Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Today's Country Tidbits

Keith Urban and Vince Gill team up tonight with some of Nashville's top talent to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "We're All For The Hall" features groups and artists who are friends and inspirations to Keith, who's pleased that his childhood heroes are part of the show: “Alabama were a big influence on me because of the timing of when I was growing up listening to country, especially through the ‘80s. And there was that real mix of sort of contemporary melodies and the sort of the way the band sounded on records was different than any other band I’d heard before in the genre. So, we covered a lot of Alabama songs.”

Rascal Flatts paid homage to one of their musical influences on their latest album, "Changed." Only available on the Deluxe version is a classic Shenandoah song - here's why: “We’ve been huge Shenandoah fans forever, so just our ode to one of our heroes. we did a real cool version of ‘Next to You, Next to Me’ on it. So we’re excited for all the fans to hear it.” Rascal Flatts will be touring this summer, taking Little Big Town, Eli Young Band and Edens Edge along for the run.

Dierks Bentley's new song, "5-1-5-0," is racing up the charts, and astute fans have noticed the influence of a certain 80's rock band: “Well, you know I love country music and I love bluegrass music, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say rock music was a big part of my background. I grew up during the 80s and Van Halen was one of my favorite bands. They had an album called 51-50, which is a police code for a crazy person. So my friends and I would always kind of use that sayin, ‘Last night was 5-1-5-0, last night got crazy, it was a total 5-1-5-0 last night!’”

He's been to the top of the country charts as a songwriter before, but Lee Brice has landed his first #1 song as an artist. "A Woman Like You" got him there, and Lee is happy to credit his fiance, Sara Reeveley, as the inspiration to the song: “We’re that perfect couple of opposites in a lot of ways. She’s so clean and tidy and organized and really sensitive, and I’m just kind of wild and free and I’m messy. We complement each other, but she’s always on me about little things, and I actually like it, cause it’s makes me a better guy!”

Jake Owen's proposal to girlfriend Lacey Buchanan was spur-of-the-moment, apparently. Jake said when he got on stage and realized how many of their friends and family were in the audience, he realized that sharing the moment would mean a lot to everyone. In a press release, he called Lacey "an amazing person" and "the answer to all of his prayers."

So it looks like the divorce wasn't as amicable as we all first thought. Randy Travis' ex-wife Lib slapped him with a breach of contract lawsuit last week, claiming that he interfered with her role as his manager and that he terminated their management contract without written notice. The couple divorced in 2010 after 19 years of marriage.

Entertainment Weekly is out with their list of the "30 Greatest Artists Right Now." Adele tops the list, but Taylor Swift came in second as the magazine's "Everygirl Superstar." Other country artists on the list include Carrie Underwood (#4 - Country Belle) and Jake Owen (#19 - Nashville Casanova.)

The tweet of the day is from David Nail: "Sorry Pittsburg-h! I knew it looked kinda wrong! Whoops... Thus why I sing and don't teach spelling!"