Keith Urban hosted his fan club party and concert yesterday afternoon in Nashville, and blew the crowd away. Saying, "It's a rehearsal, not a tour," he covered other artists' songs, like Little Big Town's "Boondocks" and played a bit of his tour set list, made jokes about trying to get prepared for a tour and messing up onstage, and then proceeded to melt all the faces in the crowd with his amazing showmanship. How does he feel about going on tour and leaving Nicole and their two daughters behind? “When I put this tour together I just structured it so that I’m only gone maybe two or three days…maybe four days, sometimes I do four shows in a row. Then I go home for a day or two or three. So, I’m in and out. I don’t go out for weeks and weeks at a time. When we do Canada and we do three weeks, I’ll bring the girls up to some of that run.” The Get Closer 2011 tour opens next Thursday in Biloxi, Missouri.
Reba announced a fall tour yesterday, and tonight's performance at LP Field for the CMA Music Festival will give us all a sneak-peek at what to expect. The 31-city waltz across American and Canada will kick off in October, and she'll have The Band Perry as her opeing act, with Steel Magnolia and Eden's Edge along on selected dates. “I am very excited about the fall tour. We are designing new production and staging. I'm looking forward to touring with The Band Perry, Steel Magnolia and Eden's Edge. It will be a night of great music and I'm planning on having a blast,” said Reba.
As Lady Antebellum get set to play LP Field in Nashville tonight, Hillary Scott talked about the experience of playing the CMA Music Festival: “The electricity in LP Stadium every year for that is just—you can’t really beat it. I mean it’s so much fun to be there, and to have a stadium full of the most die-hard country fans you can imagine from all over the world. That never gets old.”
Shania Twain world-premiered her new song, "Today is Your Day" yesterday in Nashville for a group of music industry professionals. During the private event, she was given a plaque commemorating the sale of 75 million albums worldwide. That makes her the top-selling female artist in the world.
If you're a big Blake Shelton fan, watch his Twitter feed this afternoon. Follow @blakeshelton to win VIP passes and tickets to his fan club party. No word on what the competition will entail, but if you play, good luck!
Luke Bryan's performance on the CMT Video Music Awards was so compelling that his name was the top-searched term on Google Wednesday night. His energetic and sexy performance was of his new single, "Country Girl (Shake it for Me)" and was the first solo award show performance of his career. Given the reaction, it probably won't be his last.
In Nashville tonight, there's a reunion that's about two decades in the making. Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd will play the Bluebird Cafe tonight. That's where the two met and started Foster & Lloyd, way back in the last century. Lovers of the Texas country sound are rejoicing everywhere, and hoping this means a new album might be coming sometime in the future!
There's an on-line auction to benefit tornado-ravaged Alabamans. Organized by John Paul White of the Civil Wars, stars like Miranda Lambert and George Strait have donated items to the fund-raiser.
Happy birthday to Lee Brice, who is 32 today.
The tweet of the day is from Kellie Pickler: "Today in my meet and greet line a fan proposed to his girlfriend. Then another fan went into labor (her water broke)! Only at #CMAFest :-)"
