FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Joss Stone crumpled a piece of paper and tossed it over her shoulder. It contained the lyrics to “Bruised but Not Broken,” from her most recent album, and soon after, a second wad (“Girl They Won’t Believe It”) traced the same trajectory.
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The British soul singer Joss Stone, left, and the country star LeAnn Rimes rehearsing each other’s songs for “Crossroads.” More Photos »
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“We don’t like those songs,” Ms. Stone, her brown hair streaked red and strung up in pigtails, announced with a laugh.
The setting was a small stage in a studio here, about 20 miles outside Nashville, where Ms. Stone and LeAnn Rimes were beginning rehearsals for a forthcoming episode of the CMT (Country Music Television) series “Crossroads.” The show, now in its seventh season and among the highest-rated on the channel, typically pairs a country singer like Ms. Rimes with a more mainstream artist like Ms. Stone, a native of England whose stock in trade is soul. Each is asked to perform on a handful of the other’s songs, as well as a cover or two.
“Crossroads” seeks to mine musical gold from tension, not least from the anxieties of stars shown laboring outside their comfort zones. In this case Ms. Stone, 20, had decided on the fly that she didn’t feel like doing two of her songs that she and Ms. Rimes had selected in advance, in consultation with the show’s producers. The lyrics had even been loaded onto a teleprompter.
Ms. Rimes, the veteran of the duo at 25, quickly stepped in with an alternative: “Tell Me ’Bout It,” a funky confection from “Introducing Joss Stone.” When warned by the members of a scrambling crew that she’d be flying blind (no prompter), Ms. Rimes offered them reassurance: “We can figure it out.” She had memorized the song weeks earlier, just in case; she went on to trade verses, effortlessly, with Ms. Stone.
Viewers can see the finished product when the episode (including “Tell Me ’Bout It” and a retooled “How Do I Live?,” Ms. Rimes’s biggest hit) has its premiere on CMT at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 7.
Previous “Crossroads” installments have featured Kid Rock and Hank Williams Jr. They not only performed “Hamburger Steaks, Holiday Inn” (by Mr. Williams) and “Cowboy” (Kid Rock) but were also filmed in rehearsal firing off a Civil War cannon at Mr. Williams’s cabin in Tennessee.
Two years ago Jon Bon Jovi and Sugarland played “It’s My Life” (a Bon Jovi hit) and “Something More” (from Sugarland, with Mr. Bon Jovi testing his twang). And in September the rhythm-and-blues singer and producer Kenny (Babyface) Edmonds was paired with the country star Trisha Yearwood to sing “Change the World,” which Mr. Edmonds sang with Eric Clapton, and Ms. Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe.”
“Crossroads” was conceived to broaden the reach of CMT, a cable channel that, while available in about 87 million homes, is far better known in the South and West than in the Northeast.
“It was a simple idea: can we hang something in the window that says, ‘This isn’t what you think, it isn’t ‘Hee Haw,’” said Bill Flanagan, a creator and executive producer of “Crossroads.”
Brian Philips, the general manager of CMT, said the show also sought to stoke “a viewer perception that all great artists, all great musicians, know everybody else’s songs.”
“The audience sees it as a happy accident,” he added. “But there’s also a lot of preparation and behind-the-scenes work.”
Sometimes the most riveting “Crossroads” moments have occurred off camera — no surprise considering the high wattage (and egos) of the stars involved.
Early in the series’s first season, in 2002, the producers rented the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City for a performance by Elton John and Ryan Adams. As the members of the audience took their places, Mr. John and Mr. Adams were huddled anxiously on Mr. John’s tour bus with Mr. Flanagan.
“Ryan had showed up in bad health,” Mr. Flanagan recalled. “He said, ‘I’ve got a sore throat, I can’t sing, I don’t think I can do this.’”
And so they decided that the show would not go on. But how to let down the audience? Mr. Flanagan said he asked Mr. John if he would join him onstage to break the news — “at least to wave, so they can have the experience of having seen you.”
Mr. John had a different idea. “I’ve got nothing else to do tonight,” Mr. Flanagan recalled him saying. “I’ll go out and play a show for them.” And so he did, for an hour. The next day CMT sent Mr. John a bouquet of flowers. “Someone saved my life last night,” Mr. Philips had written on the card, appropriating the title of one of the singer’s hits.
Less than two months later Mr. John and Mr. Adams traveled to Nashville to record an episode after all, which featured arresting performances of Mr. John’s “Daniel” and Mr. Adams’s “Answering Bell.”
Original article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/arts/television/27stei.html?8dpc
