Big Country Notes for APR 17

CARRIE UNDERWOOD BIG WINNER AT CMT MUSIC AWARDS

Carrie Underwood’s video “Before He Cheats” won three awards at last night’s CMT Music Awards. Underwood was first called onstage to help director Roman White accept his “Video Director” award. Next she accepted “Female Video”. Her last walk across the stage was to accept “Video of the Year.” Underwood reminded fans that just last year on the same stage she accepted her first major award for “Breakthrough Video.” She presented that award last night to Taylor Swift for her video, “Tim McGraw.” A very surprised Swift told the audience, quote, “I’m going out on the road with Brad Paisley and I’m going to take this award with me so all my fans can get a picture of the award they won for me.”
Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles says “Want To,” which won “Duo Video” for her and partner Kristian Bush, is her favorite video the duo has done. She says, quote, “It was a new twist – I liked the way it interpreted the song.”
Rascal Flatts were up against themselves in the “Group Video” category. They won for “What Hurts the Most.” Joe Don Rooney, Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus opened the CMT Music Awards with “Life’s A Highway,” the other song of theirs nominated in this category.
Kenny Chesney received the “Male Video” award for “You Save Me.” He took director Shaun Silva onstage with him, saying, quote, “Shaun continues to raise the bar on video production.”
Jack Ingram’s “Love You” received the “Wide Open Spaces” award. Ingram says, quote, “Just to be mentioned in the same breath with Johnny Cash, and to be nominated with Sheryl Crow, Sting and Jimmy Buffett is an honor.”
Kris Kristofferson received the Johnny Cash Visionary award, which was presented by Cash’s daughter, Rosanne. She explained, quote, “I thought about this presentation tonight and I knew nothing I could say would be good enough.” She went on to say of Kristofferson, quote, “He never compromises his integrity. He is his art and his art is him.” In accepting, the singer/songwriter talked about his friend Johnny Cash and ended by saying, quote, “Bob Dylan said it best. Johnny Cash is like the North Star. You can guide your ship by him.” Backstage, Kris was humble about his award, saying, quote, “I’m trying to live up to Rosanne’s introduction.”

BACKSTAGE NEWS FROM THE CMT MUSIC AWARDS

While there was much excitement with the artists winning awards during the show, there was also some interesting information being circulated in the backstage pressroom.
Taylor Swift couldn’t party very long after the CMT Music Awards because she had to take her 11th grade high school home school finals this morning at 11 a.m.
Rascal Flatts are back in the studio this morning with producer Dan Huff. The group will take the next three months off to work on their new album, due out later this year.
Carrie Underwood will enter the studio this morning to work on her new album. She says she has chosen quite a few songs for the project and it appears that the disc will be mostly up-tempo numbers. She also says she’s co-written several songs that she will record.

SONGWRITER LORI McKENNA JOINS “SOUL2SOUL” TOUR

Faith Hill recorded three of Lori McKenna’s songs and Tim McGraw co-produced her upcoming album, and now McKenna will join Faith and Tim on their “Soul2Soul Tour 2007”as a special guest. No doubt Faith will perform McKenna’s songs on the tour, including the single “Stealing Kisses.” Faith says, quote, “I don’t ever remember being impacted by a songwriter the way I was with Lori.” She adds, quote, “Her songs are such a great combination of depth and realness … there’s just this indescribable collision of innocence and honesty in her writing.”
McKenna is a plumber’s wife and stay-at-home mother of five from Stoughton, Massachusetts. McKenna says she’s done limited touring because of her children but says, quote, “I have the kids prepped to be on a bus and touring all summer. They’re all ready to go. I think it’ll be a great way to spend the summer.” On the tour Lori will showcase material from her upcoming album “Unglamorous.” Tim and his producer Byron Gallimore produced McKenna’s album and will release it on their label, Stylesonic Records/Warner Bros., August 14th.

VINCE GILL WILL HOST ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC GOLF CLASSIC

Vince Gill will join the Academy of Country Music as host of its Celebrity Golf Classic for a third year in a row. The tournament will be held May 14th in Las Vegas. It's a fund-raiser for Academy’s Charitable Fund. Gill’s team has been the one to beat the last few years. Gill himself is an excellent golfer who participates in various celebrity tournaments around the country. The ACM tournament, which will be held at Cascata in Vegas, has already sold out its 100 participants' slots. It's being held on the eve of the ACM Awards, which take place May 15th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The awards will air live at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

CLAY WALKER RELEASES NEW ALBUM TODAY

Clay Walker says his new album “Fall” is a continuation of the music he’s made in the past. The singer says, quote, “The biggest thing I wanted to do was make songs people love. I wanted to continue the style people have known me for … because the music we’ve made in the past is good music.” The new disc is Clay’s first in four years and his eighth studio album. The project was produced by Keith Steagal. The second single is the title cut and Clay remembers the day he recorded it, saying, quote, “I never saw Keith get too excited about anything but when I got through doing the vocal on 'Fall' I looked out and saw him jump up and high five the engineer. When I asked him if he wanted me to do one more take he just said ‘nope.’” The album also includes a remake of Freddy Fender’s “Before the Last Teardrop Falls.” Fender recorded the song with Walker shortly before his death last year. <<>>

