Keepin' it Country Media & Radio » Kimberly Williams Paisley

Brad Paisley & Kimberly Williams to support Haiti non-profit

Lydia Picknell — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:12:44 +0000

Country music superstar, Brad Paisley, and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, have lent their voices and finances to a very special cause for those in need. “Live Beyond,” led by Dr. David and Laurie Vanderpool, is a local nonprofit with a mission that reaches around the world. The “Live Beyond…Thirst” initiative provides clean water for households throughout Thomazeau, Haiti, a very poor suburb of Port au Prince. Volunteer teams go monthly to the region to assist in this project as well as offering aid to the people.

Brad and Kimberly have been motivated by the Vanderpool’s passion and are joining them by supporting “Live Beyond…Thirst” both financially and also as volunteers. “Live Beyond…Thirst” is targeting establishment of 100 clean water collection sites as a foundation for improved community heath and disease prevention. The Paisley’s welcome country fans to join them in the effort by presenting “The Paisley Challenge.” Go to bradpaisley.com to donate to the water project.

”Going to Haiti really opened my eyes to the plight of these hundreds of thousands of people–many of them mothers, fathers, and children–who are our neighbors. With Live Beyond…Thirst, we can help give them a basic human necessity they have never had: Clean water. I want to show them they are not forgotten,” Kimberly Williams-Paisley.

”Live Beyond…Thirst” will be featured as a cover story of The Tennessean’s Portfolio section this Sunday. http://blogs.tennessean.com so make sure to check out what it’s all about and see why the family believes in it so strongly. Is there a cause that you support as a volunteer or through donations?

REVIEW: Nashville – Looking Back and Moving Forward

Jennifer Swirsky — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 01:35:54 +0000

That seems to be theme of the week in Music City. Everyone is looking back; remembering, questioning, regretting, and reminiscing their pasts and doing everything in their power to push forward to a better future. How, you may ask?

The return of Juliette’s mother has resulted in Juliette thinking about her childhood, which was filled with painful memories. Clearly Juliette’s mother is not the healthiest of parental units, as she is struggling with addiction and the mood swings that accompany the dependency. However, seeing Juliette witness her mother’s continual downward spirals shows us a deeper, darker side of country music’s sassy starlet. Think Meredith Grey, pre-McDreamy marriage, back when she was dark, twisty, Tequila Mer. That is what we have with Juliette, sans the Patron. Juliette finally decides, after some urging from Deacon, to allow him to step in and talk to her mother — addict to addict. Once Juliette’s mother recognizes that she is not alone and that someone understands her struggles, she agrees to be admitted into rehab … but not before she bids Juliette farewell — with a slap right across the face. And that, therein, was the final straw for Juliette, as she decides to let go of her home and move someplace new … someplace free of her mother and all remnants of her. In Juliette’s words, “anything she touched, I hate.” I’m pretty sure that Juliette is not telling her mother to “keep coming back” like the people in rehab are likely preaching at the end of their group sessions.

Meanwhile, Rayna is hard at work on a commercial because she is desperate for money, and she is attempting to use a song that she and Deacon wrote by changing the lyrics to fit the commercial. However, Deacon will not release the rights to the song because the song’s lyrics mean something to him. Aside from the commercial, in her quest to bring in the bucks, Rayna’s management has an idea to produce a Greatest Hits album. Rayna is not on board with this idea, as she would rather go to the studio and record something new. Obviously Rayna lost her writing partner when she fired Deacon, so she has to begin writing on her own. It actually works out well for her, as her management boasts that they think she actually created something that could be a first single off a new album. Looks like Rayna won’t need that Greatest Hits album after all to bring in the money!

Speaking of money, we find out what Peggy and Teddy’s relationship actually is/was. Oh, by the way, while we are on the topic of Peggy, she was our trivia person from last week, and the actress playing her is Kimberly Williams Paisley — Brad Paisley’s wife! ADHD aside (hey look, something shiny!), Peggy and Teddy were involved in some scheme years ago where they somehow embezzled two million dollars. Peggy is getting nervous because there are auditors starting to sniff around, and she mentions turning themselves into the feds. Teddy asks her to hold off and goes to talk to Rayna’s father, Lamar, the political aficionado with a lot of connections in Nashville. Lamar tells Teddy not to worry about it and focus on the campaign. Fast forward to Lamar meeting up with Peggy and telling her to stay quiet and keep calm — in a most threatening manner.

