It’s been another great year in country music…and as we get ready for 2010, we’re looking back at some of the highlights of 2009.
IN APRIL…
• Carrie Underwood was the cover girl for the April issue of People Style Watch.
• Kellie Pickler returned to where her star started to rise — she performed “Best Days of Your Life” from her self-titled sophomore album, Kellie Pickler, on American Idol.
• Jason Michael Carroll released his second album, Growing Up Is Getting Old, featuring “Where I’m From” and his current single, “Hurry Home.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Montgomery Gentry celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the release of their debut album, Tattoos & Scars. Released in April of 1999, Tattoos & Scars included the duo’s hits “Hillbilly Shoes,” “Lonely and Gone,” and “Daddy Won’t Sell the Farm.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• At the ACM’s, Carrie Underwood won big. Carrie walked away with her third consecutive Top Female Vocalist award, plus Entertainer of the Year. Carrie is the only the seventh female act to take home the top honor at the ACMs and the first to do it since the Dixie Chicks did it in 2000. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Brad Paisley was not at the ACMs…he was at home awaiting the birth of his second child. But from the comfort of his couch, Brad managed to snag the ACM awards for Top Male Vocalist, Video of the Year for “Waitin’ on a Woman” and Vocal Event for “Start a Band,” his duet with Keith Urban. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Speaking of “waitin’ on babies,” Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly welcomed Huck Paisley’s little brother into the world with the April 17th arrival of Jasper Warren Paisley. Jasper was given his name in honor of Brad’s grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave Brad his first guitar. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Chuck Wicks waltzed his way off Dancing with the Stars as he and partner Julianne Hough did not get enough votes to continue cha-cha-cha’ing on the ABC reality show. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Chris Young was voted by the fans as Country Weekly‘s Country’s Hottest Bachelor. Chris ranks number-one for the second time, re-claiming the top spot he first won back in 2006.
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> Jason Michael Carroll wanted to make sure his new album is as much a reflection of who he is as his first record. (:11)
“I didn’t want to be too different from my first record, but at the same time I want to show that we’ve grown a little bit, you know? And I think that’s my responsibility still to my fans is to make sure that they listen to these songs, and they know who I am by listening to ‘em.”
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> It’s hard for Montgomery Gentry to believe that they’re celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their first album. (:15)
Troy: “It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, you know? It just seems like, you know, I don’t know where some of the days have gone or some of the years have gone. It just seems, you know, sometimes it seems like just yesterday we just first got started here in Nashville, and…”
Eddie: “I know where some of ‘em have gone…” (laughs)
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> Carrie Underwood was truly shocked to win ACM Entertainer of the Year. (:23) (Note: Audio is phone quality.)
“I definitely did not expect it at all, and I mean, for my name to be amongst those names is a victory in itself. And right before, Kenny was messin’ with me, and he’s like, ‘You won…I know you won,’ blah, blah, blah, and so I was just like, ‘Whatever,’ I don’t know, it’s just everything happened so fast it’s kind of hard to now go back and think about it.”
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> Brad Paisley says Andy Griffith was his first choice to join him in the video for “Waitin’ on a Woman.” (:21)
“I can write a list, a really long list, of the iconic older actors that could play this part, and list them in order in terms of who would be my perfect choice for who I would see in my mind sitting down on a bench with me. He is first on that list. I didn’t have to go any deeper than that…and there is no one close.”
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> Brad Paisley shares a fun story of how his wife, Kimberly, allowed their son, Huck, to tell him she’s expecting. (:39)
“I wake up pretty late when I’ve been out on the road, and on a Sunday morning or a Monday morning, I think I’d gotten back from a trip, and I was sleepin’, and it was about ten in the morning, and she sent…my son wakes me up every day now. He comes in, when she lets him, and he comes around the bed, brings a book and gets in bed, and we read a book in the morning. And he came around, and she said, ‘Here, give this to Daddy.’ And I saw him walk up with a pregnancy test and hand it to me. And I looked at him, and I said — and he was just all happy — I said, ‘No, you don’t get it. This is really bad for you and I. This isn’t gonna be fun for us for the next nine months. We’re in for it, you know?’ But that’s how she told me, which was a great way to do it.”
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> Chuck Wicks says farewell to Dancing and gets back to full time music. (:21) (Note: Audio is phone quality.)
“It is kinda bittersweet, gettin’ the boot from Dancing with the Stars, but I cannot thank you guys enough. Just so you all know, I had a blast. I had the time of my life, and it was a great experience, I gotta tell ya. I didn’t know what to expect, but now it’s back to the business, and that’s country music, and back to songwriting, back to touring, and…here we go!”
009 HIGHLIGHTS: April" width="16" height="14" /> Chris Young talks about being voted Country Weekly’s Hottest Bachelor. (:40)
“You know the bad thing about this is…it’s really cool, ’cause it’s like, you’re Country’s Hottest Bachelor, and all my buddies are like, ‘Hey, man, that’ll getcha a date.’ And I’m like, ‘Actually, that’s gonna get me made fun of for the next six months on my bus,’ because they will find any and every way to be like, ‘Hey, did you know he’s Country’s Hottest Bachelor?’ like, whenever we’re out anywhere, so my band’ll love this. And there’s also another big joke, before, for like the whole year when I won it the first time, I was like, ‘Yeah, my mom voted a lot,’ so, I was talkin’ to her the other day, she was like, ‘Yeah, I voted for somebody else this time.’ I was like (laughs), ‘Why?’ She’s like, ‘That way, you couldn’t use that this time. You can’t use that in any more interviews. You have to own it and be like, “I got this all on my own.”