Friday, January 21, 2011

Today's Country Tidbits

Dierks Bentley will do a small-venue tour this spring. Starting March 17th, he'll be playing three- to four-thousand-seat venues, which he really enjoys. Says Dierks, "it should be intimate which I kind of really like doing in the Spring. It's kind of becoming a ritual to start of the year with at tour that's really just smaller." Josh Thompson and Miss Willie Brown are his opening acts on this Jagermeister-sponsored tour. Dierks is currently in the studio, working on the follow up to his Grammy-nominated "Up On the Ridge" project.

The Country Throwdown Tour 2011 is getting ready to roll this summer, with Willie Nelson, Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Craig Campbell and Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real all performing. The tour kicks off May 27th and includes 16 stops so far.

It's official - Alan Jackson and Sony Music Nashville aren't an item anymore, after 22 years together. No word on who Alan will sign with, but his former labelmate, Martina McBride, is now with Big Machine Records and loving it, so it wouldn't be a surprise if Alan made that move, too.

The performer line-up at the Grammy Awards just got a little better. Lady Antebellum, who are up for six awards, will be performing on February 13th.

Eddie Montgomery has a clean bill of health after his surgery for prostate cancer in December. He and Troy Gentry played at the Grand Ole Opry, and are packing for an 8-day USO tour of South Korea and Japan which starts Sunday.

Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" tour kicks off in Little Rock, Arkansas tonight.

The line-up for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has been announced, and Jamey Johnson, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Ricky Skaggs and Jimmy Buffett are all part of the fun. The festival runs April 29th through May 8th.

Toby Keith has a music video collection about to hit stores. "10" will be available on March 8th, and you guessed it - it will feature videos to 10 songs from Toby.

New RIAA certifications are out, and Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" and Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" are both triple-platinum. Sugarland's "The Incredible Machine" is platinum, Keith Urban's "Get Closer" and Zac Brown Band's "You Get What You Give" are gold.

Keith Urban is on the Oprah show today.

Happy birthday today to Teddy Gentry and Ray Stevens.

The tweet of the day is from Craig Morgan: "What happens in Vegas ends up on twitter"