Lady Antebellum on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the Ryman Autitorium in Nashville. Photo courtesy of The Greenroom.

Just two years ago, Lady Antebellum was on the road for the first time on a major tour, opening shows for Martina McBride. Last year, the group played a bundle of stadiums on the Kenny Chesney summer tour, and Lady A is currently opening arena dates for Tim McGraw.

Last week, the group upped the ante a little more, taking top billing on a pair of sold-out shows at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Playing in the band’s hometown was part of the attraction for Lady A, but it was also an attempt to test the water and see if the group could deliver a strong enough set to warrant a full headlining tour. The trio — Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood — has gone from playing about 25 minutes per show on Kenny’s tour to doing a full hour opening for Tim.

“Our dream is to become a headlining act,” Charles says. “That’s the goal and we really needed this Tim McGraw tour honestly just to have a longer set, to be in that big setting and to allow ourselves to have that longer set.”

Closing a show requires even more time on stage, and the Ryman dates put Lady A to the test. They filled out the show with five hits of their own — “Love Don’t Live Here,” “Lookin’ For A Good Time,” “I Run To You,” “Need You Now” and “American Honey” — and they were able to expand the familiarity quotient with an acoustic version of Luke Bryan’s “Do I” (co-written by Charles and Dave) plus covers of the Hank Williams hit “Lost Highway” and Tom Petty’s single “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”

Still, the band thinks it needs just a little more to make fans feel like they got their money’s worth for a full show.

“I don’t think you can really headline until you have enough hits under your belt,” Charles says. “If we can get one or two [more] radio songs out there, whether they’re No. 1 or not — just some more material, you know — I think back when we first started and we’d have headline shows of an hour and 15 minutes and you got one song. It’s exhausting. You’re tryin’ to pace out where you’re gonna play that hit. You go the whole show, and when you finally play the hit [at the end], everybody [goes], ‘Oh, that’s right. That’s them.’ And you’re like, ‘ See you guys later!’”

Lady A isn’t sure when the headlining will begin seriously, though the stated goal of having one or two more successful singles would put them on track to take the reins on a tour around the end of the year.

They’re looking at “possibly doing some stuff in the fall,” Charles says.

In the meantime, the band’s next round of dates with Tim comes with a four-show swing through Canada starting Thursday in Vancouver.

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

Didn’t you know how much we love her? Kellie Pickler takes part in this week’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, but she’s not just making a guest appearance. She’ll actually join Nan Kelley to co-host the run-down of the genre’s top videos.

Kellie knows a thing or two about making successful videos. She’s frequently among the five biggest titles on the Top 20 list, and “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You” is still at No. 8 this week, five months after it first appeared among fans’ favorites.

While she’s on the set, Kellie talks about her videos with Nan. She also chats about her brand new single, “Makin’ Me Fall In Love Again”; her recent trip to play for U.S. soldiers in the Middle East; and fellow entertainers Reba McEntire and Toby Keith.

Top 20 Country Countdown counts down the week’s top country videos from No. 20 to No. 1 as voted by viewers on each week on GACtv.com. A new countdown premieres every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and airs again Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET; Sundays at 1 p.m. ET; and Mondays at 10 a.m. ET. Viewers can vote for their favorite videos, as well as purchase Top 20 artists’ albums and ringtones at GACTV.com.

THIS WEEK’S CHART:

1. Zac Brown Band “Highway 20 Ride”
2. Jewel “Stay Here Forever”
3. Bomshel “19 And Crazy”
4. Carrie Underwood “Temporary Home”
5. Carrie Underwood “Cowboy Casanova”
6. Danny Gokey “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me”
7. Lady Antebellum “American Honey”
8. Kellie Pickler “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You”
9. Keith Urban “‘Til Summer Comes Around”
10. Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins “Hillbilly Bone”
11. Gary Allan “Today”
12. Miranda Lambert “White Liar”
13. Bucky Covington “Gotta Be Somebody”
14. Chris Young “The Man I Want To Be”
15. Josh Turner “Why Don’t We Just Dance”
16. Reba McEntire “Consider Me Gone”
17. Alan Jackson “It’s Just That Way”
18. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now”
19. Toby Keith “Cryin’ For Me”
20. Easton Corbin “A Little More Country Than That”

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David Nail photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

You’ve likely heard of the rock band Train. The group has a pop hit at the moment with “Hey, Soul Sister,” and its history includes the 1999 single “Meet Virginia” and the Grammy-nominated 2001 hit “Drops Of Jupiter.”

