Thanks for saying what many Tennessee fans have been wanting to hear.
Thanks for not engaging in coach speak.
Thanks for not celebrating a nine-win season like you’ve won the SEC Championship.
Thanks for not proclaiming that winning the Music City Bowl was the team’s goal.
Wolf, a rising senior tight end at Tennessee, said he is extra motivated this spring by shortcomings the past two years.
Tennessee was favored to win the East Division last year and failed. It was in contention to win the East in 2015 but couldn’t stop Florida on 4th-and-14 in the final minutes.
“We just realized that winning nine games isn’t what we want to do,’’ Wolf said in a recent interview.
“We want to win them all. We want to win a national championship and we’re not going to do that if we’re not as close as a group as we possibly can be.
“I think that kind of flipped the switch and everybody realized that’s what you’ve got to do to do that.’’
Well said. No, 9-4 isn’t good enough – not now.
That’s not to say Butch Jones hasn’t done a heckuva job helping Tennessee climb out of a dark hole left by the incompetency of Derek Dooley. But the Vols have the most talent of any team in the East last year, beat Georgia and Florida, then choked in losing to South Carolina and Vanderbilt in the second half of the SEC season.
It was a major missed opportunity.
Wolf took his share of the blame, saying he dropped too many passes. Only at least two occasions, he bobbled away sure touchdown passes.
Wolf’s goal this spring and fall: Zero drops.
Those drops, he said, “ate me alive.’’
I don’t know if Wolf can accomplish his goal, but I like his spunk. I like his candor. I like his leadership.
Wolf was asked if newly hired strength and conditioning coach Rock Gullickson has made the Vols bigger and stronger. Instead, he shed some light on a problem that appeared to exist last season.
“I think there were a lot of guys that needed to self-evaluate their work ethic in the weight room,’’ Wolf said. “And a lot of guys have (done so)’’
Perhaps being humbled by not winning the East Division will inspire the Vols.
If not, Tennessee could run its streak of not playing in the SEC Championship game to 10 years.
That’s a statement no reasonable person would argue. Fans of most SEC schools are more interested in the battle at outside linebacker than they are the basketball team’s upcoming home game.
Still, SEC basketball has received plenty of national attention in recent weeks.
The conference sent five teams to the NCAA tournament with three of them advancing to the Elite Eight. South Carolina’s run to the Final Four has become one of the tournament’s biggest stories.
While basketball has a long way to go to catch football in terms of fan interest, the gap appears to be closing in the category of performance. Why? Coaching.
The SEC has seen several proven football coaches leave their respective schools in the last several years. Meanwhile, the league has recently welcomed a collection of basketball coaches with successful pasts.
Compare the two sides and the record will show SEC basketball has more accomplished coaches than the football side. The proof is below.
Alabama
Football – Nick Saban
Saban is the best football coach in the SEC and probably the country. His accomplishments speak for themselves as it relates to this article.
Basketball – Avery Johnson
Johnson is a well-respected coach thanks to his success in the NBA, which includes a Coach of the Year award in 2006 and NBA Finals appearance that same year. Alabama has an 18-18 record in SEC play in the two seasons since Johnson took over.
Most accomplished: Saban
Arkansas
Football – Bret Bielema
Bielema’s most impressive accomplishments occurred at Wisconsin, which won two Big Ten championships and one co-championship under Bielema. The Badgers played in three straight Rose Bowls with Bielema, who has helped Arkansas reach a bowl game in three consecutive seasons.
Basketball Mike Anderson
Anderson’s record includes a Big 12 tournament championship in 2009 at Missouri as well as two Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight appearance. He’s helped Arkansas reach the NCAA tournament twice in six seasons.
Most accomplished: Bielema
Auburn
Football – Gus Malzahn
Malzahn’s first season as Auburn’s head coach has been his best season so far. He won the SEC championship in 2013 and took Florida State down to the wire in the national title game before coming up short. The Tigers reached the Sugar Bowl last season after finishing the regular season with an 8-4 record.
Basketball – Bruce Pearl
Pearl’s record prior to arriving at Auburn was tremendous. At Tennessee, Pearl reach the NCAA tournament all six seasons he was in Knoxville. The Vols made the school’s only Elite Eight appearance in 2010. Pearl’s SEC record at Auburn is 16-38.
