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Get the story behind the writing of the song "Colder Weather" from the guys of Zac Brown Band . More Rhapsody Soundboard features you might enjoy:
Nearly 12 years after its release, Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill towers as an essential piece of musical lore. With its legendary credit "produced, written, arranged and performed by Lauryn Hill" (a statement that would eventually lead to lawsuits from her production team, New Ark), The Miseducation won the first Album of the Year Grammy for a hip-hop album, and sold over five million copies. Then, amidst rumors of a nervous breakdown and the poorly received live album MTV Unplugged, Hill slowly retreated from the public eye; her comeback appearances on this year's Rock the Bells tour were a bittersweet affair. Her prolonged absence from music, coupled with the mainstream rap industry's continued devaluation of female artists, has made The Miseducation a commercial and artistic achievement that the hip-hop community has yet to equal.
Nicki Minaj isn't scheduled to release her debut album, Pink Friday, until November 23, but she's already a contender to be one of 2010's biggest artists. The Queensbridge rapper has become a cameo queen, lobbing heat rocks for Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, Usher, Christina Aguilera and many others. In fact, even this playlist is incomplete: days after it was compiled, two new Nicki Minaj verses were released. On the Pharrell Williams-produced "Haterade" from Gucci Mane's The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted, she effectively defends herself against critics who claim she's Lil Kim redux; but for Lil Wayne's "What's Wrong with Them," she just sings the chorus. Coupled with her many genre-bending appearances, including the Annie Lennox-quoting hit single "Your Love," Nicki is keeping her fans — and detractors — guessing as to what she'll do next.
The underappreciated backup singer or the struggling songwriter, just waiting in the wings for that Big! Break! that will finally allow her or him to realize their dreams of stardom is, of course, something of a cliché. More specifically, it's the kind of cliché Americans spoon up like a bowl of vanilla ice cream eaten in front of an episode of American Idol. But as they say, clichés have their origins in truth. And the truth is that some of music's greatest talents spend years laboring behind the scenes (often in the service of lesser stars), taking supporting roles to get their foot in the door and all the while wishing and hoping for their turn in the spotlight. Others haven't necessarily dreamed of their name up in lights so much as possessed a talent that simply shone too brightly to go unnoticed, resulting in a manager or a label exec or even a fellow artist snapping them up out of obscurity and shepherding their burgeoning superstar career. Count them among the fortunate few — but count us listeners even luckier: more often than not, all those years spent behind the scenes result in a finely tuned sense of musical style, an attention to craftsmanship and an intimate knowledge of the ingredients that make for the most delicious pop treats. The charts happen to be cram-packed with artists just like that: former underdogs and wallflowers, pop geniuses who spent a good deal of their careers helping make megahits for other performers, but who have now begun to garner the attention they deserve. This edition of single-phile is, therefore, dedicated to the bright young things who've gone from behind the scenes to superstardom. 
It's been a cruel, cruel summer. Sure, there were musical bright spots, but they were few and far between. Now, after a near-drought of new Christian and gospel releases, the floodgates have finally opened. We have pop, folk-rock and worship covered with new studio projects by big-name artists Michael W. Smith, Bebo Norman and Charlie Hall, while gospel legends Israel Houghton and Mavis Staples take us to church with their diverse new projects, and The Afters get us on our feet as Group 1 Crew gets those feet moving to their always-funky beat. Read on to find out more. Michael W. SmithWonder His twenty-second career project, produced by Bryan Lenox, finds Michael W. Smith returning to the kind of story-based pop ballads that made his career. "I'll Wait for You" is a raw, real take on the desperation and uncertainty so many people feel on a daily basis, while "Welcome Home" is a musical memorial to those who've left us, often too soon. The heaviness of "Leave," inspired by the touchy topics of abuse and bullying, is balanced by a pair of love songs written for Smith's wife of 29 years. The hurt we feel is real, Smith acknowledges, but it doesn't overshadow the hope found in God.  Some people look down on song covers. Not us over here at Rhapsody — we actively enjoy them. Why is there anything wrong with the fact that Bob Dylan wrote a great tune called "All Along the Watchtower" and that Jimi Hendrix took it, put it through his own artistic filter and did something amazing with it? Rhapsody members obviously love the song: it is the most listened-to Hendrix tune on our service. Maybe some of them would like it less if they knew he didn't write it. But why should it matter? Maybe I'm just predisposed to covers because they are such a big part of jazz; nobody complains that Miles Davis didn't write "My Funny Valentine" (it was a show tune from Babes in Arms, and Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra also made popular recordings of it). You can tell a lot about a musician by the way they approach a song that's been done before. 
