Today's Country Tidbits

Luke Bryan is psyched to be part of Good Morning America's Summer Concert Series today. "City folks, and certainly every time we've played this city, they're like, 'We love coming to see a country act, because we don't get to see it as much as all of the other music.' So I love bringing that to New York City, and obviously, I love having it on TV." Luke's not the only country act on morning tv today - Zac Brown Band is on the Today show and Craig Morgan is on Fox & Friends.

Eli Young Band is touring with Rascal Flatts this summer, and are watching their song "Even if it Breaks Your Heart" creep closer to #1. It's at #5 now and Mike Eli weighs in on the song's meaning:   “You know it’s really true, ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’ is about going out there and following your dreams. I think we’re extremely luckily to live in a country where, that is possible in the first place. And it’s encouraged.”

Darius Rucker is glowing over recording with Lady Antebellum. They're covering Old Crow Medicine Show's song, "Wagon Wheel," and according to Darius:   “I cut it to put it as the last song on my record, to end the record that way, and when they were done, I was like, ‘Man, it’ll probably be second, and [laughs] if it’s the first single, I’m OK with that too.’ It was just so great…and it’s really great to get a song that’s so big in its own way, but there’s so many people out there that haven’t heard it, you know, that should hear it.”

Two of the three Band Perry siblings celebrate birthdays this month - Kimberly turned 29 yesterday and Neil turns 22 on the 23rd. Believe it or not, they are competitive over cake! "[Kimberly] Size does matter when it comes to birthday cake, and I've always wanted the biggest one. I'm very passionate about them. [Neil] Yes, but I did 'up' her one year whenever I got ice cream cake. [Kimberly] Oh, well, that's...yeah, I'm not a big ice cream cake fan, but you are. I was a little jealous." Reid Perry stays out of the cake fight - his birthday is in November.

Wondering what happened to the Taylor Swift/Justin Bieber collaboration? They were left off of his album, and there aren't any plans to release the song. But Taylor can take heart - hers wasn't the only duet that didn't make the cut: Kanye West's didn't either.

Oh dear - there was a little dust-up over Luke Bryan's performance of the National Anthem at baseball's All-Star game. He was caught sneaking a peek at his wrist, and has admitted to having a "few key words" written down so he could do his best. He did - give him a break. TMZ conducted a poll, and with over 10,000 responses, 93% of them were in Luke's favor.

Congrats to Little Big Town, who scored a #1 song based on digital downloads. "Pontoon" was purchased 86,000 times last week.