One song on the new album, "Days Like This," is a tune he wrote with his friends Kenny Beard and Casey Beathard early one morning while they were having coffee on the back deck of Adkins' cabin.

Trace Adkins ran the numbers. And it turns out, he thinks he’s way ahead of the game.

“If you look at the life span of a country music artist, and you take into account the careers that have lasted 30-plus years and all the one-hit wonders, then the average life span of an artist would be just about five or six years,” Adkins told CMT.com. “I’m way beyond that. I’m so far past the life expectancy that everything’s gravy now. I’m just glad I’m still around and have some relevance.”

That’s how he sees the title track off his new album, Proud to Be Here, released Tuesday (Aug. 2). After 15 years on the country charts, he’s just glad to be on the right side of the dirt, as the song says.

One song on the new album, “Days Like This,” is a tune he wrote with his friends Kenny Beard and Casey Beathard early one morning while they were having coffee on the back deck of Adkins’ cabin.

“The morning news was on in the background, but we were just looking out over the vista,” Adkins recalled. “Someone said, ‘What are we gonna write about,’ and I said, ‘Not this bad news. Not on a day like this.’ And I went over and turned the news off. Forty-five minutes later, we had a song. It’s nice when it’s not a chore.”

There was a time, though, when songwriting was somewhat of a chore for Adkins.

“I just got kinda burnt out,” he admitted. “It had gotten to that point where the business had just beat me down. I didn’t want to write. So I disengaged from writers, kind of pulled away. Even if I had an idea for a song, I’d just call a songwriter friend and give it to him so it didn’t go to waste. But then in the last couple years, Kenny [Beard] would push me back in that direction. He shamed me into it, I guess. But I write with friends of mine. I’m not gonna go downtown and sit in a cubicle.”

Even when he’s singing the words of another songwriter, Adkins does so, as he always has, like he means it.

“Every song is a personal statement from me,” he said. “Rest assured, I’m not gonna sing something without conviction.”

Proof of that is his current hit “Just Fishin’,” which Beathard wrote with Monty Criswell and Ed Hill.

“That song is one that puts me in a real place. I’ve fished with all of my daughters. They enjoy having fun with it, not getting too serious. It’s not about getting on the Bassmaster circuit,” he laughed. “But it’s easy for me to sing and believable doing it.”

And in what’s become a signature of every Adkins album, the tracks on Proud to Be Here seamlessly take you from his sentimental balladry to light-hearted novelty songs to what he calls stone-cold country. There’s one of those called “Poor Folks,” and Adkins said it’s been a while since he’s recorded a song with such strong traditional country overtones.

“First, the chord progression is just traditional country,” he said. “But then the lyric of song is a line I’ve used so many times when you’re doing something so country. Me and my buddies will be stuck in the mud, fishing or hunting, and I’ll say, ‘I wonder what the poor folks are doing?’ We don’t have five dollars between us, but we’re having the time of our life. At that moment, the irony of it strikes you: You’re poor yourself, but it’s a rich experience.”

Then again, not all of Adkins’ songs will necessarily reflect the irony of a poor man’s perspective on life or make you stop and think. Sometimes, a song will just throw two of the genre’s most distinctive voices together in a studio and see what comes of it.

“If I Was a Woman,” which Adkins wrote with Beard, Sherrie Austin and Jeff Bates, was originally planned as a duet with Toby Keith. But the way Adkins explained it, when it came time to record, there was really only one guy silly enough to sing the bonus track with him

“I called Blake [Shelton] and said, ‘Sing the thing with me,’” he said. “He agreed to it before he’d even heard it. And when he did, he said, ‘Thank God. I thought it was gonna suck.’

“I cussed him for a good, solid 90 seconds for thinking that.”

Kris Kristofferson worked as a janitor at Columbia Studios.

(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that’s happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)

In the September issue of Cowboys & Indians magazine, Kris Kristofferson talks about his life before Nashville (Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford, Army captain and aspiring songwriter) and the turn of events after arriving in Nashville.

“I think if it hadn’t been for Nashville, I would’ve ended up going to Vietnam, because I’d been in the Army. I was definitely not doing what I thought I was supposed to do. And I think I probably would’ve ended up a hopeless alcoholic or something,” he says after proclaiming that Nashville saved his life. He wasn’t an overnight success, though.