One of the funny things about editing Rhapsody's electronica/dance genre is that I tend to take in a lot of strays that wander in from the cold — artists who don't necessarily make strictly electronic dance music, but whose use of dance tropes or digital techniques earn them an at least partially "electronic" tag. The fall season, when labels ramp up their release schedules, has seen a bounty of releases that straddle worlds this way, from Robyn's sparkling Scando-pop to El Guincho's fourth-world psychedelia. Including Junip's new album in this bunch might be a stretch — the presence of Jose Gonzales virtually ensures that you'll file this one alongside similarly folksy singer-songwriters — but the Swedish musician's work has, after all, been remixed for the Balearic disco crowd. In any case, this one's got a Moog on it. That's gotta count for something.
Let's face it. The great classic rockers of yore — those who survived, that is — aren't getting any younger. In fact, most of them are downright old. And old looking: gray locks, wrinkles, sags, the whole nine yards. Sadly, the rallying cry "Hope I die before I get old" has been replaced with "Hope this fiber really does keep my colon healthy."But as you're about to find out, just because your hero is old doesn't mean he, or she, can't make meaningful rock music. Then again, as you're also about to find out, sometimes it does. Because so many classic rockers have released new albums as of late, Rhapsody's Classic Rock Crate Digger decided it's a perfect time to play doctor and administer a few check-ups. Here's what he discovered.
You gave us your questions. We put them in a box. Watch Toby Keith on romance, alternate career paths, ideal vacation spots and dinner with Roger Miller. After you've watched the video, go and listen to our exclusive Leak of Toby Keith's new album Bullets in the Gun. Watch previous episodes of "The Box vs...":
 Matador Records has released a slew of acclaimed material since its inception in 1989. Acts like Pavement, Liz Phair, Cat Power, Spoon and Interpol all kicked off their careers with the help of the influential indie label, while longtime indie favorites like Sonic Youth and Ted Leo & the Pharmacists have recently made a home there. The label is celebrating its 21st birthday in style, with a three-day Lost Weekend in Las Vegas. Instead of toasting their success with 21 shots, we've decided to spotlight 21 of their releases, showcasing Matador's great diversity and tastemaking talents.For a sampling of these artists and more Matador acts, check out this playlist.  PavementSlanted & Enchanted The group's debut from '92 was an invigorating mixture of post-punk scratch, snarling pop smarts and lyrics that read like the post-graduate's Junior Jumble. Its scattershot nature kick-started dozens of copycat bands and almost made lo-fi a household word — need we mention it was one of the decade's best records? — Jon Pruett 
Generalizing about age is a fool's game, but in some fields of American endeavor — music might be one, music criticism maybe another (and sports? parenting? accounting? Guess it depends) — the late 40s can be a weird time. Assuming you've stuck around that long, to life's midway point more or less, there's a chance you've had some success at your game. But if so, there's also a good chance the pinnacle of that success is now behind you. So maybe you're coasting, possibly even resting on past laurels to an extent. But if you care about your craft, you want to keep doing quality work regardless, and once you've let go of the pressure that comes from staying at the very top of the heap, you might find yourself freed up to challenge the persona people came to know you by. Or not. Anyway, 14 non-Christmas studio albums in, seems like that might be where Toby Keith is on Bullets in the Gun.