Most accomplished: Malzahn
Florida
Football – Jim McElwain
Florida has won the Eastern Division each of the two seasons McElwain has served as head coach. The Gators are 19-8 overall under McElwain with a 1-1 bowl record.
Basketball – Mike White
The Gators just finished a run to the Elite Eight before coming up short against SEC foe South Carolina. White has widely been considered one of the top young coaches in college basketball for several years.
Most accomplished: White
Georgia
Football – Kirby Smart
The Bulldogs finished last season with a 7-5 record in the regular season in their first year under Smart, who helped Georgia sign one of the nation’s top recruiting classes in February. Smart’s recruiting is unquestioned; his on-field coaching is unproven.
Basketball – Mark Fox
Georgia has experienced moderate success under Fox, who has helped Georgia win 20 or more games in four of his eight season in Athens. Georgia has two NCAA tournament appearances under Fox, who also reached the NCAA tournament three times in five seasons at Nevada.
Most accomplished: Fox
Kentucky
Football – Mark Stoops
Stoops had a bit of a breakthrough season at Kentucky last year, finishing the regular season 7-5 before losing to Georgia Tech in the TaxSlayer Bowl. A win against rival Louisville was probably worth a few extra dollars in Stoops’ recent contract extension.
Basketball – John Calipari
He’s the best basketball coach in the SEC without any question. Calipari’s record at Kentucky includes a national title, four Final Four appearances and six times in the Elite Eight. He easily wins this contest.
Most accomplished: Calipari
LSU
Football – Ed Orgeron
LSU gave Orgeron a shot to remain the head coach after finishing the 2016 season with a 6-2 record as the Tigers’ interim coach. Orgeron had a disastrous run as the head coach at Ole Miss from 2005-2007; the Rebels won three SEC games during that time.
Basketball – Will Wade
Wade’s resume comes from the mid-major level as he was recently hired by LSU to replace Johnny Jones. Wade compiled a 40-25 record at Chattanooga before helping take VCU to the NCAA tournament each of the last two seasons. His Rams reached the Round of 32 in 2016.
Most accomplished: Wade
Ole Miss
Football – Hugh Freeze
Freeze has experienced some highs (two New Year’s Six bowls) and some lows (5-7 record in 2016 to accompany accusations of NCAA violations under his watch). Freeze has recruited at a high level and beaten Alabama twice. His future is very much in doubt.
Basketball – Andy Kennedy
Kennedy has proven to be a model of consistency at Ole Miss. The longest-tenured coach in the SEC, Kennedy has never had a losing record in his 11 seasons with the Rebels. He’s made two NCAA tournament appearances, most notably in 2013 when his team reached the Sweet 16.
Most accomplished: Freeze
Mississippi State
Football – Dan Mullen
Mullen has led Mississippi State to seven consecutive bowl games, including the Orange Bowl in 2014. The Bulldogs reached a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press and Coaches polls that year for the first time in school history.
Basketball – Ben Howland
Howland took UCLA to the Final Four three consecutive seasons from 2006-08. He won four regular season conference championships at UCLA and two regular season conference titles while coaching at Pittsburgh.
Most accomplished: Howland
Missouri
Football – Barry Odom
Odom just completed his first season as Missouri’s head coach. The Tigers went 4-8 while winning two SEC games.
Basketball – Cuonzo Martin
The Tigers hired Martin earlier this month to replace Kim Anderson. Martin helped Tennessee reach the Sweet 16 in 2014 before leaving for California. The Golden Bears earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament in 2016 – the highest seed in school history – before losing to No. 13 seed Hawaii in the first round of the tournament.
Most accomplished: Martin
South Carolina
Football – Will Muschamp
Muschamp helped South Carolina earn a bowl bid in his first season as the Gamecocks’ coach in 2016. He coached at Florida from 2011-14, compiling a 28-21 record with the Gators before being fired.
Basketball – Frank Martin
Martin and the Gamecocks are in the middle of a run to the Final Four, the furthest the program has advanced in the NCAA tournament in school history. Martin also helped lead Kansas State to the Elite Eight in 2010. He’s reached the NCAA tournament five times as a head coach.
