Everyone should know better...

... than to challenge Producer J. on Montgomery Gentry triva. Really.

Last night MG held a little soiree to celebrate the release of their album (thank you for not doing it during CMA Music Fest!) that included a massive country music trivia game.

The idea was cute -- tying it into the theme of their current single "Back When I Knew It All." So they were looking for the know-it-alls. The rules, however, were incredibly complex and hard to follow, and I wasn't drinking anything stronger than Diet Coke. Can't imagine how the Jack & Coke drinkers followed along! Troy helped read questions. Eddie just walked around in his sunglasses being cool.

Team XM was comprised of myself, Intern Suzanne, Amy Paige, and 2 people from WSIX. There were probably 125 people playing, and I can't begin to tell you how they came up with winners or where we wound up placing. (Ideas were better than the execution at this event.) As happens when you're playing on a team, not everyone agrees, so some consessions had to be made.

I was ok with conceding to someone else's guess about how many tattoo's Troy had, even though I wound up being right. (3) I listened as my teammates named every Mel Gibson movie except the one they'd done a song for, and then gave them the answer. (We Were Soldiers) But I argued and argued with the guy from WSIX about what year it was that Montgomery Gentry won Vocal Duo of the Year at the CMA's.

Was it 2001? No, It was before I worked at XM.
I was at CountryCool.com
Had to have been 2000.
No no no, it wasn't that early. More like 2004.
Kenny Rogers was in the press room and we were all trying to not show that we were ignoring him as we watched Eddie and Troy on stage for the night's big upset.
Definitely 2000.
No because their first album came out in like 98 or 99. It had to have been 2003 or 2004
I was standing at the back of the room manning a camera. It was before I worked for XM. Clearly, it was 2000
They lost the ACM that year, I remember the party afterwords, it was 2004.
I was wearing black pants and a royal blue sleeveless jacket. Eddie was wearing black. Troy looked hot.
IT WAS 2000 BY GOD!
Ok, so we're going with 2004? Good.

Seriously... did he not realize who he was dealing with???

:-D We did have fun though. And I got some good scoop on how they do programming over at 98. Probably just as well they didn't give each team their results. The winning team for each round, however, got a bottle of Jim Beam. Ick. To this day I hate the smell of that stuff.

Ira Dean, Trent Willmon and Jeremy McComb were all in attendance. (Ira won a bottle of Jim Beam.) Storme Warren emceed the event, bless his heart - he and Trent showed up wearing the same shirt. Trent... not much of a conversationalist that night, but I tried. Amy tried. Amy can carry on a conversation with a tree, but not Trent. Perhaps he needed some Jim Beam???

Onto CMA Music Fest events...

Did a walk through for the Tracy Lawrence Fan Club Party today. Tracy's little girl was with him - she's a cutie. Neat venue -- the new Judge Beans at Greer Stadium. I hadn't been in there before. Tracy is working on some special guests... but I can't tell you who!


We also have started getting in our giveaway items... which means we're in the process of putting together 2,000 XM / GM goodie bags. That's just for the first part of the week. Check out my little volunteer assembly line!


Schedule of events now up at xmradio.com/cma . Please, no comments about the photo... NOT the ones I suggested.

I've heard a rumor that I actually have a desk at the Sommet Center now. I'm going to try to go check it out tomorrow!

This photo was taken as I was standing in my office last week. ---->