Today's Country Tidbits

Taylor Swift has done something that hasn't been done in two years. Her "Speak Now" cd sold over a million copies last week, making it the first album since Lil Wayne's "The Carter III" accomplished that feat in 2008. In the country music world, it's been since Garth Brooks' "Double Live" came out in 1998 that an artist moved a million units in a week. One out of every 5 cds sold last week was Taylor Swift's "Speak Now."

Starting tonight with the ABC-TV special by Robin Roberts and going all through next week, country music will be everywhere on your tv as we close in on the 2010 CMA Awards. Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley and NASCAR's Jeff Gordon will kick off the day next Wednesday on Good Morning America, with Dierks performing a free concert on the plaza outside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and Brad and Jeff presenting the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze to the winner of the Chevrolet Salutes America's Heroes service member contest. Tonight's special, "In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts: All Access Nashville" features peeks into Carrie Underwood's life and interviews with many of the top CMA Award nominees.

Josh Turner's #1 party for "All Over Me" was yesterday in Nashville. It featured shades, string bikinis and Coppertone 45. Sure hope it was indoors near a pool...no, wait...the "string bikinis" were long t-shirts that the song's three co-writers wore, airbrushed with bodacious womens' bodies wearing teeny bikinis. The shades and sunscreen were real. This is Josh's second #1 song this year - the first was "Why Don't We Just Dance."

Reba gets real about "All The Women I Am" which comes out next Tuesday...

Reba McEntire on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes

Only 20 more days til this year's Mission Possible turkey fry, hosted by Tracy Lawrence as a benefit for the Nashville Rescue Mission. In its fifth year, the event has become a huge pre-Thanksgiving draw for Nashville celebrities and a major fund-raiser for the Mission. The turkey fry is open to the public, and donations are encouraged.

Carrie Underwood's turn on the silver screen happens on April 15, 2011 when "Soul Surfer" comes out. She plays a youth counselor who works with a surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

Keith Urban has declared that he'll spend more time with his family in 2011. He's structuring his tour schedule so he's gone for a few days and then home for a few days. He doesn't want to be on the road for weeks at a time, missing out on watching daughter Sunday grow up.

The tweet of the day is from Martina McBride: "Can't believe nxt 2 wks! Fittings,Crossroads w/Train, Country Strong Premiere, Big Announcements, BMI Awards, CMA's, CMA Christmas taping...

Today's Country Tidbits

A week from tomorrow is the night the CMA Awards will be handed out in Nashville. The star-studded line-up of performers added a couple more stars this week, as Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson will sing their duet from Jason's "My Kind of Party" album. Martina McBride and Rodney Atkins have been added as presenters. The show will air at 8 Eastern on ABC. Tomorrow night, the special that Robin Roberts has been working on for months will air. "In The Spotlight with Robin Roberts: All Access Nashville" is a warm-up to the CMA Awards show on ABC.

Miranda Lambert is up for 9 CMA awards, more than anyone else, and is likely to be taking home an award or few. That'll be really nice for her, considering that next Wednesday is her 27th birthday!

Oprah Winfrey's network is shaping up to be very country-friendly. First, OWN announced a Shania Twain show, and now they've added a one-hour reality series about the Judds. The show will follow the mother-daughter duo as they prepare for their first tour in a decade. The network will debut on January first, 2011.

Taylor Swift has the number one song in country music with "Mine" and the #1 cd in the country by a long shot this week. Sales numbers are still being tabulated, but it looks like she's sold somewhere near a million copies of "Speak Now" in its first week. With the prevalence of single-song downloads, album sales have dropped off precipitously, so having a platinum first week has been unheard-of for nearly a decade. In more Taylor news, she's in the developmental stages of a new fragrance. Taylor's perfume will be available in the fall of next year.

Kenny Chesney turned up on stage Saturday night in Nashville, surprising the Ryman audience which had come to watch Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Kenny and Grace duetted on the song they cut for "Hemingway's Whiskey," "You and Tequila."

The Houston Rodeo lineup is trickling out. Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley and Sugarland will all perform during the early March festival. The rest of the lineup will be announced in January.

