Ryan Bingham - The Weary Kind

Album: Crazy Heart Soundtrack

Actor Jeff Bridges, who is probably most well known for portraying “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski, recently won his first Best Actor Oscar Award. He received it for portraying Bad Blake, a fictional country singer songwriter. He actually does all of the singing in the movie, and he sounds pretty good. But of all the songs on the soundtrack, Ryan Bingham’s “The Weary Kind” which stands as the theme song for the movie, is the most sincere song. This track also took the Best Song Oscar award.

Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Album: Need You Now

Every couple of years, I watch the Grammy’s and I notice a country song that hits me somehow. I’m not a country music fan, so I hardly ever listen to it, unless I’m at a country fair (which I hardly ever go to), or if I’m watching the Grammy’s and a country act performs. Three years ago, I really liked Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice” and this year, I fell for Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now.” The lyrics is so simple (“it’s quarter after one. I’m a little drunk and I need you now”) yet, touching, and the music goes well with it.

Taylor Swift - Fifteen [Live] /ft. Miley Cyrus

Album: 51th Grammy Awards

sample - not from Grammy

Grammy award show has always brought some surprise and memorable performances. Eminem and Elton John together or Paul McCartney joining Jay-Z and Linkin Park. But in the past couple of years, especially this year, I feel like there was no surprise. The only surprise happened off stage when Chris Brown got arrested for beating up his girlfriend, Rihanna on the morning of the award show (they were even supposed to perform, which they had to cancel). I was trying to pick the best performance from this year’s show, but I honestly couldn’t think of one. Coldplay and Jay-Z sounded good, but it was predictable, and so was Radiohead with USC marching band.

This duet between Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus is nothing special, but I’ve been sort of intrigued by Taylor Swift recently. This week marked her 10th week being #1 album in the US. Why is she selling so many records? I normally don’t listen to her music (or Miley’s) but after listening to this song and learning that Taylor Swift actually writes her own songs, I got a better idea of why teenage girls love her music so much. She’s a great story teller. To be able to do that at her age, that is impressive. It’s not enough to get me to buy her album, but at least I should mention about her. Another thing I noticed from this performance was that Taylor Swift sings with some kind of emotion, whereas Miley just sings it.

Taylor Swift – Change

Album: AT&T Team USA Soundtrack

When artists contribute a song for a benefit CD, the result is usually not that great, as the songs are usually leftovers or previously recorded for some other purpose (see what I said in the Songs for Tibet entry). But this soundtrack for the US Olympic Team is different. Every single song was recorded for this purpose, and every single song comes with a music video which includes various shots of the US athletes, running, swimming, celebrating, etc.

I was trying to choose one best song from the album, but had a really difficult time. Every single song on the album can be used for a slow motion highlight montage on TV, which would give some people (like me) goosebumps. There are some big name artists on here: Goo Goo Dolls, Taylor Swift, Colbie Calliat, Nelly, Sheryl Crow, Chris Brown, 3 Doors Down just to name a few. In the end, I went with Taylor Swift, as her song was the most popular track on iTunes (second most downloaded track overall, after David Archuleta), and I didn’t think I would ever select the country starlet’s song in the future. This track doesn’t sound too country, and has a bit of Avril feel to it.