Brad Paisley and Keith Urban Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Keith Urban and Brad Paisley are among the top guitarists working in country music, and the stars aligned for them earlier this month when they shared an Academy of Country Music Award for their collaboration on “Start A Band.”

The two trade riffs and play some dual guitar parts on the single, which was pulled from Brad’s guitar album Play. While he’s certainly a master of the instrument, Keith remains in awe of Brad’s guitar skills. Continue Reading

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Chuck Wicks on "Dancing With The Stars." Photo courtesy of delawareonline.com/ABC.

Chuck Wicks’ performance during last week’s edition of “Dancing With The Stars” had him ending a Viennese waltz on one knee in front of dance partner and girlfriend Julianne Hough, and it sparked a new round of questions about whether the couple might get engaged.

“Dancing” co-host Samantha Harris, in fact, started the speculation during the show when she immediately asked if Chuck was preparing to share some news with the audience, and it’s been a regular topic on commentaries about the ABC series. Continue Reading

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Toby Keith photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.

Sunday night’s CBS telecast of the “44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards” was an ratings winner for the network as an average of 14 million fans hung in throughout the broadcast for the final Entertainer of the Year showdown, in which Carrie Underwood was a surprise victor.

But the biggest drama took place behind the scenes. Toby Keith lambasted a reporter, Tim McGraw walked out during rehearsals, and the folks in the business continue to debate the Academy’s increasing use of fan votes to determine the winners. Continue Reading

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Taylor Swift's 2009 Rolling Stone magazine photo shoot. Photo by Peggy Sirota, courtesy of rollingstone.com.

Taylor Swift earned huge amounts of attention with her recent cover piece in Rolling Stone magazine, but one of the most stunning parts about the story had nothing to do with what she said. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the whole package was a pair of photos inside the magazine, in which she looked like a completely different person.

The look was achieved rather simply: “They straightened my hair,” she told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. “It takes a lot of effort to do that, so I was very grateful for that.” Continue Reading

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Garth Brooks photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

In what’s starting to become a mini-routine, Garth Brooks gave an exclusive concert Sunday in Calgary, Alberta, for members of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

Garth appeared at the Palomino Smokehouse in a show that was so private the venue’s owner didn’t even know he was coming. Fred Konopaki had been told the place was being booked for a private party for the Flames and that they would have “a guy coming in to play guitar at some point,” Fred told The Calgary Herald. When they finally told him who the guitar player would be, he scoffed: “I said, ‘Garth Brooks? C’mon!’” Continue Reading

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LeAnn Rimes photo courtesy of Curb Records.

LeAnn Rimes’ role in an upcoming Lifetime Channel movie got lots of attention this week — wanted or not — when she was linked romantically to her costar, Eddie Cibrian, by Us Weekly.

The story gained traction when LeAnn posted what appeared to be a response on her website.

“This is a difficult time for me and my loved ones, but I appreciate all your continued support,” she said in Wednesday’s message to fans. “I would like to assure all of you that this is a place for you to hear things directly from me and as you all know, not everything in our lives is always black and white.”

Us Weekly claims to have spotted LeAnn and Eddie together on two occasions in the last two weeks. In one of the instances, video from a security camera documents the two holding hands and kissing.

LeAnn and husband Dean Sheremet, a co-writer on her hit “Nothin’ Better To Do,” observed their seventh wedding anniversary last month. The couple renewed its vows in California’s Napa Valley last August.

LeAnn’s Lifetime movie, “Nora Roberts’ Northern Lights,” debuts Saturday. The Us Weekly piece suggests her interest in Eddie blossomed during production.

“I [played] a pilot,” LeAnn said of the role last month. “I was a bush pilot in Alaska and got to handle some guns, which I haven’t done in a very long time. I grew up in Mississippi and Texas, so I definitely know my way around a gun. But that was my second day on set. They took me out to a shooting range and I had to learn how to handle rifles and handguns, so it was fun. It was an interesting role. I was in Canada for a month. It was freezing, but it was fun.”

She also noted she was “really, really happy” with the end results and singled out Eddie and Rosanna Arquette among her fellow cast members.

“I had a lot of fun,” she said, “working with the people that I worked with.”

Late Wednesday afternoon, People magazine reported that Eddie released the following statement:

“It is a fabricated story that is using random snapshots as connective tissue to create a scandalous relationship,” he said in a statement first obtained by Access Hollywood.

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Faith Hill photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

With Barack Obama’s inauguration less than a week away, Faith Hill, Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus are among the country stars who’ve been added to official Washington, D.C., lineups that celebrate the incoming president.

And while Lee Greenwood, a longtime friend of the Bush family, hasn’t been named to appear at any of the events, there’s strong evidence that his 25-year-old flag-waver “God Bless The U.S.A.” will get an urban renewal during at least one of the ceremonies. Continue Reading

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Kellie Pickler photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of Sony BMG.

Kellie Pickler loves the idea of getting married, though she’s not so hot about the concept of wedding in the near future.

Anyone who saw her on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” when she battled an 18-degree temperature and frigid wind gusts in Times Square, knows Kellie is willing to step up to the plate for her career in the public eye. But she also recognizes the commitment to her work would likely put an unfair strain on a marriage. Continue Reading

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Carrie Underwood photo courtesy of Sony/BMG.

When it comes to her personal life, Carrie Underwood is one of the most tight-lipped singers in country music, but a trip to Canada over the weekend has other tongues wagging about a new romance for the “American Idol” graduate.

Carrie was spotted in a luxury box Saturday with the family of Ottawa Senators hockey player Mike Fisher at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. In fact, her picture was beamed onto the venue’s Jumbotron “Hug Cam” when she embraced the people around her. Three days earlier, Carrie and Mike’s sister visited Rinaldo’s, an Ottawa spa, for pedicures. That same night, Carrie reportedly attended a New Year’s Eve party at the home of Mike’s teammate, Jason Spezza. Continue Reading

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Taylor Swift performs at the Nightly Concert at LP Field on Sunday, June 10 in Downtown Nashville during the 2007 CMA Music Festival. Photographer: John Russell / CMA.

Taylor Swift would seem to be a shoo-in for some CMA nominations this fall, and she’s already getting excited about the awards show.

“I have all these countdowns on my phone for the CMAs and all the awards shows,” she tells EW.com. “I get so excited about these things because I love to dress up. But I wear cowboy boots so that when I walk down the stairs I won’t fall. I have this fear of falling in front of large groups of people. That’s why I tend not to wear heels.”

Taylor points out that at her height, heels also make her tower over a lot of people. “I’m 5’11”, so when I wear heels, it’s definitely a really good view that I have,” she says. “I’m like 6’2 when I wear heels, so I tend to wear cowboy boots a lot.” Continue Reading

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