...The 'Boat'.

With surprise appearances by Peter Frampton and Steppenwolf's John Kay, the Sony Music Nashville extravaganza aboard the General Jackson showboat Thursday, March 5th, lived up to its reputation of being the single most star-spangled event of Country Radio Seminar. The General Jackson floated celebrants up and down the Cumberland River in Nashville for the three-hour show....I was fortunate to be there and it was amazing. The internal 'wow' moments for me were many! The talent that was in the room that night was beyond fantastic. Having earned my living as a singer, performer, for most of my life, before getting into radio, it was exciting to experience every piece of some of country's biggest hits and soon to be hits.... from the lyrics to the artist and everything in between....

Facing an audience of approximately 650 radio and music industry guests, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Gretchen Wilson and Jason Michael Michael Carroll performed selections from their forthcoming albums. Carrie Underwood, Montgomery Gentry and Craig Morgan reprised recent hits, and Kellie Pickler and Chuck Wicks chatted with the show's host, TV personality Robin Meade, about their non-musical sidelines. Oh, and I can't forget to tell you about Peter Frampton and John Kay literally rockin' the boat with their explosive hits... keep reading...

We had a very nice dinner on the boat and I had to take a picture of the fruit! Look at it! Small town girls like me love that kind of thing. I was also lucky to have the seat I did for the show....front and center. It just happened that way, being with some friends, who knew friends, who had 4 seats open up and asked us if we would like them...uhhh...absolutly! They were the best seats in the house! I had to look up when Brad Paisley put his foot on the monitor while he jammed on his guitar...nice.


Kenny Chesney went on first, accompanied by his friend and songwriting partner, Brett James. He opened with "Out Last Night," which he indicated was a more-or-less accurate chronicle of his and James' nocturnal roarings. It will be his next single. The song was so new, Chesney had to sing it from a lyric sheet. Even so, he faltered a couple of times -- not that it mattered at all to any of us listening! It was fun to hear something new, something that will be coming our direction soon.

(When we arrived at the General Jackson earlier in the evening, no one knew for sure who would be there performing, but there were some of us that thought Kenny had to be there for sure. He is such a huge country star and half of the Nashville Police Depeartment was there providing security, so we thought with that kind of security he must be there... he was.)

With James taking the vocal lead, Chesney provided harmonies on "When the Sun Goes Down," Chesney's No. 1 single from 2004. (James wrote the song and even recorded it on an album for Arista Records that was never released.) "I wanted to be the first," Chesney told the crowd, "so I could come out afterward and have a few drinks."

He, like most of the other acts, was limited to two songs. At the end of Chesney's set, Sony Music Nashville chief Joe Galante presented him with a crystal plaque for having achieved 15 million downloads. That feat, Galante pointed out, made him the biggest digital-selling artist in the country format!

Martina McBride followed Kenny Chesney with her new single, "Ride," from her album, 'Shine', that came out March 24. She concluded with another new song, "I Just Call You Mine," which she belted out as if she were heralding the Second Coming and I am not even kidding!



Maritna was getting ready to exit the stage, when Joe Galante gave McBride a plaque marking her career total of 18 million albums sold.... can you imagine? It was nice to see Martina honored and so thankful for the milestone in her career.


Montgomery Gentry came next. The duo began with its most recent hit, "Roll With Me," and then brought out John Kay to roll back memories with Steppenwolf's 1968 classic, "Born to Be Wild." His feverishly commanding performance earned the evening's first standing ovation. It was SOoo rockin'! It was hard to stay seated as they jammed.

While the stage set was being changed -- each act brought its own band or backing musicians -- Pickler chatted with Robin Meade about her endorsement deal with Big Sexy Hair and of co-writing her current single, "Best Days of Your Life," with pal Taylor Swift. Kellie said she's already done the photo shoot for the Big Sexy Hair advertising campaign and that the promotion will launch next month.

She and Swift came up with "Best Days of Your Life," Pickler reported, in response to one of Pickler's thwarted romances. "We wrote the song about a pig I used to date," the singer said with her usual forthrightness. "He was an a******." She really is Dolly Parton re-incarnate. She is bubbly, cute and that girl can sing! She says things out loud that alot of us just wish we had the nerve to say aloud!

