Oh, those wacky ACM people! They've paired country stars with YouTube sensations for a series of webisodes to promote the ACM Awards show. Sugarland, Eric Church, The Band Perry, Luke Bryan and Easton Corbin are all paired with different "unknown" acts that are popular on YouTube. Luke was paired with Boyce Avenue for his song, "Is Someone Else Calling You Baby" and he enjoyed the experience. “So what’s funny is I went and they gave me a c.d. Heck, I’ve been listening to their c.d. It’s been in my truck. But yea, it’s fun to kind of see those guys. They’re really talented and had a neat little sound. It was fun to sing one of my songs with them.” Sugarland was teamed with Savannah Berry, Eric Church was paired up with Mitch Rossell, The Band Perry were matched with Tyler Ward and Easton Corbin's duet isn't uploaded as of this writing. None of the embed codes will work, but if you search on YouTube, you can find the videos easily.
The ASO show just before the Academy of Country Music Awards show will be star-studded again this year. Held at Nellis Air Force Base, just outside of Las Vegas, the show will include Montgomery Gentry, Craig Morgan, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Little Big Town, Sunny Sweeny and Brett Edlredge. The show is free to anyone with a military ID and will be on Saturday April 2nd starting at 2pm.
Darius Rucker is planning his second annual Darius Rucker and Friends benefit concert for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It'll happen June 6th at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville, during CMA week. Tickets go on sale Friday with all of the proceeds going to St. Jude. Who would Darius love to see on his benefit stage? The Beatles and James Brown.
They're setting some records at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Last week, Miranda Lambert set the record for most people at a weeknight concert (73,811) and Saturday night Brad Paisley set the record for most people at a weekend show this year (73,825.) Tejano performers hold down the #1 and 2 spots in overall attendance records, but Brad and Miranda aren't far behind. One thing's sure - this event rakes in the people!
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are sweetening the spring air with special fragrance sets. Partnering with Wal-Mart, they'll each release two special fragrance sets, for a total of four, that include live performance DVDs. Faith Hill "Parfums" and "True" will both include a "Stronger" live performance disc and "McGraw Silver" and "McGraw by Tim McGraw" will both include "Southern Voice" live performances. A portion of the proceeds will go to the ongoing flood relief efforts in Nashville.
Josh Kelley's not-quite-three-year-old daughter, Naleigh, is apparently musically gifted. According to daddy Josh, she will strum the guitar and sing on key, and when he's playing piano, she'll go over and sing with him. But does she love his music best of all? Nope. Given the choice, she prefers The Wiggles and Yo Gabba Gabba! over Dad's music. She and her Mom, Katherine Heigl, will join Josh on tour with Miranda Lambert in the spring and Taylor Swift during the summer. It'll be Katherine's first time out with Josh since Naleigh's birth.
Are you watching John Rich on "The Celebrity Apprentice?" You might have noticed John and Lil John hanging together a lot. They've struck up a friendship, and are even talking about co-hosting a remake of the old Buck Owens & Roy Clark classic, "Hee Haw." In John's vision, “We talked about resurrected Hee Haw. And instead of Buck and Roy it’s the Johns. Have us sitting on hay bales. And put a little country with some urban. Slam that together. Who wouldn’t watch that show?”
Keith Urban is on the Tonight Show, and Billy Ray Cyrus is on Good Morning America this morning.
The tweet of the day is from Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts: "Playing w Arnie at The Bay Hill Invitational Pro/Am! I'm so pumped...gonna be incredible! Oh, how blessed I am!"
