by Julian Spivey
The “Garth Brooks: Live from Las Vegas” concert special on CBS on Friday, Nov. 29 was the rare case of something being both fun and disappointing all at the same time.
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The show was a televised performance of the one man shows Garth Brooks has done over the last few years at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, during his semi-retirement form music, where he goes through his life and career and performs for the crowd bits and pieces of songs and artists that helped to influence him. The songs and artists range from the hardcore classic country of George Jones and Merle Haggard to singer-songwriters like Paul Simon and James Taylor to soul singers like Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight.

There were some real gems performed during the night by Garth Brooks, who seemed to be the same raving maniac on stage that fans knew and loved throughout the ‘90s, such as Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind” and George Jones’ “The Grand Tour.” Brooks also performed snippets of his own classics throughout the night and a duet with wife and fellow country singer Trisha Yearwood on “In Another’s Eyes.”

It was also incredibly fun to hear Brooks talk about his childhood and family and what music people like his father and mother enjoyed listening to and how their musical tastes affected his and his future career. It was nice to see how funny Brooks is, even if at times he’s a little too corn pone, and at times throughout the one man show it almost seemed more like stand-up comedy than a concert special.

Despite knowing the special was going to mirror his Las Vegas shows and that he would be performing mostly cover songs this is where the disappointment came in.
I really would have much rather preferred Brooks to perform entire songs, even if they weren’t his, and I think he could’ve done a good job at still letting us into the stories behind how these songs influenced him. Sure, he wouldn’t have covered so much ground as far as quantity of songs, but the quality of the special would’ve been a lot better. However, you could tell that the extremely excited Brooks loved playing stand-up comedian and storyteller for the show and it appeared that the live audience as well as many watching from home, judging by social media output, enjoyed it, as well.

Seeing Garth Brooks again was a huge part of the fun of the CBS special, but it also almost seemed like just a way for him to advertise and sell his current box set “Blame It All On My Roots,” which are covers performed by him during his one man show, something that’s only available at Wal-Mart.

Watching Brooks having a ball onstage and his voice sounding as great as ever on the snippets of songs he did sing was worth the watch, but I never could get over the feeling of being robbed of actual concert performances.  

by Julian Spivey
One of the closest award races for Wednesday’s (Nov. 6) CMA Awards is the New Artist of the Year battle between bro-country duo Florida Georgia Line and kickass country chick Kacey Musgraves. It’s also a battle that could be an important moment for the future of country music.
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The winner of this award, which will most assuredly be either Florida Georgia Line or Musgraves, despite the fact that my vote, if I had one, would actually have gone to fellow nominee Kip Moore, will essentially be either an “it’s here to stay” welcoming of bro-country, stereotyping, pop-country, bullshit or a “putting our foot down” statement of our past and future will mesh brightly in the originality and poetics of a burgeoning singer-songwriter.

Florida Georgia Line is what country music currently is – bland, degrading, dumbed down. Musgraves is what country music can and should be – creative, lyrically smart and actually country.

Now, don’t get me wrong I don’t think this award will actually dictate whether or not country music continues on its downward path creatively and artistically, because that’s here to stay for at least a little while, I just think it’s the moment where the country music industry will either announce its approval for this style of music or announce whether they begrudge it, but don’t necessarily respect or award it, simply because it makes them money.

And, that’s why this current state of country music isn’t going anywhere for a while … because, despite the fact that much of it sounds like the soundtrack to Hell, it’s incredibly popular and makes the industry a ton of money. You could argue that country music is more popular today than it’s ever been, because it’s essentially dumped everything that it used to be – and unfortunately all those things made it the great genre it used to be. Country music has sold its soul for popularity and money. Whether or not it gets its soul back depends on how it reacts to artists like Kacey Musgraves.

Florida Georgia Line has had nothing but success since entering the country music fray in 2012. Their first three singles released to country radio, “Cruise,” “Get Your Shine On” and “Round Here” have all topped the country radio airplay chart, despite all being utterly horrible. “Cruise,” nominated for Single of the Year at the CMAs, is statistically (and vomit-inducingly) the most successful single in country music history by spending 24 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Country chart, breaking a record set almost 60 years ago by honky tonk crooner Webb Pierce.

Musgraves, on the other hand, hasn’t seen the same amount of chart success. Her breakthrough single “Merry Go ‘Round,” considered the best country song of the last year by numerous publications and has been nominated for both CMA Song of the Year and Single of the Year, barely cracked the country top 10. Her second single “Blowin’ Smoke” failed to break into the top 20 and her newest single “Follow Your Arrow” isn’t seeing significant airplay amidst its controversial lyrics (even though the controversy is idiotic) that don’t seem to mind homosexuality, which is something a lot of country fans disagree with.   

Florida Georgia Line, and similar acts, aren’t going anywhere because their generally beloved by fans. Musgraves isn’t going anywhere either, because truly great artists like her get to hang on due to their critical acclaim. However, the popular act is the one likely to remain on the radio and at the forefront of the industry, while the lesser one will have to settle for making great music that fewer people hear.

It’s really becoming an adage in today’s music world that you can either make popular music or good music, but rarely shall the two mingle. Tomorrow night we’ll tellingly see which one the country music industry will honor. I won’t hold my breath, but would love to have it taken away.