Most accomplished: Martin
Tennessee
Football – Butch Jones
Jones has helped Tennessee finish the last two seasons ranked in the Top 25. The Vols have won three consecutive bowl games after failing to reach the postseason from 2011-13. Jones won two MAC titles at Central Michigan and tied for the top record in the Big East twice while coaching Cincinnati.
Basketball – Rick Barnes
Barnes has failed to take Tennessee beyond the SEC tournament in his two seasons in Knoxville, but he helped Texas reach the NCAA tournament in 16 of his 17 seasons while coaching the Longhorns. Barnes coached in the Final Four in 2003 and has reached the NCAA tournament 22 times in his career.
Most accomplished: Barnes
Texas A&M
Football – Kevin Sumlin
Texas A&M has played in a bowl game in all five seasons Sumlin has coached the Aggies. His first season was his best in College Station as Texas A&M finished with an 11-2 record, which included a win at Alabama. Quarterback Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy that season as a redshirt freshman.
Basketball – Billy Kennedy
Texas A&M has reached the NCAA tournament once in five seasons under Kennedy. The Aggies reached the Sweet 16 in 2016. Kennedy has coached in the NCAA tournament three times in his career.
Most accomplished: Sumlin
Vanderbilt
Football – Derek Mason
Vanderbilt reached a bowl game under Mason for the first time last season – Mason’s third season with the Commodores. A win against Tennessee to finish the regular season was big for Mason and Vanderbilt.
Basketball – Bryce Drew
Vanderbilt reached the NCAA tournament this year under Drew, who replaced Kevin Stallings last spring. Drew helped Valparaiso reach the NCAA tournament twice in the five seasons he coached his alma mater.
Most accomplished: Drew
Final tally: Basketball 9, Football 5.
The SEC is still a football conference, which will continue to be the case as long as the league exists. But the SEC’s basketball programs appear to be on the rise, and coaching is the No. 1 reason.
Several SEC football programs would struggle to make that same claim.
Ranging from lighthearted to heart-wrenching songs, the Texas native co-wrote eight of the 10 tracks that run you through a gamut of emotions. While some may find writing solo the way to go, Sunny finds comfort in co-writing with such songwriters as Lori McKenna, Caitlyn Smith, Heather Morgan, Jay Clementi and Monty Holmes.
“I actually enjoy co-writing more than I like writing by myself,” Sunny tells Nash Country Daily. “You get to where you have certain people that you work with over and over and over and you know what to expect. I feel comfortable with the people that I write with. That’s why most of my records have a lot of the same co-writers on there because that’s who I write with.”
Nash Country Daily sat down with Sunny to discuss a few of the co-written songs from Trophy. When asked the first thing that comes to her mind when hearing these five song titles, this is what Sunny had to say.
1. “Pass the Pain”
“The idea came when I was going through a divorce and I was at Losers, the bar over on Division or whatever road that is at three in the afternoon. Then the next day I went to write a song and was like, “I got kicked out of a bar last night. I think we should probably talk about that. I didn’t really get kicked out, but the bar tender suggested that I get a cab.”
2. “Nothing Wrong With Texas”
“I happen to be from Texas, so that’s what it’s called. It’s really just about going home and your roots. It’s okay to go home. A lot of people get weird about moving away, especially if you’re any kind of artistic anything and you move away from your hometown and then people judge you if you come back. “Oh, you couldn’t hack it, could you.” I’m like, “Yeah, I totally could hack it. I’m still hacking it. I’m just doing it from home.”
3. “Why People Change”
“My friend Heather [Morgan] and I wrote that about some people that we know. They just let the small things in their life destroy their marriage and they didn’t work hard enough at it.”
4. “Grow Old With Me”
“That’s the first love song that I’ve ever legitimately written—a real love song. I have one about cars also, but it’s about my husband. ‘Grow Old With Me’ is definitely the first love song that I’ve ever had.”
