Today's Country Tidbits

TV specials boost album sales. That's always how it works, but it doesn't usually work this well. After the Brooks & Dunn-The Last Rodeo special on CBS, their double-set, #1's...and them some saw a 211% jump in sales, landing it at the #2 spot on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Their Greatest Hits Collection had a 174% rise, putting it at the top of the Billboard Top Catalog Country Albums chart.

Something even better came out of that special - a $1,000,000 donation to the ACM Lifting Lives Foundation, given by the artists who were part of the show. The money is helping with flood relief in Nashville.

All sorts of other fund-raisers have cropped up in the wake of Nashville's flood, so why not an NRA charity event? It'll happen on Thursday, with Blake Shelton hosting the sporting clay shoot and Trace Adkins, Rodney Atkins, Gretchen Wilson, Justin Moore, Josh Thompson, John Rich and more country stars shouldering their shotguns for a few clay pigeons. Proceeds go to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee for flood relief.

The CMT Music Awards are Wednesday night, and tomorrow is the last day to vote for your favorite artist. Taylor Swift's first award ever was a CMT Music Award, which she took with her to every meet & greet. Why? Taylor says, “The reason why I took the CMT Award from autograph line to autograph line and let people take pictures with it is because it was strictly fan voted. They got me that award and they deserve to get a picture with it.”

Miranda Lambert and Laura Bell Bundy have put together a video asking fans to vote for their videos. It's got a little twist to it - they're not playing themselves in the video. Not even close!



Dierks Bentley has a crazy, crazy day today. It started with a 3am lobby call to get him to the Don Imus show on time, then at 10am he was scheduled to tape a segment of the Today show, then fly to Boston to play a few songs at a small event, then on another plane to fly to Washington DC. Crazy, crazy day!

Keith Urban is hosting a live chat tonight starting at 6 eastern. You can submit questions in advance via his Facebook page or Twitter account.

Rascal Flatts will perform on the Today show this Friday morning.