Country Music News

TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY

(Monday, Nov. 11)

Billy Smith, bass player/vocalist with the Osborne Brothers, born in Reidsville, N.C., 1956.

Roy Acuff's recording of "Write Me, Sweetheart" charted, 1944.

Johnny Cash records "Ballad of a Teenage Queen," 1957.

Merle Haggard recorded "A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today," 1975.

MUSIC AND MORE

PAISLEY: HIS MUSIC LESS 'MEDIA FRIENDLY' THAN POP

While earning praise for playing hard-country music among so many pop country acts, Brad Paisley says the traditional style gets less media attention than other big acts of today.

"What I do and what a lot of other people do is not necessarily the most media friendly (style)," Paisley tells the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

He says some accounts of him disliking other types of country music is not true, and adds he's open to many different styles.

Last week Paisley won the CMA's best video award for "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)," which was his third No. 1 single.

38 MILLION WATCH CMA AWARDS

The Country Music Association Awards show was a big ratings boost for CBS-TV, as an estimated 38 million viewers watched all or part of the three-hour telecast last Wednesday night.

The show gave CBS its first Wednesday victory in viewers and households of the season, according to a CMA statement.

Compared to last year, the 2002 CMA awards show drew 5 percent more adult viewers and 24 percent more men in the 25-54 age group.

SHERIDAN WINS SESAC AWARDS FOR CHESNEY'S 'YOUNG'

In the shadow of the glitzy, nationally televised CMA awards show in Nashville last week was a more reserved awards ceremony for SESAC, a performing rights organization.

And it was "Young," a hit song performed by country star Kenny Chesney, that was a big award-winner for songwriter Naoise Sheridan.

Sheridan won SESAC awards for country songwriter and song of the year for "Young," which is on Chesney's wildly successful "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" album released last April.