Gretchen Wilson

Gretchen Wilson made an apparance on the Chelsea Lately show Monday April 19th. As Gretchen was interviewed by Chelsea, she talked about her previous night at the AMC's. Gretchen jokingly tells the audience that her tour bus left from Las Vegas to drive to California in the middle of the night so they wouldn't cause anymore trouble while drinking in Las Vegas. Chelsea brings up the fact that she dropped out of high school whne she was fifteen years old. Gretchen says this is true, but she recently went back to get her GED. Gretchen has been bartending since she was 14 or 15 and grew up in Illinos. She just released her newest album titled I've Got Your Country Right Here. She tells the audience that she grew up listening to traditional country music and hard core rock and roll such as ACDC and Lynyrd Skynyrd. She used the mix of the two popular genres to create her own type of rock and roll country music. She stated that she didn't like being restricted to just one or the other and felt that she had to stay within a country music box until she realized she could intregrate rock and roll into her music. Gretchen has two concerts this summer in June and one in August. Be sure to check her schedule for more tour dates!

Jewel

Jewel wore a beautiful blue dress to the 45th annual Academy of Country Awards at the MGM Grand Studios. Jewel is on tour until June 27, 2010, where she will end her tour in Seattle, Washington.

This is just a clip of a music video by Keith Urban. The song is Til Summer Comes Around. The song is off of his latest album Defying Gravity, and it is one of my personal favorites.

Free Concert in Las Vegas!

Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Gloriana and Joey & Rory preformed a free concert at the Fremont Street Experience on Saturday April 17th. This concert was meant to be a pre showing for the AMC awards which took place April 18th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. While preforming, Miranda Lambert announced to the audience that she had won the best video of the year award for her song "White Liar." She performed many favorites such as White Liar, Only Prettier, Famous in a Small Town and Dead Flowers. She played older songs such as Brand New Strings, but also played new hits such as The House That Built Me. Luke Bryant preformed a lot of his hits that night as well. Some of these songs consisted of What Country Is, Rain Is A Good Thing, Country Man, Hung Over, Do I and Doin' My Thing. Gloriana is recieving the award for Top New Group this year at the AMC's, so they were excited to preform under that honor. Joey & Rory are AMC's Top New Vocal Group, so they preformed some songs as well. Joey & Rory are actually a married couple that preform together and their new album will be released this summer. Overall, the concert seems to have recieved great reviews. I think the AMC awards will be exciting and everyone is looking forward to it!

Billy Currington

Billy Currington is one of the performers for the 45th Annual Country Music Awards. He is nominated for "Male Video of the Year" and needs your votes to help him win! He has also been nominated single record of the year and song of the year. Both of these nominations are for his song "People are crazy." This is a personal favorite of mine, so I hope he wins. Billy is a fairly new country artist and has only released three albums; Billy Currington, Doin' Something Right and Little Bit of Everything. Although he's only relseased three albums, he's had countless singles over the years, many of which have hit #1 on the Billboard's country playlist. Billy is currently on tour until May 14, 2010 where he will end his 2010 tour in Fredricksburg, Virginia.

Country Music Awards

The 2010 Country Music Awards will take place at the Bridgestone Arena, which is located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The purpose of this event is to acknowledge the best country music videos of the year. There will also be performances from country music artists attending the awards ceremony. Currently, there is no line up out, but in past years guests have included Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner, Sara Evans, Zac Brown Bands, Lady Antebellum, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts and countless others. It's a really fun event to watch on tv and the performances are always great. Below I have included a video from the 2009 Country Music Awards. Performing their soing "I Need You Now" is Lady Antebellum. At the 2009 awards they won the hit single award for another one of their songs called "Run to You." They also recieved the award for Vocal Group of the Year. This year they have been nominated for best vocal group of the year, album of the year - Lady Antebellum, single record of the year - Need you now, song of the year - Need you now and video of the year - Need you now. I think they are a great group and I wish them the best of luck this year at the Country Music Awards!

Kenny Chesney

Recently, Kenny Chesney was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show. His main purpose of being there was to promote his new movie Kenny Chesney - Summer in 3D. This is basically a documentary on Kenny's music career and will be released on April 21, 2010. However, during the show, Kenny was asked about his previous marriage. Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger were married in 2005 in the Virgin Islands. After only four months, the marriage was annulled. Oprah Winfrey was curious to know exactly why Kenny and Renee didn't seem to make it together very long. Kenny described his life as a box. He says that his music, family and friends were all things he had to work at and put in this "box" of his. He describes the box as growing into a house. He panicked when he got married and said he didn't know if he had the ability to juggle a marriage, his career and personal life.

