One of the many benefits we have gained from the resurgence of country singer Marty Brown has been his outstanding song “Whatever Makes You Smile.” It is one of those songs that continues to sound better each time we hear it.
In this video with his wife Shellie Brown, Brown explains how he came to write the song, first coming up with the groove and the opening lines, and then “it was off to the races.” He wrote the song in about thirty minutes. Shellie also explains how Marty wrote it both for her and for his ailing mom. Check out the video, which also includes a live performance of the song.
Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Jason Sudeikis star in the upcoming movie Masterminds. The film, based on a true story, is directed by Jared Hess, who also gave us Napoleon Dynamite (2004).
Masterminds is based on the story of a real bank robbery that happened in 1997 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where a bank supervisor stole $17 million and ran off to Mexico. It was one of the largest bank robberies in history. Check out the trailer for the upcoming comedy take on the story.
For more about the real Loomis Fargo and Company heist, check out this video.
Masterminds hits theaters on August 7, 2015. Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 1969, Jerry Lee Lewis and Tom Jones ran through some of Lewis’s hits on Jones’s TV show, This Is Tom Jones. As noted in a previous post, Jones was a big fan of Lewis, and it was Lewis’s recording of “Green Green Grass of Home” that inspired Jones to do his own hit version.
Here, the groove is more upbeat as the two run through songs that include: “Great Balls Of Fire,” “Down The Line,” “Long Tall Sally,” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On.”
Additionally, the two guys look like they are having a great time. Check it out.
This new video examines movies that were meant to launch big-budget franchises but failed. Movies like Battle: Los Angeles (2011), Super Mario Bros. (1993), and John Carter (2012) (which I thought was not that bad), are among those that made the list.
Some of these movies ended in a way designed to lead to a second film that — fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint — never came. Check it out.
What is your favorite failed movie franchise? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of my favorite songs by Merle Haggard is “Kern River.” The song has one of the greatest lines ever written, “I may drown in still waters but I’ll never swim Kern River again.” The line tells you everything you need to know about the song about longing, sadness, loss, and memory.
Haggard wrote “Kern River” and released the song in 1985 as the title track of the album Kern River. The song was not a number one hit, but it went up to number 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Haggard performs his classic below on Ralph Emery’s show as Porter Wagoner looks on, noting that Haggard “is a dangerous man with a song.” Check it out.
Wagoner is not the only fan of the song. Rolling Stone lists “Kern River” among the essential Merle Haggard songs. Allmusic claims “Kern River” is “one of Merle’s best latter-day songs.”
Other notable artists have praised “Kern River.” Bob Dylan loves the song, noting the song “is a beautiful lament, but let’s not forget it’s about his girlfriend dying.” Emmylou Harris has claimed that “Kern River” is her favorite Merle Haggard song, and she has recorded her own version of it. Check out her version with images of the real Kern River.
The real Kern River flows around 165 miles through California, draining around the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield, a town often associated with Haggard for “the Bakersfield sound.” Also, Haggard grew up near Kern River, later building a mansion on the river. The Lake Shasta mentioned in the song is a real place too. Haggard owned a cabin on the still waters of the lake.
