Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

Dolly Parton reschedules

Dolly Parton has postponed her show March 9 at Mohegan Sun until April 25, her publicist has announced.

The Mohegan date was one of several the singer was forced to reschedule Monday when her doctors instructed her to rest her back for six to eight weeks. The ever-colorful Parton, who once referred to her breasts as "shock and awe," attributes her back problems to them.

"I have been breaking my neck and bending over backwards trying to get my new 'Backwoods Barbie' CD and world tour together, but I didn't mean to hurt myself doing it!" Parton said in a statement. "But hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don't have back problems."

"Backwoods Barbie" is due out Feb. 26.

Dwight Yoakam's tribute to Buck Owens

One of my favorite things to listen to in the car on road trips is a live recording from 1993 of the band Coffee Creek playing a bunch of old country songs (and a few obscure, rootsy classic rockers) at Cicero's Basement in St. Louis.

It's a bootleg, of course — Coffee Creek was an ad-hoc Uncle Tupelo side project featuring Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy trading off on vocals with Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets. They played fast and loose, and songs like Doug Sahm's "Mendocino," George Jones' "A Good Year for the Roses" and Buck Owens' "Love's Gonna Live Here" are easy to sing along to, which is a key ingredient of excellent driving music.

The same goes for "Dwight Sings Buck" (New West), Dwight Yoakam's new collection of songs paying tribute to Owens, the Bakersfield-style country icon who died in March 2006.

CD Review: 'Carnival Ride' by Carrie Underwood

Foundering American industries take note: No one knows how to manufacture success quite like the Nashville music machine. Just look at Carrie Underwood. After the 24-year-old Oklahoman won the fourth season of “American Idol” with unassuming charm and decent vocal chops, Nashville went to work stripping away anything that made her unique and re-casting her in the cookie-cutter country-diva mold, which translated to Big Profits on Underwood’s first album — 2005’s “Some Hearts,” a six-times platinum record, became the fastest-selling country debut in history.

The transformation is complete on Underwood’s second album, “Carnival Ride” (Arista Nashville), a record with stronger songs that somehow manages to sound just as banal as her first. She’s grown into a more confident singer who can send her voice soaring to the heavens with ringing force. But that’s a mixed blessing, because she doesn’t sound much different from forebears like Shania Twain and Faith Hill, who sing the same kinds of songs in the same way and helped land country at the top of the pop charts with crossover albums in the late ’90s.

Indeed, what country touches there are here — banjo at the start of “Flat on the Floor,” or fiddle on “All-American Girl” — are mostly window dressing for the smarmy pop tunes underneath, and the treacle is mighty thick on “I Told You So” and the string-soaked ballad “I Know You Won’t,” a why-are-you-so-mean/ but-you-have-a-great-smile song. Lady, it’s called doormat syndrome: Get out.

Johnny Cash live set to be released

The late '80s and early '90s were a tough time for Johnny Cash. The country legend wasn't having much commercial success (the Highwaymen album notwithstanding), and his Rick Rubin-helmed reinvention wouldn't take place until 1994 with "American Recordings."

Yet Cash still had a mess of classic tunes to his name, and they sustained him in concert during those years. They comprise the backbone of "The Great Lost Performance," a live show from 1990 in Asbury Park, N.J. featuring his wife, June Carter Cash, and Lucy Clark.

Here's a track listing for the album, the 16th new Cash album released since the singer died in 2003. It's due out July 24.

"Ring of Fire"
"Life's Railway to Heaven"
"Wonderful Time Up There"
"Folsom Prison Blues"
"Sunday Morning Coming Down"
"What Is Man"
"Forty Shades of Green"
"Come Along and Ride This Train"
"Five Feet High and Rising"
"Pickin' Time"
"A Beautiful Life"
"Hey Porter"
"Ragged Old Flag"
"Tennessee Flat Top Box"
"Ghost Riders in the Sky"
"Jackson"
"The Wreck of Old '97"
"I Walk the Line"

Come back to us, Mike Ireland

Just when you think the All Music Guide has blown it by lauding Avril Lavigne's vacuous third album with 4 1/2 stars or undervaluing an obvious masterpiece (only four stars for the Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls in America?" Pff!), AMG goes and elevates an obscure gem to album-of-the-day status.

