Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 12th, and some of your favorite country artists are celebrating the mothers in their lives this weekend. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother’s Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.
Audio / Brandon Lay says he probably gets his work ethic from his mother.
DownloadBrandon Lay (Mother’s Day) OC: …comes from her. :2
“She works harder than anybody I’ve ever seen. She can outwork most 20-year-olds in the yard still. She grew up on a farm, and I think a lot of that just bulldog it and get it done attitude, I probably get from her. She’ll go from sunup to sundown, and she doesn’t complain, and that’s just so rare. I feel like the work ethic, as far as grind it out and get it done, that toughness comes from her.”
Audio / Caylee Hammack describes the qualities she most admires in her mother.
DownloadCaylee Hammack (Mother’s Day) 1 OC: …love fully. :53
“I love that my Mom is a no-nonsense woman. I love that she always speaks her mind and she’s super stubborn, because she handed it down to me and it’s come in handy, to be honest. She’s a great cook. I wish I was half the cook that she is. She’s obsessive about Tupperware and plates, which I used to hate, but now as an adult whenever I break a dish or something, I just call her, and I know that I have one on standby. I love that she loves random things so that I can squirrel them away and take them to Nashville sometimes. And I love that she loves big. She either gives all of her heart or nothing at all; she always gives all of her heart. She loves, you know, she has a bleeding heart, and I think that’s just one of the most beautiful traits in the world is to love fully.”
Audio / Carrie Underwood talks about now being a mother to two boys.
DownloadCarrie Underwood (having 2 boys) OC: …little brother. :49
“It’s kind of crazy to think, sometimes I’ll literally look at my husband and be like, ‘We have two sons. We have two kids. We’ve been married for almost nine years. We have two children. We live on a farm.’ Like it’s just weird to think how life turns out sometimes. Life is very different with two. We kind of got out of that baby stage with Isaiah. He’s much more self-efficient, and he can brush his own teeth and put his own clothes on, and he’s making decisions for himself, and then we start all over with the little squishy one again. It’s just kind of crazy. You forget how hard it is, to be honest, but you just figure your way through it. I am so blessed to have Isaiah who is super helpful and super sweet, and he loves his little brother.”
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Audio / Carrie Underwood says she doesn’t really have any Mother’s Day traditions.
DownloadCarrie Underwood (Mother’s Day traditions) OC: …even more so. :40
“We don’t really have like any Mother’s Day traditions. I feel like I remember me and Dad making breakfast for Mom like once as a kid. I’m pretty sure we just made a giant mess in the kitchen and we never did that again, so. Being on the other side of things, I obviously don’t expect anything from my three-year-old, but my husband’s really good at getting presents from quote unquote Isaiah. It’s really sweet, because he likes to bring me things. He’s such a sweet little guy, and anytime he’s outside, he’ll pick me flowers and things. So, I’m like, ‘You’re learning. You’ve already got me wrapped around your finger, and then you do stuff like that, and it’s even more so.’”
Audio / Clare Dunn talks about the support and undying devotion her mom has for her and her sister.
DownloadClare Dunn (Mother’s Day) OC: …in the world. :41
“She is unrelenting in her love and her support, and even when we’re crazy kids and we screw up, it doesn’t matter. Her love knows no bounds. And her undying devotion to her kids – to my sister and I – always believing in us a million percent, always backing us up a million percent and helping us navigate life and navigate our dreams and helping us go towards that goal – those are some of the qualities that I hope to have some day as a mother, you know? And I’m so grateful I have THE best mom in the WORLD!”
Audio / Darius Rucker talks about not disappointing his beloved mother, who passed away a few years ago.
DownloadDarius Rucker (Mother’s Day) OC: …killed me. :17
“I think that’s the main reason I am how I am…an innate fear of disappointing my mom. My mom’s not even alive, and I have a fear of her looking down from heaven and going, ‘Man I’m just disappointed in my son.’ She could have said anything in the world to me, but if she would have said, ‘Son, you just disappointed me,’ That would have killed me. It would have killed me.”
