Poll: A CML Chart Interactive Query

BUMPING FOR MORE PEOPLE TO READ.  I WANT EVERYONE’S INPUT!!!

Each week, I check the polls periodically to see how many people are voting.  I have noticed that there a few people who are voting, but not in the way I intended.  Sometimes, someone will vote for one song on one poll and totally ignore the rest of the polls.  Other times, someone will vote once in each poll.  I truly don’t mind this at all.  I just assume that these people want to make sure they get a vote in for one of their favorite songs.  I also assume that they are okay with me making the rest of their votes for them. 

I do check often enough to know how many people have voted in a given week so I know how many votes I need to place. Since the switch to starting the polls on Sundays, I have tried not to look at the current results after the midweek point just so I don’t really know who’s going to win until the end of the week.  This way, when I have to make votes for other people who didn’t make all of theirs, I don’t make any votes that would swing the results towards what I want. The thing is, when I do this I have changed the results of the poll towards what I want anyway.

My query, to any reader out there, is which of the following should I do:

Make no changes.  Should I just leave it as is and just forget that I ever asked you about it?

Limit the polls to one song each week.  What I would do here is allow everyone to vote for one song to increase in star rating each week.  If there needs to be more than one song to move up, I would pick the remaining songs.  I would not vote in your poll and I would establish a set criteria for how I would pick songs, with this criteria being slightly different for the 2-star poll.

Find some way to make it so your have to vote the correct number of times. Plain and simple, this is an option I want to avoid.  The only way that I can think of is to give you an e-mail address so you can e-mail me your choices.  I would have to calculate the votes myself, which wouldn’t be a big deal unless the CMLCI becomes really popular.

Other. Do you have a suggestion?

 

I am going to keep this poll open through next Monday, which is when I will announce what the winning option was and how we will proceed from there.  Any changes that may take place will not be in effect until the CMLCI for the chart week of 7/26 to 8/1/09.  Thanks for your vote!

Matt Stillwell- “Sweet Sun Angel”

At first, I thought I would recognize the song since I recognized the title.  Then, I started listening to it and thought I was wrong.  Then, it got to the chorus and I knew I was right, that I had heard another version of it.  I then realized that this song was on one of the Clay Walker albums I have.  All of sudden, I was like “hey, for once someone has taken an album song from another artist and made it theirs and made it sound better.”  This song fits Matt’s voice better than it did Clay’s, which was a bit surprising to me.  The arrangement is also better suited for the radio than Clay’s was as well, and since Clay never released it, one would assume they knew that themselves.   Now, the next question is, will Matt get some solid airplay from it?  As much as I want to see another Matt be successful at country music (name one who’s a regular visitor to the charts), I don’t know if the vast majority of America is going to like this song.  I do, but that’s besides the point.  I am hoping that it will outdo his last two singles and even surprise a few people, but I’m not sure.  I’m predicting on the side of caution with this one.

Billboard Chart Peak Prediction- Top 50

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Lyrics

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Sara Evans- “Feels Just Like a Love Song”

This is a make or break single for Sara.  You may think I am crazy, but follow my logic here.  In the years that I have been listening to country music (13, in case you’re wondering), I have seen a lot of artists’ radio success come to an end after a Greatest Hits album that did not have much in the way of radio success.  “As If” peaked at #11, but “Some Things Never Change” overachieved to #26 and “Love You With All My Heart” was her first single never to make the Billboard charts.  While “Low” was a decent song, it didn’t receive much support being from a movie soundtrack to a movie that was far from being a blockbuster. 

On “Feels Just Like a Love Song,” Sara’s fine voice in on display, but that is the only bright spot.  The lyrics are a little weak and don’t go where I would’ve thought they could’ve gone.  The production reminds me a little of her most recent singles and not the songs that have made her career successeful.  I think we’re going to be disappointed by where this song ends up on the charts.

Billboard Chart Peak Prediction- Top 40

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Lyrics

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Lost Trailers- “All This Love”

The newest single from the Lost Trailers asks a very interesting question–what do you do will all the love you have for someone when they leave and don’t want it or need it anymore?  I guess you could call this the follow up to “How ‘Bout You Don’t” in a way other than being the next single.  You could look at as the girl from “How ‘Bout You Don’t” left and now the guy’s throwing a new question her way.

