Well, we're halfway through the CBS tribute to Johnny Cash and I don't think it could be much worse. For starters, let's not forget that the country music business completely turned its back on JC for the last 20 years of his life. That alone probably has him spinning in his grave.
First up was Brad Paisley with the most vanilla version of "Folsom Prison Blues" ever performed. Paisley's aw-shucks performance kind of sums up everything that is wrong with music today (country or not).
The duet between Jerry Lee Lewis and Kid Rock (Kid Rock...are you kidding me?!) sounded awful. As an aside, is there a reason that Kid Rock performs at every tribute/award show special? He's like the kid in the high school choir that cannot sing, but the teacher let's him in anyway because no one wants to hurt his feelings. Wasn't he a rapper at one point? When did he begin to believe that he could sing?
I'm not even going to say how bad U2 and Montgomer Jentry were. If there is anything beneficial out of this special, the poor performances show just how powerful JC was and remains. He had pipes and used them so well. And, he never gave a cardboard, stiff performance like the ones we're witnessing tonight.
The one saving grace so far has been Martina McBride. Her rendition of "I Still Miss Someone" blew away the other groups/singers.
Wow...let's hope it gets better.
