Country shorts ...

Some country shorts on a Saturday afternoon ... Taylor Swift caused a traffic jam Friday as fans clogged the streets around Rockefeller Plaza for her "Today Show" concert ... Sammy Kershaw may run again for lieutenant governor of Louisiana, telling newsstar.com, "I'm seriously thinking about 2011." ... Jo Dee Messina's next album, Unmistakable, is expected to be released later this year, but there's no firm date ... "McGraw" by Tim McGraw, was "Men's Fragrance of the Year" winner at Thursday's FiFi Awards, in NYC ... from http://twitter.com/AirNashville

JB

Friendships, trivia, and greatest hits ...

Taylor Swift has developed a numberof friendships with other famous young women, including Kellie Pickler, Carrie Underwood, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus. It’s a unique situation. Oftentimes, these young ladies are vying for the same magazine covers or competing with each other to get sales from their audience, which has a lot of overlap. According to Taylor, the business competition does not interfere with their personal relationships.

Lady Antebellum has quickly developed a solid relationship with its fans, but the band also has some interesting connections to a few relatives who’ve left their own mark on culture. Hillary Scott is the daughter of country singer Linda Davis, while Charles Kelley’s brother, Josh Kelley, is a talented singer-songwriter with a solid following. Dave Haywood has his own family claim to fame: His father invented the nightguard teeth-whitening method.

Kenny Chesney waited nearly nine years after the release of his first Greatest Hits to put out Greatest Hits II, and with that many years of music to feed the CD, it comes as little surprise that his best-of sequel debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart.

Compliments of Great American Country http://www.gactv.com/

JB

Her new album ...

Jessie Farrell, the CCMA Female Artist of the Year for 2008, is putting the finishing touches on her new album. She is currently in Nashville recording at the Sony studios and working with Emmy Award winning producer, Victoria Shaw. Jessie's first album - Nothing Fancy - produced four top 20 hits including her biggest single "Let's Talk About Love". 

She has toured with Canadian headliners George Canyon, Johnny Reid and Gord Bamford. She has opened for Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and Sugarland.  BTW, the Gord Bamford - Jessie Farrell tour was branded "The Redneck & Redhead Tour" ... in my opinion: great marketing of two of Canada's best country performers!

Canadian radio and Canadian country music fans can't wait for the new album from Vancouver's Jesie Farrell ...

Now here is something unique! You don't often get to see the hand written notes from a recording artist but Jessie gave us permission. Now you can take a look at the song list for the new album. Click on the photo and you will see a larger version of her notes! as posted by Jessie via twitter. You can follow her blog at her website or follow her on twitter @jessiefarrell   

JB

A little of this ... a little of that ...

Shania Twain is apparently at work on a new album, consulting with her old friend Canadian country singer Mary Bailey.

Canadian singer / songwriter Adam Gregory has signed to co-star in the upcoming film What Would Jesus Do". Adam will star alongside John Schneider of Dukes of Hazzard fame and Maxine Bahns from the TV show - The Mentalist.

Jason Aldean's "She's Country" has been certified Gold for chalking up more than 500,000 digital downloads.

Gone, but not forgotten. Tammy Wynette would have celebrated her 67th birthday today

Martina McBride will perform her new single, "I Just Call You Mine," on an upcoming episode of ABC TV's - The Bachelorette.

JB

Some country shorts ...

Taylor Swift will be on Oprah Monday May 18th. Taylor will be part of the final episode of Oprah's 'Search for the World's Most Talented Kids' where Taylor will be helping little artists' dreams come true.

Country music has a strong presence in People Magazine's '100 Most Beautiful' list. Julianne Hough, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Miley Cyrus, Jewel and Sheryl Crow made the cut!

H1Ni flu is getting it's snout into country music: Miranda Lambert had to cancel a few 'meet and greets' recently. She said, "We're definitely taking precautions and unfortunately we had to cancel some meet and greets this [past] weekend."

JB

Some great music videos of Cape Breton singer/song writer Gordie Sampson are featured on CMT Canada in a bare bones acoustic setting where Gordie really shines! The videos are clips from a recent edition of the show - CMT 4 TRACKS ... Hey Gordie, you've come a long way since Realworld! All the best! JB
www.cmt.ca/artist/gordiesampson

Reba McEntire's new album promises to be 'funky, sassy' ...

By Brian Mansfield - USA TODAY

Reba McEntire credits last year's tour with Kelly Clarkson for changing her perspective on choosing songs for her album, due August 18. "I think that my song selections are a little more hip," she says. "I know they're more uptempo. They're funky, they're sassy, they've got attitude." McEntire recorded the still-untitled album with Tony Brown and with Mark Bright who is best known for his Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts productions. "Tony did the country swing, the more bluegrass songs, and the funkabilly I Want a Cowboy. Mark did the more contemporary songs that I think are stupendous." The album will include Keep on Loving You, co-written by Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn. "They didn't put that on their album, and I said, 'Good Lord! Why not?' " McEntire says. "I said, 'Ronnie, if you're not going to put that on your album, would you let me have it?' He thought about it for a long time, then he finally said, 'You can have it.' " You can follow Reba on Twitter! www.twitter.com/reba

JB