Jack Ingram's Acoustic Motel finds him in a stairwell singing a Billy Joe Shaver song.

Congratulations to Daryle Singletary and his wife Holly on the birth of their twin sons, Mercer and Jonah.

New music out today includes Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" and Brad Paisley's double-disc "Hits Alive."

Catch Taylor Swift on Dancing With the Stars tonight.

The tweet of the day is from Miranda Lambert: "In a tree in Kansas. Jacque and I are aiming to kill!!:)"

Today's Country Tidbits

A big honor was bestowed on Rascal Flatts last Friday, as the Monroe Carrell Jr. Children's Hospital unveiled the Rascal Flatts Surgery Center. For the past 6 years, the trio has donated $3 million and has volunteered their talents to entertain the patients. They're hosting a private benefit dinner and concert for the hospital this Thursday night. And in other Rascal Flatts news, they'll receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year.

Tickets for the Garth Brooks benefit concert won't go on sale Wednesday, but we'll get the sale date details on Wednesday. Every penny of the $25 ticket price for his Bridgestone Arena show on December 17th will be earmarked for the continuing clean-up and rebuilding going on in Middle Tennessee after this spring's floods. The show will be a full-band show with special guests, and word is that Garth has put Bridgestone Arena on hold for December 19, 20 and 21, just in case there's demand for the tickets. As if there wouldn't be...!!

Carrie Underwood has written and performed a song for the upcoming Disney movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." It'll be released via iTunes on November 16th, just in time to be eligible for the Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations.

Only two more days to bid on an autographed guitar from Darius Rucker. The online auction benefits Musicians on Call and closes on Wednesday at 12:32pm Eastern time. As of this writing, the high bid is $750, so it's a bargain for serious Darius fans.

Taylor Swift takes over the Ellen Degeneres Show today with her cd release party. It's only the second time that Ellen has had just one guest for the entire show. The other time, the guest was also Taylor Swift, and it was when she released "Fearless."

Billy Ray Cyrus and his wife Tish are splitting, and Billy Ray wants joint custody of their children, 17-year-old Miley, 16-year-old Braison and 10-year-old Noah. They've been married 17 years. The famous "irreconcilable differences" are the reason for the divorce.

Randy Travis and his wife/manager Elizabeth are going their separate ways, too. She issued a statement that the two have agreed to part ways, and the divorce was finalized on Friday. They met in 1976, moved to Nashville in 1981 and have been together ever since. She will continue to be his manager.

Happy birthday today to Big Kenny Alphin, Bill Anderson, Lyle Lovett and Keith Stegall.

The tweet of the day is from Martina McBride: "What a beautiful day. Let's make it count."

Today's Country Tidbits

Hi...I'm on vacation until 11/1/10. Have a great week, and I'll see you back here next Monday!

Today's Country Tidbits

Two hundred volunteers helped Montgomery Gentry build a playground. As the recipients of the ACM/Home depot Humanitarian Award, they got to choose the community that would get the playground and chose Lexington, Kentucky. An outdoor classroom, community bulletin boards, planter benches and raised garden beds were included in the playground. Local schoolkids serenaded Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry with their rendition of "My Town."

The first round of voting is underway for the 2011 People's Choice Awards. Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean all have two nominations each. Voting to determine each catagory's five final nominees goes through November 9th.

Jennifer Nettles will host the CMA Country Christmas special, being taped in Nashville on November 11, the night after the CMA Awards. She quipped, "I love the holidays and, as my first time hosting a show, I am sure it will be full of laughs and surprises both for myself and for the folks watching." The show will air November 29th on ABC.

Trace Adkins and Craig Morgan are teaming up for a charity concert at Opryland. Proceeds from the November 18th show will benefit Hands On Nashville, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Nashville Red Cross. Tickets for the show are $50 and include food, parking and discounted cocktails for those of legal drinking age.

Tomorrow night, Blake Shelton gets inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and he wants you to help choose the song he'll perform.

Relive the hot mess that was Blake Shelton's visit on the Chelsea Lately show.

James Otto has a military appreciation deal at all of his concerts: the first 10 active-duty military to present their IDs get free tickets and a pair of meet & greet passes.