Today it's "Try Again" by Mike Ireland & Holler, a brilliant record that maybe nine people bought when it came out in 2002. Ireland recorded the album in Connecticut with producer extraordinaire Michael Deming, and it's a collection of twangy, sometimes wrenching country songs with a laid-back, vintage '70s vibe. It's absolutely perfect. (You can listen to clips, or better yet, buy a copy here.)

Naturally, the album did so well that Ireland last summer was playing themed sets every other weekend at a bar in Kansas City and teaching English at Maple Woods Community College ("likes creativity," notes one student). It's an utter mystery why so excellent and accessible a record didn't at least go gold, but bravo, All Music Guide, for highlighting it today.

Welcome to chocolate country

Nothing goes together like country music and ... chocolate?

I'd have said whiskey or heartache, but OK. Incongruous or not, candy-maker Hershey this summer celebrates the 80th birthday of the s'more by sponsoring Brad Paisley's tour, which comes to Mohegan Sun Aug. 3. (S'mores have a birthday?)

Along with samples of s'mores, Hershey is giving away concert tickets to Paisley shows and even offering fans the chance to join his road crew. That's right: You can win the honor of hauling the singer's equipment up and down ramps and into trucks. Oh, the glamor.

Details are here.

Dixie Chicks Grammy backlash

The Dixie Chicks won five Grammys Sunday night, and the backlash has already begun.

The trio's awards included trophies for album of the year for "Taking the Long Way," and song of the year and record of the year for "Not Ready to Make Nice," prompting music industry gadfly Bob Lefsetz to write, "What kind of crazy [expletive] up world do we live in where 'Not Ready To Make Nice' wins record of the year?  What next, Harry Reid elected PRESIDENT?"

And this guy derides the Chicks' awards as "a liberal political statement by the recording industry, very similar to what is done each year by the Academy Awards. It was an 'in your face' statement to the fans of country music who shunned the Dixie Chicks and those who continue to support President Bush."

The "liberal political statement" part is probably correct. But is it so hard to believe the voting members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences simply liked the Chicks' stuff more?

'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow, 1934-2007

Musician "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, whose unique pedal-steel guitar playing helped shape an emerging country-rock sound in the late 1960s and early '70s, died Saturday morning at a nursing home in Petaluma, Calif., of complications from Alzheimer's disease, his daughter announced Tuesday. He was 72.

Kleinow's inimitable licks graced seminal albums by Gram Parsons, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He also recorded with Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Joan Baez, Frank Zappa, John Lennon and the Rolling Stones. In addition, Kleinow wrote jingles, scored music for the children's TV show "Gumby" and contributed special effects to movies such as "The Empire Strikes Back," "Gremlins," "The Terminator" and "Terminator 2."

His family has not yet announced funeral arrangements but cards, letters and donations are welcome. Send them to "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, 69229 Rainier Road, 29 Palms, CA 92277.

Hallelujah

Apparently almost everyone has covered Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" at some point, according to this. And why not? It's a devastating song, beautiful and mournful all at once.

The best known, and definitive versions, are surely the original and Jeff Buckley's cover. Cohen's version is moving, with a sardonic and pointed edge, as he asks in his deep voice, "But you don't really care for music, do ya?" Buckley's version is pleading and passionate, as if he's desperate to be heard.

Now there's a third version worth adding to the ranks: Willie Nelson's cover, which appears on his new album "Songbird."

Urban enters rehab

Keith Urban cancelled his show tonight at Mohegan Sun with no immediate explanation. Well, here's why, as forwarded by his publicist:

Keith Urban voluntarily admitted himself to a treatment rehabilitation center last night with his wife by his side.

“I deeply regret the hurt this has caused Nicole and the ones that love and support me,” said Keith.  “One can never let one's guard down on recovery and I’m afraid that I have. With the strength and unwavering support I am blessed to have from my wife, family and friends, I am determined and resolved to a positive outcome.”

As a result of his treatment, all immediate appearances for his forthcoming CD will be postponed.

Addiction is no laughing matter, and Urban is to be commended for recognizing that his chemical dependencies had reclaimed their hold on him. Here's wishing him a speedy and successful course of treatment.