Kenny Chesney is out with a new single, “El Cerrito Place,” a song that tells the story of a man looking for his lost love: “I think it talks about all of the measures that we all go to - to feel loved and to get that certain thing back that is drivin’ you crazy, emotionally. And ‘El Cerrito Place’ has that certain insanity about it.” It’s from his “Welcome To The Fishbowl” cd, and yes, your astute ears were right – that is Grace Potter on background vocals in the song.

It came out in May, but Carrie Underwood’s album, “Blown Away,” tops the Billboard Country chart again this week. That’s seven weeks it’s held the top position. Carrie’s getting ready to kick off her tour, but stopped by the Checotah Oklahoma animal shelter while she was visiting her mom and found a lapful of love. She tweeted this photo of herself covered in kittens and asked her Twitter followers if anybody wanted one. Carrie’s a big supporter of her hometown shelter.

Love and Theft are up for two CMA Awards this year – Vocal Duo of the Year and New Artist of the Year. Their debut single, “Runaway,” hit the top 10, and the follow-up, “Angel Eyes,” was their first #1 song. They’re getting set to join Jake Owen on tour this fall, and Stephen Barker says that King George is his idol: “George Strait’s one of the reasons I moved to Nashville. I had, like, every single album, especially in high school, I had ‘em all, and then, junior year, someone stole all my CDs out of my football locker, but…so I used to have almost every George Strait CD up to that point. So I haven’t restarted building my catalog just because it’s kind of depressing ’cause I had so many, but yeah, George is one of the reasons I’m here right now.”

Do you have a great story about how one of the CMA-nominated songs has impacted your life? The Band Perry has partnered with RIAA and NARM for the second annual Countdown to the CMA Awards contest. The winner gets $1,000 and two tickets to the November first CMA Awards show in Nashville. Good luck – enter before October 12th!