Tim McGraw wraps up his "Emotional Traffic" tour this weekend in Washington DC. Since April, he's been on the road with Luke Bryan and The Band Perry, hitting about 50 cities and playing to millions of fans. According to Tim, touring is what it's all about for him: “I don’t think any kid’s ever dreamed about being a rock star and dreamed about, you know, being in a studio singing the same song over and over for about three days. I think the impetus for doing what we do for a living and loving what we do is to be on stage in front of 20, 30-thousand people and slinging sweat, you know?” Saturday night is the last show of the tour, and Tim continues to be at loggerheads with his old record label over his "Emotional Traffic" project. Still no word on when or even if the tracks will be released.
When a major country music touring artist camps out for a weekend in a major city or two, they can play for a lot of people. Case in point - Brad Paisley was in Ohio and Detroit Lakes last weekend, playing a festival and an amphitheatre show. Along with Blake Shelton and Jerrod Niemann, he played for over 100,000 people in three days. Blake showed up on the Water World stage and joined Brett Edlredge on "Tulsa Time," surprising the crowd of several thousand in the pre-show fan zone.
US Magazine has put together a list of Hollywood's most eligible singles, and wouldn't you know it - Taylor Swift is on the list. The article does note that, since Taylor often uses exes as the subject matter for songs, "dating Swift can be a risky move."
Jason Aldean has been Lady Hazed by Lady Antebellum, with the help of Colt Ford, co-writer of "Dirt Road Anthem."
Gonna be in LA on September 13th? Then make plans to join Zac Brown, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's "All For The Hall" benefit guitar pull. Cocktails and dinner are included in the ticket price. Call 800-852-6437 for information and tickets.
Tim and Faith are planning a trip down under to play "CMC Rocks the Hunter 2012 Festival." It'll be the first time Faith has performed in Australia and the first time the two of them have performed together outside of North America.
After a couple of decades of dominance in the music business as half of Brooks & Dunn, how does Ronnie Dunn stay in touch with what's new in the world of music? He turns to his 16 year old daughter Haley. Says the proud Dad, “She’s all over the map. You know, I’m proud of her because I’ll go up to her room sometimes and I’ll say, ‘Play me what’s happenin’,’ you know something cool and stuff. And she listens to groups that are like under the radar at times like Randy Rogers and some of these younger, developing acts. She’s got a great taste in music. She kinda keeps me…keeps me current.”
Darius Rucker and actor/comedian Bill Murray are the team captains for "Slim Down the South Celebrity Softball Challenge" in Charleston, SC. Darius will head up the Piggly Wiggly team and Bill helms the Wells Fargo gang. The challenge happens on October first.
Up and coming country act The Dirt Drifters has a novel way to get their music out to their fans - they're giving away 30,000 copies of their new cd, "This is my Blood." Fans who attend their shows get two copies - one for themselves and one to give to a friend. Great way to double your fan base!
Watch Luke Bryan on the Today show this morning, and Trace Adkins on Piers Morgan's show tonight.
The tweet of the day is from John Rich: "You wanna WIN in this world? Show up early, stay late, out work and out think the competition. Simple."
