Around Music City

Gretchen last night couldn't have been any nicer. Previous occasions I've had to work with her she had her "I'm a badass" face on. Didn't see that last night. She did a nice interview with Jon right after coming off stage, and talked about performing the acoustic show, the progress of the new CD, and defending her CMA Female Vocalist crown.

After the interview she stopped me from leaving and wanted to know why Hank's Place had become Willie's Place. She told me how much she loved that channel and all the barroom schtick that goes on in between songs. That makes one of us, LOL. So I told her we'd give her Highway 16 for a day if she ever wanted to do Gretchen's Place.

As y'all know... Gretchen has really shaped up, and it was the first time I'd seen the new her in person. Kim, my intern, and I both compared the current Gretchen to the poster we have of her in the studio. She's lost her chest. Almost entirely. LOL. She looks beautiful, don't get me wrong. But as someone who's been everything from a size 4 to a size much larger than a 4, I can testify when you loose weight, you loose it everywhere, and it's not always good.

I've sent Jon photos for him to post on his myspace page (I'll link you once I remember where his page is) and you can see for yourself. I won't tell anyone you're staring at Gretchen's chest. Wayne.

Over at the Wildhorse last night we got a full show from Eric Church, who continually - CONTINUALLY - made references to playing too loud and too long. To be honest, I didn't think he did a lot of either. He had a lot of down time in between songs, he could have used some faster pacing for the show. But then at the end he explained that he liked to change the set list up every night, and it was this song that was the reason he was no longer on the Rascal Flatts "Me and My Gang" tour. And he did a very long - probably 7 minutes or so - medley of a bunch of songs, including his debut single "How 'Bout You," mixed with a bunch of other old country and rock songs.

So my guess is he'd play his alloted time slot and then get to the end and realize he didn't do the single and launched into THAT, going way over his time and not pleasing the headliners. Time management, when you're a new artist with one medium hit, would be a good thing. But he seemed quite confident in his ability to walk away from one of the year's biggest tours and play his "Me and Myself" tour. I hope the clubs he's playing has room for both egos.

Luke Bryan closed the show last night, brand spankin' new guy on Capitol. He reminded me a lot of Craig Morgan. Real country, real smiley. Luke wrote the current Billy Currington single "Good Directions" which he performed.

Today we're covering Reba's induction into the new Music City Walk of Fame, and then doing the red carpet at the Songs of the Year concert and staying for the show. I'll be back late tonight with a full report.

A couple of other random notes:

Paula is famous!

I got to briefly see Sally and meet Monica last night!

CountryNation carries this interesting tidbit today:
-- In the December issue of Playboy, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks tells the magazine: "We never felt cool by any means -- and we were never talked about as being hot or pretty."

"Shania was the hot one, and Faith was the beautiful one. And we were like, 'Well, we have talent.'"

Ouch.