Every now and then, I will use my TiVo to download a bunch of music videos. I download a bit of everything and then watch them briskly and efficiently. No reality programming in between. No commercials. If I don’t like the beginning of a music video, I fast forward to the mid-point to see if it gets better once it gets going. If not, I’m on to the next one.

I never heard of Justin Moore before, but I just got through playing his “Back That Thing Up” video about five gajillion times. “Back That Thing Up” has what Tapeheads fans would know to call serious production values. For those of you who must shamefacedly admit to never having seen Tapeheads, allow me to illustrate:

Mo Fuzz: All this video is missing is production values.
Ivan Alexeev, Josh Tager: Production values?
Mo Fuzz: Yeah. Tits and ass.

If muscles on video vixens and tight faded jeans on singer boys are coming back in style, I think I owe some deity a sacrificial goat now! Maybe two goats for the drummer still having tattoos and a mohawk. If “Back That Thing Up” is representative of Justin Moore’s body of work, he falls somewhere between Brooks & Dunn and Garth Brooks on one side and Motley Crue and AC/DC on the other. There are at least as many appalling sexual double entendres in “Back That Thing Up” as there are in “Big Balls”. I loathe puns. Unless they are sex puns. Then I love them.

Justin Moore has a mischievous smile, an easy charismatic stance and delivery style, and a smooth Southern voice both speaking and singing. Justin Moore has enormous star quality and looks really good in tight faded jeans and a cowboy hat. I usually don’t like cowboy hats (even though my foot was once photographed with one for Playboy.) He has an uncomplicated comfortable way of moving in his country duds which just works very very well. According to The Valory Music website, Justin Moore’s parents were deeded a fifteen-acre farm from his grandfather in a 272 person town called Poyen in Arkansas. His bio includes such American small town pastimes as high school baseball and gospel choir. I know country performers tend to talk about their mad farming skillz the same way rappers represent their drug-dealing resumes. Justin Moore is kind of being pitched as both flawlessly country and kind of indie, although it sort of looks like he is a Universal recording artist and he did get an awesome music video directed by Wes Edwards and produced by Brittany Hailes.

I have lived in both Georgia and North Carolina and, when I was thirteen, there were a lot of accent fetishist New Yorkers who wanted to date me for the five minutes I really had that Southern twang, until the moment passed. There is still the occasional word I say with a Southern accent, but I do not now identify as Southern nor have I ever identified as Southern. I have never thought of country as my community or culture. So I don’t care if Justin Moore’s comically country music-ready resume is over-spun or not. Apparently Country Music Television is a little wound up about the content in the video, so too racy for CMT is certainly a selling point in my book.

I know, I know, I get all excited about some media thing. I research it. Then I have to ponder whether it is real or not. In my defense, the YouTube comments on the cowboy singer’s videos tend to be mostly girls saying they are super “cuntry” and way better than those “Playboy whores” in the “Back That Thing Up” video. Except for the one gay guy who wanted Justin to back his nice thing up into some dick. This was apparently very offensive to some country fans. Some “cuntry” girls also complained that the video was degrading to women, but they were un-eloquently debated by other posters who apparently ran the lyrics through a rap filter and felt that it was good that “at least” it was not what they had come up with. Yeah, ’cause Justin Moore is more talented than they are.

This all brings me back to what was really my only point:

There is this kinda new singer Justin Moore and his catchy and nicely performed song “Back That Thing Up” has an incredibly cool video out directed by Wes Edwards. The end.

Congrats to Superna for her rockin’ appearance in the Brooks and Dunn video for the title track off of their Hillbilly Deluxe album. Superna is playing guitar because Blue Blood hotties do more than just look amazing. Naturally, she looks amazing too. The vid will be premiering on, of course, CMT real soon.

I’m really psyched about this for two excellent reasons. First of all, I adore Superna and anything good that happens to her is a good thing. Secondly, I’ve been watching a bit of CMT lately anyway and this gives me one more reason to enjoy it.

For those of you who would like some footnotes round about now, here you are. CMT stands for Country Music Television and the channel is a division of MTV, which is a subsidiary of Viacom. Brooks and Dunn are one of the biggest acts in country music. They first hit fifteen years ago with their debut album Brand New Man, which went more than six times platinum. Brooks and Dunn have had a string of hit singles and successful albums since. Dunn and Brooks are in first and second place respectively for most CMAs or Country Music Awards ever received by anyone. The duo also hosted the awards show for the last three years in a row. So, what I’m getting at here is, they are a big deal. Enjoyable too.

Props to my girl Superna! Here is what she had to say about the experience:

Amelia G: How did you end up being in the Hillbilly Deluxe video?

Superna: I guess I get around [laughs] Seriously though, an industry associate of mine called me one day out of the blue. He said, “Hey can you play bass? Do you want to be in a Brooks and Dunn video today?” Of course, I wanted to be in a Brooks and Dunn video. I sent my info to the casting director and he called me almost immediately. It seems I was perfect, but when they discovered a little more of my ability, they actually asked me to play guitar and sing in the band for the video. I was so excited because Brooks and Dunn are my Moma’s fav’s!

Amelia G: Who were the other people who made up the Hillbilly Deluxe band?

Superna: We rocked! Of course, the band consisted of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, a rockin’ hottie Loa Allebach on bass, Elijah Trotsky seriously rockin the banjo, Benjamin Hughes on lead guitar, Drew Taylor on drums, and I played rythm guitar and sang background vocals.

Amelia G: Do you know exactly when the video is premiering?

Superna: I will have the exact day and time soon, last I heard they were pushing for a 2 week release because the single charted so high when it was released recently. B&D also won 4 awards at the CMA’s (one for best video) so the race is definately on!

Amelia G: How long did it take to shoot?

Superna: The entire production has been under way for months. We shot at Disney’s ranch which was beautiful. The actual shoot time was about ten hours, including a monster lunch break at 8pm Thanksgiving style.

Amelia G: Your snapshots look fun. Was the shoot as much fun as it looks like?

Superna: It was more fun than you can imagine. Everyone in the band clicked so wonderfully, we felt like we had been touring forever. We had a lot of down time where we got to rock out with each other in the parking lot for the star trailers. I think we’ve got plans in the works for about five hypothetical side projects from this video.

Amelia G: Any special stories or anything you would like to say about the video shoot?

Superna: It was amazing. The entire production crew and cast were professional and everything flowed so perfectly. Between the incredible pyrotechnics, and the monster trucks, and the huge crowd of sexy ravers, and the talent of everyone involved … my mind was blown. I made some great friends too! Needless to say, I am now a hardcore Brooks and Dunn fan!