Grits n’ Whiskey

Go Big Or Go Home. That could easily be the motto for Ryan Laird’s life these days. You’ve read about this up and coming star taking out his entire life savings to put up a billboard in Nashville, asking Taylor Swift to produce his album.

Ryan spoke with Grits N Whiskey about his unique idea and filled in the blanks on this crazy, yet hopefully worthwhile adventure.

Ryan tells GnW that he chose Taylor because “she is a great writer [and] writes songs about real life…she doesn’t candy coat things…she just tells it like it is”.

The single, Laird says he hasn’t quite had his ‘I’ve made it moment yet’ and still has ‘a LOT of goals left to achieve’. He says ‘there have been some really cool moments so far… seeing myself in Country Weekly”.

What made you decide to post the billboard?
The idea came to me as I was laying in bed one morning.  I wanted Taylor to produce my record, so I knew I needed a unique way to get her attention because she’s so busy these days promoting her record and preparing to tour.  At first I wasn’t sure, but I’m really glad I convinced myself to do it!

What exactly went in to getting your billboard up?
Well, first there was the idea.  I took that idea to my manager and a few close friends to see what they thought of it.  We had to figure out what was involved in putting a billboard up, and how much it was going to cost (seriously…LIFE SAVINGS!!).  Next step was finding a photographer who “got it”.  Ben DiRienzo is a great guy to work with…he put it all together for me, and I’m really happy with the results.

Ryan still hasn’t heard from Taylor yet, but he is very hopeful as are the many followers he has acquired along the way. When asked where he sees himself in five years he says he’d “love to be touring around the world performing and meeting new people”.

Laird puts it best: “Who knows what the future holds”.

Check out Ryan’s myspace page and listen to some of his songs;  We really like ‘Luv Me’ and ‘That’s Just Me’. Anyone with this amount of determination deserves our support.

Good Luck Ryan!

The line up for Country Thunder in Arizona was just announced and boy it is AMAZING! Click HERE to get your tickets. The festival will take place April 1-4 in Florence, Arizona.

Tim McGraw

Alan Jackson

Montgomery Gentry

Blake Shelton

Rodney Atkins

Tracy Lawrence

Neal McCoy

Jack Ingram

Patty Loveless

The Lost Trailer

Little Big Town

Keith Anderson

Jason Michael Carroll

Zac Brown Band

Who are you most excited to see?

Riders Jeans presents ‘An Evening With Jimmy Wayne’. All you have to do is go to THIS website and enter your information for a chance to win. Be sure to apply by February 9.

Grand Prize Package

• 3 day/2 night trip for two
• Roundtrip air travel for two
• 2 nights hotel accommodations (double occupancy)
• 2 makeovers including hair & makeup from a stylist to the stars
• Invitation for you and a friend to join Jimmy Wayne for dinner
• 2 Riders or Wrangler wardrobes (tops, bottoms & belts)

20 Runner-Up Prizes

• Autographed copy of Jimmy Wayne’s albu m, Do You Believe Me Now featuring the #1 hit title track and the new hit single “I Will”

Alison Bonaguro over at CMT just posted a really interesting article about the song ‘Chicken Fried’ by the Zac Brown Band. Turns out, The Lost Trailers recorded the song few years ago and it debuted at #53 on the charts.

Check out the full article HERE. It’s pretty cool.

Have you always dreamed of opening for Little Big Town? Well, now you have your chance on their first-ever headlining tour. Got to THIS website and register your band for the chance to win. Get all your friends and family to go and vote for you.

The top 4 bands will get to open for Little Big Town during one of their shows in March. You’ll also get to hangout the Zac Brown Band, Ashton Shepard and Kate & Kacey Coppola who are also opening for LBT.

What are you waiting for? Go register! Voting ends February 27.

Gone Country 3 premiered last night on CMT and boy was it full of fabulous one-liners. Check out our favorites below:

1. “Who is she? Is she like a 10th runner up on [American] Idol or something like that?” - Taylor Dane while looking at a picture of former Miss USA Tara Conor.

2. “When I saw Taylor Dane I thought ‘great pipes’ and not metophorically” - Richard Greico

3. “What did he do? think Tara think” - Former Miss USA Tara Connor staring at a picture of George Clinton

4. “It’s time to make country funky. Lookout Nashville, Dr. Funkistein is here” - George Clinton

5. “I’m gonna see George Clinton in his skivvies.” - Justin Guarini

6. “Hey, somebody stole all my drugs” - Mickey Dolenz

7. “You gotta love it [country music] so much it’s like a religion” - George Jones

8. “To us you’re [George Jones] king” - Shiela E.

9. “I felt a little sorry for Tara cause she was just scared to death” - Mickey Dolenz

10. “Didn’t Justin Guarini go out with Paula Abdul?” - random girl interviewed on the street

• Best performance of the night: tie -  Sheila E./Taylor Dane

• Worst performance of the night: Tara Conor

What was your favorite moment of last nights premiere?

