Today's Country Tidbits

It's another broken record for George Strait. When his latest hit, "I Gotta Get To You" hit the Top 10 on the Billboard chart this week, it made him the first artist of any genre to have a top 10 song every year for 30 consecutive years. Congrats, King George!

Each year on the ACM Awards, one performance is designated as the ACM Lifting Lives performance. Last year, it was Trace Adkins, who raised over $100,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project. This year, it will be Toby Keith and Dave Koz doing "Cryin' for Me (Wayman's Song.)" The performance will be available for purchase on iTunes right after the show, and will benefit Stand Up to Cancer. Toby wrote the song for his late friend, Wayman Tisdale, who passed away after treatment for cancer. You can pre-order the performance now, or make a donation.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift's ACM performance will feature a group she discovered on YouTube. The Tritones were in a talent show and sang "You Belong With Me" and it impressed Taylor so much that she's invited the on the show to perform with her.



In more Taylor news, the two Auburn University seniors who are campaigning to get a hug from Taylor Swift have posted the video response for challenge #2 - use Taylor's favorite number 13 in the most creative way possible. Once again, these two aspiring huggers have knocked it out of the park!



Singer-songwriter Trent Willmon is auctioning off his prized guitar to help a friend with cancer. Robin Boozer, who Trent has known since they were kids, is in a fight for her life, and he wants to help ease the financial burden, so he's letting go of a guitar he's used onstage, in the movies and as his main songwriting guitar. It's got an amazing collection of autographs on it. The eBay auction ends Saturday, so get your bid in quickly!

Kenny Chesney is a great writer of songs, as we all know. He can connect to the commonality of all of our lives. Well, it turns out, he can write a darn good open letter, too. He wrote a letter to East Tennessee, and it got posted online for all of us to read.

In the middle of Rod Stewart's classic, "Stay With Me," two female fans in the front row got into a fight at a Miranda Lambert concert. What did Miranda do?



Trisha Yearwood is about to become a columnist for People Country, and is profiled on People.com.

Twitter is big with country artists, and TwitPics are a wonderful showcase of our favorites in unguarded moments. Check out the collection from Tennessean.com.

The Today Show summer concert series in New York includes some great country music. Rascal Flatts is featured on June 11, Carrie Underwood does the show on July 30th, and Keith Urban performs on August 20.

Alan Jackson is on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight and Gloriana's on Jimmy Kimmel Live.