Today's Country Tidbits

Just four weeks ago, large portions of Nashville were so flooded that even the 50-foot-high flood marker in Riverfront Park was completely submerged. It was the largest non-hurricane natural disaster in US history, and next week, just 5 weeks later, Nashville welcomes visitors from all over the world to the 2010 CMA Music Festival. Stages are being erected, parade routes are being re-drawn and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau has launched a "Thanks for Visiting, We're Glad You're Here" campaign. Bureau President Butch Spyridon said, "Attendees could have gone anywhere, but we're glad they're spending their vacation here in Music City. The traffic is usually an inconvenience, but this year it's going to be a blessing for Nashvillians."

The 20th Annual City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge is Monday night at Nashville's Greer Stadium. Among those playing on the Grand Ole Opry team are Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean and Craig Morgan. On Blair Garner's After Midnight team are Luke Bryan, Vince Gill, Joe Nichols and more of Nashville's finest.

Congratulations to Miranda Lambert, who has her second #1 song with "The House That Built Me," a song that made her cry when she first heard it, and still makes her cry sometimes when she performs it, especially when family is in the audience. “Grandma was on the front row—and it’s general admission, mind you—she’s up there, like, head-banging and stuff—“The House That Built Me” came up and she was standing there, and she’s kind of like me— she doesn’t cry, she’s kind of a tough woman—and she just had big tears in her eyes and of course, I just couldn’t even finish.”

There's good money in wrecked cars. The owners of a California company that auctions off wrecked cars for insurance companies has purchased Alan Jackson's 135-acre estate outside of Nashville. It went on the market last year, listed at $38 million, and sold for $28 million to Willis and Reba Johnson. Don't feel too bad for Alan, though - that sale price is more than twice as much as any single-family home has ever sold for in Middle Tennessee.

Jimmy Wayne is still walking across America to shine a light on the plight of homeless teens. People Magazine has mentioned his trek a time or two, but yesterday a crew flew to New Mexico and drove out into the dessert to cover Project Meet Me Halfway.

Luke Bryan is celebrating June by putting the mp3 version of the cd, "Doin My Thing" on sale for only $5.

Live Nation, a major concert promoter and venue owner, has a goal of filling every seat this summer. In order to do that in a soft economy, they decided to declare June the month of no service charges on their tickets. Check out the venues near you and the concerts coming to them, plus buy tickets service-fee-free, on their website.

That Kid Rock cd I told you about last week? It's due out September 7th and will feature some really special guests - Martina McBride, Zac Brown, Sheryl Crow and Bob Seger will show up on Kid's country project.

Catch Dierks Bentley on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.