Feel Good Friday

Taylor Swift has signed on to join the cast of voices appearing in the movie adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. Zac Efron voices the character “Ted”, a boy who tries to win the affection of “Audrey”, the character that will be voiced by Taylor. Danny DeVito is slated to be the voice of the “Lorax”. The movie is scheduled for release in March 2012.

Rascal Flatts has officially announced that Flatts Fest will launch June 18th in Bristow, Virginia with opening acts Sara Evans, Easton Corbin and Justin Moore. The tour is currently slated to run through September with approximately 24 shows. The tour will also include an interactive pre-show festival atmosphere and tailgating experience, with activities spread throughout the plaza and parking areas for all fans who want to make a whole afternoon/evening of the show. Plans include a mobile karaoke vehicle, carnival games, photo booths, putt putt golf, food vendors, and plenty of exciting contests. More detailed information will be provided closer to the start of the tour.

Also back on the road, look for Big & Rich to roll out their 2011 Xtreme Muzik tour with buddies Cowboy Troy, Gretchen Wilson, and Two Foot Fred. Since their hiatus in 2008, Big Kenny has been doing charity work, and John Rich has released a solo album and joined the cast of this season’s Celebrity Apprentice. He hosts a weekly viewing party for the series at his Nashville home dubbed “Mount Richmore.” The 2011 Xtreme Muzik tour will kickoff June 25th in Walker, Minnesota. Celebrity Apprentice airs Sunday nights on NBC.

Oprah Winfrey is searching out the world’s “Ultimate Shania Fans” for an upcoming show featuring Shania Twain. A page on Oprah’s website invites fans to submit for their chance to be part of the audience when Shania appears on a future taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shania plans to release her autobiography on May 3rd, and she also plans to star in the upcoming reality series on Oprah’s OWN Network, Why Not? With Shania Twain.

Monday's Notes

The CMT Crossroads episode with Taylor Swift and Def Leppard will be the first to be released as a DVD. Look for it on June 16th. Brad Paisley has had his words taken literally and used as the design of a custom guitar. During a recent interview Brad Paisley said that a Fender Telecaster guitar “is nothing more than a cutting board, a baseball bat, and strings.” Zachary Custom Guitars has modeled this hand-made guitar with a $2500 price tag. Big Kenny from Big & Rich has a new member of the family … retired from the military! Big Kenny adopted a German Shepaherd that was released from the Military Working Dog program.

It's Finally Friday!

The end of a short week finds country music pretty busy with quite a few little mentions. John Rich voluntarily turned himself in to the Metro Davidson County Criminal Justice Center in Nashville yesterday afternoon. He is facing misdemeanor charges brought against him by former Nashville Star contestant Jared Ashley and Nashville attorney Chris Sevier. Last month, both men filed civil lawsuits against one another after an alleged altercation between the pair took place in March.

Times up on Carrie Underwood’s highway signs. The signs on Interstate 40 and U.S. 69 in Oklahoma proclaim Checotah Home of Carrie Underwood American Idol 2005. The signs are located near the interstate and highway exits into the town and are being removed by the state. It seems that Oklahoma Transportation Department regulations require them to be removed from state property after two years. But the signs aren’t going very far. They were given to the city of Checotah and will be placed within the city limits.

George Strait won Wednesday night. That’s TV talk that says Wednesday night’s George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All-Star Concert controlled the television ratings for the evening. With no reality singers to watch, the public was forced to watch the pros, so the special drew 10.6 million viewers.

News From Around The Country
Big Kenny of Big & Rich and Big Machine Records president and CEO Scott Borchetta will join Naomi Judd as judges on the second season of CMT's Can You Duet. Kellie Pickler has been forced to cancel two concerts because she is suffering from bronchitis. Darius Rucker now has his own iPhone application. Check out iTunes.com to download it for free. Miley Cyrus has two MTV Movie Award nominations this weekend. She has nods in the Breakthrough Female Performance for her role in Hannah Montana: The Movie and also for Best Song From a Movie for “The Climb”. LeAnn Rimes will be a presenter Sunday night. And finally, Joe Nichols will be in California over the next few days to film a tribute to popular children’s program host Mr. Rogers, who would have been 80 this year. Joe will be doing his new single "Believers" with a children’s choir, and the LA Philharmonic.