5. “Unsaid”
“I wrote that with Caitlyn Smith. Whenever I co-write, you start talking about ideas and stuff. Then to be able to pull lines that you need, I need or she needs or whatever, I always put myself in the position of the character in the song. For me as we were writing it, it reminded me of a friend of mine that committed suicide. I was just so pissed. He left his wife and his two kids, one being a four-month-old. I was just pissed. I was like, ‘I can’t believe you would do that.’ I didn’t go to his funeral, I was so pissed. I just feel like you have to be able to say things to people. There was so much I wanted to say to him afterwards and I couldn’t.”
With the Academy of Country Music Awards taking place on Sunday, April 2, country stars are gearing up for the big show—picking out clothes, rehearsing and deciding who they will take as their date.
RaeLynn’s husband, Joshua Davis, who would normally be her date for the show, is away at boot camp training for the armed forces and unable to accompany his wife. So RaeLynn found a suitable replacement.
“My dad’s going to be my date to the ACMs,” RaeLynn tells Nash Country Daily. “He’s really excited about it. He’s from Louisiana and he has a crazy accent. He’s super funny.”
RaeLynn will even bring her dad for a stroll down the red carpet to field questions from reporters and other outlets.
“He’s going to make me more famous by just how hilarious he is,” RaeLynn says. “My dad is like a character out of a book. He’s awesome, He’s the coolest dude in the world.”
We couldn’t let Michael leave without grilling him about pizza, sports and celebrity crushes. Check out Michael’s answers, and learn a little more about the Missouri native.
1. How many slices of pizza are you capable of eating in one sitting?
It depends on if it’s thick crust or thin crust.
2. Thin crust?
The whole pizza.
3. What about thick?
About half the pizza.
4. What’s the last show you binged-watched?
Hell on Wheels.
5. What two languages would you like to be fluent in?
Spanish for sure, and maybe French.
6. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yeah, maybe.
7. What do you think is your best quality?
I just try to be happy all the time. I try to think positive.
8. Who’s your celebrity crush?
I still have a thing for Shania Twain.
9. When’s the last time you cried?
Probably shouldn’t admit this, but after I got done playing the Opry.
10. Favorite sport to play?
Dang, that’s a tough one. Golf.
11. Favorite sport to watch?
It depends. I love watching the playoffs in the NFL. That’s always exciting because all my friends want to bet money and I don’t know anything about it, so I get lucky most of the time.
Kristian Bush’s upcoming album is fully informed by his life. He just has no idea when it’s going to be released, and that’s just fine by the former Surgarland patriarch.
“Because I’ve been doing this for as long as I have, I will tell you the truth,” says Kristian to Nash Country Daily. “I’m the last person to know when my record comes out. I’m the first person to know what it sounds like. I will write and record until they tell me to stop. So up until they have to ship it two weeks ahead of time, I will still be spinning the plates in the air, and keep them spinning.”
Since he dropped his debut solo album, Southern Gravity, in 2015, Kristian has experienced his share of trials and tribulations, including the recent death of his father. Kristian, a father himself—ages 11 and 14—is also six years removed from a divorce, so he’s “trying to learn to love again.” The aforementioned topics—and many others—have manifested into a plethora of songs that Kristian is combing through for the album.
NCD editor Jim Casey (left) and Kristian Bush in studio.
“I’m 160 songs in right now,” says Kristian. “You’re going to hear about all of that on the new record. I mean, the part of becoming a solo artist that I think I didn’t expect was how much you need to communicate about your life. And I didn’t understand—until I put out Southern Gravity—that what we were talking about was the fact the stage fell on our heads, and the fact that I got a divorce, and the fact that my band suddenly stopped working, and I didn’t have a job. You know, there was all this stuff happening. And I didn’t realize it until I started giving interviews, and had to tell people about what was happening in my life. So for this new album, now those muscles are a little less shameful. You know, I can actually start to use them, and I feel a little more confident and a little less fear about going, ‘Hey, I’m a single dad. I don’t know if there’s anybody else that’s a single dad, but I’m a single dad. I have two kids who are 11 and 14. They’re awesome.’
“I’m trying to learn to love again. That’s really weird at 40-something years old. And I don’t get it right all the time. And I want to write about that. And my dad died, and that was strange because he and I didn’t get along, but between when he called me and said he was sick and died three months later, I went up there everyday that I wasn’t working, and we put our relationship back together before he passed away. That’s the most heroic thing I’ve ever see anybody do. So yeah, I’m going to talk about that. And yeah, it’s going to be on my record. And if it’s in your life, I want you to connect to this record.”
