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My way: Eric Church cuts unusual path to ACM win

The decisions of country music maverick Eric Church usually spark strong reactions.

Release a single to radio about teen pregnancy? You can't do that!

Put out another about smoking marijuana? Are you crazy?

"Everybody told us we'd lost our minds," Church said. "And maybe we had, you know? But I liked the fact that it had never been done, it had never been said. I'm not interested in being one of those artists that makes the same music and does the same thing that everybody else has done. I would rather cross some boundaries and kick down some doors."

That philosophy has led Church, 33, back from what some thought was career suicide and to a new kind of popularity that he might not have achieved had he continued down the path he started on five years ago. Church has already won the Academy of Country Music's top new solo vocalist award this year and is up for the overall top new artist award against The Band Perry during Sunday's show in Las Vegas.

Not many would have predicted this outcome after Church, hot off the release of his debut, was fired from the Rascal Flatts tour in 2006 — at Madison Square Garden, no less — for playing too long and too loud.

At the time, it seemed like a quick end of a promising career to most Music Row observers. He gave up a chance to play in front of thousands and started taking gigs where only a few dozen might show up.

"We started going back and playing clubs, playing honkytonks," Church said. "We also played heavy metal bars as a country band. Sometimes there were 50 people there, but those 50 people, they were in to it. They were cheering like there were 10,000. I could just see enough of a spark then that if we kept doing what we were doing, even if nobody else would've believed it and everybody else told me I was crazy, I knew that eventually that would turn into something."

He figured those 50 people would each go out and tell 10 more, and sure enough there were 500 the next time he passed through town. Then 1,000 and 2,000. Jason Aldean and Miranda Lambert tapped him as an opening act and later this year he'll begin headlining arena shows on his own.

Crazy or not, the guy was right. And he has been from the start, whether it was his song selection, venue choice or picking Jay Joyce, best known for his work in the rock and folk worlds, to be his producer — something even Joyce calls "an oddball choice."

"I think he's always been trying to burn his own path," Joyce said. "He wasn't too worried about falling into that cookie-cutter Music Row thing."

Church and Joyce, who teamed on Church's first two albums, 2006's "Sinners Like Me" and 2009's "Carolina," promise to push the boundaries a little more when Church's new album comes out later this summer.

Instead of focusing on singles and hoping to load a record full of them, they focus on the entire album, painting a picture of where Church is at in his life during that point and time. "Two Pink Lines," a song about teen pregnancy from his first album, was not an obvious choice for a single. "Smoke a Little Smoke," released last year, is about enjoying mind-altering substances, not something radio programmers usually endorse (unless the substance is whiskey or tequila). There have been songs about the death penalty, Nashville pretenders, the greatness of Merle Haggard and Church's boots.

He's been rewarded with radio airplay, but that's not the point.

"In fact there's been some radio kind of songs that we've left on the side in the past because it didn't fit as a complete piece of art," Joyce said.

Church portrays a sense of confidence in his choices and the evidence to support those decisions is everywhere. But he admits it's not always easy.

"When you've got that fear though, to me, that's when you're making the right music," he said. "If you're making stuff that's just safe, yeah, maybe it is a No. 1 song, but does anybody care? That's my biggest issue. When you have a No. 1 song and you can't sell a record or you can't sell a ticket, what did you accomplish? Did you really move people or did you just make background music for everybody else that's very forgettable. And I can promise that what we do won't be forgettable."

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Clinton deputy steps down from State Department

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's top deputy, James Steinberg, is resigning his position to take an academic post at Syracuse University.

Clinton told State Department personnel on Wednesday that Steinberg will be replaced as the agency's second-in-command by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, who is currently the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service. She said President Barack Obama would nominate Burns for the job, which requires Senate confirmation.

Clinton said in a notice to employees he had been "indispensable" in helping to formulate and execute policy "on every foreign policy challenge, big and small."

Steinberg, 57, had long been rumored to be unhappy as the department's No. 2 and will be moving to Syracuse to be the dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The school said he will take up the post of deans this summer.

Prior to his current post, he was the dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and served in President Bill Clinton's administration as the State Department's director of policy planning and deputy national security adviser.

