Primetime ‘Nashville’: Episode 105

Episode 105, titled “Move It On Over” in honor of the Hank Williams classic.

Rayna stars in a cosmetics commercial.

Nashville needs a bombshell—and I’m not talking about Hayden Panettiere’s looks. Since its premiere, the show has set the stage for drama with plenty of juicy storylines, but fallen short with few gasp-worthy moments. Ratings ticked up slightly from last week’s season low (6 million/5.8 million), according to Zap2It.com. ABC has yet to order a full season of the sudsy drama.

Last night’s episode was packed with fantastic new music from the characters. Juliette (Panettiere) pulled an all-nighter in the studio while recording “Yellin’ From the Rooftop” (written by Busbee, Sarah Buxton).

Rayna starred in a beauty product commercial featuring her song “American Beauty” (Bob DiPiero, Jon Nite, Ross Copperman). But this led to the latest bump in her rocky relationship with Deacon, when the cosmetics maker wanted to change a lyric in the song she and Deacon wrote. At first he refused, but by the end of the episode he came around, hoping to give Rayna’s bank account a much needed boost. In another scene, Rayna nabbed lunch from the Riffs food truck downtown.

Deacon debuted “Sideshow” (Aaron Scherz, Brad Tursi) at the Bluebird, and Sam Bush was among the musicians accompanying him. When a drunk yelled out that he preferred Rayna’s singing, Deacon was clearly annoyed. He took out his frustrations by punching the guy in the parking lot and ended up in jail. Rayna refused to bail him out, but Juliette came to his rescue.

Click to see Juliette's awesome new digs in Oak Hill. Listed for $2.75 million.

After all, he’d saved her earlier in the episode. Juliette caught her druggie mom passed out in bed with a stranger, and Deacon, given his own struggles with addiction, convinced her to check into rehab. Rather than deal with the unpleasant memories tied to her current mansion, Juliette decided to move. In real life, Panettiere’s single “Telescope” has been released to radio by BMLG, and the video was recently directed by Taillight’s TK McKamy.

Meanwhile at South Circle Music, the fictional publishing company which signed Gunnar and Scarlett, producer Paul Worley was looking for songs for Lady Antebellum, although Worley and the band didn’t actually appear in the episode. Gunnar and Scarlett performed “Loving You is the Only Way to Fly” (Rodney Crowell, Sarah Buxton, Jedd Hughes) for the producer, but Avery hijacked the song with some super annoying guitar noodling and ruined their chances of getting the cut.

As the episode closed, Rayna recorded a song she wrote alone, “Buried Under” (Chris DeStefano, Natalie Hemby). During the final montage, we saw Mr. Rayna, err Teddy, meeting with old flame Peggy (played by Kimberly Williams Paisley). They are guilty of bank fraud in a property deal gone bad and are at risk of being exposed in more ways than one. The Feds are auditing the bank which could reveal their secret, and they are being followed and photographed by a private investigator.

Things to look forward to in coming weeks: The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach produced Rayna’s version of the Lucinda Williams song “Bitter Memory.” And Wyclef Jean will guest star.

Also, a special thanks to BMLG’s Amber Holguin for helping spotlight the songwriters behind the show’s music. If you have news about Nashville, email sskates@musicrow.com.