So who's the King of Nashville? Today, it's Garth Brooks, who sold out 9 shows at Bridgestone Arena Saturday afternoon. One show was announced, and it went on sale at 11am Eastern. All 13,000 tickets were sold in less than 5 minutes, melting down GarthBrooks.com and Ticketmaster.com. Several other dates at the arena were available, so tickets were put on sale for those, too. When the dust settled, there are Garth Brooks shows December 16, 17, 19, 20, 21 and 22, with two shows per night on December 16, 21 and 22. Why all the frenzy? His is widely considered to be the best live show ever in country music, and these shows will be his first full-band concerts in Nashville since 1998. In all, over 140,000 tickets were sold in just a couple of hours, and more than $3.5 million will go towards re-building middle Tennessee after the devastating floods this year.
Tonight is the premier of "Country Strong" in Nashville. It'll be a star-studded night, but if you didn't get invited, it'll be a while before you get to see Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow in their new movie. It doens't open for the rest of us until January 7th, 2011.
When Lady Antebellum does their show in Charles & Dave's hometown of Augusta, GA a week from today, they're in for a special acknowledgement. The city will hold a street-re-naming ceremony in their honor. A road near James Brown Arena will be re-named "Lady Antebellum Way." The mayor notes, “I think it is just an appropriate thing to do, and we always want to celebrate Augustans that have gone on to do well and make it big. They definitely have.”
It's been such a hit, they're continuing the show. George Strait, Reba and Lee Ann Womack will hit the road again in January for the winter leg of their tour. On-sale dates will be announced on George Strait's website, but here are the show dates:
Jan. 14: Austin, Texas (Frank Erwin Center)
Jan. 15: Oklahoma City (Ford Center)
Jan. 27: Tallahassee, Fla. (Leon City Civic Center)
Jan. 28: Jacksonville, Fla. (Veterans Memorial Arena)
Jan. 29: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)
Feb. 4: Fresno, Calif. (SaveMart Center)
Feb. 5: Las Vegas (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
Feb. 17: Indianapolis (Conseco Fieldhouse)
Feb. 18: Cleveland (Quickens Loan Arena)
Feb. 19: Auburn Hills, Mich. (The Palace)
March 4: Cincinnati (US Bank Arena)
March 5: Chicago (Allstate Arena)
March 25: Lubbock, Texas (United Spirit Arena)
March 26: Las Cruces, N.M. (Pan American Center)
April 1: Denver (Pepsi Center)
April 2: Salt Lake City (Energy Solutions Arena)
April 8: Columbia, Mo. (Mizzou Arena)
April 9: Louisville, Ky. (KFC Yum! Arena)
Shania Twain is apparently in talks with the honchoes at the Coliseum in Las Vegas. No word on when her shows there might happen.
Catch Reba on Good Morning America tomorrow morning.
The tweet of the day is from Billy Currington during the Garth ticket frenzy on Saturday: "really cool that Garth Brooks can sell out 6 shows n nashville n only few minutes after being gone 10 years. GREAT ARTIST loved by so many"