An early supporter of presidential candidate Obama, Steinberg was thought to have been on the shortlist to become national security adviser, a job that ended up going to retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones.

While Clinton said the State Department "really won't be the same without" Steinberg, she hailed Burns, a former ambassador to Russia and Jordan and assistant secretary of state for near Eastern affairs, as a worthy successor.

Obama honors 'gentleman' George Bush senior

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama honored German Chancellor Angela Merkel and America's "gentleman" 41st president George H.W Bush with America's highest civilian honor on Tuesday.

Merkel was not in Washington for the annual Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony but Obama said she would be making an official visit "soon" and he would present it then.

Obama also honored a list of political and cultural figures, including cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma, poet Maya Angelou and billionaire financier and philanthropist Warren Buffett.

Civil rights pioneer congressman John Lewis, baseball great Stan Musial and Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of assassinated president John F. Kennedy and a disabilities campaigner, were also among honorees.

Obama praised Bush, father of his predecessor as president, George W. Bush, as a "diplomatic hand" who made possible what many had thought was impossible -- ending the Cold War without firing a shot.

"His humility and his decency reflects the very best of the American spirit. Those of you who know him, this is a gentleman, inspiring citizens to become points of light in service to others," Obama said.

Obama said that Merkel "dreamed of freedom" as she grew up in East Germany.

"When the wall finally crumbled and Germany was reunited, she broke barriers of her own, becoming the first East German and the first woman to become chancellor of Germany," Obama said.

"To America, Chancellor Merkel and the country she leads are among our closest allies. To me, she's a trusted global partner and a friend."

Obama joked that Buffett made a loss on his first-ever investment as an 11-year-old boy but hung onto the stock and it recovered to yield a small profit, launching a stellar career.

He also paid tribute to Buffett's career as a humanitarian: "You don't see Warren Buffett wearing fancy suits or driving fancy cars."

"Instead, you see him devoting the vast majority of his wealth to those around the world who are suffering, or sick, or in need of help.

Obama said leading US author, poet and civil rights campaigner Maya Angelou was renowned for "soaring poetry" and "towering prose" that had spoken to the conscience of a nation.

Study finds link between genes and depression

WASHINGTON (AFP) – People who are genetically predisposed to produce lower amounts of a certain brain chemical that regulates appetite and stress may be at higher risk of severe depression, researchers said Monday.

The findings should shed more light on how depression affects certain people more than others, and could help lead the way toward developing more individualized therapies, researchers at the University of Michigan said.

"We've identified a biomarker -- in this case genetic variation -- that is linked with increased risk of major depression," said senior study author Jon-Kar Zubieta, a professor of psychiatry and radiology.

"This appears to be another mechanism, independent of previous targets in depression research, such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine."

People who produce lower amounts of the brain molecule neuropeptide Y (NPY) had "measurably stronger brain responses to negative stimuli and psychological responses to physical pain," the study said.

"They were also overrepresented in a population diagnosed with a major depressive disorder."

The study, which appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry, used three different methods. First, researchers classified subject participants into three categories according to low, medium or high NPY expression.

Then, they used MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to look at brain activity as the subjects viewed different words -- some neutral (like "material"), some negative (like "murderer") and some positive (like "hopeful").

"In response to negative words, subjects in the low NPY group showed strong activation in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved with processing emotion, while subjects with high NPY demonstrated a much smaller response," the study said.

In the second trial, researchers looked at how subjects described their emotional state before and after a stress challenge in which saline solution was injected into their jaw muscles, causing moderate pain for about 20 minutes.

"Those in the low NPY group were more negative both before and after the pain -- meaning they were more emotionally affected while anticipating the pain and while reflecting on their experience immediately afterward," it said.

Finally, researchers examined the NPY genotypes of people with major depressive disorders and found that, compared to a control group, people with low NPY were "overrepresented" in the group with depression.

"These are genetic features that can be measured in any person," said lead author Brian Mickey, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School.

"We hope they can guide us toward assessing an individual's risk for developing depression and anxiety."

Q&A with CNN Worldwide president

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.

A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.

The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?

Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.

THR: How big a profit?

Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.

THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?

Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.

THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?

Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.

THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?

Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.

THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?

Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.

THR: What do you predict for your business for this year?

Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.

THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?

Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)