It’s been another great year in country music…and as we get ready for 2009, we’re looking back at some of the highlights of 2008.
IN MARCH…
• Craig Morgan joins BNA Records (where his labelmates include Kenny Chesney and Kellie Pickler). By year’s end, he would release his first album on the label, a CD called That’s Why (featuring the Top 10 hit, “Love Remembers.”) (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Alan Jackson released his 17th album, Good Time, featuring the number-one hits, “Small Town Southern Man” and “Good Time,” and the current smash, “Country Boy.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Carrie Underwood hit number-one with “All-American Girl,” from her Carnival Ride CD. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Alan Jackson hit number-one with “Small Town Southern Man,” the first chart-topper from his CD, Good Time. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
008 HIGHLIGHTS: March" width="16" height="14" /> Craig Morgan talks about recording his new CD, That’s Why. (:29)
“I think it is the beginning of the next chapter of my life, you know? I mean, especially within this industry. I think we just closed a chapter, and we’re now in the next chapter, which…it’s gonna be so neat to see what happens in this chapter of my life. I’m still very much who I am; it’s just, man, we’ve grown. And a lot of things have happened. And in this new chapter, we’ve just started…I’m hoping that everyone enjoys this enough that they will want to become a part of that.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: March" width="16" height="14" /> Alan Jackson explains how he ended up writing all of the songs on his album, Good Time. (:09)
“I didn’t sit down and say, ‘I’m going to write every song on this album.’ I just started writing a bunch of material, and I ended up writing 22 things actually. We went in the studio, and I narrowed it down to 17.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: March" width="16" height="14" /> Carrie Underwood talks about her number-one hit, “All-American Girl.” (:33)
“It’s about, kind of a couple gets together, and they get married, and they’re in love, and they have a baby, and the dad’s all excited. He’s envisioning everything that he’s gonna do with his son, and it turns out it’s a girl. I’m sure he’s slightly disappointed at first, you know, because he might have had his heart set on a boy. But he falls in love with his little girl, and she grows up, and he has to turn her loose. And she’s dating the high-school football star, and she’s growin’ up before his eyes…and everybody’s falling in love with this ‘All-American Girl.'”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: March" width="16" height="14" /> Alan Jackson talks about his number-one hit, “Small Town Southern Man.” (:36)
“I didn’t sit down to write a song about my family and my daddy and the whole granddaddy and all that stuff, but I did pull from all that. A lot of those lyrics are factual and are semi, and my music and…even though a lot of people still today think country music is just ‘southern,’ I learned real fast, you know, that there are people in New York State and in Oregon and Southern California — wherever you go. They’re not always ‘small town,’ but they’re rural people and around outskirts of major cities and everywhere that are just regular working people that are the same as a ‘Small Town Southern Man.'”