Music. According to Kim.

Welcome to the second installment of my covers series. Check out the first part if you haven't already. Since picking songs using shuffle worked so well for me the last time, that's exactly how I'm going to do it every time. As far as I know none of these songs have ever been done by any of these artists. I forgot to mention it last time, but wanted to urge everyone to check out any songs that they don't know. You should be able to preview all of them on Amazon or iTunes. Or even YouTube. Once again, if any of the artists featured in this installment happen to come across this than they can take it as a challenge. I imagine that some of the choices might throw a few of them for a loop if they did see it. Especially one of them. Remember: I'm trying to think out of the box and not always go with what seems obvious. Some choices are more creative than others. If you came to this post via a direct link and missed part 1, you can find it  here . So that said, let...

I was just thinking about this list and thinking about all the great artists who didn't make the cut. And there's a lot! I keep saying it: 2012 was a very good year for country music. It seemed to be a year of artists discovering exactly who they're supposed to be, musically speaking. I get so excited when that happens. It just makes everything that much better. Finding and creating the music one is supposed to make increases their confidence. You can see it. They start seeming a lot more comfortable and in that, having more fun. 2012 was a great year for that. In saying that, it is my hope that those who found their sound keep it. And that the ones who are still looking, still trying to figure it out, find it. That's my hope for 2013. One of them anyhow. Of course, now it's time to look back. But first it's time to make a change. See, I really wanted to keep this at 12 artists. 12 for 2012. I deliberated over my choices and had to make some tough cuts. Ther...

The nominees: Big & Rich Love and Theft Sugarland The Civil Wars Thompson Square I kept going back and forth between a couple of them, but ultimately my pick for CMA Duo of the Year? Thompson Square. My thoughts on the other nominees? First up is Big & Rich. After taking a break for the past few years to pursue individual projects, they're back to making music together. Their new CD, Hillbilly Jedi , came out last month and the lead off single from said CD "That's Why I Pray" became a top 15 hit on country radio. But I really don't see them having a shot here. Love and Theft. My second choice. As I said in my pick for new artist, I really believe that they have a huge chance of winning this. They just had their first #1 with "Angel Eyes" and have really been making a name for themselves lately. They've put on a great show every time I've seen them. I really like these guys and I'd have no problem whatsoever if ...

This one was a tough one for me. Another one where I've changed my mind multiple time. But as evidenced by the existence of this post, I've finally made my decision. First the nominees: Lee Brice Brantley Gilbert Hunter Hayes Love and Theft Thompson Square And my pick for CMA New Artist of the Year? Lee Brice. If you've been reading this series, you know the drill by now. I'm going to talk a little bit about each of the other nominees before I explain why I went with Lee. Starting with Brantley Gilbert, who has had a pretty solid few years. First, scoring two cuts on Jason Aldean's My Kinda Party  album. Two cuts that of course became very big singles for everyone involved   and came with the added benefit of getting Brantley's name out there. He'd had a very loyal following before that, but those cuts made him known among the general country fans who hadn't heard of him previously. As an artist, he has two #1's under if his belt. Namel...

Now that I've gushed about the song, I want to talk about the video since it just came out a couple of days ago. It was directed by Roman White and can be found on CMT.com or here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPd1GIwjRFM Oh, black and white, how I love you and the fact that you were used here. I'm a sucker for black and white because it can add such an intimacy and classic feeling to a video and I think it was the perfect choice here. I love the set in this, all the glass around them and the fact that glass was breaking around them. Though that said, I have to give them both props here because honestly if it were me, having glass thrown down right by me would freak me out. If either of them was, it definitely doesn't come across. This is such a beautiful video, I think they both look great in it. Shawna's white dress is pretty gorgeous. The parts when they're together are beautiful, you can almost feel the chemistry between them in this and it just m...

So I remember the first time I heard this song. I was on my way home from a doctor's appointment several months ago and had their CD in my car so I decided to pop it in and listen to it since I hadn't really done so before then. Now, I don't know about any of you, but every now and then a song will come along that sort of metaphorically smacks me in the face and makes an instant impact on me. It doesn't happen all that often and when it does it's always a surprise. This was one of those songs. So, I can basically sum up my thoughts about this song with this next statement: I love it and am so happy they made it a single! End of story. Blog done.

Here we go. The top twenty. There's only four more posts left in this countdown, including this one, and then I'll be done and moving on to something else. I think that this part of this countdown was one of the toughest for me to rank. Mainly because a lot of these videos are so close in quality to me. A lot of the others were easier to place, whether they've been in here already or have yet to come. But this batch and the one that'll come right after were probably the hardest ones when it came to deciding what video would go where. And after all that this, this is what I've come up with. So let's get to it.