Today's Country Tidbits

It's the season finale of American Idol tonight, and Carrie Underwood returns to the show, performing her current hit, "Undo It." It's also the final show for Simon Cowell, and Carrie chimed in on who could fill his shoes. “I think it surprised everybody. I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen. People are like ‘Oh do you know who they are going to get to replace him? I don’t know anything, but you know I think they did a great job with Ellen. I wouldn’t have immediately thought of her to be a judge so I’m sure whatever they come up with will be great.”

Faith Hill and Emmylou Harris have been asked to perform at a gala on June 2nd in honor of Sir Paul McCartney. Whoever was in charge of naming the show, which will air on July 28th on PBS, needs an editor, though. "Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in Performance at the White House" is the name of the show. Suppose they could have wedged a few more words into the title??

Benefit concerts continue in and around Nashville, pouring money into the flood relief efforts. Kix Brooks just hosted the "As Long As We Have Voices" show at his Arrington Vineyards, just south of Nashville. He performed, along with Joey + Rory, Ty Herndon, Keith Stegall and others. Tickets were $100 for the sold-out show, and included a bottle of wine from the vineyards. Proceeds went to the Salvation Army's flood relief efforts.

Love to play the game Rock Band? Want to help out the American Red Cross with middle Tennessee flood relief? Musicians like Big Kenny are donating songs to Rock Band Relief, and those songs will be available in a couple of months via download from the Rock Band website. Proceeds from those downloads will go to assist in rebuilding Nashville and the surrounding communities devastated by the floods.

Dierks Bentley's new website is up, and he's proud of all of the changes. His dog, Jake, even has his own forum topic page!

Jewel has a new song out, with a cd coming out on June 8th. She was on Live with Regis & Kelly yesterday, and here's the video in case you missed it.



And Reba's "Unplugged" episode is online for your viewing pleasure.