No matter how sexy some girl thought his tractor was once upon a time, Kenny Chesney has never really seemed like the sort of guy you'd find working the fields at the farm; for years, he's instead been country's answer to Jimmy Buffett, wasting away lazily in his own private Margaritaville, at least 'til he made his way back to Cleveland like in "Anything but Mine." Check the cover photos on his best and usually biggest albums (2002's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems, 2003's When the Sun Goes Down, 2007's Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates) and Kenny's not behind any plow; he's on the beach. Same goes for 2004's blatantly introspective, Zen-titled, hit-single-free Be As You Are: Songs from the Blue Chair; what with that tide rolling in, seems like the chair might've been too moldy for proper meditating. At any rate, that '04 set was also Chesney's official coming out as a thoughtful confessional singer-songwriter — something more than "just" country, whether he ever came out and said so or not. Six years later, he's now got an album called Hemingway's Whiskey. So let's just say he has some literary ambitions.
Country music's rowdiest cowboy, Toby Keith, is in a good place these days. He has a new album out — which you can now stream on Rhapsody, a week before you can buy it — and is currently on tour with his pal Trace Adkins. In fact, things are going so well for the Oklahoma native, he acknowledged in a recent interview that if his life were a country song, it'd be "uptempo, nonabrasive, middle of the road." Listen to Bullets in the Gun and discover more about this shoot-from-the-hip enigma with a video interview, celebrity playlist and more.
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Throughout the '70s, while as-yet-unrecorded hip-hop was evolving up in the South Bronx, a comparably funky new dance music was emerging in the black neighborhoods of Washington, D.C (or, as the title of Parliament's 1975 album put it, Chocolate City.) Instead of DJs and rappers, go-go's rhythm came from big bands — especially drummers. Lots of drummers. Chuck Brown, who'd come up playing jazz guitar and turned 40 in 1976, led a funk band called the Soul Searchers. But the mid-'60s stint he'd spent in the Latin cover combo Los Latinos inspired him to fortify the drum kit with Afro-Caribbean timbales, congas and other percussion; he also took brass charts from jazz and call-and-response — plus go-go's signature underlying drum syncopation — from the Pentecostal gospel church. And he thought like a DJ and cheer-led like an emcee, so he'd keep the party rolling for hours with improvisatory nonstop-segued medleys of original tunes and fragmented remakes, many dating back to the swing or jump blues eras: Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, "Harlem Nocturne." Other local bands were experimenting with extended rhythm jams around the same time, and by the late '70s go-go was a distinctive genre.
The Charleston. The Bo Diddley beat. Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy." Even Snoop's "Drop It Like It's Hot." Mambo's got a musty aura in our collective American imagination, but it actually helped spirit Afro-Cuban rhythms into American popular music in the early 20th century — in particular the 3:2 son clave rhythm (known back then as the habanera). That syncopated Boom.Boom.Boom/tap-tap rhythm seems to demand a physical response — it was a favorite soundtrack for early striptease shows — and it has given propulsion to everything from rockabilly to hip-hop songs ever since. It put that fatal sway in Elvis' hips; it made "Louie Louie" the irresistible party song it still is. Let's put it this way — when country and blues music got in bed to make rock 'n' roll, there was actually a third party involved. It's time to give Latin music its due: check out our mix of early rock 'n' roll songs and their (in some cases) direct Cuban antecedents. We start out with Buddy Holly vocalizing the rhythm for his band, and we keep the surprises coming. Did you know that the Stones' "Satisfaction" is, in fact, a cha-cha-cha?
