Today's Pick

Rascal Flatts debuted a new video for their heartbroken ballad, "Come Wake Me Up," the second single from their eighth studio album, "Changed," is another fine example of how this trio continues to work at a level few country artists are aware of, and the track fits well with their classic ballads while also having a slightly different sonic landscape to the past songs along with a return to more of their classic harmonies on the choruses.
The drippy and introspective piano-driven ballad finds a despairing Gary LeVox conveying the pain of a broken relationship. A perfect Rascal Flatts song is easy to fall into, but not so easy that it relies on banal metaphors or country cliches. "Come Wake Me Up" is certainly a familiar story, but it's an original emotion and voice that will immediately connect with fans, especially those going through a difficult breakup. The trio simply soars above the mini-orchestra that marks the climax. It takes a few deep breathes to come down from this drama. The performance overflows with sincerity.
The music video was directed by Shaun Silva and filmed in Nashville, stars the group's guitarist Joe Don Rooney and wife Tiffany Fallon as a young, impossibly good-looking and really wealthy, yet troubled couple. They look smashing wearing designer clothes and walking around their ultra-modern house help tell the lyrical story as their love turns sour. Being young, rich and beautiful is not all its cracked up to be, at least not in this video, which explores the thrill of the chase and the blurred line between reality and dreams.
Rooney and wife Fallon's make-believe home is filled with "irreplaceable" items, and it's clear that their relationship is fractured. The raven-haired, rebellious beauty muses about how 'things' means so much to her blond beloved. He actually calls the things "irreplaceable," and it's clear that something is amiss. When do things have more value than a person? When did we become this disconnected from other people and place more worth in inanimate objects? It's food for thought and Rascal Flatts' new video effectively provokes that idea.

Rascal Flatts has just released the brand new music video for their newest single, "Banjo," the first single from country music group's upcoming eighth studio album, "Changed" which is due in stores April 3rd. The band sounded refreshed and that the song itself was well-produced. The new video was obviously shot in Nashville, and the lead singer Gary LeVox actually sounds like he's enjoying the ride here.
"Banjo" is an up-tempo pop-rock country song in which the narrator invites his lover to escape with him to a faraway place that "ain't on the map." He tells her to "go-go-go / 'Til you hear a banjo." The new track should fit nicely into the trio's live set when they hit the road for the Thaw Out Tour. It's loud and rowdy and it makes you want to hop from your office chair, dial up the Zippo lighter app on your iPhone, and hold it in the air. Like many things in life, this song should be enjoyed for what's on the surface. Don't go digging too deep, or you'll ruin the experience.
The banjo is a four or five stringed plucked instrument with a long neck and circular drum-type sound box, which is usually associated with country, folk, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. It originated in Africa as a nine-stringed instrument with a gourd body and a wooden stick neck, before making its way to America, where it has long been associated with the culture of Southern African-Americans. According to Rascal Flatts bass guitarist Jay DeMarcus, the banjo has become an elusive, endangered species.
DeMarcus explains the song as, "a sentiment about getting away from it all, getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and sort of breaking out and finding a spot way out in the country and drivin' and drivin' and drivin' until you go so far you start to hear a banjo." The lead guitar Joe Don Rooney feels like the song taps into a bit of a different sound for the band but he loves it and he thinks the fans will too because "it's got that raw countriness to it that's just so fun." And he also thinks once Rascal Flatts starts playing it live the fans will latch onto it. "I think everybody by the first chorus will get it, they'll be singing along to it and it's just fun stuff."

Being famous or in the public eye isn't "Easy." You needn't look any further than the looks on the faces of Rascal Flatts frontman Gary LeVox and British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield in the new video for their latest single, "Easy," to see that. Playing ex-lovers, LeVox and Bedingfield act tough when they bump into each other in a black-tie gala before reliving Cinderella story at the end of it. The ballad is third single from Country band's latest album, "Nothing Like This." It fits right into the Rascal Flatts wheelhouse, is about a story of a man pretending he's emotionally over a former love.
Each appears to be someone of stature and importance in the video, and arrives to a red carpet gala separately, looking sharply dressed, but they wear their misery on their faces. Clearly, something's up or down, actually between them, and they're not happy about it. It looks like a big event where rich and famous people congregate, but neither LeVox nor Bedingfield are into to the pomp and circumstance, the bells and whistles or the clutter of people. LeVox's expression is one of being unsettled.
Bedingfield, despite looking lovely in a stunning lavender dress, mopes in her limo like it's the last place in the world she wants to be. Something else is weighing on her mind, and while the flash bulbs are going off, she's thinking of LeVox. Bedingfield and LeVox keep missing each other in a crowd full of other well-attired people. The density of the crowd relays the idea of the tension and discomfort both are feeling. However, they eventually meet in the middle and sing to one another.
The video for "Easy" certainly suggests that fame and fortune aren't always what they are cracked up to be, and that even superstars need a minute to decompress and just be themselves and deal with what life throws at them. The ending is literally a Cinderella one, as Bedingfield races down the red-carpeted steps and loses a jeweled silver shoe, which LeVox is left holding. It's an unsettled ending and one that suits the overall moody tone of the clip.

