Today's Country Tidbits

The CMA show last night was just what an award show should be - long on great performances and filled with appreciative acceptance speeches and an appreciative audience. Miranda Lambert went into the night with 9 nominations and ended up with four awards: Video of the Year and Song of the Year for "The House That Built Me," Album of the Year for "Revolution" and Female Vocalist of the Year. She was nominated in seven categories, with two nominations each in two of the categories, so she went 4 for 7, which is really great! Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins had a good night - before the televised portion of the show started, they found out they won the award for Musical Event of the Year for "Hillbilly Bone." Blake also won Male Vocalist of the Year. Lady Antebellum picked up two awards, too - their song "Need You Now" earned the Single of the Year award and they picked up the Vocal Group of the Year award. Sugarland won Vocal Duo of the Year and the Zac Brown Band was named New Artist of the Year. Poor Brad Paisley only earned one award, but it was the one he really wanted to win - Entertainer of the Year. It's his first time winning that award, but probably not his last.

Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton are now part of a very small, very unique group. By winning the CMA Best Female Vocalist and Best Male Vocalist awards on the same night, they join the only other couples who've done it: Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Lorrie Morgan and Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. The Tim and Faith win was a decade ago, in 2000.

Miranda Lambert's Album of the Year award for "Revolution" makes her one of only six female artists to win that award. She joins Anne Murray, Patty Loveless, Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack and Taylor Swift.

Who did country divas Martina McBride and Gretchen Wilson have on their arms last night? They each had two dates - their daughters. Sweet!

And in case you lost count, Carrie Underwood had 8 outfit changes last night. And she looked great in each one of them, didn't she? People.com has a photo album of star shots from last night's show.

Lady Antebellum has had a great week, which included some work on the "Hello World" video.

Rascal Flatts will be part of NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series Ceremony on Friday, December 3rd at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. They'll perform, and the ceremony will air live at 9pm Eastern on the Speed channel.

The top three albums in the country are Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" and Sugarland's "Incredible Machine." Take that, rappers and rockers!

The CMA line of the night was from Brad Paisley: “After the night Miranda and Blake are having we can expect a baby in nine months.”

Today's country tidbits...

Kenny Chesney made a 3-D movie of his Sun City Carnival Tour, and it comes to a theatre near you starting in April of 2010. Kenny Chesney: Summer In 3-D was captured by 22 3-D cameras over six nights of his 2009 tour. The five locations for the shoot were Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle, Foxboro, and Indianapolis.

The world's longest-running Radio show is making the move to the internet. The Grand Ole Opry will begin streaming the live show, complete with video, Saturday nights at 9 eastern on MySpace.com/GrandOleOpry. The first show is this Saturday night, and features Carrie Underwood and Jake Owen.

Taylor Swift will be the first performer on the CMA Award show tomorrow night. She's been heard rehearsing two songs, so it's possible she'll have two performances on the show. Other leaks from the closed set include Brooks & Dunn performing "Honky Tonk Stomp" with Billy Gibbons, Keith Urban singing his next single, "Til Summer Comes Around," Tim McGraw in full voice for "Southern Voice," Sugarland singing "Keep You," Jamey Johnson and Kid Rock duetting on "Between Jennings and Jones" and Vince Gill with Daughtry singing Daughtry's "Tennessee Line."

A blast from the past, Jerry Lee Lewis, has decided to make a collaborative country album. He does songs with Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Kid Rock, Slash, Eric Clapton and James Burton. A free download of a sampler is allegedly available today at Amazon dot com and the whole cd will be available next Tuesday.

And Steve Wariner has put together a tribute to Chet Atkins. That cd comes out next Thursday, the 19th. You can get it at his website.

New cd's out today: Big Kenny with "The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy" and "Dolly: Live from London."

It's good to be Carrie Underwood. She has the #1 song in the country with "Cowboy Cassanova,"
and "Play On," her new cd, is expected to top both the Billboard country chart and the Billboard 200 chart this week when chart results are announced tomorrow.

On tv today, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley on Good Morning America, and the Robin Roberts country music special tonight features Carrie, Martina McBride, Loretta Lynn, Roseanne Cash, Vince Gill and Tim McGraw.

Happy birthday today to Chris Cagle and Miranda Lambert.

There's a Twitter party tomorrow night, before, during and after the CMA Awards show. Follow it on cmaawards.com for tweets from stars, producers, the red carpet & tons of Twitter-Pix.