Playlist: Rock's Latin Roots
The rap nerds don't know what to do with Eminem. Ten years ago, they loudly proclaimed him a genius, the greatest emcee of all time. He was a master of the 16-bar verse and a vocal stylist who employed bounce, speed-rapping and drawling affectations at whim. His lyrical provocations — from turning his ex-girlfriend Kim into a symbol for abusive male-female relationships to exporting Detroit street-rap culture to the suburbs — drew kudos from songwriters like Randy Newman and Elvis Costello as well as rock dudes that usually denigrated rappers as mumbling, inarticulate hooligans. And as acclaim followed, so did massive success, as megahits like 2000's classic The Marshall Mathers LP blasted through the marketplace. But now, the hip-hop intelligentsia has written Eminem off. For them, he's just another aging rapper with rapidly deteriorating skills. They believe that his new album, Recovery, is a noble failure, an unsuccessful attempt to reignite the dying embers of his early 2000s dominance over the pop zeitgeist. The Internet teems with mockery of some of his lyrics, with this line from the No. 1 hit "Love the Way You Lie" achieving special infamy: "Now you get to watch her leave out the window/ I guess that's why they call it window pane." So why is Recovery the biggest-selling album of 2010 so far? Are critics and hardcore rap fans getting it wrong? Most of them wouldn't readily admit it. They would rather offer Recovery faint praise, musing that at best it's a minor improvement over Em's last two albums, 2004's widely panned Encore and last year's equally derided Relapse. 
Pop's funkiest white boys (well, this side of Justin Timberlake) have done it again: taken up funky, old-school soul and made it work for them and the coffee-shop-ready, adult-alternative niche they've carved for themselves. This time around, on the just-released Hands All Over, Maroon 5 have trained their retrospective gaze on disco, funk-pop and salty, oh-so-slightly attitudinal, piano-driven rock a la Elton John circa Honky Chateau. The 1970s have always been the band's preferred stomping grounds, of course, so all three genres are a natural home for Adam Levine's twangy falsetto and his band's chunky hooks, jangling retro riffs and smooth-as-silk keys. In other words, this is a band that trades heavily in nostalgia, that works hard to create a sound that is at once warmly familiar and also "new" in its very deployment of such recognizable audio icons, that doesn't shy away from the near-constant comparisons to the likes of the Bee Gees, Jamiroquai and Justin Timberlake. But don't go thinking that means the influences behind Hands will be simple or obvious choices. Yes, Stevie plays a (very large) part, but so does a cast of somewhat surprising other characters.
When it comes to Christian music, it's still a man's world. Of course, we've come a long way since the days when Amy Grant created a stir by wearing an animal-print blazer on the cover of Unguarded in 1986. But nearly 25 years later, popular and talented female artists still have a hard time fighting their way onto radio and the charts.For the week of September 25, only one woman was in the Top 10 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart — Francesca Battistelli's My Paper Heart, a project that's more than two years old, held that honor. If you expand your view to the Top 25, it paints an only slightly brighter picture. Natalie Grant and the Women of Faith Worship Team made the cut, as did Casting Crowns (two of seven band members are women) and Hillsong, a co-ed group brought to prominence by female worship leader Darlene Zschech. Over on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, newcomer Kerrie Roberts is representing the fairer sex with "No Matter What" in the No. 9 spot. Fellow female singers Grant and Britt Nicole can be found at No. 22 and No. 24, respectively, and FFH, a group that is one-fourth female, is holding steady in the No. 20 spot. Girly girls like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry may dominate over on the Pop charts, but their Christian sisters aren't finding the same success. As Christianity Today pointed out in a piece examining this issue earlier this year, "since Billboard's Christian Songs chart was created in 2003 — 337 weeks of existence — females held the No. 1 spot for just 11 weeks, or three percent of the time. Joy Williams and Nichole Nordeman were the first females to top the chart, in June 2005. Then three and a half years passed before another female hit No. 1." 
Just when we thought we'd get to take a breather and relax after the gazillion releases of the past few months, Tuesday rolls around once again, bringing with it another spate of killer new country (and quasi-country) releases. Whether you are a fan of country pop, traditional country or bluegrass, Rhapsody has all your favorites, including new releases from Keith Urban, Sara Evan and Randy Houser.
