Some of my favorite Country duets

A Bad Goodbye (Clint Black/Wynonna Judd): You can’t go wrong w/ Wynonna.

Another Try (Josh Turner/Trisha Yearwood): Not really a duet, but Trisha’s voice in prominent in back. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngHkbz8wTuk

Forever and Ever, Amen (reboot of Randy Travis’ hit song w/ Josh Turner): Travis is Turner’s main musical influence.  This is from the CMT series Cross Country.

Golden Ring:

Original version (George Jones/Tammy Wynette): The “first couple of Country music” (and former marrieds) sing on a TV show. 

Newer version (Lorrie Morgan/Josh Turner): 

If You See Him, If You See Her (Reba McEntire/Brooks & Dunn):  Ronnie Dunn is one of my most fave male voices!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5nvaOD_Lr4

I Told You So (reboot of another of Travis’ hit songs w/ Carrie Underwood): An old fave gets better.

Medocino County Line (Willie Nelson/Lee Ann Womack): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgFGMkNgZ3w

Still Holding On (Clint Black/Martina McBride): This is the definition of a power ballad. 

Stuck on You (Lionel Ritchie/Darius Rucker): I just heard this song a few days ago!  This is on album of duets made by Ritchie recently.

The Heart Won’t Lie (Vince Gill/Reba McEntire): The official vid even tells a story- couple who can’t be together b/c of status (he as her drill sergeant and she as a recruit, then eventually an officer who outranks him). 

Reba and Vince (both from Oklahoma) are long-time pals/collaborators who have great chemistry whenever they’re together.   I love everything about this song! 

What If I Said (Anita Cochran/Steve Wariner): He’s from Noblesville, Indiana (small town close to where my mom & lil bro lived for many years). 

Walkaway Joe (Trisha Yearwood/Don Henley):  The official music vid for this song was Matthew McConaughey’s first acting job!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCdCuduv0H0

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Get in the holiday spirit w/ these fun items!

A holiday pic (by Eni, creator of Richard Armitage Bulgaria Facebook page)
A holiday pic (by Eni, creator of Richard Armitage Bulgaria Facebook page)

Martin Freeman interviewed by Warner Bros. France (5:21)

Richard Armitage interviewed by Warner Bros. France (6:28)

Benedict Cumberbatch interviewed by Warner Bros. France (6:11)

Voice-over switch video: Thornton & Thorin

Candid pics from various The Hobbit: DOS premieres (via RichardArmitage.net)

Benedict & Tom Hiddleston dance-off (via Jezebel)

Martin & Richard interviewed by TwoTube TV, an Irish channel (3:55)

Richard’s Christmas message to fans (via Richard Armitage Central)

Wow, who’s THAT guy!?

Actor Oscar Isaac in a Washington Post photo
Actor Oscar Isaac in a Washington Post photo

Sometimes like 30 takes of one song.  It was an intense process but I love the music, and I’d been playing them 100 times a day, so playing them 30 was fine.  I get obsessed with that kind of stuff.  -On the musical aspect of Inside Llewyn Davis

Who says America lacks young male talent?  Or that actors here want to be stars, and can’t play subtlety (like the Brits)?  Oscar Issac (b. 1980) shatters those stereotypes, and has fabulous curls, too!  He’s the star of the Coen brothers’ new film, Inside Llewyn Davis. 

As the title character in Inside Llewyn Davis
As the title character in Inside Llewyn Davis

Isaac is aware that he looks “ethnically ambiguous.”   However, Isaac is an all-American guy who was “raised here all my life” (I was surprised to learn).  His father’s roots are in Israel, but he grew up in Cuba and DC; his mother hails from Guatemala.  Isaac can speak Spanish, sing, and play guitar.  (FYI: Carey Mulligan is also in Inside Llewyn Davis– yay!)

Isaac played Joseph in The Nativity Story
Isaac played Joseph in The Nativity Story

In 2006, Isaac (who graduated from Julliard) played Joseph opposite Keisha Castle-Hughes’ Mary in The Nativity Story.  I really enjoyed his humble, sweet, and low-key characterization.  

Isaac had a small, but crucial, role in Body of Lies
Isaac had a small, but crucial, role in Body of Lies

In 2008, Isaac acted opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies.  (Yes, this role was as a Middle Eastern, too.)  Bassam is a young family man with a love of American music; he helps Leo’s CIA agent get some intelligence in Jordan.  Isaac prefers dramatic roles, and imagines himself doing more of that, not necessarily action (The Bourne Legacy) or comedy. 

Issac as Price John in Robin Hood (2010)
Issac as Price John in Robin Hood (2010)

Check out that stunning profile!  I haven’t yet seen Robin Hood, which stars Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.  Below are links to two interviews I recently found about the actor.   

Isaac plays an incompetent criminal in the HBO film Pu-239 (2006)
Isaac plays an incompetent criminal in the HBO film Pu-239 (2006)

Mr. Media podcast interview (2008)

Recent Washington Post interview