Audio / Darius Rucker recalls one of his favorite memories of his mother.
DownloadDarius Rucker (favorite memory of his mother) OC: …my Mom’s song. :34
“Oh goodness! A lot of great memories of her, but probably one of my favorite memories, I was a young kid, probably eight or nine, and she was in the kitchen cooking and listening to the gospel station and Shirley Caesar’s ‘No Charge’ came on and she was singing ‘No Charge.’ I just remember I ran into our living room which was adjoined to our kitchen and I just sat there and I just listened to her sing that song, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow! What an amazing voice.’ That’s just always a memory I’ve always had, and that song still to this day when I hear it just moves me because that was my mom’s song.”
Audio / Eric Church says he’s learned quite a bit from his mom.
DownloadEric Church (Mother’s Day) OC: …as a man. :57
“My mom, even though my dad won’t like this, my mom is by far the toughest person that I’ve met. She’s tough. One of those people that’s been through a lot in her life, adversity wise and never complains, always really resilient with anything that’s happened to her. And it’s just that attitude, the positive attitude, regardless of what has happened that I think is the one thing that I got from her. With career, she’s always been a person that’s been really positive through times that I couldn’t find a positive streak, [laughs] and she was always really positive, and very much believes in tough it out, keep working hard, and that’s her motto with stuff like that. I’ve always been impressed with that stuff. Then musically, she’s where I get my talent from, musically. She sings great, always has, her mom sang great. I owe my musical chops to her. And she still sings some. So, career-wise, I owe her everything. And just in life-wise she’s given me a lot of the qualities that it has taken for me to get me where I am. Not only as a musician, but as a man.”
Audio / Jon Pardi says his mother, Shelly, is an angel.
DownloadJon Pardi (Mother’s Day) OC: …worrying about me. :29
“My mom’s always been there for me. First of all, she’s a great mom. She’s an angel. She takes care of people that aren’t even in the family. She’s always been like that, and she’s a great mother. She’s always proud, and she’s always there supporting and being a great mom. She’s just a good human being. There’s not one mean bone in her body. And she cries about every time I talk to her. She always worries about me. I have to tell her, ‘Stop worrying about me.’”
Audio / JORDAN DAVIS SAYS HE’S A “MAMA’S BOY” AND HOPES HE HAS HER KINDNESS AND POSITIVE OUTLOOK.
DownloadJordan Davis (Mother’s Day) OC: …Mother’s Day. :30 [laughs]
“I’m a Mama’s Boy. I love my Mom, and it’s the way she finds the good in everything. With my Mom, as opposed to finding anything negative, she’s gonna find something positive first. That’s something I really hope I can be more like her on; one of the many things I wish I could be more like my mom on. My mom, she loves flowers, so we’ll get her flowers or take her to, we’re slowly getting her into sushi, so we love to take Mom out to sushi spots on Mother’s Day.” [laughs]
Audio / Kacey Musgraves comes from a very creative family, and here she talks about the women in her immediate family and their talents.
DownloadKacey Musgraves (creative women) OC: …taking pictures. :16
“My mom’s an artist – all different kinds of mediums, paint, but she’s always working on something different. My Meemaw, she’s a soap maker. She makes soap and they’re beautiful and they smell really good and they’re all natural. My sister has an etsy store, and she’s constantly creating something, sewing pillows and taking pictures.”
Audio / Keith Urban explains why his wife Nicole Kidman is an extraordinary mother to their two children, Sunday and Faith.
DownloadKeith Urban (Nicole is extraordinary mother) OC: …to see. :45
“She’s an extraordinary mum, she really, really is. Those girls are very, very lucky, and I feel very lucky that the children I should have in this world happen to be with Nic. I don’t know anything about raising kids and Nic does, and that comes in extremely, um, it’s really made for an experience I wouldn’t have had without that. Her patience, her recognizing them as people and not just little kids is really extraordinary. Her attention to honoring their feelings and listening to them right from day one – really being attentive to that is not how I was raised at all, so it’s really beautiful to see.”