Sun. Sea. Love. Beaches.Rain. Mountains. Melody, Melancholy. Bossa nova, contradictorily, has all of those things and more. The musical form has been with us for over 50 years now and has worked its way into the genetic DNA of Brazil as well as American jazz, pop music and global culture in general. Both jazz and bossa nova married African rhythms, European folk styles and expansive classical harmony into a sumptuous whole, but (interestingly) their rhythmic foundations are unique. Bossa nova does not "swing" in the American style; it pulses in a way that keeps musicians and listeners on both sides of the equator enthralled. In the 1950s, João Gilberto was a rising star who specialized in robust Latin ballads when he walked away from his career and spent years coming up with a new way of playing and singing. Gilberto played the restless samba rhythms on his guitar while his (now) softened vocals lay dreamily behind the beat in a fashion that recalled vocalists such as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Julie London and France's Henri Salvador. Separate Gilberto's guitar playing from his singing and you have two beautiful things — put them together and (gentle pow!) you have bossa nova. His songs can be upbeat and playful or bittersweet and lovelorn (a hallmark of Portuguese fado torch songs). Gilberto is a master musician who worked hard to revolutionize a new style of music — and he has stuck to his blueprint for the rest of his life. 
Even the most casual beer drinkers out there have surely taken note of the American craft-beer movement. Over the last three decades this country has seen an explosion in small, independent brewers. According to Beerinfo.com's "The History of Beer and Brewing in the United States," the number of active breweries in the United States has grown from just 82 in 1980 to over 1,900 as of last year. Not only that, Yanks are now importing artisan beers from Europe (Belgium first and foremost) in record numbers.As a music geek who also rides the craft-beer train with zealous glee, I'm particularly obsessed with snatching up those fine brews with ties to musicians, bands, songs, albums or even entire genres. These usually take one of three forms: (1) An explicit honoring or commemoration (North Coast Brewing's Brother Thelonious) (2) A play on words or a goofy pun (Purple Moose Brewery's Dark Side of the Moose) (3) The same as No. 2, but the connection is so generic and tenuous only a music dork would make it (Lunar Brewing Co.'s Moondance IPA) There's a lot going on in this post, so allow me to break it down for you. First up are reviews of six musical beers that I've tried over the last several months. After that you will find a sprawling compilation of music-related brews, plus a whole mess of links to the relevant artists and albums. There's definitely a lot of information to take in. But hey, have fun and get lost in it. Who knows, maybe you'll start craving craft and artisan beers the way you do music. 
If you're over age 13 or so, you're forgiven if that title induces a bit of eye-rolling. It's not that Disney's musical dealings are total crap or anything. It's just that a lot of the kid-oriented network's stars make (or at least start out making) music that's awfully, well, kiddy. Never fear, grown-ups. Not only is the music of the Magic Kingdom not all bubblegum beats and cartoon lyrics, it even encompasses some rather adult rock and pop you shouldn't feel the least bit guilty listening to!
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 The live album is always a mixed blessing. Concerts are as much about the experience as they are the music. It’s seeing and sweating and drinking and dancing. It’s as visual as it is aural, and there simply isn’t a way a recording can replicate that. As often as not, pop groups just don’t have the chops to pull off a musically successful show anyway. Modern production is too convoluted and bands are oftentimes so focused on creating a sad facsimile of the studio recording that they forget to do anything interesting. The fan cell-phone videos probably come as close to anything as far as replicating the experience. Jittery, and clouded by muffled bass and random audience intrusions, the videos contain a bit of the raw electricity and drunken subjectivism of the live experience.
Tito Puente is a badass. He composed your favorite Santana song ("Oye Como Va"); he became an initiate (olubata) in santeria, the Afro-Cuban religion that features chicken sacrifices and spirit possession; and he helped create salsa (the music, not the food), though he hated the term. His name is a joy to say, but it's also meaningful: puente means "bridge," and in many ways Puente was just that, a bridge between Afro-Cuban music and big band jazz, between Nuyorican culture and the rest of the world. He brought the timbales front and center in Latin music, which had never been done before, and he also played a raft of other instruments and was a master composer, arranger and conductor. This turgid two-disc collection from Fania lays out the goods in chronological order, starting with Puente's smoking mambo, which made New York's Palladium the epicenter of Latin music in the 1950s. It moves on to his unpublicized but deep connection to sacred Afro-Cuban percussion; touches on his dalliances with boogaloo and bossa nova; and then dives into his ultimate co-creation of the explosive sound of early salsa. It's an exhilarating listen, and one that begs the question: where did he get all these ideas? The man was a dynamo, but some of his influences might surprise you.