While we wait for Kristian to stop spinning those plates, enjoy the upcoming album’s lead single, “Sing Along.”
In honor of college basketball’s craziest month, I created a bracket with 16 of the hottest acts in country music. I seeded them based on the strength of their current “season,” which ran from the ACM Awards in April 2016 to the Grammy Awards in February 2017.
After more than 20,000 votes were cast during the competition, one man reigned supreme: Blake Shelton.
Blake defeated Maren Morris, Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood in Rounds 1, 2 and 3, and then he ran away with the championship by besting Dolly Parton in the Finals by more than 2,000 votes.
In addition to his role as a coach on The Voice, Blake’s accomplishments this past season include:
Congrats on the win, Blake. And thanks to everyone who voted over the past month.
Garth Brooks courtesy CMA; Dierks Bentley courtesy The Greenroom PR; Carrie Underwood by Koury Angelo/Schmidt Relations; Miranda Lambert by Randee St. Nicholas/Sony Music Nashville; Keith Urban courtesy PFA Media; Little Big Town by Matthew Welch/Sandbox Entertainment; Blake Shelton by Brian Bowen Smith/NBC; Maren Morris by LeAnn Mueller/Sony Music; Sturgill Simpson by Reto Sterchi/Sacks & Co.; Kelsea Ballerini courtesy Black River Entertainment; Thomas Rhett by John Shearer/The Greenroom PR; Jason Aldean by James Minchin/The Greenroom PR; Eric Church by John Peets/EB Media; Chris Stapleton courtesy UMG Nashville; Luke Bryan courtesy Schmidt Relations; Dolly Parton by Quantrell Colbert/NBC
Lady Antebellum released the album art, track list and songwriters for their upcoming sixth studio album, Heart Break, which drops on June 9.
The 13-song offering was produced by busbee and features a number of well-known songwriters, including Lady A’s Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, as well as Hillary Lindsey, Jesse Frasure, Shane McAnally and more.
“When we started working on this record, the goal was to give ourselves some space from the day to day,” said Hillary Scott. “Surrounding ourselves in a new environment with sunny beaches and warm weather really helped free our minds to focus solely on our art. We took some of our favorite writers and other writers we hadn’t worked with before to a new inspiring backdrop, where we were able to just write and soak up the journey. And it was on our first trip in Florida when we wrote ‘Heart Break’ that we felt it all click.”
After more than 20 years in the music business, 55-year-old Trace Adkins is slated to drop his 12th studio album, Something’s Going On, on March 31. The 12-song offering, which was produced by Mickey Jack Cones, features Trace’s current single, “Watered Down.”
Trace stopped by the Nash Country Daily studio earlier this month for a wide-ranging interview about his new album, his upcoming 12th USO Tour, his proudest career accomplishment and much more.
NCD: You released your debut album, Dreamin’ Out Loud, in 1996. Can you’ve believe you’ve already had a 20-plus-year career?
“No. It’s flown by.”
Trace in the NCD studio. photo by Jason Simanek
On March 31, you will release your 12th studio album, Something’s Going On. It’s been four years since your last album, Love Will, which is the longest you’ve gone in your career between albums. Why the wait?
“I didn’t even realize that—that it had been four years between albums. It doesn’t seem that way because we started working on the next one right after Love Will came out. I mean, I didn’t really take a break. You know, we’ll go in the studio when we find a couple of things, or if I write something I want to record, we’ll go in and do it. Then Broken Bow got involved, and then the process just worked itself out in the time frame that it took. The cool thing about it was that there was no hurry. I didn’t have a record label breathing down my neck saying, ‘Hurry up. We gotta get the products out there,’ so I just took my time with it.”
There are 12 songs on the new album, with a bunch of great songwriters, including Tyler Farr, Casey Beathard, Shane McAnally, the late Andrew Dorff, Craig Campbell, Josh Osborne and more. What was the song selection process like for you? You mentioned you weren’t in a rush, obviously, but you really took your time picking the songs.