The article talks of his lean years, when he had to work as a janitor at Columbia Studios. But ever the optimist, Kristofferson recalls seeing the good in that job. “Yes, I was sweeping floors and emptying ashtrays. But I was emptying George Jones’ ashtrays,” Kristofferson says. “And sweeping the floor after Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash recorded.”

via cmt.com

'Hank Williams: The Legend Begins' features the late icon's earliest home recordings

The Hank Williams Estate has teamed up with Time Life for a three-CD set, collecting newly discovered Hank Williams recordings, meticulously restored to their original sound quality.

‘Hank Williams: The Legend Begins’ features the late icon’s earliest home recordings on the first ‘Rare and Unreleased’ disc, including cuts ‘Fan It’ and ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band,’ which have not been heard since the 15-year-old Hank and his pal and accordionist, Pee Wee Moultrie, recorded them in 1938. The first disc also contains four 1940 recordings of standards like ‘Freight Train Blues’ and ‘Greenback Dollar,’ showing tremendous growth for the budding country legend.

“Talk about a discovery!,” says Hank’s daughter, Jett Williams. “The first recording of my dad when he was fifteen was given to me decades ago, and then the 1940 home recordings followed a few years later. My husband Keith and I finally got up the nerve to get with the best sound people in Nashville to see if we could salvage these extraordinary recordings. It worked! We did it!”

The second and third discs feature 49 songs from Hank’s first syndicated radio show, Health and Happiness, including cuts like ‘Tramp on the Street,’ which were never performed elsewhere, and have been restored to sound exactly as they did over 60 years ago.

“Hank continues to speak to and entertain us across the generations,” added Time Life executive Mike Jason. “These recordings give us a rare and special insight as this American music giant begins his career.”

‘Hank Williams: The Legend Begins’ will be in stores on September 13, 2011. For more info, visit Hank Jr.’s site here.

Before Jake Owen was a big deal, out on the road opening shows for Keith Urban, he was just a country artist in search of the right look.

If you Google something totally random like, “Where does Tim McGraw get his jeans?” you will get about 10.9 million answers. The veracity of which I cannot guarantee. But before Jake Owen was a big deal, out on the road opening shows for Keith Urban, he was just a country artist in search of the right look.

“I remember going to a Tim McGraw concert. And you know, there’s a big difference in your local guy playing in a bar onstage and then going to see Kenny Chesney or Keith Urban or Tim McGraw, and they’ve got these cool-looking clothes on,” Owen said in a recent radio interview. “And I remember Googling back in the day, ‘Where does Tim McGraw get his jeans?’ ‘Cause I wanted some cool-lookin’ jeans!”

I’m not sure whether the jeans Owen wears now are the ones he found Googling McGraw a few years ago or if they are the ones he is singing about in his “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” but I do know that those are some damn lucky jeans.

McGraw has to wear the corrective boot for four more weeks, but he admitted it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

He’s got a little hitch in his gitalong now, that much is obvious. But how’d it get there? I spent some time with Tim McGraw before his Chicago show on Saturday night (July 16) and thought I’d get some real answers about how he injured his foot.

Because if anyone knew how McGraw broke his foot, it would be McGraw. Right? Not quite. “I don’t know if it happened running or in the part of the show where I jump off speakers. It could’ve happened any number of ways,” he told me. “You know, it hurt for a while, and I kept running and kept working out and kept doing shows. And for a couple weeks, it just kept getting worse and worse, and it finally got to where I couldn’t walk, and it was really swollen.”

With some pestering from wife Faith Hill, he said he finally went to the doctor and found out it was broken. “It’s like a green twig break. It started out as a stress fracture, and I kept pounding it, pounding it and pounding it, and it got worse and worse.” McGraw has to wear the corrective boot for four more weeks, but he admitted it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. “I think I’m not taking care of it as well as I should,” he said.

Since he counts on running to stay in such good shape, he’s had to make do with other workouts. “I have a machine that’s sort of like an elliptical, but it’s a seated elliptical that I use a couple of times a day. Nothing replaces running, but at least it’s something. And I still work out. I can still lift.”

