Country stars work hard, but play hard, too. Saturday March 31st is the 2nd Annual NRA Country ACM Celebrity Shoot, and Blake Shelton is hosting the avent this year. Twenty celebrity teams vie for top team and top shooter, with proceeds benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project, The Folds of Honor Foundation and the Nellis Air Force Base Youth Programs. In addition to Blake, Craig Morgan, Jake Owen, Edens Edge, Lee Brice, Craig Campbell, Ira Dean and Thomas Rhett will be competing.
It's Luke Bryan's Spring Break week in Panama City, Florida this week. He'll head down to do some beach concerts and celebrate the release of his "Suntan City" EP. Luke loves putting out the four-song compilation each year: “That’s the fun thing about getting to do the Spring Break album is me getting down there. You know what, this whole Spring Break album I just started from writing music without parameters. Spring Break, you know if we want to drop a little cuss word in there or something we don’t sweat it. That makes it – that frees us up more creatively to where we don’t get too bound by what’s going on when we’re in the writing room.”
Martina McBride hits Panama City next month to kick off her small-room tour. The follow-up to "I'm Gonna Love You Through It" is "Marry Me," a duet with Pat Monahan of Train. His group originally did the song and then the two did it on their episode of CMT Crossroads. When Martina went into the studio to record last year, she invited Pat to join her. “When we’d finished rehearsing it, we both looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, that really works. That’s really cool as a duet.’ So, when I went in to make the album, I asked if he would come and...if I record that song and he would come and sing on it. So, he came to Atlanta where we were recording, and we sang it in the same room.”
More stars have been added to the performance lineup for the ACM Awards Show on April first. The Band Perry, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Chris Young and Blake Shelton will all grace the stage with a live song.
The video for Carrie Underwood's "Good Girl" is out, and it's a fashion show for Carrie. Must have taken forever with all the costume changes, but it look like it was fun to make.
Congratulations to Dierks Bentley - he's notched his ninth #1 single with "Home." He's pretty humble about the success of it: “It’s about now but it’s a little history lesson too about what we’ve been through and at the end of the day I think it’s inspiring and hopeful. It’s been a real blessing of a song and one that none of us really can take too much credit for it; just inspiration hit and, you write that many songs over the course of the year you might get one of those moments and we got one with this song.” He's wrapping up a tour in Australia, so his #1 party will have to wait til he gets back state-side.
Zac Brown Band is in the studio, working on new music. No word on when we can expect to hear it.
Brad Paisley - cigar aficianado? Yep, and he's on the cover of the Cigar Aficianado magazine, looking classy in a tux jacket and cowboy hat.
Shooter Jennings is on the Tonight Show.
The tweet of the day is from Blake Shelton: "So I'm on the west coast right now so don't be giving away what happens tonight on The Voice everybody!!! I can't wait to see who I pick!!"