“Yeah, and I spent a lot of time with Benny Brown, president of Broken Bow, and we would have these song meetings where we would start out having lunch in Benny’s office, and then we’d spend the whole afternoon just listening to stuff. Benny is old-school. I mean, he’s going to put a CD in his player, and he’s going to hit play, and then he’s going to cover his face like this [hands over his face], and just sit there and listen. Even if you’ve listened to the first verse of the song and you’ve recognized, ‘I’m probably not going to record this,’ you still have to listen to the whole song because Benny’s going to listen to the whole song. So, we had some long song meetings, and it was so much fun to be with Benny because he loves music, and he loves that process, and it was fun. Yeah, we spent a lot of time picking songs.”
One of the new songs on the album, “Watered Down”—written by Shane McAnally, Matt Jenkins and Trevor Rosen—opens with the line, “I don’t go all in, but I’ll take the gamble. I don’t burn both ends of the candle anymore.” You didn’t write that song, but is that Trace in 2017?
“Yeah, and that’s one of those songs where that first line played and I just went, ‘I’ll rewrite the rest of the song if the rest of it doesn’t work,’ because that first couple of lines there . . . it just hit me right between the eyes.”
There is another song on the album, “Whippoorwills and Freight Trains,” written by Phil O’Donnell, Jeff Middleton, and Brandon Kinney. Vocally, I really think that you shine on that song, but, man, that’s a lonely, painful song.
“I know. That was one of those songs . . . there were a couple of them on this record where I was in the vocal booth doing final vocals on it, and I just had to step away from the mic and just tell Mickey [Jack Cones, producer], ‘Hey, you’re going to have to give me a minute. You know, I’ve got to regain my composure here.’ That song was just killing me. It really did, and I’m happy to find that I’m not so jaded that a song can still do that to me. You know, can still make my knees shake, and put me in a place where I have to step away from the microphone and collect myself before I can finish the song.”
What about that song hit you so hard?
“Just the loneliness of it, and just the . . . you know the whippoorwills and freight trains are just a metaphor for that loneliness, and that pain that you finally feel subsiding and going away. The thing I love about that song too is that it reminds me of Buck Owens because Buck told me one time in his office, he said, ‘Trace, that low note that you can hit—you need to do that in every song because that’s really all you got going for you’ [laughing]. So, I hit maybe the lowest note I can sing at the end of ‘Whippoorwills and Freight Trains.'”
You just mentioned producer Mickey Jack Cones, who has worked with everybody from George Strait to Thomas Rhett. Did Mickey push you vocally on this album? There are a couple songs on there like “Gonna Make Me Miss You” where . . .
“That was the one, ‘Gonna Make You Miss Me’ . . . yeah, that was the song that Mickey played for me, and I was like, ‘Mickey, come on, man. You know, that’s a real poppy kind of thing, and I just don’t hear myself singing that, you know?’ He said, ‘Come on, man. You can sing . . . let’s just try it. I think you’ll have fun with it,’ and he was right. I was skeptical at first, but the lyric of the song was mature enough that I said, ‘Yeah, okay, I’ll sing it. I’ll try to sing it.’ Then when I got into it, I was like, ‘This is fun,’ and I did, I enjoyed doing it. I popped that little Taylor Swift thing in there. It wasn’t originally in the lyric, but I popped it in there because that’s what it was like. It was like me singing a Taylor Swift song.”
More than 20 years in the business. 12 studio albums. Each of your past albums has kind of painted a picture of where you were personally when that album came out. What does Something’s Going On say about you and where you are in your life right now?
“Well, ‘Whippoorwill’s and Freight Trains,’ and ‘Watered Down’ and ‘Jesus and Jones’—there are some songs on here that really are very personal and speak to where my head is right now, but you have to balance that stuff out with some fun stuff too. It’s not a departure. It’s not different, I don’t think, from what fans have come to expect from me over the years. It’s just another collection of the best tunes I could get my hands on, and with two or three very reflective, personal things thrown in there for good measure.”
You’ve been on 11 USO Tours, and it’s kind of fitting that with your 12th album coming out you’re going to go on your 12th USO Tour this spring. What are those tours like for you emotionally and mentally?
