Back when I was covering the Latin music industry for the Los Angeles Times, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alejandro Fernandez, a top Mexican singer. Like his famous father Vicente, Alejandro often performs in full charro (cowboy) gear, and sometimes even does so horseback. Just another reminder of how much the US and Mexico [...]
The Saddle Sisterhood Grows
May 2, 2012 3 Comments
One of the best things about this blog, for me, has been hearing from other city women who ended up in love with cowboys. I’ve come to think of us as the Saddle Sisterhood. Last week one of these wonderful women, a passionate writer and classically trained singer named Caryl Velisek, sent me a copy [...]
The Cowboy Schools Me on Hunting
April 26, 2012 7 Comments
It’s no secret to readers of this blog that I was pretty clueless about rural life when I met the cowboy a little more than a year ago. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t trying, though. I’d written a novel called THE TEMPTATION that I hoped was sort of like a ghost version of Twilight, featuring a [...]
Therapeutic Thursday – Retro Pop Revival Rocks My World
April 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
Not sure y’all have noticed this or not, but there is a slow and steady movement in pop music away from the plastic and manufactured, back to classic blues, jazz and Motown-inspired sounds. Pretty sure we can thank Adele for this, as she proved without a doubt that today’s pop listener is ready for something [...]
New Study Shows Hip-Hop Fans Are Promiscuous, Country Fans Not
April 3, 2012 15 Comments
I love Harper’s Magazine, and especially their index — the list of fascinating factual tidbits that graces the front of the magazine each month. Last month, there were two that stood out, both taken from a recent study conducted in the United Kingdom. They are as follows: Chances that a hip-hop fan will have had [...]
TV Tuesday – Carnie Wilson Needs to Cowgirl Up
April 3, 2012 3 Comments
Carnie Wilson was on The Today Show this morning, talking about how she’s about to have another surgery to make her stomach smaller. She’s also pumping up her new reality show. The five-foot-three singer once weighed more than 300 pounds, had her stomach stapled, lost enough weight to end up posing for Playboy, and then [...]
TV Tuesday – The TV Show That Changed My Life
March 27, 2012 1 Comment
It’s not the sort of thing you want to admit, to anyone — that a television program changed your life. It simply isn’t dignified. And yet in the case of the excellent BIO network reality series I Survived: Beyond and Back, it’s true for me. The show changed my life. The series features the true [...]
Thursday Book Review: Shadow’s Stand by Sarah McCarty
March 22, 2012 Leave a Comment
Shadow’s Stand is a fast-paced, racy romance novel by acclaimed author Sarah McCarty, and I liked it quite a lot. In this 5th book in the Hell’s Eight series, we find our leading man, Shadow Ochoa, about to be hanged after being wrongly accused of being a horse thief in 1800s Kansas. To his great surprise, a [...]
My Favorite Irish Dude Singer & the Mexican Dude Singer Who Sounds Just Like Him & the Italian Dude Who Sounds Like Both Too
March 15, 2012 Leave a Comment
I know. I’m gettin’ just a wee bit too happy on the Irish front this week, in the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day. It’s like that for we Irish-ish peoples. (My mom’s mom was Irish American.) So, in honor of the good old green, I give you The Script, whose singer Danny O’Donoghue is very cute [...]
Ashton Kutcher Makes a Mockery of Country
When I saw the outfit Ashton Kutcher chose to wear to present the best female vocalist award at the ACM country music awards Sunday night, all I could do was shake my head. When I heard him attempt to sing on that stage, surrounded by some of the best singers on earth, and when I [...]