Today's Country Tidbits

Carrie Underwood's video for "Mama's Song" debuted today on VEVO and is here now...

The full moon makes for strange bedfellows. Yesterday, Jack Ingram checked into a hotel. The person at the front desk gave him a key, and when he used it, he found Joe Nichols on the bed!! OOPS!!

Last night in Nashville, a star-studded guitar pull happened: Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Lionel Ritchie and Taylor Swift. She tweeted, "Just played an acoustic show with Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, and Lionel Richie-- it was one of those magical nights..One of those nights I just need to remember every detail of. All of us sitting on stools, taking turns playing songs and telling stories." Hope someone taped it and will make a tv show out of it!

The Grand Ole Opry birthday bash is getting bigger by the minute. The 85th Birthday Bash will be October 8th & 9th at the re-opened Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, and will feature Taylor Swift, Trace Adkins, Dolly Parton, Crystal Gayle and Charles Osgood of CBS Sunday Morning fame. More stars are expected to be added to the weekend of shows, so you might want to think about a road trip.

Since Kenny Chesney's cd comes out Tuesday, you know he'll be all over tv next week. Here's the scoop: Monday night, his CMT Invitation Only episode premiers. Tuesday morning, catch him on Good Morning America. Then Friday night, he'll be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He's excited about this album because his time in the studio was so much more relaxed than it was for the last five albums. "I would get off the road on a Sunday night, then I would go in the studio on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and try to make a record. The whole time I was on my BlackBerry thinking about what time we had to leave Thursday, talking to my road manager, doing this or doing that. In the meantime, I was sitting there with the guitar players telling them what I'm hearing in my head." At noon today, you can hear the entire cd online.

Gloriana's Cheyenne Kimball is engaged to marry Casey Twist, a singer/songwriter from Arkansas. No date has been announced, but the "Wild at Heart" singer has broken a lot of boys' hearts with this news.

JoDee Messina will sing the National Anthem before the Nashville Women's Running Magazine Half-Marathon, then will run in the event. After a shower and maybe a nap, she'll perform at the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night. Nice Saturday!

Willie Nelson is on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight. Monday, Randy Houser will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Zac Brown Band will be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The tweet of the day is from Jack Ingram: "Just accidentally lived out many women's fantasy- on accident! Hotel gave me a key and a room. I opened door 2 find Joe Nichols n the bed!!!"

Today's country tidbits...

There's a star-studded fund-raiser going on tonight at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Zac Brown put it together to raise money for The Georgia Theatre in Athens, which burned down earlier this year. Tonight's performers include the Zac Brown Band, Kid Rock, Kellie Pickler, Little Big Town, Joey & Rory, Shawn Mullins, Oliver Wood, Angie Aparo and Aslyn. There'll be an auction of autographed guitars, signed by Kenny Chesney, Dave Matthews, Marshall Tucker, Styx and John Mayer, as well as a fiddle autographed by Charlie Daniels. Tickets are a hundred bucks a pop for the event, with proceeds going to the rebuilding fund. A DVD of the show will be released next spring.

Tickets for the 3rd annual Verizon Wireless BamaJam Music & Arts Festival, headlined by Kenny Chesney, go on sale today. BamaJam will be held Thursday, June 3 through Saturday, June 5, 2010 in Enterprise, Ala. The price for a 3-day ticket is $99 and $49 for a 1-day flex ticket, which may be used on any of the 3 days. Service charges and taxes are included in this great low price.

JoDee Messina is poised for a comeback to country music. She's got a new cd, "Unmistakable" due out in the spring of next year, and the first single will be "That's God." This is her first new music in five years.

Fun artist Tweet: Dierks Bentley tweeted this, about "Twang" - "just heard george straits new song...whoever wrote that wrote an instant classic. killer song...downloading album immediately." And for the record, Dierks, Jim Lauderdale, Kendell Marvel and Jimmy Ritchey co-wrote the song.

Taylor Swift is now in the guitar-selling business. She's partnered with Taylor Guitars to develop the Taylor Swift Baby Taylor guitar. Sized for beginners, this guitar is also nice to travel with, and is decorated to Taylor's specifications. It won't ship until November 5th, but you can pre-order it for $299 at amazon.com

Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews will sing “I’m Alive” on the CMA Awards show. Dave will be making his CMA debut.

Love JoDee Messina? Then you'd better follow her on Twitter, because sometimes she gives out a cell phone number and invites fans to call and chat, and sometimes she gives away tickets to her concerts via Twitter. Follow her @jodeemessina

Catch Miranda Lambert on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Thursday night, Tim McGraw on the Today show this Friday morning, and Martina McBride on the Oprah show on Monday. That show features Oprah in Texas duds,with Martina performing at the Texas State Fair.

A remix of “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” featuring Colt Ford is a bonus track on Joe Nichols’ album Old Things New, which will be released next Tuesday. If you go country dancing, expect to hear it at your favorite dance club.

CD's out today include Tim McGraw's "Southern Voice," Bomshel's "Fight Like a Girl," Lyle Lovett's "Natural Forces" and Joe Diffie's "The Ultimate Collection." You can get them on this page...just click the "Buy the Music" tab.