Justin Bieber is jamming with the popular country act Rascal Flatts in a newly-debuted flashy video for their joint remix track "That Should Be Me," which is available on Bieber's new "Never Say Never – The Remixes" soundtrack CD, which was released last month. The 17-year-old singer filmed the video with the country music band last month after he cut his signature hair flip to give him a more grown-up style than his signature floppy locks. The love ballad song is super catchy and the the band members' voices blend perfectly with Bieber's. In fact, the video hit No.1 on iTunes and Bieber tweeted his pride.
The original version of "That Should Be Me" appears in Bieber's "My World 2.0" CD, and the revamped version is recorded for his "Never Say Never" soundtrack album. Of crossing genre from pop to country, he told ABC, "Music is music, and it's a universal language. It doesn't really matter what style, as long as it appeals to others and people like it, that's all that really matters." In "That Should Be Me," a "sobbing ballad," the teen heartthrob "plays the scorned ex," with lyrics like, "Did you forget all the plans that you made with me?"
If you like music videos about making music videos, this one's for you. Tween pop and country music might not seem like a natural pairing, but their collaboration has resulted in one of Bieber's better songs. This song is about a girl, but it's easy to imagine Bieber and Flatts' Gary LeVox are actually talking about which one of them should be singing lead. "That Should Be Me" is tune of lovelorn regret brings some unintentional laughs when the camera pans between a doe-eyed 17-year-old Bieber and a middle-aged country singer wailing, "That should be me." Whoever their mystery girl is, it's probably illegal for her to be dating at least one of them.
The video is a meta-statement on making videos. While the video isn't one of real creative value, we do get to see Bieber interact with the country band. While the Bieber strums the strings on his guitar in a room playing the track, the trio of country bumpkins joined the pop star for a remix of Bieber's hit song. The clip also features plenty of sad-faced over-emoting - crying! Falling on knees! Popping of collars! Throwing down of jackets! - and The video ends with Bieber walking off the set. The way the scenes tie together as if the joint effort were unplanned makes the "That Should Be Me" video feel as raw as the emotional song and lends you to believe the Bieber/Flatts collective force was anticipated all along.

American country band Rascal Flatts have released their third single "Why," from the trio's sixth studio album "Unstoppable," was written by Allen Shamblin and Robert Mathes, and released to radio stations on September 29.
The single "Why" is a slow-tempo song, sung from the perspective of a man whose close friend has committed suicide. All three members of Rascal Flatts said that they had difficulty recording the song, because they all individually losing someone close to them because of suicide. The song makes particular use of metaphors, comparing life to a song and the world as a stage. The lyrics alone are beautiful, with the narrator asking just why a special person in his life had to commit suicide. Perhaps the best line is "Why you'd leave the stage in the middle of a song?" a very striking metaphor. "Who told you life wasn't worth the fight" is also a very powerful line.
"Why" writers Allen Shamblin and Rob Mathes wisely move the narrator closer to the deceased, allowing for the visceral response that seems more appropriate to such an emotionally charged heartfelt topic. Rascal Flatts, who have made a career of reveling in just such melodrama, have at long last discovered a song that actually seems to justify their usual overdone style. For all of their songs that drive some fans and critics of country music crazy, the single has lead singer Gary LeVox on vocals with piano driving this ballad, and his group's favored pop-rock production, the song is the best possible single that could have been chosen from album.
"Why" isn't just a future hit from a band that can seemingly take any song to the top of the charts. This is Song of the Year material, maybe even good enough to net a Grammy or two. It's a welcome reprieve from the last few years' worth of blandness that Rascal Flatts has given us, and it's certainly thrilling to see the band pulling off something outside of their usual scope. LeVox is actually a very strong balladeer and he handles the lyric as delicately as its subject matter calls for. His voice starts off incredibly soft and emotional, and giving what has to be one of his best vocal performances ever since "I'm Movin' On." Overall, the song strikes just the right balance of detail and open-endedness to invoke emotions, not beat the listener over the head or trigger a knee-jerk "emotional" reaction. Even if you haven't been directly affected by suicide, the chorus alone should hit you.