Old school is pretty cool...

Thanks for checking in with the Great Country Blog today. Country music around the web finds Vince Gill planning a One-Man-Band Show. The tour is being billed as A Special Acoustic Evening with Vince Gill. Accompanied only by pianist Pete Wasner and percussionist Billy Thomas, Vince will present an array of his most notable songs along with some new material, and he will entertain the audience with numerous stories that reflect his notorious sense of humor. “In 2006 and 2007, I toured with a 17-piece band so I could reproduce the sounds of These Days, the new album I’d made,” Vince explains. “And it was a lot of fun. This year, I’m not out promoting a new album so I wanted to do something really different. Recently I saw James Taylor on his tour. It was a kind of one-man band show, with just him, a piano player and all those great songs. I really enjoyed watching it and I knew I would enjoy performing in that setting as well. So I’m going to tour basically the same way—pared down and informal.” Local Vince Gill loyals will have to travel to Mesa, AZ to see the show. (Oct. 21) That’s the closest it’s coming to the Mesilla Valley.

Big numbers are in for Randy Travis. First-week sales placed Around the Bend at number 3 on the country charts. That makes his first country release in 8 years also his highest selling first week ever, as well as his first Top Five release in his career, since Nielsen soundscan started reporting. Those are pretty good numbers after 23 years on the charts. After all, Randy Travis is one of the top ten selling solo country artists of all time. Having sold over 21 million albums, he has 22 #1 hits, six Grammy® Awards, five Country Music Association Awards, nine Academy of Country Music Awards and ten American Music Awards to his name.

Good news for Craig Morgan. While his new record label does all the work to help his new song “Love Remembers” climb the charts, Craig’s got more time to play. During that play time, Craig enjoys motorcycles and just recently won 3rd Place in the Mid-South Hare Scrambles Series motorcycle race.

Not-so-good news for Kid Rock. He's been sentenced to a year’s probation, six hours of anger management counseling, 80 hours of community service, and fined $1,000 for his role in a fight at a restaurant outside Atlanta last fall. The incident happened after Rock’s tour bus stopped at the all-night eatery after a performance. An exchange of words with a customer escalated into a fight that spilled from the restaurant into the parking lot. The “All Summer Long” singer, Robert J. Ritchie in real life, pleaded no contest to one count of simple battery. Four counts of battery were dropped. Two of his band members received similar sentences for their parts in the incident.