Clarkson, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Billy Ray Cyrus, Gary Allan, Bo Bice, Katie Armiger, Crystal Bowersox, and newlyweds Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. Veteran performers include Jeannie Seely, Gene Watson and Earl Thomas Conley.

Some fans come year after year, lining up for autograph and photo opportunities with favorite performers at the Nashville Convention Center.

Last year 65,000 attended the festival and fans queued around the convention center to get coveted signatures from Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. This year will find similar scenes as Dolly Parton, Lady Antebellum, Trace Adkins, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, Martina McBride, Randy Travis, Darius Rucker, Kellie Pickler and Easton Corbin sign autographs.

Joe Bonsall of the Oak Ridge Boys has been to every festival from its beginnings downtown in 1972 to its move to the Tennessee Fairgrounds and now back downtown.

"It's just gotten bigger and bigger. Right now, I think being part of Music Fest means more to us than it ever has," Bonsall said.

"Most of our fans save their money all year long to come to Fan Fest. For me to be one of the people they come to see is why I do what I do," said Darius Rucker, front man for Hootie & the Blowfish and also an award-winning country singer.

On the sidelines will be benefit shows and fan club parties, kicked off on Wednesday by Marty Stuart's Late Night Jam featuring Dolly Parton, Mel Tillis and other friends.

"I expect her 'Dolliness' (Parton) to wreck the room and steal the show and I'm not going to let her leave the stage until she does it," Stuart said.

Some artists host extravagant private events, such as Gary Allen's riverboat ride and Randy Travis' concert for just 75 ticket-holders who will pay $225 apiece to hear him perform his new album and talk about his 25 years in the music business.

Reba McEntire told reporters about her first Music Fest in 1977, once known as "Fan Fair" and held at the 10,000-seat Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.

"I think back then I rode to Fan Fair in my car with every piece of clothing I could bum off my college roommate. I didn't have any fancy clothes, but she did because she was in rodeo," McEntire said.

(Editing by Andrew Stern)

Katie Couric signs deal for ABC talk show

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jun 7, 2011 12:33am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Katie Couric has signed a deal with ABC television to host and produce her own syndicated daytime talk show starting in September 2012, ABC said on Monday.

Couric, 54, will also contribute to other ABC News programs starting this summer, anchoring specials and contributing interviews, the Disney/ABC Television Group said in a statement.

The daytime show is as yet untitled but will be produced by Jeff Zucker - Couric's old boss from her days as host of NBC's top-rated morning show "Today".

Couric told ABC News in an interview she hoped the show would be smart and fun and a place where "you can go to make sense of a very complicated world."

"Smart conversation, those are the two words that I would like to aspire to, and also fun conversation," Couric said.

"We'll be running the gamut from everything from serious stories, like a new cancer drug, or what's going on with the deficit and trying to explain it so people can really understand it, to dealing with kids and technology and what is all this technology doing to our children's brains and ability to socialize, to bullying, to fun, popular culture stories."

Couric, known as "America's Sweetheart", ended a five-year stint on May 19 as anchor of rival network "CBS Evening News". On her appointment in 2006, she was the first woman to serve as a solo U.S. network evening news anchor.

The new daytime series will be based in New York. Eight ABC affiliates have cleared their 3pm slots for the new show in September 2012, ABC said.

Couric, one of the best-known personalities on U.S. television, arrived at the CBS evening news show in 2006 in a blaze of publicity. But despite winning a number of awards -- and famously interviewing a stumbling Sarah Palin in 2008 -- she never managed to lift the newscast out of its third place in the ratings war with rivals NBC and ABC.

Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, called Couric "one of television's iconic figures."

"We look forward to having Katie join the best News team in the business, and to working with her to create a dynamic and successful talk show franchise," Sweeney added in a statement on Monday.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)

Monday, June 6, 2011

"Lonely Boy" singer Andrew Gold dead at 59

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jun 6, 2011 4:47pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Versatile singer/songwriter Andrew Gold, who enjoyed chart success in the 1970s with the songs "Lonely Boy" and "Thank You For Being a Friend," died in his sleep. He was 59.

The Los Angeles Times said he died at his home on Friday. He had been undergoing cancer treatment but was responding well to treatment.

Gold, the son of Oscar-winning composer Ernest Gold and singer Marni Nixon, got his break in 1973 when he joined Linda Ronstadt's band. He played a key role on such tunes as "You're No Good" and "When Will I Be Loved?"

He launched a parallel solo career in 1975 with a self-titled album on which he played most of the instruments. The track "Endless Flight" was later covered by Leo Sayer.

The following year he went to No. 7 on the U.S. singles chart with "Lonely Boy," a tune from his follow-up album "What's Wrong With This Picture?" Gold recorded the album while working on Ronstadt's "Hasten Down the Wind," with the artists sharing the same band.

With an opening line that went "He was born on a summer's day 1951," the resentful song about an elder son overshadowed by his baby sister seemed to mirror milestones in his own life, although Gold denied any autobiographical similarities.

His third album and personal favorite, 1978's "All This and Heaven Too," yielded the top-40 hit "Thank You For Being a Friend," a decidedly more optimistic tune. A cover version became the theme song for the 1980s sitcom "Golden Girls."

Another tune, "Never Let Her Slip Away," was a U.K. hit. Members of the Eagles were present during the session, and Gold later noted -- without rancor -- that they borrowed the song's opening for their hit "Heartache Tonight."

Gold continued recording, and teamed up in 1983 with British singer Graham Gouldman of 10cc to record three albums. He went on to work with artists such as Wynonna Judd, Vince Gill, Aaron Neville, and Celine Dion. In the 1990s he recorded the theme song for the sitcom "Mad About You." His last release was the 2008 covers set "Copy Cat," dominated by Beatles songs.

He is survived by his mother, wife and three daughters from his first marriage.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Katie Couric signs deal with ABC for daytime show

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Fox confirms Cheryl Cole out of U.S. "X Factor" show

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jun 6, 2011 12:12pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British singer Cheryl Cole has been dropped as a judge on the upcoming U.S. version of Simon Cowell's talent contest "The X Factor", broadcaster Fox and Cowell's production company said on Monday.

The official announcement ended almost two weeks of rumor and speculation about problems with the line-up of the much-anticipated TV show, due to debut in the fall of 2011.

Cole, who had been Cowell's personal choice for the panel, will be replaced by PussyCat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, who was previously announced as the co-host of the show.

Monday's brief statement by Fox and Syco, was the first official comment on reports that Cole had been replaced following the filming of two audition episodes of "The X Factor" last month.

The statement gave no reasons for the change and did not address how producers would handle the sessions already shot with Cole on the judge's panel.

Cole, a singer with the group Girls Aloud, is a household name in Britain but unknown in the United States. Media reports have said she was dropped because of fears that U.S. viewers would have difficulty understanding her strong Northern English accent.

Reports from Britain over the weekend had said that Cowell was fighting to keep Cole on the show.

"The X Factor" is the highlight of Fox television's upcoming fall television schedule.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)