Chronicle Journal
May 13, 2007

The Music of Mahood
  Brian Gorman

Beverley Mahood may no longer be an everyday face on CMT Canada, but she's still using the station to keep in touch with country music - and country fans.

Mahood, who hosts "Ulitmate" Fridays on the country music network, used to appear on "CMT Central" every day, until she found it was interfering with her No.1 career as a singer-songwriter.

Yet, the Belfast-born, London Ont.-raised and CCMA-nominated recording artist just can't seem to sever her ties with the broadcasting completely.

"Ultimate" is a video countdown show, which Mahood hosts as a sort of in-house industry insider.

Every week, the show takes a theme and counts down the top 20 examples of it; this Friday, May 18 the topic is one-hit wonders.

"I've chosen this year to do shows that represent more of what I'm about," Mahood says. "I didn't want to be seen as a talk show host - as much as it was a great experience for me. I think 'Ultimate' keeps me in the light of still being an artist and lets me stay that way.

"The show is more focused on my recollection and understanding of the videos, and talking about how they came to be.

"For example, Kenny Chesney comes up a lot on the video countdown, and I can remember when he and I opened for George Strait on the George Strait tour, years back. And just seeing how he's changed and evolved is pretty amazing."

Ealier this year, Mahood also hosted "Project Dad" and "Project Mom" - which airs in a marathon Sunday, May 13. The series involved picking country music fans who are particularly in need or involved in their communities and treating them to a day of living like their favourite country stars.

"I just love that show," Mahood says. We're meeting the fans of country music, and these are real people with real stories."

"These people are the heart and soul of what country is about, and what Canada is about - these little places, these little pockets of people."

Mahood says the thing she likes best about the show is that it doesn't promise to change anyone's life, but it does give people something they can tell their grandchildren about.

She sort of drifted into broadcasting when she was living on the West Coast in 2004 and landed a hosting gig on "Breakfast Television" on Vancouver's City-TV.

She left "Central" last year because she found that her TV work had stalled her music career.