On June 6th, Jason Aldean will be performing at 5th street Beach Stage (located on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 5th Street.) All tickets are $50.00. This concert has been advertised on all country stations in the Hampton Roads area and is suppose to be a big hit!

2010 Live Nation

Every summer Live Nation has a special pack of country music concert tickets called "The Country Megaticket." Basically, there are a few concerts each summer (the number varies depending on the year) and when you purchase the ticket, you're able to attend all of the summer country concerts. This years performers are Sugarland with Jake Owen and Danny Gokey, Brooks and Dunn with Gary Allen, Tim McGraw with Lady Antebellum and Love & Theft, Rascal Flatts with Kellie Pickler and Chris Young and Toby Keith with special guests. This summer at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater, all five of these concerts will be performed. The purpose of buying all 5 in a pack is because it's cheaper than buying all five tickets at different times. You can buy lawn seats for some of the places, or seats that are closer up. Obviously, the closer the seats are, the more expensive the tickets are. Overall, if you're planning on going to a good amount of the performances, it's definitely worth the money!

Easton Corbin is a country music singer who was born in Trenton, Florida. In 2009, he signed with Mercury Records Nashiville and released his single "A Little More Country Than That." In 2010, he released his first album titled "Easton Corbin." After 32 weeks of being on the charts, Easton Corbin's single "A Little More Country Than That"became his first number one song. I have personally listened to his album and I like it a lot. I wouldn't doubt that other songs on his 2010 album will become number one hits in the future.

Brooks and Dunn

Brooks and Dunn are a popular country duo; Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn. They started their song recording in the late 1980's. As 2010 comes around, Brooks and Dunn have called their music career to an end. However, in order to celebrate their 20 something years in the music industry, they are going on one final tour. The "Last Rodeo" Tour will start on April 23, 2010 and ending on August 8, 2010, the two country music legends will travel around the country. This tour will consist of 47 shows and they will preforming many hits from their latest c.d. release. This double disk c.d. consists of 30 songs, 23 of them being #1 hits through out the years. The tour should be a great time for all who attend. I would assume that tickets could be sold out, due to the popularity of this country duo. I am personally excited to go see them when they are in Hartford, Connecticut on June 25th. For those of you staying in the area; Brooks and Dunn will make an appearance in Virginia Beach on June 18th!

Jason Aldean at CMA Fest 2009 LP Field

Jason Aldean at CMA Fest 2009 LP Field
Originally uploaded by countrymusictattletale

Keith Urban

Keith Urban
Originally uploaded by k_p_russell

Keith Urban in concert.

Kenny Chesney

Kenny Chesney
Originally uploaded by shoppnmom

Kenny Chesney performing in Raleigh, NC at Walnut Creek on Saturday, August 23 2008.

Youtube Video

Brad Paisley - Welcome to the Future

Jason Aldean - She's Country

Flickr Picture

Kenny Chesney - 2007 LiveNation - June 21st 094
Originally uploaded by shanerpoker

Kenny Chesney live at Darien Lake on June 21, 2007.

Youtube Video

Jason Aldean's music video for his hit song "She's Country."

Image Test II

Kellie Pickler- Country artist.

Image Test 1

Me and some friends on Ashley's 21st birthday.

For my topic, I am going to research country music. My blog will focus on the music in general, but more specifically I will update my blog about new artists, songs and tours. There are many controversial issues within the country music community. For example, many people would argue Taylor Swift is more of a pop star than a country artist. I will take a look at the Country Music Awards as well.

I am interested in this topic mainly because country music is my personal favorite genre of music. I also think the music business is interesting. It's amazing how many talented artists are out there and how much criticism they receive from the public. I think the history of country music is interesting and will take a closer look at that as well.

I will use this blog to contribute to the country music community keeping everyone updated on the newest information relating to my topic. I will share my opinions about artists and their music and will make sure there is adequate information to support my blogging. Below, are some links that I found useful for my topic.

http://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/

http://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards/

http://www.gactv.com/