David Nail is certainly familiar with Train. His new album, I’m About To Come Alive, is titled after a song that first appeared on the band’s 2003 album My Private Nation. David’s producer suggested they do a version of it for his album after hearing David perform it repeatedly in concert.

“I am a huge Train fan,” David told The Erie Times-News. “I had been covering ['Come Alive'] in the majority of my acoustic shows for probably two years prior to going into the studio. It was a very personal song to me, when I started singing it. It was almost eerily similar to what I was going through.”

As it turns out, David’s admiration for Train is being reciprocated. The band’s lead singer, Pat Monahan, loved David’s version of “I’m About To Come Alive.”

“I think it’s awesome,” Pat told the Erie paper. “I really love his song ‘Red Light,’ too.”

Pat’s hardly alone in that regard. “Red Light” became David’s first Top 10 single — so the general public clearly liked it. David’s industry peers did, too. The Academy of Country Music nominated “Red Light” for Single Record of the Year against the Zac Brown Band’s “Toes,” Billy Currington’s “People Are Crazy,” Miranda Lambert’s “White Liar” and Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now.”

It’s a nice pat on the back for David, who worked at music for years before he finally broke through. While most country fans are just now becoming familiar with him, he’s actually been whittling away at the business for the last decade or so. He recorded his first album in 2002, but the project was never released.

Like the rest of his career, “Red Light” developed slowly, too. He put it out in January 2009, and it didn’t hit the Top 10 until November — 10 months later.

David finally released his follow-up single, “Turning Home,” on the one-year anniversary of “Red Light”’s release. It’s a good thing that fans are now jumping on the David Nail train, because it allows him to keep pursuing music.

“What else in the world I would do?” he said. “There is no Plan B.”

The ACM’s verdict on “Red Light” will be revealed during the 45th annual awards in Las Vegas April 18.

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Gary Allan photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Gary Allan’s latest album, Get Off On The Pain, got off to a good start selling 65,000 copies in its first week of release. That’s enough to land him at No. 2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart — trailing only Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now — and at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

The title of the album is dark, which is typical for Gary, though the actual music is a little lighter in tone than his previous two releases.

“I was in a good space,” Gary told the Associated Press. “The last two albums came after my wife passed, and a lot of the writing dealt with that. I feel like this is definitely more like a party, foot’s-been-lifted-off-my-head album. It’s fun to play live. It’s definitely a lot more upbeat than our last albums. But it still has a reflection on it.”

Gary’s wife, Angela, committed suicide in their Tennessee home in 2004. His emotional recovery was a long, slow climb. And there’ve been other issues along the way. An angry woman ransacked his house in 2009, claiming he had led her on; he took her to court, testifying on the witness stand that he’d never spoken to her before. His father, Harley Herzberg, died in 2008.

Fortunately, Gary was on good terms with his dad, whose relationship with Gary shifted in a way that’s familiar to a lot of fathers and sons. Gary had a chance to sign a recording deal when he was just 15. Harley declined the contract, believing the boy should wait until a later date. It was almost a decade before Gary recognized that dad knew what he was doing.

“He was right,” Gary conceded. “He used to have this saying that you need to play for the people that love you, the people that hate you and the people that could care less, and then in that you’ll find a way to play for yourself. Which was just a bunch of nonsense I think until I was about 23. And then I became so settled in the band that I’d had for so long, you didn’t think about how you were going to play or how you were going to say something. You just did it the way you do it.”

