Reba sang Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy" on the CMA Awards. And I liked it.
There's really no point in railing against last night's celebration of the bland, homogenized lite-rock that passes as mainstream country music today. It is what it is.
And as my admiration for Reba's crossover move implies, I'm not a purist. The blurring of genres interests me. Now that I've learned to stop worrying about categories, it doesn't bother me that the members of Lady Antebellum might never have heard of Waylon Jennings. I admire their craftsmanship in much the same way I'm able to dispassionately dissect the work of John Mayer and Kenny G.
The only "country" artist I actively loathe is pictured above.
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I'm not kidding- I really did watch last night's broadcast. I was glad to see Mac McAnally win musician of the year and the Zac Brown Band take the Best New Artist award. (I saw both perform in Kansas City earlier this week.) Dierks Bentley's bluegrass-inspired song was decent and Loretta Lynn's spot was nice, but the only thing that I found truly compelling was Miranda Lambert's spirited cover of John Prine's "That's the Way the World Goes Round."
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I appreciate the new Tim Finn essay that bears the headline "Abundance of concerts proves KC is country music country." The brand new album by Adam Lee & the Dead Horse Company, incidentally, is very good.
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I don't know when I'll get around to reading it, but I'm sure that Joe Posnanski's new treatise on Bruce Springsteen is worthwhile.
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Kansas City Click: Matt Otto returns to the Blue Room on Thursday.
Paddy Keenan and John Walsh perform at the Irish Museum and Cultural Center on Friday.
Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society headline Saturday's metal show at the Uptown Theater.
LeAnn Rimes' career to date has been a disappointment, but she still has that voice. She performs at Johnson County Community College on Sunday.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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