If you’re going to be in Nashville on February 2, you must get tickets to the Wildhorse Saloon. Dolly Parton, Ronnie Dunn, Keith Anderson and Kellie Pickler will be performing a show benefiting the W.O. Smith Music School. Tickets start at $45.

The W.O. Smith Music School is a nonprofit music school that provides music lessons for children from low income families for 50 cents a lesson.

Click HERE to donate to the W.O. Smith Music School.

Rodney Atkins took to his blog to thank his fans for coming out to support him at his recent shows. We think it’s great when stars appreciate their fans. If anyone was at his Salina, Kansas or Juilet, Illinois and has some pictures, send them over for us to post.

A Quick Note From The Road

I can’t thank the folks in Denver enough for coming out to the shows at the Grizzly Rose. It was an incredble 3 nights.

We just played in Milwaukee last night at Northern Lights. Again, thanks to all of you wonderful folks for coming out and making it a great night.

We’re in Joliet, Illinois tonight playing at the Rialto Theatre.

This place is amazing. We played here for the first time in 2006.

It was an acoustic show back then

so this will be cool to be full band. We sure appreciate the hospitality everyone has shown us at these venues. We’re headed to Kansas after the show tonight.

Check out Rodney’s Upcoming Shows:

It’s so good to know that even if you’re the #1 selling artist in the world right, and a country singer, that you also love Britney Spears. Taylor Swift took to her blog to vent about her overstocked bathroom, (we know that feeling) and to praise her mother for the fabulous organizing she did. But what warmed our heart the most was that Taylor still has a poster of Britney Spears up in her room. Now wouldn’t that be an AWESOME duet, Taylor Swift and Britney Spears.

While I was in LA, my mom re-arranged my bathroom.

That’s probably my longest blog title yet, so if you weren’t able to experience the whole thing because it cut the last part off (due to being so long)… It said “While I was in LA, my mom re-arranged my bathroom”. As you can imagine, my bathroom looks different now. When I left for LA, my way of storing all of my make up and hair products was to pile it all on my bathroom counter. Most of it was grouped together in a very organized system (the pile). That’s not to say the system was not flawed. There was one tiny, insignificant recurring problem.. If you pulled one thing out of the middle of the pile, it would create a giant avalanche of lip gloss and eye shadow and other various cosmetics (sometimes a container of powder, which was undoubtedly left halfway closed– SO much fun to clean up!). I was fine with my system. 17% of the time, it worked perfectly without disastrous results. I wasn’t going to complain about it because whining isn’t really my thing, and I didn’t have time to create another system (this takes planning and brainstorming!). So my bathroom has stayed the same terrible mess of piled up beauty products for two years.. while I traveled the world with the sad, unorganized state of my bathroom perpetually weighing in the the back of my conscience. Then suddenly… EVERYTHING changed. I came back from LA and discovered a whole new world. My bathroom is now a magical, wondrous place with cabinets for storing make up and hooks on the door for holding scarves. There are even drawers for my hair brushes and incredible little shelves for my towels! There’s a new shower curtain in place of the one I’ve had since 7th grade (the one that has always secretly creeped me out a little, because it’s all these people standing around and it really looks like they’re watching me. Which was weird. I never liked them, and I’m glad they’re gone.) There are little windows in one of the dressers, and through it, I can see the candles I used to have stashed randomly on the counter. Now they have their perfect little home, all gathered together in their tiny, organized sanctuary. But then I turned around and was startled by something… Where was my Britney Spears poster…. No, this can’t be right… WHERE is it?!? I searched the room frantically for a few seconds before finding it’s new spot. My Britney Spears poster (from 6th grade) had been relocated to my bedroom, which is another AMAZING upgrade. This way, I see it more often and it more proudly displays my unwavering devotion to Britney Spears. My jewelry has been neatly placed into these little jewelry containers that separate your necklaces so they don’t get tangled into a huge unrecognizable, mangled ball that is IMPOSSIBLE to untangle. That used to happen to me all the time, but NOW it’s preventable! Also, I found so many things that went missing over the years.. The most notable find would have to be my glasses. I couldn’t believe it, but there they were! Apparently they had been lost somewhere in the giant pile of cosmetic doom.. I eventually gave up the search after a few weeks. Now they’re back! The moral of the story is… My mom is wonderful and we apparently share the same hobby: Compulsively organizing and straightening up around the house whenever we’re bored.

I can’t wait to tell you all about LA and my life-changing guest appearance on CSI. Basically… When I’m really old and can only remember one story about my life to go back and relive, and tell over and over and over again to the point where my grandchildren roll their eyes and leave the room…… That’s the story. Ah, I can see it now. “You know, when I was a youngster, I got to guest star on CSI! It was marvelous! So marvelous, it was!”

It was that good.

I’ll tell you all about the rest. I love you with all my heart.

lovelovelove
-T-

For the 7th week in a row, Taylor Swift is on top with her album ‘Fearless’. Way to go!

She’s beating out Beyonce, Nickelback, Kanye and the soundtrack to Nortorious that round out the top 5.