Gary will spend part of the summer as an opening act on Brooks & Dunn’s Last Rodeo Tour. He’ll appear on GAC Nights Thursday, along with Danny Gokey, at 8 p.m. ET.

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Colt Ford photo by Sean Cokes.

One of the longest-running debates in country music pits traditionalists against pop-leaning sounds, and it’s tough to find a better illustration of how wide the genre’s gotten than the calendar. Specifically April 20. On that date, country’s releases will include competing albums by old-school singer David Ball and rap-influenced Colt Ford.

David, who played with the late Walter Hyatt in Uncle Walt’s Band, has had a couple of peak periods as a solo artist. He threw George Jones-like, back-of-the-throat vocals onto 1994’s “Thinkin’ Problem,” an ultra-catchy song that bordered on novelty. He signed with an independent label around the turn of the century and his military ghost tale, “Riding With Private Malone,” became a Top 10 hit in the aftermath of 9/11.

David launches a new album, Sparkle City, on April 20 with a backing band whose name — the Pioneer Playboys — invokes his appreciation of tradition, purposely building on two acts in the Country Music Hall of Fame: the western group the Sons Of The Pioneers and the western swing outfit Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys. David plans to celebrate Sparkle’s arrival in the marketplace with a day-of-release free show at Nashville’s Third & Lindsley.

On the other end of the spectrum, Colt mixes hip-hop delivery with country imagery and instrumentation in Chicken And Biscuits, another April 20 release that includes guest appearances by Randy Houser, Joe Nichols, Josh Gracin, Darryl Worley and James Otto, among others. In an official release, Colt’s handlers insist he’s “mistakenly described as a country rapper,” though he does indeed rap in a country context and frequently admits that he “can’t sing all that well.”

Colt’s first album, Ride Through The Country, sold 150,000 copies, a respectable figure — particularly on an independent label during an era in which album sales are on the decline. He’s got his fingers crossed that the sophomore project will continue an upward trajectory.

“I never thought I could make a record like Chicken And Biscuits,” he says. “I pushed myself so hard in writing and finding the songs for the record, and I was blessed to write with some of the greatest songwriters in the world. To be able to make a second album that I feel is better than the first and still maintain who I am as an artist…wow! That was my goal, and I hope the fans agree because I gave it all I have.”

Between David and Colt, there’s plenty of opportunity for those same country fans to continue the debate about country’s borders.

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Steve Wariner at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009 & Rubin Media. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.

Four country acts that launched a series of hits in the 1980s and ‘90s — Steve Wariner, Patty Loveless, John Michael Montgomery and the late Keith Whitley — are set to enter the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame when it holds its next induction ceremony in April 2011 in Lexington.

They’ll be joined as new members by bluegrass duo the Goins Brothers; gospel singer Larnelle Harris; and Molly O’Day, a country vocalist who left a critically acclaimed body of work in a short five-year recording period in the late 1940s.

Robert Lawson, executive director of the Hall of Fame, called the new class “some of the most recognizable music artists in the world.”

Patty, Steve and John Michael continue to make relevant recordings. Each has released an album of new material in the last year that was greeted with some level of commercial success. Steve, in particular, won a Grammy award for “Producer’s Medley,” a track from an album that paid homage to his mentor, Chet Atkins.

Keith died in 1989 of alcohol poisoning just as he’d hit his stride as a hitmaker. He was honored in 1994 with Keith Whitley: A Tribute Album, featuring remakes of his music by such acts as Alison Krauss + Union Station, Alan Jackson, Joe Diffie and Diamond Rio. Campaigns bubble up on occasion to have Keith inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

The 2011 Kentucky Music Hall of Fame class is the fifth group of performers inducted into the Bluegrass State’s shrine. Among the previous inductees are Dwight Yoakam, Tom T. Hall, Crystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, the Judds and the Everly Brothers.

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Sugarland photo by Kate Powers, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

The dates and lineups for the first eight of this summer’s Lilith Fair dates suggest organizer Sarah McLachlan is committed to providing a little country music in most of the outings. The rosters in six of those cities, released Tuesday, boast at least one country act — such as Miranda Lambert, Sugarland or Loretta Lynn — and the gigs in Atlanta and West Palm Beach have two apiece.

