The premise of CMT’s latest reality show, Gone Country, was to take seven B and C list artists from the worlds of hard rock, rap, and pop (and one Marcia Brady), throw them into a house together and see if they had what it takes to win over the country audience in Nashville.
The brainchild of John Rich, the six-episode series was filmed over a two-week period in Nashville. The performers lived together in Barbara Mandrell’s old mansion Fontanel, which is now known as the “Plowboy Mansion.” and serves as home base for Rich and his Muzik Mafia cronies. While living together, Rich gave the participants a crash course on the world of country music and the country music lifestyle by having them perform various tasks, such as cooking for his grandmother and working on Gretchen Wilson’s farm for a day. Rich also introduced them to his father and brought them to get fitted with custom Manuel suits for the final live performance of the competition.
The series also took viewers behind the scenes as the artists collaborated with some of the best songwriters Nashville has to offer hoping to write a hit song and perform it in the finale at the Wildhorse Saloon. The artists were competing for the opportunity to record their new song with Rich as producer and release it to country radio.
My initial reaction to hearing about this show was “what is CMT thinking?” And when I learned who would be participating in the competition, my first thought was “this is a huge trainwreck waiting to happen.” (For the most part, it wasn‘t, but it definitely had its moments.) Bad boy Bobby Brown, “Mr. Thong Song” Sisqo, Dee Snider, Maureen McCormick, Diana DeGarmo, Carnie Wilson and Julio Iglesias Jr. all headed to Nashville to step out of their comfort zone and try their hand at a completely different style of music in the hopes of reaching out to a large, brand new audience.
Marcia Brady, I’m sorry, Maureen McCormick, wrote perhaps the most emotional and personal song of the seven contestants. However, as the only non-performer of the group, she struggled with severe stage fright throughout the series. Her song was arguably the most “country” of the group, but the others gave it their best shot with mixed results.
The finale could not have ended with a bigger shocker. After listening intently to each of the songs and watching the artists on stage, Rich admitted to them that he had a very difficult decision to make. He told the group he was looking for the whole package, quality of the song, live performance, stage presence, crowd reaction and the indefinable “it” factor. Then, to everyone‘s shock, Rich announced Iglesias as the winner. However, no one was more shocked than Iglesias himself. I personally would not have picked him, but Rich, as one of contemporary country music's brilliant masterminds and songwriters, apparently knew what he was looking for and thought Iglesias deserved the win. The song isn’t bad, it's just not one that will do well at country radio, in my opinion. But then again, what do I know? It will be interesting to see what comes of the single at radio and on the charts.
I originally was determined not to watch this show, but as a huge country music fan, I just had to tune in to watch the crazy antics of the performers and see just how seriously they would take this challenge. While I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet they may not have a huge future at country radio, I was pleasantly surprised by just how seriously all seven participants took the competition and gave it their all to “go country.”
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