Wanna help out at Tracy Lawrence's 5th annual "Mission: Possible" turkey fry? It'll be November 23 at the Nashville Rescue Mission, and there'll be special guests in attendance again this year. The event feeds over four thousand people each year and raises more than $100,000 for the mission.

Sugarland is on the Today show this morning, and the Judds are on Fox & Friends.

Happy birthday to Jimmy Wayne and Dwight Yoakam tomorrow.

The tweet of the day is from Taylor Swift: "Just finished a tv interview in a pub and yesterday I passed Kate Moss in a hallway! I'm 100% sure I'm in London."

Today's Country Tidbits

So you think you shoot good concert video? Did you see Tim McGraw on tour this year and shoot some of him? You could win a contest with that video, and it might even become part of the video for "Felt Good On My Lips." Hit up Tim's YouTube channel for all the details, and good luck!

Blake Shelton will be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night, and today he'll be doing a Twitterview on the Opry's Twitter feed, starting at 10am Eastern time. Expect his Opry tweets to be much more family-friendly than some of his own tweets! You should also check out the Opry's YouTube page - Blake's all over that, too.

CNN caught up with Toby Keith and talked to him about bullying, politics and how he came to be a big country star.

Rascal Flatts just wrapped up the fall leg of their "Nothing Like This" tour, and are set to do the media blitz that always surrounds an album release. Their new cd, "Nothing Like This," hits stores on November 16th. After the holidays, Luke Bryan and Chris Young will join Rascal Flatts for the winter part of their tour. Dates and locations will be on the Rascal Flatts website soon.

Jason Aldean is sponsoring a contest to get you to the CMA's. You could win a trip for two to Nashville, tickets to a private concert by Jason on November 9th at the Hard Rock, and then tickets to the CMA Awards the next night.

Congrats to Darius Rucker, whose sophomore country cd, "Charleston, SC 1966" debuted at the top of the Billboard Country Album chart. The Band Perry's self-titled debut cd is at #2, Kenny Chesney's "Hemingway's Whiskey" is #3, Zack Brown Band's "You Get What You Give" is #4 and Toby Keith's "Bullets in the Gun" is at #5.

Today, watch Kellie Pickler is on the Ellen Degeneres show, Dierks Bentley on Live! With Regis and Kelly, and the Judds on Good Morning America and the Today show.

Tomorrow, Taylor Swift hits newsstands as the cover feature of People Magazine.

The tweet of the day is from Jake Owen: " Don Williams just reassured me why I LOVE country music. Lord, This day IS Good!"

Today's Country Tidbits

Jason Aldean threw a benefit concert last Friday night, and $132,000 is going to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. It's his 5th year of hosting the concert, and the first time it's been anywhere but Nashville. He decided that going forward, he'll pick a different city each year, and he wants to thank everyone in Evansville, IN who showed up to the concert wearing pink. His best friend's wife died from breast cancer at a very young age, and that spurred Jason and his wife to create this fund-raiser.

Reba is enlisting the help of her fans to launch her upcoming cd, "All The Women I Am." It streets on November 9th, and she's got an online contest, offering prizes to the fans who show the most creativity in letting the world know about the cd release. Enter photos and videos, and be sure they show a lot of people being exposed to your creative message. Good luck!

Chris Young wants you to go to the CMA Awards in style. He's looking for a winner of a black dress designed by Carmen Marc Valvo, a pair of tickets to the CMA Awards, two tickets to the red carpet viewing area and limo service for the night. Guys, you can enter, too, but please promise not to wear the black dress!!

Last night, Blake Shelton was on the 600th episode of Chelsea Lately, and he took her a couple of presents. He made up a couple of tank tops for her, one saying "Hot Mess Blake Shelton on my 600th episode" and the other saying "Kiss My Country A**." She declared him her favorite person to follow on Twitter, and on a serious note, Blake said that being made a member of the Grand Ole Opry will be the highlight of his professional life and marrying Miranda Lambert will be the highlight of his personal life.

Jamey Johnson is on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight.

The tweet of the day is from Dierks Bentley: "glad my mom used to wash my mouth out with soap.no time to buy toothpaste in NYC.brushing with soap.surprisingly zestfully clean feeling"