Tuesday Newsday

It’s a crafter’s dream. Pieces sell out as fast as you can make them. If you’re Miranda Lambert doing the crafting, that’s the problem you face. Miranda started a line of handcrafted jewelry, designing and crafting everything herself. According the endydesigns.com, she’s already sold out. You can look at the website for fun, but it will be awhile before Miranda has time to make more. She’s currently working on her next album and will then be headed on tour with Kenny Chesney.

Randy Travis will release a new anthology, I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits of Randy Travis, on March 17th. The 32-track, two-CD set will feature two new songs, including a new single, “Turn It Around.” However, it does not include any material from his time at DreamWorks Records in the late 1990s. Randy will perform on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on March 13th.

The Big half of Big & Rich, Big Kenny Alphin, is preparing for his next movie roll in the big-screen film Free Like Me. (This isn't Kenny's first big-screen appearance. In 2008, his documentary, Bearing Light: A Journey to Sudan, debuted at the Nashville Film Festival.) The new movie is about a man who is devastated by a loss in his life. He moves to the Caribbean to drink away his cares. He meets a woman. The End. Production is supposed to begin in mid-April in Nashville and the Dominican Republic. It will be a while until it’s released. In the meantime, check out Kenny’s wife, Christiev, unveiling the the first pieces of her Love Everybody jewelry line on QVC March 5th.

News From Around The Country
Taylor Swift is on CSI Thursday night. Fellow teen sensation Katie Armiger will be making her national television debut on the CBS Early Show March 21st. Martina McBride’s record label is releasing a CD set with three of Martina’s previous albums; The Time Has Come, The Way That I Am, and Wild Angels. The albums contain four Top 10 hits and Martina’s first number one song “Wild Angels.” And Jason Aldean will be taping a live concert DVD on Friday in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event is already sold out and the DVD is set to be released later this year. Jason says that a live concert DVD is something that he’s always wanted to do.

The Big Rich Wedding

Merry Monday! Just 17 shopping days until Christmas! Be sure to tune in during the Sean Show in the afternoon. You’ll be given a chance to guess how many NM Lottery Scratchers are in the gingerbread house each day, and the first person to arrive at the correct number will not only win that many Lottery Gingerbread Dough scratchers, but you will win the gingerbread house kit, too! Have Fun.

Meanwhile, a woman has emerged strong enough to tie the knot around Big and Rich’s John Rich. John wed his girlfriend of five years Joan Bush, a former model who now owns the modeling agency in Houston. The two have kept their relationship private, never appearing together at industry functions or events. In fact, John never even brought her up to the media. About two dozen family members were guests during the ceremony. A reception was then held for friends at Barbara Mandrell’s former home – Fontanel Mansion – which is the location for CMT’s Gone Country series.

First there was McGraw. Now there will be Faith. Well, it may be called Faith. It’s still unnamed, but Faith Hill will be following her husband, Tim McGraw, into the fragrance market. Faith has signed a deal to create her very own fragrance. Faith had no idea the process of making a perfume would be so much fun and says it’s almost like creating an album – you create it and hope that people will like it. The perfume is tentatively set for a fall or winter release in 2009.

It's Good To Be A Country Music Fan!

Good Monday. Hope you had a great weekend. The big news today is on TV tonight. ABC will be airing CMA Music Fest: Country’s Night to Rock. It’s on at 8. For anyone who didn’t get to go to the show this past June, it’s a chance to bask in the glory of country music fandom. For everybody who did get to go to the show, it’s a chance to relive the fun.