Even when they are in the thick of touring season — and with a broken foot — McGraw makes exercise a priority. “We find a gym every place we go,” he said.

via cmt.com

The Alaska native and her husband, rodeo star Ty Murray, are thrilled with the new addition.

Jewel is a mom! The singer gave birth to a 7 lb., 6 oz. baby boy named Kase Townes at a hospital in Texas on Monday evening, July 11.

The Alaska native and her husband, rodeo star Ty Murray, are thrilled with the new addition. “Ty and I are so pleased to welcome our new baby boy into the world,” Jewel tells People magazine. “We are overcome with happiness — it really is as great as everyone told us it would be — better even!”

The songbird struggled to conceive for about two years. She discovered she was pregnant while shooting her new reality competition show, ‘Platinum Hit.’ “I have always been a workaholic, so I had to learn how to slow down and take care of myself in a different way,” she admits.

Jewel prepared for the birth of their new son by penning an album of children’s songs, which will be released this fall. “I wrote this album for my child,” she tells The Boot. “It was all the stuff I wanted to say to him.”

The new parents dated ten years before tying the knot in 2008, but Jewel knew right from the start she wanted to spend her life with the Texan. “I began a US tour, and we began to talk on the phone frequently until we decided to finally have a first date — about 6 months after we first met,” Jewel recalls. “I know the exact moment I fell in love with him. We were sitting by a river in northern California … It wasn’t any one thing he said — it was his whole being. It was his quietness. It was his toughness and strength, but it was the counterpoint of his kindness that set it apart. I knew I would love him. I knew instantly that he would be solid as a rock and someone I could depend on.”

via-theboot

The guitar slinger is crossing the country on his Get Closer world tour, performing his current Top 30 single, 'Long Hot Summer,'

Keith Urban is having a hot summer indeed. The guitar slinger is crossing the country on his Get Closer world tour, performing his current Top 30 single, ‘Long Hot Summer,’ which he wrote with ’80s pop icon Richard Marx.

“We hadn’t written a lot in the last year or two,” the father of two explains on his blog. “I really loved writing with him. We wrote ‘Better Life’ on the last record and ‘Everybody’ on the last album as well. I just really wanted to write with him again. He came to Nashville and we did a typical sort of drum machine and little loop groove. I like the drive and the edgier sort of thing.”

The husband of actress Nicole Kidman also sang about his favorite season in his 2009 hit, ‘Til Summer Comes Around.’ It’s a theme he hopes to continue in the future. “I like to have at least one good summer song on the record,” says Keith. “It’s been a hit for touring. It’s always good having those songs.”

The singer-songwriter says he was inspired to pen ‘Long Hot Summer’ by thinking of a specific scenario. “I love radio songs, and there are certain songs that I write specifically trying to hear them on the radio or just in the car,” he tells The Boot. “That’s the place I usually have in mind when I write. I still love hearing music in a car more than anywhere.”

via-theboot

Despite his country-to-the-core set list, Justin understands the importance of reaching a broader audience.

“I don’t think our music could be any more opposite than Rascal Flatts, me and those guys,” Justin Moore confesses to GAC. “But that’s one reason I’m looking so much forward to [the shows]. I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’ll be challenging for us a little bit, and we’re gonna play in front of a fan base that we probably haven’t played in front of before.”

Despite his country-to-the-core set list, Justin understands the importance of reaching a broader audience, especially with his opening act slot on the Flatts Fest tour.

“It gives you the opportunity to grow your fan base, which is the key to sustaining the level of success and adding to it every year,” he admits.

When it comes to measuring up to the trio, Justin is doing exceptionally, both on and off stage.

“He’s a great caddy!” Flatts lead singer Gary LeVox reports. “He’s the greenhorn out there, and that’s what opening acts have to do for Joe Don. It’s a prerequisite. We put it in real fine writing at the bottom of the contract when he signed it. It said ‘JD caddy’ in there and Justin signed it. Welcome to a big headlining tour. It’s just part of it. And Justin will be available at any golf course for autographs while Joe Don’s golfing.”

Justin’s current single, “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Way,’ moves closer to the top spot this week, sitting at No. 3. His album, ‘Outlaws Like Me,’ debuted last week at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, with sales of 65,000 copies.