Music Roundup

So…been a while…working long shifts leaves little room for blogging…let’s see what’s new: Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood finally made it official with him getting to one knee and popping the question in front of 7000 fans. Luckily for him, she said yes, and so they are now engaged. Interesting that this happens right at the time of Trisha’s comeback, but otherwise, it really is no big surprise. There’s been something special between these two for some time…. At the event where this happened, Garth wasn’t planning on singing until Buck Owens talked him into it. He sang George Strait’s “Amarillo by Morning” and his own “Friends in Low Places” using Bucks famous Red White and Blue Guitar. Now, Garth singing Amarillo (one of my all time faves) is something I wish I would have seen… Speaking of music – check out Trisha’s latest single, Georgia Rain. Excellent song, and a rather picturesque video. You can see the video at her website. Also out lately, Toby Keith’s Honkytonk University album has finally hit the stores and by now he’s on his second single and video from the album. (That’s one long time from first single to album release) I’ve actually read good reviews of it and have really liked the two songs I’ve heard so far. His latest, “As Good As I Once Was” is pretty good, and kinda funny too. So is the video. The reviews have stated that the album is closer to material that he did prior to his last couple of more “American bombast” type albums. I liked some of his earlier stuff – the song “Tired” from the ‘Dreamwalkin’ album is fantastic. Maybe I’ll check out his latest… Also, Dwight Yoakam is set to release a new album June 14th called “Blame the Vain”. It’s his first self produced album as well. I listened to it the other night on CMT.com listening party, where you can listen to the whole album. Pretty good actually. The title track is well written and has a good groove. He also covers songs from Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison. The cover of Elvis’ “When I First Came Here” is really good. I’ve been on a Dwight Yoakam listening streak lately, especially the tracks “The Heart That You Own” and “Suspicious Minds”, so it was good news for me finding out about this album. Actually, the only way I found out was browsing New and Future releases on Amazon.com. This album needs more promotion… Speaking of Dwight, his song “The Heart That You Own” was the first song of his to be featured in a movie and on a soundtrack. The movie was White Sands, starring Willem Dafoe (in a rare good guy role), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and one of my other favorites, Mickey Rourke (as an interesting bad guy). I had rented the VHS of it years ago and thought it was alright, but recently watched it again on my DVD and liked it more now. The widescreen for the scenic shots is much better, and there is some nice cinematography to look at as well. I picked up the DVD used for a dirt cheap price and its always nice to find a good movie in one of those ‘hidden gems’ moments. That was the second movie I watched that day with Mary Mastrantonio in it. (It was a Saturday I wasn’t feeling too well, so watching movies and ballgames was a nice way to spend it :) I hadn’t really heard of her much outside of Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner. I watched her in the movie The Abyss that day as well. Pretty good sci-fi movie too with Ed Harris. ‘Course what I remember of that movie was the bits of it I watched on an airplane flight years ago…as a kid and I had no headphones, so needless to say it didn’t make much sense at the time. Watching it now wasn’t bad – and it was a nice way to kill 3 hours… Later…