L.A.'s sprawling community of musicians and producers — at least the ones who tend to fuse electronic and hip-hop into a new sound often classified as "beat" or "bass" (as well as less-respected and kitschy terms like "lazer bass" and "wonky") — have flooded the market this year. Few national scenes have garnered as much attention, whether it's Flying Lotus grabbing headlines for his collaborations with Radiohead's Thom Yorke, or the Glitch Mob performing before thousands of crusty techno-hippies at raves across the country. It may even be just due to the sheer amount of material they've collectively produced.First emerging around 2006, L.A.'s beat scene is often reduced to its head-nod factor and its origins in hip-hop production, particularly the work of the late James "J Dilla" Yancey and his seminal album Donuts. But the music is more diverse than that. Brazilian forms like bossa nova and tropicalia; orchestral jazz-rock descended from David Axelrod; late '60s choral pop or "sunshine pop"; the free jazz and psychedelic of Sun Ra; and early '80s electronic styles like New Age and synth-pop have helped these artists grow and evolve in different directions. Although they will always be, to some degree, the sons and daughters of Dilla, this year's beat contenders apply their aesthetic to a wide swath of popular music.
Steven Curtis Chapman: A Night With the Chapmans  This is a big release week for alternative music, so we've collected a bounty of new albums for you to read about and listen to. Whether you're a fan of '60s psychedelia, '70s hard rock, '80s synth-pop, '90s indie rock, Krautrock, industrial, downtempo, metal, funk, R&B … maybe just music in general … you'll likely find something here to strike your fancy. Rock on.  WeezerHurley In a nutshell: Alt-rock's nerdiest are back to their raw-rocking selves. Weezer are actually metalheads, and they reveal a bit of that on "Brave New World." Rivers Cuomo is as sexually confused as ever (in "Where's My Sex?" you wonder if he actually means "sox") and he's still riddled with angst, but he's a little tougher now — threatening to crash a Diddy party (in disguise) — and nearly ready to admit his age on "Memories" and "Time Flies." For those who like: Teen angst, nerds, Fountains of Wayne, OK Go
Check out artists Paul Wall, Jason DeRulo and LMFAO answer your questions from The Box. For playlists, radio, artist interviews and updated Rhapsody dispatches from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards click HERE. Watch previous episodes of "The Box vs...":
Once upon a time, television shows were not designed to look like mini-films and, thus, did not typically feature mini-soundtracks. Also once upon a time, it wasn't considered particularly cool for a musician to be featured on a TV show. The times, how they have changed, huh? Today, TV shows serve as music tastemakers, scoping out the hottest new sounds and acts, and even making and breaking artists. The benefit goes both ways, of course: television shows can gain authenticity and audiences by going after a particular music crowd. The result is that TV shows now not only regularly feature up-and-coming, niche and even well-established artists, but that particular shows often adopt a particular music style, one that becomes synonymous with the show itself and serves to advance its emotional subtext, flesh out characters and make plot lines more palatable. To put it another way, music itself has become a character on many TV shows. Below, you'll find a brief but wide-ranging breakdown of the musical personalities of some of the hottest current and recent hit TV shows.
With The Killer dropping a new album, Mean Old Man, I realized we here at Rhapsody have never put together a proper album guide to 1950s rock 'n' roll, a nice collection of records that encompasses both the music's legends and its unsung heroes.It was a task easier said than done. Originally, I had intended to limit the number of albums to 10. But I quickly realized there was no way to even begin to sum up '50s rock with less than 17. Even that wasn't enough, in all honesty, when you think about all the incredible rockabilly, doo-wop and rhythm & blues the decade produced. So think about this album guide as a nice introduction rather than the final word. And hopefully, it will spur you to further exploration. Enjoy! 