Let’s quickly backtrack to Deacon, as this guy has barely had his own storyline/drama without the help of Juliette and/or Rayna yet. Until now. Deacon is certainly distraught about his professional break-up with Rayna and, as he performs their songs solo in a bar, a heckler yells out to him that he prefers Rayna’s vocals. When Deacon sees the heckler outside, he ignores the an attempt at an apology, and Deacon lashes out — most likely from pent up aggression with everything surrounding him — and goes Mike Tyson on the heckler in the parking lot, punching him in the face, yet sparing his ear of any bite marks. End scene. It should come as no surprise that when Rayna’s phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s a collect call from the jail asking her to accept charges from Deacon. Considering that Teddy interrogated her earlier in the night about whether she wanted to sleep with Deacon, Rayna hit “2″ to decline the call. Next phone call? You guessed it. Deacon calls Juliette and, in true “what goes around comes around” fashion, Juliette literally bails Deacon out like he figuratively bailed her out.

In other news, there is still that whole Avery, Scarlett, Gunnar thing going on that has absolutely zero correlation to the rest of the happenings in Nashville. Here is the gist in a nutshell: Scarlett and Gunnar get a song to Lady Antebellum; Avery helps out and plays guitar for them as they showcase the song to the record execs; Avery “hijacks” the performance when he gets jealous of the way Scarlett and Gunnar are making eyes at each other; Scarlett gets mad; Avery gets mad; Scarlett professes her undying devotion to Avery and Avery is bull-headed, as usual.

Next week, maybe we will see Juliette start moving forward again with her career and reputation after her mother showed up and set her back; maybe Rayna will move forward with recording a new album; maybe Deacon will move forward in his quest to heal after Rayna broke his heart; maybe Teddy will move forward with his campaign without fear of his shady past coming back to haunt him; maybe Scarlett will move forward with her personal and professional relationships; maybe Avery will move forward and gain some confidence in his relationship. Regardless of who starts moving in a positive direction, one thing holds true — everyone needs to get out of the past soon, because the past is the past for a reason and the future is wide open … especially for a bunch of talented musicians in Music City!

Make sure to check out these tunes from Nashville, Episode 105!

“American Beauty” – Performed by Rayna

“Loving You is the Only Way to Fly” – Performed by Scarlett/Gunnar/Avery

“Fairlane” – Dirty Guv’nahs

“Down in Tennessee” – The Cadillac Black

“Sideshow” – Performed by Deacon

“Yellin’ from the Rooftop” – Performed by Juliette

“Buried Under” – Performed by Rayna

Nashville Review: The Rise and the Fall

Jennifer Swirsky — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:56:31 +0000

Episode 4 started off with quite a bang…literally. We find Rayna and Deacon in bed together, only to find out Rayna was in a deep sleep, dreaming about her “duet partner.” Cinderella did say a dream is a wish your heart makes…looks like Rayna’s heart is speaking volumes to her head! In her recent state of perpetual guilt, Rayna agrees to sing at her husband, Teddy’s, political event to help bolster his chance to become an elected official like her father. The event is taking place at the country club, a place Rayna loathes, and who is playing alongside of her? Deacon, of course! As the day draws closer, we realize there is someone new in town and she seems slightly suspicious. And clearly there is a secret between her and Teddy, made evident by a conversation they had in private after the event. They call her Peggy, and this gorgeous gal looks familiar. ***Insert more Nashville cameo trivia!*** Can anyone name this country-music superstar’s wife who has joined the cast, for at least one episode, to raise our eyebrows about Teddy’s loyalty to Rayna? We will reveal the answer in next week’s Nashville Review! Oh, and who can forget the big coup d’etat between Teddy and Deacon, who are clearly fighting over Rayna’s affection without actually saying so? This marriage is becoming more and more rocky with each passing week, and with Peggy in the picture now, who knows what direction Rayna and Teddy will go? Rayna obviously sees the impact Deacon is having on her home life though because she has decided that letting Deacon go is the solution to her marital woes.

