Garth Brooks knows his way around a construction area. He showed up yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. It's not the first time he's pitched in to help the organization in a hands-on way. The hard hat suits him nearly as well as the cowboy hat does.
Alan Jackson has set a record - he's the fastest country music tour sell-out in Australia's history. All of the tickets to his shows next March with Miranda Lambert were snapped up in just a few hours. There was so much demand for tickets that a third show in Brisbane has been added.
Got a motorcycle? Will you and it be in Nashville on the 17th of this month? Then you might want to join Dierks Bentley's fifth annual Nashville "Miles & Music for Kids" ride and concert. Miranda Lambert, Jerrod Niemann, Luke Bryan, Heidi Newfield, Del McCoury and Laura Bell Bundy will all be part of the post-ride concert, which benefits the children's hospital at Vanderbilt.
Taylor Swift is the cover girl on Glamor Magazing this month, and not only is she excited about her new album release on the 25th, she tells Glamor "I'm also pretty interested to hear the response from the guys I've written about on this record." Taylor sits atop the iTunes all-genre and country singles charts with nearly 86,000 paid downloads of "Mine."
Congratulations to Jamey Johnson, whose "The Guitar Song" double-disc set continues to get rave reviews in publications like The New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone Magazine and others. Says Jamey, "I've read that dreams were little achievements like [selling 500,000 records]. "[But] all I wanted was just to get to ride around and sing country music. It's cool when things like [this] happen along the way because those are the things I never thought I could achieve. I'll just keep doing what I do. I wake up every day and go play some more country music and have another drink."
Martina McBride has been invited to be part of a tribute concert for David Foster, legendary writer, producer and discoverer of talents like Celine Dion and Michael Buble. Martina is the only country artist invited to be part of the October 15th show in Las Vegas. The evening will be filmed and turned into a CD/DVD for release early next year.
Rascal Flatts had to postpone last night's concert in California due to an unspecified illness in the band. Ticketholders were told to keep their tickets, as the show will be re-scheduled. This weekend's scheduled concerts might or might not happen - the decision is day-to-day. Feel better, guys!
Meanwhile, Darryl Worley will embark on a tour of Army garrisons next Friday, starting in Killeen, TX. His "God & Country Tour" will be free and open not just to the military stationed at each post, but also to the people in the surrounding communities. His 7-song EP will be available for free at each show, too. And anyone who's in the military or ever has been can get a free song from Darryl, "Unsung Heroes."
Jaron and the Long Road To Love's Jaron Lowenstein played a practical joke that could have ended with him locked up. While in Pennsylvania attending a local awards show, he swiped the costume that the local minor league baseball team's mascot wears. He showed up for a radio interview the following day wearing the "Rascal" costume, causing quite a stir. Guess he didn't know that the team had an APB out for the costume, valued at $5,000. The costume is back where it belongs and Jaron didn't get arrested for his prank.
Lady Antebellum celebrated "Need You Now's" #1 status this week and were surprised with a presentation of triple-platinum certification for the song. It's their 4th #1 song in a row.
More wall bling - Lee Brice's "Love Like Crazy," The Band Perry's "If I Die Young" and Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue" have all been certified gold.
Love the Grand Ole Opry? Got an iPhone or an Android? There's an app for that!
Toby Keith's "CMT: Invitation Only" episode premiers tonight. It features a few songs from his new cd, "Bullets in the Gun."
Might want to pick up a little extra work this weekend so you can buy all the new country music coming out Tuesday. Miranda Lambert's first performance DVD comes out, called "Revolution: Live By Candlelight." Trace Adkins' "The Definitive Greatest Hits: Til the Last Shot's Fired," The Band Perry's self-titled debut, Darius Rucker's "Charleston SC 1966" and Lady Antebellum's "A Merry Little Christmas" all go on sale this coming Tuesday.
The tweet of the day is from Jack Ingram: "Like Roy Halliday, I've delivered a few "no hitters" in my career! Unlike him, it's not a good thing when I do it!"
