Last night in Nashville, Loretta Lynn celebrated her 50th anniversary with the Grand Ole Opry, and some of country music’s biggest names were there to celebrate her influence, talent and grace. Miranda Lambert couldn’t quit gushing about Miss Loretta: “What I admire the most about Loretta is that she’s so real. There’s no frills, there’s no hiding anything, there’s no dressing her up and making her something she’s not. She’s exactly who she is, in her music, in her interviews, on television.” Also on hand were Pistol Annies, Trace Adkins, Lee Ann Womack and Crystal Gale.

Dierks Bentley is still floating on cloud nine after hosting the ACM Honors concert Monday night in Nashville. As part of the gig, he had to perform music by most of the honorees: “I’ve spent a lot of hours listening to these guys records but also working up their songs. You talk about Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam and Vince Gill are all guys who...I listen to their records a lot and I have so much respect for...really all those acts.”

Brad Paisley got his hat knocked off by Carrie Underwood on Sunday night in Nashville. In both Brad’s shows and hers, when they sing “Remind Me,” they’re joined by a video of the other duet partner, and Carrie was told that Brad’s commitments in Vegas and LA would keep him away from Bridgestone Arena. Sneaky Brad - she was onstage and started singing “Remind Me.” She got a couple of lines into the song when Brad started singing from off stage. She looked around, spotted him as he came onstage, and ran to him, giving him a huge hug. That’s when the hat incident happened. She only missed a few lines of the song in spite of the big surprise Brad pulled off. What a treat for that Blown Away audience – bet they were, for sure! Wanna see? Here you go…



It was a good summer to be the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Over 200,000 visitors enjoyed exhibits from Patsy Cline to Taylor Swift, a 15% increase over the summer of 2011.

Hunter Hayes has the #1 country song in America again this week with “Wanted.”

Little Big Town is on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight, performing “Tornado.”