People who have too much time on their hands and are too easily offended are on Trace Adkins’ case. When he performed at the Christmas At Rockefeller Center tv special on NBC, his “stars and bars” earpiece was visible. A Twitter storm erupted and now online media is fanning the flames. Trace himself hasn’t commented, but in his autobiography, A Personal Stand, he does state that he’s a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Alan Jackson fans, heads up – there’s a limited-edition photo book called Seasons of Sweetbriar – A Photographic Collection of Home available, and it’s all shots of the home Alan and his wife Denise lived for nearly 14 years. Alan collected photographs to make a journal for his kids and is now sharing them with us, to benefit the Colon Cancer Alliance’s Blue Note Fund. Denise has battled colorectal cancer, and you can only get the book on Alan’s website.
Fans of Lee Brice’s song “I Drive Your Truck” will want to check out CMT today, because Lee plays VJ for a Day and share the video for the song. Lee is so pumped about this song: “We are looking forward to that day. We love that song. It really changed my life when I heard it. I couldn’t believe I got my hands on it. I didn’t write the song, I just—still floored by it to this day, so we’re really, really pumped about that one.” He’s also pumped about the video, which stars his real-life brother, Lewis. 

Love and Theft are racing up the charts with their new song, “Running Out of Air,” and Stephen Barker Liles says it’s a challenging but fun song to sing: “I get to sing in a lower, Barry White-like octave to Eric, so that’s kind of fun, get to use my deep voice. I’ve been waitin’ to do that — I just didn’t think I’d ever get a chance. [Eric] It’s good. He’s really like Barry White in so many ways. [Stephen] And you know, you know what he’s talking about. It’s weird that Eric actually knows that…but we’ve been spendin’ a lot of time on the road.” All kidding aside, the title could also describe trying to sing the song, as the pacing is pretty tough in some places. Sing along and see how you do…
 
Wednesday night, country music stars will be part of the Grammy Nominations Live tv special. Dierks Bentley and The Band Perry will pay tribute to the late Johnny Cash, Luke Bryan is performing, Taylor Swift and LL Cool J will host the special, and Hunter Hayes will perform – if his nerves allow it! “It is very nerve-wracking. You want them to like you, you know? I want them to like, I don’t want them to hate me. I want them to know that I love it, and that I—I’m grateful to be in the building with them basically. Yeah—it’s a balance of trying to be comfortable and trying to keep the nerves cause that’s what keeps it real.” 
Reba’s show, Malibu Country, has been picked up for additional episodes by ABC, and Reba’s delighted. Not just because she likes to be the star of a television show, but because she’s also trying to make a difference in peoples’ lives: “There are so many single moms in this country, that I hope the writers and I can give them options. Kind of like Andy Griffith did us – you know raising our kids. Hopefully we can give them some options and way of doing things, standing our ground and raising our kids – and we’ll do this together.” Catch Reba’s show Friday nights on ABC. 
Congrats to Scotty McCreery, who has a gold record for “Christmas With Scotty McCreery.” He says, “We’re really excited about it. Anytime you put a Christmas record out, you just hope people will get it and spread a little holiday cheer with them. So I’m excited that people are digging it and spending the holidays with us.”