Hosted by Taylor Swift, Kellie Pickler, and Julianne Hough, the special will feature performances by Trace Adkins, Rodney Atkins, Bucky Covington, Billy Ray Cyrus, Faith Hill, Julianne Hough, Alan Jackson, Jewel, Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson and Dwight Yoakam.

There’s also supposed to be plenty of behind the scenes footage that even those in attendance weren’t privy to experience. Bucky Covington will act as your tour guide and show you the festival experience through his eyes. John Rich from Big & Rich will tell the story of how Gretchen Wilson went from bartender to singer at Nashville's legendary honkytonks. Taylor Swift will make an impromptu street performance and sign autographs at the Fan Fair Exhibit Hall. Lucky fans will share their private experiences with Kellie Pickler, Faith Hill, Keith Urban, and Julianne Hough. And there’s sure to be more as ABC tries to condense as much of the 30 hours of CMA Music Fest into 2 hours for TV.

A record 208,000 fans attended CMA Music Festival this year, and it’s the fourth time ABC will broadcast the special, bringing America’s most-played musical format into living rooms across the country. New this year is an interactive website for fans to experience the festival. Don’t miss the Performance and Behind the Scenes photos! There are some good ones in there! And of course, for the full surfing experience that can take hours out of your day, check out the ABC site for Country’s Night To Rock. Don’t miss the exclusive videos, like this bounty of good lookin' country boys for example, that take you all around the festival.

It’s good to be a country music fan.

Hot And Peppery...

Happy Half Off Wednesday. If life keeps you indoors most days and you’re not seeing a lot of sun this summer, don’t miss the Half Off Offer today from the Hot Pepper Tanning Company. Certificates are on sale this morning at 6 am, while supplies last.

Today’s country music news is peppered with a little bit of everybody. Billy Ray Cyrus is going to star in another movie. The family flick Flying By will put Billy Ray into the role of a real estate developer who decides to rejoin his high school rock band after 25 years. Heather Locklear will play his outraged wife in the film that examines the internal battle between fun and responsibility. There’s no word on a release date for this newly announced project, but it likely won’t be anytime around the release of the highly anticipated Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Keith Urban will be a part of the all-star Fashion Rocks concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 5. The show will be broadcast on CBS on Sept. 9. Additional performers include Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Duffy, Fergie, Kid Rock, Lil Wayne, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. Proceeds from the fifth annual concert will benefit Stand Up to Cancer.

Big and Rich are parking the tour buses for the rest of the year. It was previously announced that the duo would be taking most of 2008 off while Big Kenny was undergoing physical therapy for a neck injury suffered several years ago in a car accident. The slowdown, however, didn’t stop either man from pursuing individual projects or performing the occasional Big and Rich show. "Kenny has no problem doin’ shows every now and then," John Rich says. "It’s just that constant, 100-shows-in-a-year thing that you can’t do." At this past weekend’s show at a music festival in Wisconsin, however, Big and Rich announced that they won’t be doing any more shows in 2008.

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant have concluded the better part of the Rising Sand Tour. The pair has a few more scattered dates in September and October, after which they are considering working on another album together. "I don't remember any of us really hoping for anything," Alison said regarding the first CD. "We were looking for a good time. With T Bone, Robert and myself, it was something very different than what we've done. It was, 'Let's go see what this is like.'" As it turned out, the Raising Sand album reached No. 2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and appeared on numerous critics’ best-of-2007 lists. And now Raising Sand is one of 12 albums nominated for the Mercury Prize, the annual award determined by a panel of judges in the British music industry. The winner will be announced on Sept. 9. Other nominees for the prestigious honor include Adele, British Sea Power, Burial, Elbow, Estelle, Laura Marling, Neon Neon, Portico Quartet, Rachel Unthank & the Winterset, Radiohead and the Last Shadow Puppets.

And finally, Alan Jackson has reached another career milestone. Having just scored his 33rd #1 single with “Good Time,” the title track to his 17th album, Alan has just received the news that his cumulative album sales have crossed the 50-million mark.