“Well, it’s the most appreciative audience you’ll ever play for, I’ll tell you that, and over the years, I have gotten more comfortable with feeling guilty when you come home. I tell people that if somebody’s going to go do their first USO Tour and they ask me what to expect, I tell them the same thing that I was told the first time I went, ‘Expect to feel guilty when you come home.’ Over the years I’ve come to be okay with that and accept it. I haven’t been able to stop feeling guilty when I come home, but at least I can deal with it better now.”
Plenty of tour dates coming up in April and May. You, obviously, still love performing. You ever looked down at the crowd and see a kid who maybe wasn’t even born yet when your No. 1 hit, “(This Ain’t) No Thinkin’ Thing” came out in 1997?
“All the time. All the time. The funniest thing, I’ve gotten to a point now where if a young lady’s coming up to me and she seems really excited to meet me, and I’m feeling pretty good about myself—you know, here comes this attractive, young lady and she seems to be excited, and the first thing she says is, ‘My mom loves you.’ You know?
After more than 20 years in the business, what accomplishment are you most proud of?
“I’m a member of the Grand Old Opry. It never gets old—that fellowship backstage with that family. That extended family backstage at the Grand Old Opry. Getting to rub shoulders with legitimate legends in this business. Yeah. It’s something that I don’t take lightly.”
Do you feel like kind of an elder statesman of country music right now?
“Starting to feel that way.”
No one’s putting you out to pasture, but you’re not raising Cane like you used to.
“No, and a lot of those new, young guys, they’re the ones making me feel that way because they come to me, and they go, ‘Ah, man, I grew up listening to you’ and these are guys that are having hits on the radio now, and they are coming up to me and going, ‘Man, I grew up listening to you,’ and all that kind of stuff. It makes me feel good. It doesn’t bother me in the least.”
Something’s Going On Track Listing and Songwriters
“Ain’t Just the Whiskey Talkin’” (Terry McBride, Brett Beavers)
“Jesus and Jones” (Tyler Farr, Jim McCormick, Casey Beathard)
Here are some of my observations and notes from the fifth University of Tennessee spring football practice.
Vince’s View
*We were able to view three periods (4-6) of practice #5 on Thursday.
*I’ve said in previous practice blogs that Nigel Warrior has been really impressive. That’s continued and Bob Shoop even took it a step further by saying he’s probably been their best player. Shoop focused on his maturity and understanding of what they’re trying to do on offense.
*John Kelly continues to act like Player/Coach John Kelly. He’s the example guy for drills by running backs coach Robert Gillespie and he’s frequently coaching guys on technique when guys are doing reps.
*We have been very limited in our viewing time, but freshman 5-star OT Trey Smith looks as good or better than any of the experienced linemen. Walk Wells was really getting after guys in a blocking drill where the players have to stay engaged with a teammate, drive them then reverse while staying low below the net. The 2nd and 3rd year guys were hearing from Wells more than Trey Smith, who looks the part of a future top-notch SEC LT.
*Cortez McDowell validated something I’ve noticed and written about, that the two linebacker positions in Tennessee’s 4-2-5 base defense are very interchangeable. It looks like it’s Kirkland and McDowell as the 1s right now, with Kirkland at the Mike and McDowell at the Will. You’ll see times when they’ll adjust and McDowell will slide over to the Mike when Kirkland will slide into coverage or blitz the quarterback. Sophomore LB Daniel Bituli (MLB) and true freshman Shanon Reid (WLB) are working with the second team right now per Cortez McDowell.
*Marquill Osborne has looked strong in drills I’ve seen. I projected him to be one of the starting corners in a blog post back in January, and I have seen nothing to make me change my mind. I believe he and Emmanuel Moseley are the first team cornerbacks right now with Baylen Buchanan seeing working at nickel for the injured Rashaan Gaulden.
*VFL and NFL veteran Robert Meacham was at practice Thursday. Interestingly, he’s on the list of additional players that will workout at Friday’s Pro Day at UT.
Spend some time on our website where we’ll have blogs from Jimmy Hyams, practice reports from Josh Ward, interviews with players and coaches, videos of practice footage. Scroll through our big stories on the main page or click on the Vols tab under “All WNML stories” archived to find all of our posts saved there.
Something’s Going On Track Listing and Songwriters