Audio / Lauren Alaina says she can count on her mom for just about everything.
DownloadLauren Alaina (Mom keeps her grounded) OC: …same for her. :19
“I honestly would not be able to do it without my mom. I get overwhelmed sometimes, and if she wasn’t there to comfort me or tell me, ‘Look just realize what you’ve got going for you,’ I’d be up the creek [without a paddle]. She’s got my back. My mom would walk through a fire pit for me, and I’d do the same for her.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman says she always dreamed of being a mother…and her dream came true nearly nine years ago when she gave birth to daughter, Daisy (July 27, 2007). In 2017, she and her family welcomed daughter Dolly Grace.
DownloadLBT (Mother’s Day) OC: …for my mother. :34
“Being a mother is a life-long dream for me. When I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to be is a mama. It took a long time. I wasn’t ever sure that I would be, but I am now, and it’s the greatest gift of my life. And as I’m a mother now, I see what my mother gave up and her sacrifices and her love and how she made us the most important thing in her life, and that’s what I strive to do for my little girl. It’s the most important job I have, and it’s the most responsibility that I have, and I try to live up to a great example that I had for my mother.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild says being a mother to Elijah Dylan Westbrook is the best feeling in the world.
DownloadLBT (Mother’s Day-Karen) OC: …every day. :23
“There isn’t anything that means more to me than sitting on the bench and eating a grilled cheese sandwich with this little guy who calls me Mama. There isn’t anything better than that. He’s just a little miracle. I went from dreaming about him to eating grilled cheese sandwiches and ketchup with him, and I could never have dreamed this up – how good it could be, and it just gets better every day.”
Audio / MADDIE & TAE’S TAE DYE SAID SHE PULLED OFF A GREAT MOTHER’S DAY SURPRISE A FEW YEARS AGO.
DownloadMaddie & Tae (Mother’s Day-Tae) OC: …was so fun. :25
TAE: “To this day one of the best surprises I’ve ever pulled off was on Mother’s Day three years ago. ‘Cause my mom’s birthday always tends to fall on Mother’s Day Weekend – it’s coming up – and my mom and dad were coming into Nashville and I was like, ‘Okay-this has got to be a big weekend. It’s Mother’s Day, her birthday and the weather was going to be beautiful, so I planned this awesome surprise where we would drive first – she wouldn’t know where we were going, and then we ended up going canoeing down the Harpeth River [located south of Nashville], and it was so fun.”
Audio / Maddie & Tae’s Maddie Marlow says her mother is great at balancing life and that a hug from her mother can fix almost anything.
DownloadMaddie & Tae (Mother’s Day-Maddie) OC: (Maddie) …everything’s okay. :53
MADDIE: “She is so good at balancing is what I’m trying to say. My Mom is such a great balancer, but as I’m coming into our adulthood, and all that kind of stuff, she’s very conscious about when I’m trying to be perfect and have everything in order with everything. And she’s like, you can’t. You can’t do that. Life, you have to figure out how you’re going to deal with the curveballs that are thrown out you. Are you going to catch them and whine out about it or are you going to catch them and move on? Like you have to just go with what’s thrown at you. And my Dad’s been a really, really good supporter on just not letting life’s trials bring you down and letting them just be learning tools and all of that. But, most of the time, a Mama hug can really fix anything.” TAE: “Ahh…it’s the best.” MADDIE: “If my Mom hugs me while I’m crying, everything’s okay. There’s just something about it. I’m 23, grown, but, my Mom, if she hugs me, everything’s okay.”
Audio / Shania Twain says it’s such a joy to be a parent.
DownloadShania Twain (joy to be a parent) OC: …means everything. :14
“It’s such a joy to be a parent. So, I relate to all the mums out there who are getting all their love and appreciation from their kids, and I hope, when you’re a kid, a child of somebody, show your mum you love her, because it means everything.”
