Carrie Underwood has announced she will release her new CD, featuring her forthcoming single, “Good Girl,” on May 1st. She has not announced the title of the album yet. Don’t forget to watch Carrie singing with Steven Tyler tomorrow night on a special live episode of CMT Crossroads live from Indianapolis, as part of the Super Bowl week festivities.
Taylor Swift recently donated 14,000 Scholastic books to the Nashville Public Library. It was one of the largest donations ever received by the library, and the books will be distributed among all 21 branches of the Nashville Public Library. Each book will be tagged with a message that says, “A Gift to the Children of NASHVILLE from TAYLOR SWIFT and SCHOLASTIC INC.”
Season 2 of The Voice starts this Sunday night and Blake Shelton says unlike the first season when he was just trying to figure the show out, this time around he has a plan for picking contestants for his team. “I think [the first season] we were all just [thinking], ‘Oh, I can hear pitch better than Cee Lo can [or whoever], I’m hitting my button! It’s not that this year I don’t think. I think we know what we’re after… For me it’s gonna be unique voices. Not necessarily people that are rangy that can do all these cool things and hit these amazing notes, it’s more somebody that stands out and doesn’t sound like anybody else.” Blake says because all the judges have a firmer grasp on the show and what they want, “I think you’ll see when we do pick the same artist you’ll see the claws come out a little bit more this year because we know exactly what we want, where last year we were just like ‘I don’t know, that’s a pretty good singer, I’ll take him.’ It won’t be that way this year.”
Don’t forget to watch Blake and Miranda Lambert singing “America the Beautiful” prior to the kick off of the Super Bowl Sunday on NBC.
James Young is the last single guy in the Eli Young Band, but that will all change when he marries his longtime girlfriend tomorrow. For the guy’s in the band it’s their last hurrah before they gear up for a busy year of touring. They used to joke that the only time they got time off when one of the guys got married, but now that James is the last to tie the knot they’ll have to figure out a different plan. Eli Young Band will open for Dierks Bentley on his Country and Cold Cans Tour, they’ll be joining Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in Australia in March, plus they say there are a couple more tours they are in talks to open that they will reveal once they get the green light. Unfortunately for James and his new wife, the band’s first date back on the road is February 14th, Valentine’s Day.
Miranda Lambert brought her On Fire Tour to Huntsville, AL last night. She was just as feisty and sassy as ever and put on a fantastic show worthy of her headlining status, but there were moments during her show that the emotional toll of the last few weeks in her personal life shown through on stage.
Before Miranda sang her new single, “Over You,” she told the crowd, “It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I lost my father-in-law and then I lost one of my best friends in a tragic car accident.” She rescheduled her show that was supposed to take place in Tallahassee tonight to attend her friend Mark Adams’ funeral. She observed, “It’s kind of ironic that this next song is my current single,” because it’s a song she and Blake Shelton wrote about the tragic death of his brother many years ago. And she added, “I learned something over the last couple of weeks, that it’s okay to let music heal you.” During the song you could clearly see and hear the emotion she was feeling, as her eyes filled with tears while she sang.
Toward the end of the show when Miranda was singing “The House That Built Me” she started to sing the line in the chorus, “I thought if I could touch this place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing …” when she was overtaken by emotion and started crying. The audience took over singing the song as she wiped her eyes and tried to step back in front of the microphone, but was unable to sing as the tears continued to flow. Her fans never wavered in their singing and finished the song for her. Toward the end of the show Miranda told the crowd, “Y’all have helped me feel so much better. I’m back. I swear I’m back.” Then she launched into “Gunpowder and Lead.”
Miranda will attend her friend’s funeral today and then she and Blake will head to Indianapolis to perform “America the Beautiful” at the Super Bowl, which you will air Sunday, just prior to kick off, on NBC.
Dierks Bentley’s new CD, Home, will be in stores this coming Tuesday, and it’s got some love songs and some heartbreak songs on there, but he tells The Tennessean these days those songs are inspired by the three women in his life – his wife Cassidy and their two daughters, Evie and Jordan. “I’ve really never known heartache like this before, with a child,” says Dierks. “You never realize how painful it is to love someone until you have a kid and it just hurts in the best possible ways and in the worst possible ways that no heartache could ever, ever measure up to.” Part of that heartache comes from being away from home so much and missing his family while he promotes his music by touring the world. He says that feeling is “a big part of this record.”
When Brad Paisley’s Virtual Reality Tour stopped in Charleston, WV he helped one lucky couple’s dream become a reality when he assisted with a marriage proposal. As he sang “She’s Everything” he invited Jason Davis on stage with his girlfriend, Vanessa Pritt, so that he could surprise her with a proposal. Brad even acted as the videographer and filmed the whole thing on his iPhone. You can see the proposal here. Luckily, Vanessa said yes.
Martina McBride is out on tour with George Strait. They’re playing mostly arenas in an “in-the-round” configuration, which is unique for Martina because she has to work a little harder to make sure that people are entertained all the way around. The tour will only last through the end of this month, then Martina tells Access Atlanta, “I’m going back out in April for my own tour, a theater tour. I’m excited. It’s easier, well, not necessarily easier, but I’m looking forward to doing a more intimate show and slowing things down.”
Kellie Pickler has been announced as the first artist participating in The Ram Truck brand presents “Road to the Ram Jam.” Kellie as well as the other participating artists will give fans a chance to win prizes, including free music downloads and a trip for two to the exclusive Ram Jam country concert happening at the end of the year in Nashville. The other four artists will be announced in the coming months, and all five acts, including Kellie, will play the Ram Jam on December 29th. Fans can get more information on the Road to the Ram Jam and enter the sweepstakes at www.RamTrucks.com/RoadtoRamJam.
The Hollywood Reporter has announced that ABC has picked up the pilot for Reba McEntire’s new comedy, Malibu Country. The half hour sitcom stars Reba as a mom who divorces her cheating husband and then moves her family from Nashville to Malibu to try to reignite her singing career while trying to remain unaffected by the materialistic world of Malibu. No word yet on when the show will begin airing on ABC, but they say they’ve filmed a pilot and a couple of extra episodes that will air and if the ratings are good they will film more episodes.
By Becca
Posted on
February 3, 2012 – 8:00 am |