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Joe Nichols recently visited troops on US military bases in Kuwait and Iraq. His trip was filmed for the GAC special, Joe Nichols: My Military Diary, premiering Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Joe Nichols spent a week this summer singing for American troops in the Middle East, and the good vibes from that trip are getting coverage on GAC, in the special Joe Nichols: My Military Diary.

Joe made some new friends on his overseas visit, and he was particularly impressed by the dedication the service men and women demonstrate on a daily basis. Their lives are on the line every hour, and they’re forced to be away from home for months at a time during their tour of duty.

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Tim McGraw and Faith Hill arrive on the Red Carpet for "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network.Photographer: Jim Hagans / CMA.

The much-talked-about movie The Blind Side, in which Tim McGraw plays the husband of Sandra Bullock, finally hits theaters on Friday. Tim was at first reticent to get involved in a film that would have him play the father of a high school football player. That is, he reasoned, the same kind of role he had in the picture Friday Night Lights.

But when Tim read the script and realized how powerful the movie could become, he changed his mind. It certainly helped that he felt a kinship to his character, whose wife has the same kind of strength that Tim’s wife, Faith Hill, exerts in his real-life family.

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Kenny Chesney photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

“It wouldn’t be summer without you!”

So Kenny Chesney yells at the end of his 69-second trailer for Kenny Chesney: Summer In 3D, which appeared Wednesday on Moviefone, AOL Music and AOL’s country section, The Boot.

Kenny will nonetheless spend much of summer without his fans next year as he plans to spend the hottest part of the year without mounting a tour for the first time in eight years or more. With the exception of a comparatively small number of dates, Summer In 3D will have to do for the fans.

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Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

“Life,” according to the teaching of Buddha, “is suffering.”

“Life,” wrote The Road Less Traveled author M. Scott Peck, “is difficult.”

The characters in Miranda Lambert’s best-known songs — “Kerosene,” “Gunpowder & Lead” and the current “White Liar” — know suffering and difficulty well. Domestic violence, dishonesty and cheating are all some of the least savory characteristics of human beings, but they are human traits and behaviors nonetheless. Miranda understands, and it’s part of the reason she sings the kinds of songs she does.

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"I Run to You," performed by Lady Antebellum and produced by Victoria Shaw and Paul Worley, wins Single of the Year and the group wins Vocal Group of the Year at "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Jim Hagans / CMA.

Three people at No. 1, two of them also poised at No. 3. These are very good days for Lady Antebellum, not even a week after the trio claimed a pair of Country Music Association awards.

The band slid into the top spot this week on the USA Today Mediabase country singles chart with “Need You Now.” If that’s not enough, their performance of the song on the CMA telecast helped the single reach No. 1 on the all-genre iTunes sales list.

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Wanda Jackson in the '50s; Wanda and fellow rockabilly artist, Jerry Lee Lewis in 2009. Photo courtesy of myspace.com/wandajacksonmusic.

Wanda Jackson, the rockabilly queen who’s been enjoying a resurgence in attention, is about to follow in the footsteps of Country Music Hall of Famer Loretta Lynn. Wanda’s enlisted Jack White, the Nashville-based White Stripes rocker, to produce her next album.

He is “one of the biggest stars on the planet I guess right now,” Wanda told The Oklahoman.

Jack has found success not only with the Stripes, but also as a member of the Dead Weather and with the Raconteurs, who were Musical Event of the Year nominees at last week’s CMA awards for a collaboration with Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.

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Wynonna and Naomi Judd arrive on the Red Carpet for "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Jim Hagans / CMA.

Fans who attended the CMA Music Festival in Nashville last June saw an emotional reunion of the Judds, as Naomi Judd — forced to retire from the road when she contracted hepatitis C — wiped away tears as the duo sang some of its classic songs for thousands of fans. The crowd gave Naomi and Wynonna an outpouring of affection, and Mama Judd looked to be yearning for a more permanent return to the stage that once served as her second home.

That might well happen once the calendar turns to another year. Some sort of reunion appears to be in the works for the two singers who dominated the duo category at country awards shows before the emergence of Brooks & Dunn.

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"I Run to You," performed by Lady Antebellum and produced by Victoria Shaw and Paul Worley, wins Single of the Year and the group wins Vocal Group of the Year at "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Jim Hagans / CMA.

Taylor Swift might have gotten the most ink, but she wasn’t the only act to win more than one trophy at Wednesday’s CMA Awards. So did double-winners Brad Paisley and Lady Antebellum, and all three of those artists will be among the guests appearing on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown after chatting with host Nan Kelley backstage at the awards.

Lady A had a particularly good night. Their first Vocal Group of the Year win ended a six-year run in that category for Rascal Flatts. And when they picked up the Single of the Year honor for “I Run To You,” Lady A followed in the footsteps of such classic hits as Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee,” Garth Brooks’ “Friends In Low Places,” Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind” and George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

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Darius Rucker wins New Artist of the Year at "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Donn Jones / CMA.

A certain amount of irony accompanied Darius Rucker’s victory as New Artist of the Year at Wednesday’s 43rd annual CMA Awards. He is, under the Country Music Association’s voting rules, a new artist to the genre, though he’s hardly new to the music business. He experienced the big time before as the lead singer for Hootie + The Blowfish.

Still, he’s done such a good job of reinventing himself that he’s now begun to encounter fans who know nothing of his history. That became clear when he played a concert in Houston. Two women stood throughout the show singing all of his songs verbatim, but when Darius launched into “Let Her Cry,” from the 16-times-platinum Cracked Rear View, they sat down.

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Taylor Swift performs “Forever & Always” at “The 43rd Annual CMA Awards,” on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: John Russell / CMA. Provided by Country Music Association.

Judging from the early online comments from GACTV.com readers, Taylor Swift’s four wins at the 43rd annual Country Music Association Awards will be accompanied by controversy. She won Entertainer of the Year, Female Vocalist, Album and Music Video, setting records as the first teen victor in each category and ending streaks of three-year reigns for Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood.

Taylor is not a traditional artist in any sense of the word — not in sound, not in age and not in the demographic she appeals to. So when her band and record company president, Scott Borchetta, gave her a group hug at the end of the evening, it was a physical manifestation of the embrace she got at the ballot box from the country business.

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