As far as the song as a single, I think that it’s a little too much “been there, done that” because this type of song has been done before.  The Lost Trailers’ version of this type of song doesn’t have that unique flavor to make it a very successful single.

Billboard Chart Peak Prediction- Top 40

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Lyrics

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CML Top 60 for 7/5 to 7/11/09 Online.

Check out the Top 60 to see if ”Whatever It Is” by the Zac Brown Band makes it three weeks in a row at #1 or if someone else was able to slide in and take the spot away.

New songs this week are from Matt Stillwell, Sara Evans, and the Lost Trailers.  Check back later this week when I do my single reviews to get my impressions of these songs.

The CML Top 60

CMLCI Updated

Last week’s winners:

5-star: Randy Houser’s “Boots On”
4-star: Eric Church’s “Love Your Love The Most”, Billy Currington’s “People Are Crazy”, and Kellie Pickler’s “Best Days of Your Life”
3-star: Darius Rucker’s “Alright”, Toby Keith’s “Lost You Anyway”, and Justin Moore’s “Small Town USA”
2-star: Jack Ingram’s “Barefoot and Crazy”, David Nail’s “Red Light”, and Brooks & Dunn’s “Indian Summer”

This week two songs are being removed-Brad Paisley’s “Then” (5-star song) and Jason Michael Carroll’s “Where I’m From” (3-star song)

The polls are active on the CMLCI page, so you can vote when you’d like.

 

I made two changes to the CMLCI this week.  First, I have permanently removed the restriction on a song winning two different polls in back-to-back weeks.  This was originally put in to keep “clubs” voting a song to the top and not voting for any other song.  However, I’ve found that most weeks I am waiving that restriction in the upper polls just so I can have enough songs to avoid an automatic win.  Hopefully, I’ll never have an automatic win, but as an aside to this change, I will only an automatic win if it is now unavoidable.

My second change this week was in the way songs are included on the 2-star poll.  I have changed it from Top 30 no matter what time to Top 30 and 12 weeks on the CML Chart.  I have changed the Top 40 and 15 weeks to Top 40 and 16 weeks.  The 20 weeks no matter where on the charts inclusion is still in effect.

Thanks for the visit and hopefully for your vote!

Whitney Duncan- “Skinny Dippin’”

At first, this song has a good sound to it.  Then, Whitney starts singing.  I’m not saying that Whitney sounds bad, it’s just that this song and her voice don’t work together.  While the lyric is good, the production sounds good, it’s one of those songs that belong to someone else (Taylor Swift is the first singer that comes to mind who would fit this song better).  I can’t see Whitney having much success with this song at all. 

Billboard Chart Peak Prediction- Top 60

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Lyrics

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Jason Michael Carroll- “Hurry Home”

What a great song!  We all remember “Austin,” a song where an answering machine message is a central focus.  “Hurry Home” uses an answering machine message as the central theme.  The message, from a father to his daughter, talks about an unconditional love between the two of them.

I have to say that this is arguably Jason Michael’s best single so far (I think it is slightly better than “Alyssa Lies”).  I am going to make the daring prediction that Jason Michael has finally found his first #1!

Billboard Chart Peak Prediction- #1

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Lyrics

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John Rich- “The Good Lord and the Man”

John Rich has shown that he can write a song that is out-of-the-box but something that everyone can understand if they don’t relate to it.  “The Good Lord and the Man” is a song that reminds everyone that our life here in America would be much different if it weren’t for God and some of the decisions “the man” has made in the past.

What I find the best about the song is the lines about speaking German and flying the Japanese flag.  Seventy years ago, this was something that might have happened. 

John Rich as a solo artist is nothing compared to Big & Rich, but while we wait for them to record new music (I’ve heard they’ve started touring again), it’s okay to have a well written reminder from him of why we are free today.  The song will do okay, but I don’t think he’ll equal the Top 20 success of “Shuttin’ Detroit Down.”

Billboard Peak Chart Prediction- Top 30

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Lyrics

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Gary Allan- “Today”

This is one of those songs that you are either going to fall in love with from the first listen or you’re never going to love it.  I guarantee that 90% or more of the people that are reading this will agree with me.  “Today” talks about how the singer lost everything today because the only women he ever loved got married.  Gary is one of those artists that is good at connecting with any lyric you give him and then singing the heck out of it.  This song is classic Gary and is going to be a big hit for him.

Billboard Chart Peak Prediction- #1

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Lyrics

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