The Zac Brown Band is a musical anomaly, appealing to fans of tight-laced Southern Rock and country, as well as the loose, free-spirited Jam Band community. And woven through it all are elements of Jimmy Buffett-inspired Yacht Rock so why, oh why, does this all work? On paper, it's a frightening mess. In reality, the Zac Brown Band's harmony-rich songs hit a sweet spot that lands them on top of the country charts time and time again. Listen to the Zac Brown Band's new album, You Get What You Give below, and check out all of the Zac-related features we've line-up for your reading and listening pleasure.
 Country music is going at a fast and furious pace this fall, with new releases from Oscar winners, outlaws and just about everything in between. Some of the releases from the past couple of weeks have so ensconced themselves in our hearts, we’re already making a place for them on our year-end countdown. You definitely want to check out these gems.  Jamey JohnsonThe Guitar Song Jamey Johnson has one of the sharpest, most acerbic senses of humor in country music, which is why his often depressing, always cutting songs slice so deep. The Guitar Song is a loosely connected concept album of sorts, with Disc 1 dubbed the Black Album and Disc 2 the White Album. As expected, the songs on the Black Album are the kind of moody, bitter songs at which Johnson excels, while the White Album is about as chipper as he gets. With lyrics such as “You can push me into the water/ But you can’t hold me under,” the song “Can’t Cash My Checks” is a bloody-but-unbowed slow burner that captures the album’s best vocal performances. “Macon” is a slow-building, Southern rock masterpiece; the Southern gospel background singers take this one to a higher place. Other highlights include “Lonely at the Top” and “Playing the Part,” both of which deal with the trappings of fame and could easily be singles. — Linda Ryan  The Zac Brown Band are a musical anomaly, appealing to fans of tight-laced Southern rock and country, as well as the loose, free-spirited jam band community. All of this while offering up radio-friendly masterpieces such as "Chicken Fried" and "Toes," both of which earned the band household name recognition. However you define success, the Zac Brown Band surely has achieved it. But they also know that fame is a fickle little bitch, so if the lion's share of the songs on You Get What You Give deal with relaxing and enjoying life in the moment, you can't really blame them. Not that they have anything to worry about: You Get What You Give is a tightly spun collection of impeccably produced songs that hook you in, take you for a spin and propel you forward on a most enjoyable journey. Speaking of journeys, "I Play the Road" is a slice-of-life reality song for the band, which regularly clocks in upward of 200 shows a year. With its fast-pumping piano and twangy electric guitar, there's an undeniable nod to The Allman Brothers in this rollicking road song. "Colder Weather" offers up the dreary side of being on the road: the strained relationships, the awkward phone calls and the realization that the "born for leaving" lifestyle offers nothing in the way of stability. Jam band fans will certainly appreciate "Who Knows," a tasty, sprawling epic that clocks in at just over 10 minutes long — plenty of time to highlight each player as the "jam" progresses. "Knee Deep" is an island-inspired gem whose up-on-the-down-beat guitar licks are augmented by a swirling organ and none other than the king of laid-back paradise songs himself, Jimmy Buffett, taking a verse or two. And of course, the stunning single "As She's Walking Away" is an immediately likeable little gem with lush harmonies, a shuffling beat and the great Alan Jackson making a guest appearance. Already the band's fastest-rising single to date, "As She's Walking Away" is yet another Zac Brown single that will surely hit the top of the charts.
VMA House Artist Deadmau5 stopped by on the white carpet to talk DJ Hero (really cool!), favorite VMA moment (never watched them!) and his progress on the next album (too much touring!). For playlists, radio, artist interviews and updated Rhapsody dispatches from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards click HERE. 
Girl-on-girl makeouts! Aerial assaults! Drunken catfights! Jergen's lotion? The possibilities are endless here at the 2010 VMA's. Check out the video above to hear what hijinks artists like David Banner, Paul Wall, Florence Welch , Jason DeRulo, Natasha Bedingfield and LMFAO are hoping to see to during tonight's festivities. Check it. For playlists, radio, artist interviews and updated Rhapsody dispatches from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards click HERE.
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As the leaves begin to fall, we're also buried under a pile of tour announcements here at Rhapsody. To help you sort through all the live Christian music possibilities, we're highlighting some shows you don't want to miss.
