Keith Urban photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Keith Urban, the Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley and Martina McBride are among the first round of acts who’ve been revealed for the annual CMA Music Festival June 10-13, a weekend that promises to bring plenty of tourism to Tennessee.

The Nashville-centered festival — which also promises Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker — occurs the same weekend as the ninth annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival 65 miles away in Manchester. That event is a multi-genre draw, though country music plays a role, too. The Zac Brown Band is booked, as it was last year, for both festivals. Bonnaroo also lists Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson, Kris Kristofferson and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band among this year’s attractions.

The CMA Festival is particularly beneficial to country artists. Some of the money raised by the event is donated to Nashville music education programs — last year’s festival generated more than $1 million for schools. In addition, highlights from the festival’s stadium concerts have for several years formed the backbone for an ABC special in the late summer or early fall.

Carrie became the first artist to publicly acknowledge her part in the 2010 CMA Festival when she called a 15-year-old Nashville-area fan, Riley Ahlstrand, earlier this month to announce her participation while the local ABC affiliate caught Riley’s surprise.

“I always look forward to the excitement of CMA Music Festival,” Carrie said. “It’s fans like Riley that make the week so much fun.”

The downtown CMA Fest has a completely different vibe than the Bonnaroo event, which has many fans camping outside and exploring a range of acts, from new alternative bands to established legends. A number of bluegrass and Americana artists are booked for the 2010 lineup, including the Avett Brothers, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Hot Rize, the Dave Rawlings Machine and Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers.

Kings Of Leon and Stevie Wonder are among Bonnaroo’s headline attractions, and many of its mainstream attractions — including Dave Matthews, John Fogerty and Norah Jones — have enough ties to country music that they can be expected to toss an appropriate Tennessee-associated song or two into the mix during their sets.

That’s particularly true of John Fogerty, who last year released his second album of country covers, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again. John’s already toured behind that project, but he loves the idea of throwing songs by the likes of Buck Owens, the Compton Brothers and Ray Price into the mix in his future concerts.

“The fun thing is that all these songs now become sort of part of my catalog,” John says. “At any time I’m liable to pull out ‘Haunted House’ or ‘I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)’ right in the middle of a concert that up to that point might’ve been straight-ahead rock. Who knows? Because I really love these songs.”

More acts will be announced for both festivals in the coming months.

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