BUCKY COVINGTON RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM TODAY

Bucky Covington found an ally in ten-year old John Miller when he was a contestant on season five of “American Idol.” It happens that John is the son of Sawyer Brown’s Mark Miller, who co-produced Bucky’s album that releases today. Bucky says that Mark kept hearing his son talk about Bucky and he finally asked who he was talking about. John told his dad he had to hear this singer on “American Idol” and before long Mark and Bucky were in the studio. The eleven-song disc includes his current hit “A Different World” and Covington’s first co-write, “Carolina Blue.” The singer says, quote, “I’m my worst critic by far which is a good thing because it makes you push a little harder.” Covington says even though he only co-wrote one of the songs, quote, “Every song on the album is a little bit of me.” Bucky says he’s a little nervous about the release of his project but his fans have been enthusiastic about it. Prior to today’s release the singer was offering autographed discs for pre-order through his website and says, quote, “Some of my fans wrote to tell me they pre-ordered the album and they are going out to buy one when they hit the stores today. My fans are awesome; I can’t say enough good things about them.”

BRENDA LEE ALBUM INCLUDES NEW AND OLD FRIENDS

Brenda Lee’s new disc “Gospel Duets with Treasured Friends” includes a wide gamut of stars. There are representatives from the new generation such as Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. Then there are folks who Brenda grew up around, like George Jones. All these people are dear friends of Brenda’s but they weren’t the first call the singer made. She says that was reserved for Dolly Parton. Brenda says she met Dolly when she first came to town and, quote, “Even back then you knew that Dolly was going to be something special and she certainly lived up to that.” The singer goes on to explain that she and Parton formed a special bond because they came from similar backgrounds -- poverty stricken yet loving music. Brenda says, quote, “Music was her outlet and her dream and that’s pretty basically what mine was too.” Dolly asked to do “This Old House” and Brenda says she immediately could hear Dolly doing harmony and singing on that song.

PAM TILLIS RELEASES “RHINESTONED” TODAY

Pam Tillis is going for the glitter. Her new album “Rhinestoned” releases today. It's Pam’s first album for her own Stellar Cat recording company. Pam began recording the album in 2004 with Matt Spicher. After recording ten songs she realized she wasn’t on the right track. Enter friend and writing partner Gary Nicholson. Together they reached a critical decision. Pam explains, quote, "Once I talked to Gary and brought him in we decided it needed to be more country.” She adds, quote, “Then I found the song ‘Band in the Window’ and suddenly I could see and hear the whole project in my mind right down to the T-shirts.” Tillis contributed two songs for the disc, an autobiographical one with her brother, Mel, Jr., “The Hard Way.” The second, “Life Has Sure Changed Us Around,” is a duet with John Anderson. The other eleven tracks are written by some of Nashville’s finest writers including Jon Randall and Matraca Berg. Pam calls it a bookend to the album she did in 2002, which was an album of her father, Mel Tillis’, songs. She says, quote, “It’s all new songs and it’s like a bridge between the present and the past.”

INTERNATIONAL FAN CLUB ORGANIZATION ANNOUNCED ANNUAL SHOW LINEUP

Joe Diffie will headline the 40th Annual IFCO FunFest Show on June 4th at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Among other joining him are Trick Pony, Aaron Tippin, Chris Young and Ty Herndon. The show benefits Nashville's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. The hospital’s focus is on research, education and advocacy, which allows it to provide comprehensive, state-of-the-art care delivered in a nurturing, family-centered environment. Tickets can be ordered through http://www.ifco.org or by calling 615.371.9596. IFCO is an international regulatory body for artist’s fan clubs.

BLAKE SHELTON ANNOUNCES SECOND RAINDANCE EVENT

Blake Shelton must like singing in the rain. Shelton is planning his second annual Raindance charity event in Ada, Oklahoma for this weekend. The three-days will be filled with an archery tournament, team roping and a concert on the 24th with Shelton and friends including Steve Holy, Neal McCoy and Craig Morgan. On-board to participate in the sporting events are Lee and Tiffany Lakosky of “Gettin’ Close” from the Outdoor Channel and Matt Morrett Pro staff at Realtree and Hunter’s Specialities. Last year’s “Raindance” raised over 133-thousand dollars for the victims of Oklahoma’s debilitating drought and subsequent wildfires of 2005 – 2006.
Shelton’s Takamine guitar that he has played for the past two years will be auctioned during the weekend. The guitar will be signed by Shelton, Morgan, McCoy, and Holy. The auction will take place online next Tuesday through the month of May. Fans can find the link to the online bidding on the Raindance website and also on CMTAuctions.com.

QUICK BITES

Brenda Lee and Josh Turner will be part of the one night “Opry at the Ryman: Songs of Faith Signature Show” next Tuesday. Joining them will be Diamond Rio, Pam Tillis and the Del McCoury Band.

Following Sarah Buxton's hour-long set at Arizona's Country Thunder, the singer signed autographs for hundreds of new fans. At one point security actually cut off the line because of the number of people in the tent waiting for autographs. Buxton’s self-titled album is due for release this summer.

The Nashville Palace has announced a lineup of stars for the coming months. Little Texas hits the stage on May 18th and Jeff Cook of Alabama performs on May 30th. Gene Watson performs at the Palace on June 7th, followed by Mel Tillis on June 8th. Mark Chesnutt rounds out the lineup on June 21st.

Carolyn Dawn Johnson headlines an evening at the Bluebird Café in Nashville to benefit the Center for Child Development at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. This Thursday’s event also features songwriters James Slater and Kent Blazy. There will be door prizes, auction items and surprise guests at the concert.