Today's Country Tidbits

CMT staged a brand-new award show last night - The Teddys. The categories are a bit different, since these are awards for music videos, not the music itself. Miranda Lambert won for Best Break-Up Video with "Kerosene," and thinks it's a fitting win for her, saying, “I’m not a love song person. I always have one or two but you know because I am in love and I have been in love whether you know, whether my heart is broken at the time or not, um, I lean more towards the sad song and the cheating song and the revenge songs.” Here's the list of winners:

Best Kiss in a Video - Chris Young – “Tomorrow”

Best Cheating Video - Carrie Underwood – “Before He Cheats”

Steamiest Video - Rascal Flatts – “I Melt”

Best Use of Lingerie - Carrie Underwood – “Cowboy Casanova”

Best Breakup Video - Miranda Lambert – “Kerosene”

Best Flirting Video - Lauren Alaina – “Georgia Peaches” and Blake Shelton – “Honey Bee” (tie)

Sweetest Video - Keith Urban – “Without You”

Tightest Jeans in a Video - Luke Bryan – “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)”

Alan Jackson's latest single, "So You Don't Have to Love Me Anymore," is out on iTunes this week, and he's so proud of it: “The record just came out beautiful and everybody that heard it, first thing they said was ‘Man, that thing gave me goose bumps on my arms’ and it’s just a great song, great melody. You know I’m a song writer and I appreciate songs and so I definitely appreciate this song.”

The Eli Young Band is headed to Canada with Dierks Bentley and couldn't make it home to Nashville to be with their wives for Valentine's Day. According to Chris and Mike, it's not a big deal, though. “[Chris] We married women who, who have been around us for quiet awhile and who really understand what we do and everything we do was really nothing new to them when they said yes. [Mike] They have to be extremely understanding ladies to be able to be with us in the first place with how much we travel.”

Another country artist is suing his record label. Kenny Rogers is suing Capitol Records, saying they “deliberately misled Rogers and other artists about payments owed to them for online music sales.” Kenny says he's owed more than $400,000 by Capitol for digital sales of his music.

In true Judd style, Wynonna is planning a "barefoot and just fun" wedding. She say's it'll be in the fall, because that's "not a sweaty time for brides," and will take place on her farm. Wynonna and Cactus Moser got engaged Christmas Eve.

Spring break with Luke Bryan? Sure - why not! For the 4th year in a row, Luke will play shows in the panhandle of Florida during spring break, plus release a Spring Break EP. The shows are March 13th and 14th, and the album is Spring Break 4 - Suntan City, due out March 6th.

The tweet of the day is from Miranda Lambert: "Still awake. Listening to music. Hey @Jason_Aldean.... Fly Over States makes my heart swell. Thanks:)"

Today's Country Tidbits

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are hard at work this week, writing and rehearsing for Wednesday night's CMA Awards. They'll duet on the show, co-host the show for the 4th year in a row, and according to Brad, kick a few chuckles out of us, too. “Everything’s pretty -- well no, it’s never just ready -- but we get out there and have a great time and uh, I hope, I hope we make you laugh. I think we have the last few years and, and hopefully we can do it again, uh, we aren’t pulling many punches, it ought to be fun.”

Miranda Lambert is the reigning CMA Female Vocalist, and is nominated again this year, along with Carrie Underwood, Sara Evans, Martina McBride and Taylor Swift. How does she feel about the competition? “Of course we want to win. You know, there’s the disappointment...for a while there I was getting beat out every year by Taylor and Carrie, and I was like, ‘OK, when’s my turn coming?’ You know? But, my turn has come and when it’s somebody else’s turn, I wanna be as gracious as...especially Carrie was to me when I won! You know? It’s not a competition. It’s a family.”

The husband/wife duo Thompson Square is up for New Artist and Vocal Duo. Kiefer and Shawna are pretty amazed to be nominated, saying “To us, it’s like, Ok, now these people take us seriously and accept us into their fold. And to be accepted into this country music family in Nashville is just...it’s a dream come true. It’s why we all move here and to be able to be in that fold is just unbelievable.” The show airs at 8pm Wednesday on ABC.

One of Billy Currington's neighbors needs a time-out. He showed up at Billy's door, inviting him to go fishing and telling him that he'd been watching Billy through binoculors and telescopes for six months! Billy's as calm about it as he can be, but probably won't go fishing with his neighbor any time soon.

Willie Nelson had to cancel a couple of shows last week because he got sick. The Washington DC show will be re-scheduled, but the Akron, Ohio show tickets will be refunded at the point of purchase.

Kenny Rogers will kick off his annual Christmas tour the day after Thanksgiving in Columbus, Ohio. Joining him on the "Christmas and Hits Tour" is Grammy-winner Billy Dean.

Alan Jackson and Kix Brooks both got stars on the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville yesterday...congrats!

The tweet of the day is from David Nail: "Can't sleep, changed bunks, it's bumpy and loud in the back bottom right! But it beats listening to people up front snore! G Nite take two"

Today's country tidbits...

What did some of your favorite artists do for their Thanksgiving yesterday? Tim McGraw says that he and Faith have the same sort of day that most people do - they either travel to relatives' homes or have everyone over to theirs. Taylor Swift spent the day with her Mom's extended family, mostly women, who Taylor says "have this genetic cackle, and they stand in the kitchen and it's the loudest sound. It like breaks sound barriers. It's like out of a movie." Lee Ann Womack enjoyed eating her hubby, Frank Liddell's cooking, saying he's an amazing cook. Blake Shelton confesses that Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday, because it happens in the fall, which is his favorite season, and involves eating a lot of food, and he really chowed down. Chris Young said the family always splits up - women inside, talking, men outside, shooting. Martina McBride just loved spending a no-stress day with her family.

On the strength of his new song, "Everywhere I Go," Phil Vassar has moved up the release date of his next cd by two months. "Traveling Circus" will be out on December 5th, about two months earlier than planned. Phil produced all of the music himself, he uses his road band on it, and his friend and high school art teacher Jason Erwin painted all of the album art. He and Kenny Chesney co-wrote one of the tracks, "I Will Remember You," and the cd also includes "Bobby With an I."

What did Tim McGraw think of working with co-star Sandra Bullock? He said, "She's just a very cool, friendly, down-to-earth person. For me, she always reminded me of like my best friend's little sister." He also enjoyed being clean-shaven for the part, removing his trademark goatee. He said the maintenance time was less and the chore of shaving was much easier. If you haven't seen "The Blind Side" yet, take a break from shopping today and go see it.

Carrie Underwood was named one of the best-dressed people of the week in People magazine for her new, shorter hairdo and the beautiful blue dress she wore at the AMAs last Sunday.

Kenny Rogers kicks off his annual Christmas concert tour tonight in Louisiana, and will be on the road until December 23rd. He says, “I’ve always loved this season, because people, in general, are truly different. Look around . . . they smile more, they’re more gracious and generally seem happier.”