Thursday, May 19, 2011

Today's Country Tidbits

Mr. and Mrs. Blake Shelton grace the cover of US Weekly, on newsstands today. The article features details of the wedding as well as official photographs. By the way, Miranda wore her Mother's wedding gown and a pair of custom-made Casadei cowboy boots. Quipped Miranda, "My parents have been married for 33 years, so this dress is already a good-luck charm." Us Weekly is filled with the details of the wedding last Saturday, and the quotes are flying from attendees:

“At one point when the pastor was reading their vows, he actually made a joke. He was saying, ‘Do you put Miranda before hunting?’ Everybody laughed. I mean, Blake looked down it was just hilarious.”

“The dogs were in the ceremony of course and one of them escaped actually right in the middle of the ceremony so they had to kind of find the dogs. So, that was another funny moment.”

“Neal McCoy played and then it was like this who’s who of sort-of performers getting up and doing all of these songs. Reba and Kelly Clarkson performed “Why Haven’t I Heard From You”. Uh, Miranda got on stage with Brandi Carlisle and did her song, “Crazy”. Uh, it was just one after another and then after all that was over they plugged in a karaoke machine and Kellie Pickler got on the mic and was doing a bunch of songs way into the wee hours. So, it was just everyone got up one-by-one and did a song and it was just…that was like the country music awards show from heaven. Everyone would have loved to have been there.”

Some strong words from Tim McGraw's camp relating to the breach of contract lawsuit that Curb Records has filed against Tim. According to Tim's spokesman, "Tim McGraw delivered his new album, Emotional Traffic, to Curb in the fall of 2010. The label is holding the album hostage from country music fans in an attempt to force Tim McGraw to serve perpetually under a contract that he has already fully and faithfully completed." The label maintains that Tim delivered the music too early, so it's not "topical and new."

Who are the top country artists, according to Forbes Magazine in their "Celebrity 100?" Taylor Swift is at #7, Brad Paisley lands at #48, Toby Keith is #51 and Tim McGraw is #61. Google searches, Nielsen ratings and Lexis/Nexis rankings fed into the list of top celebrities.

Congratulations to Jason Aldean, who has the number 1 country album with "My Kinda Party" and the number 1 ringtone with "Dirt Road Anthem." How does Jason feel about having his songs turned into ringtones? “When ‘Tractor’ was out, it seemed like every time we’d go somewhere to eat, I would hear that song. Almost to the point where I hated it! But yeah, it’s definitely happened, and I think a lot of times somebody will know that I’m around or see me in the mall or something, and they’ll grab their phone and play it just as loud as they can to let me know that it’s on there. So it’s pretty funny—it happens quite a bit.”

Lady Antebellum picked up BMI Pop Music Awards this week, scoring Pop Song of the Year with "Need You Now." The award went to another Nashville country act last year - Taylor Swift for "Love Story."

Ashton Shepherd has finally made it public - she and hubby Roland are expecting a baby girl this summer.

Kid Rock will return as the host of the CMT Music Awards on June 8th. He had a blast doing it last year, and the ratings called for a return.

Told you yesterday that Rascal Flatts will be part of the Oprah farewell shows. Today I can reveal that they performed "I Won't Let Go," because the song perfectly fits Oprah. This episode airs on May 23rd, and the very, very, very last show will air on May 25th.

On tonight's American Idol, one contestant goes home, leaving only two to compete in the finals. Two out of three of the contestants sing country music, so won't it be fun if both of them squeak through tonight? Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery both sang only country songs last night, while Haley Reinhart sang pop/rock classics. The show airs at 8 Eastern time tonight.

John Rich is on the Today show, Access Hollywood and Piers Morgan
s show today. You can catch him on Fox & Friends tomorrow. If he wins Celebrity Apprentice Sunday night, he'll be on Today, Access Hollywood and Regis & Kelly on Monday. Josh Turner is on American Idol tonight.

Happy birthday to Shooter Jennings, who turns 32 today.

The tweet of the day is from Trent Tomlinson: "I love songs and the people who write them! Without song our world and way of life probably wouldn't exist! #justsaying"