Alright, I know you all are just dying to know what happened with Juliette after she was caught stealing nail polish by some teenage fans with video cameras on their phones. (To answer last week’s trivia, the teenage vocalist is named Kennedy Noel. Check her out at @kennedy_noel on Twitter!) Well, the video that Kennedy’s character shot has gone viral and Juliette doesn’t seem fazed by this. Until she receives word that she has been removed from the list of CMA presenters (spiffy timing there, ABC and Nashville … way to promote the awards show that is airing 22 hours after Nashville!) and can only save face by agreeing to an interview on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts (another excellent ABC show plug). During the interview, Juliette defies orders by her management team to admit to her wrongdoing and fess up to gain sympathy for her mistake and, instead, lies and says that she accidentally took the nail polish. Next, in a shocking interview turn, Robin Roberts asks Juliette about her mother and her addiction. Juliette has all she can take and immediately leaves the set. As expected, the interview results in a downward spiral of sponsors pulling out from the tour and the tour, ultimately, being canceled. After her manager notifies her that he is quitting, Juliette explains herself and we learn a little bit more about the confident, sassy Ms. Barnes. It turns out Juliette has begun to self distruct and is losing grip on her life. Stealing made her feeling protected and like she was taking care of herself, just like she was forced to do as a child. It made her feel comfortable and safe…just like Deacon evidently does, because Juliette used a lifeline after everything hit the fan and decided to phone that friend with benefits. And, it seems that we are reaching a point where Rayna doesn’t only need Juliette, but Juliette will need Rayna as well. Perhaps these two ladies will team up and go on tour after all…

In other news, Scarlett and Gunnar deserve your congratulations, as they landed a deal and are now officially employed as songwriters! This is great for Gunnar’s love life, as he has already begun making music with an assistant, Haley; yet it seems to be causing a riff in Scarlett’s love life as Avery becomes increasingly envious of his girlfriend’s professional fate.

Oddly, even though plenty went on during those 42 minutes of blissful television, it seemed like a quiet week in Nashville. Perhaps after the last few weeks, where relationships were firing up and fizzling out, careers were rising and falling, crazy drunk parents were returning, and nail polish was being stolen, anything would have seemed quiet in comparison. If there is one thing I know, it’s that nothing stays quiet long in a city known for its musical prowess. Tune in next week to see what (and who) our favorite Nashville citizens have gotten themselves into again!

Check out these tunes from episode 104 of ABC’s Nashville:

“Murder of Crows” – Lindi Ortega

“This Can’t Be the Last Time” – Sugar & the Hi-Lows

“Ammunition” – Trent Dabbs

“By Your Hand” – Los Campesinos!

“Hit the Road” – Sherrie St. Germain

“Alright You Restless” – AgesandAges

“Changing Ground” – Performed by Rayna James

Brad Paisley’s Wife Joins Nashville Cast

Lydia Picknell — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:21:06 +0000

Country music superstar Brad Paisley won’t be the only one taking over Nashville. His wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, has taken on a role in ABC’s upcoming drama series “Nashville.” Kimberly, who has been in various major acting roles ranging from “Father Of The Bride,” and as Dana on “According To Jim,” will play the character of Peggy Samper. Peggy is the ex-girlfriend of main character Teddy Conrad.

“Nashville” is gearing up to being one of the bigger shows on ABC later this year. Writers of the series include the team behind the “Thelma & Louise” movie, and the producers behind “The September Issue,” “War Room,” and “A Perfect Candidate.” The series is being produced by Gaylord Entertainment and is being filmed around the actual Nashville, Tennessee. The story follows a country music star who is trying to return to the spotlight and revitalize her career while a new, hot young star steals the spotlight.

The series will make its premiere on ABC on Wednesday, October 10th at 10 pm EST. Make sure to tune in and see how accurate Hollywood can make Nashville look.