During a later set change, Chuck Wicks told Meade about the intimate "pelvis-to-pelvis" choreographic instruction Julianne Hough, his girlfriend and fellow recording artist, gave him for their upcoming appearances on Dancing With the Stars. Chuck having just been here in Eagle Country is a favorite of mine....he really is as innocent and cute as he appears. He makes me smile and I wish there were more 'good' boys like him! Oh, but wait! If that were true, Kellie Pickler and Taylor would have alot less to write about!

When guests first seated themselves at their dinner tables, they saw at each place setting a pair of two-and-a-half inch hoop earrings attached to a card that read, "She's back."The "she," it turned out, was Gretchen Wilson. When she came out to sing, the reason for the teaser gift became apparent. Her first song -- and next single -- was "Don't Make Me Take My Earrings Out," a combative song somewhat on the order of Loretta Lynn's "Fist City."

Gretchen said she's been hard at work on her next album at the studio she built on her farm. This time around, she's working with producer Blake Chancey. Her final song was "As Far as You Know," a pulsating yowl, which she warned the radio programmers might be a bit too "heavy" for their purposes. It was good to see Gretchen again...even though she still scares me a bit! She reminds me of that girl in school that you knew, could and would, kick you rear-end if you crossed them...yikes! Seriously, she sounded great and it was nice to see her back....the earrings? I gave them to my daughter, even though I can't see her wearing them, they came from Gretchen. Good enough.


Craig Morgan, who made his bow as a new Sony artist on last year's boat show, sang only one song, "God Must Really Love Me." It's from his first BNA album, That's Why.

Jason Michael Carroll gave one of the show's most dynamic performances via two new songs: "Where I'm From" and "That's All I Know." They're from his second Arista album, Growing Up Is Getting Old, which is set for release on April 28....I LIKE this kid. He has 5 children of his own, looks like he's 15 years old and just rocks. I ran into him throughout the week and he was just nice, nice, nice...and that voice!

Jason and Robin Meade bantered about growing up as the children of preachers. He said that when he was 15, his father caught him with a "pirated copy" of "Achy Breaky Heart" hidden under his mattress and spanked him for the transgression. Jason said it was the spanking of a lifetime!


Carrie Underwood scorched the room opening with, "Flat on the Floor," and then immediately cooled things down with her mournful rendition of the Randy Travis standard, "I Told You So."

Joe Galante gifted her with a trophy for having sold 10 million copies of her first two albums during the four years since she won the American Idol competition. "I can't process all the things that have happened these past four years," she marveled. (She even shed a tiny tear.)

To celebrate her achievement, she invited everyone to join her at a bowling party after the show was over. I did go with my buddies and it was alot of fun ...I posted about that earlier Bowling With Carrie Underwood ....

Next, Brad Paisley ambled out on stage and sat down patiently while co-host Tom Baldrica introduced him. His first song was the wistful, reflective, song Brad had NEVER performed in public called "Then." It was neat that he saved that for us.......He followed it with the decidedly more upbeat "American Saturday Night," which, he told the crowd, is the title cut of his impending album. The CD will be out June 30.

Brad Paisley was funny and sweet. In between songs, he told us that it was nervewracking for him to perform infront of all of us....he laughed and announced that his wife was due in a few weeks with their new baby and told us that we are the obstetricians of country music. It was cute...Brad Paisley a little nervous?? His singing and picking came across just fine, in Brad Paisley style.

Baldrica brought Peter Frampton out to close the show -- and he did so in grand style. Opening with a guitar solo that sent tidal waves of sound across the room, he then called Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood out to accompany him on his 1976 smash, "Baby, I Love Your Way." Powered as it was by a potent mix of nostalgia and urgent vocals, the performance brought the crowd to its feet.

Mr.Frampton lamented that he couldn't afford to take McBride and Underwood with him on his tour this summer....

The rocker finished his set with another hit from 1976, "Do You Feel Like We Do," and beckoned Brad Paisley to join him in a wild electric guitar jam. This earned him his second standing ovation, just as the General Jackson returned to the dock.

With an amazing night of performances, food and being surrounded by some of the most talented musicians in the country, my night wasn't over! I needed to get on the phone....while Peter Frampton was jamming with Brad Paisley I got a text saying that I was 'officially a grandma!' Our son had just welcomed his new baby daughter into the world. Macie Jane. 8lbs, 10oz.....I would make that call, en-route to the bowling alley........ Carrie Underwood was taking some of us bowling!