The lineup of all-female talent was a regular feature on the summer concert circuit during the late 1990s, and Sarah’s carting a reinstituted version of Lilith to a total of 36 cities this year. Each of the shows promises 11 acts from a pool of 80 performers. As it currently stands, a July 2 show in Portland is the earliest date on the schedule.

Sugarland is booked for that initial date, as well as a Seattle performance the following day. Miranda is on the bill for July 20 in Indianapolis, and Court Yard Hounds — a side project featuring Dixie Chicks Martie Maguire and Emily Robison — are slated for shows in Cleveland, Atlanta and West Palm Beach. The Hounds are the lone country act in Cleveland July 27, while they’re billed alongside Loretta in Atlanta Aug. 8 and Martina McBride in West Palm Aug. 10.

The initial Court Yard Hound appearances on Lilith come after the Dixie Chicks wrap an eight-concert stadium tour with the Eagles and Keith Urban in June. That itinerary includes stops in Toronto and Chicago, the two announced Lilith markets that have no country acts on the bill.

Emmylou Harris has also been tabbed as a Lilith performer, though she is not included in the initial eight lineups.

Highlights from the first round of Lilith lineups include:
• Portland, July 2: Sugarland, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Colbie Caillat and Erykah Badu.
• Seattle, July 3: Sugarland, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Colbie Caillat and Erykah Badu.
• Indianapolis, July 20: Miranda Lambert, Sarah McLachlan, Kelly Clarkson, Mary J. Blige and Suzanne Vega.
• Cleveland, July 27: Court Yard Hounds, Sarah McLachlan, Kelly Clarkson, Sara Bareilles and Mary J. Blige.
• Atlanta, Aug. 8: Loretta Lynn, Court Yard Hounds, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls and Corinne Bailey Rae.
• West Palm Beach, Aug. 10: Martina McBride, Court Yard Hounds, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones and Corinne Bailey Rae.

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Montgomery Gentry photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Tomorrow is a good day to be wearin’ the green and countin’ your lucky stars. Wednesday is St. Patrick’s Day, a celebration of the luck of the Irish. And if you need a few country songs to make the day run smoothly, good luck’s gonna shine, as Keith Urban would say. We’ve got country’s “Lucky 13” titles, which run the whole gamut from the best of times to the worst.

Montgomery Gentry, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Alison Krauss are among the country stars who’ve used their music to embrace supposedly random fortune — good luck, bad luck, no luck at all. Luck’s been a central theme in songs about love, songs day-to-day living and even Jerry Reed’s “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” — a classic about a game of craps.

Then there’s the title track to Kenny Chesney’s Lucky Old Sun. The song was never a hit, but it got a vocal boost from Willie Nelson, and Kenny would certainly view that as a stroke of luck.

At any rate, here’s country music’s “Lucky 13.” In most cases, the title says it all. In a few instances, we’ve thrown in a line or two that explain why it’s on the list.

Did we miss any? Tell us…

• “I Feel Lucky,” Mary Chapin Carpenter, 1992
• “A Good Run Of Bad Luck,” Clint Black, 1994
• “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” (“My luck was so good I could do no wrong”), Jerry Reed, 1971
• “Good Luck Charm,” Elvis Presley, 1962
• “Lucky Man,” Montgomery Gentry, 2007
• “From A Jack To A King” (“Lady luck played her hand just right”), Ricky Van Shelton, 1988
• “I Always Get Lucky With You,” George Jones, 1983
• “Better Life” (“Good luck’s gonna shine”), Keith Urban, 2005
• “That’s The Way Love Goes” (“I’ve been throwin’ horseshoes over my left shoulder/I’ve spent most all my life lookin’ for that four-leaf clover”), Merle Haggard, 1983
• “The Lucky One,” Alison Krauss + Union Station, 2001
• “Dixieland Delight” (“lucky as a seven sent from Heaven”), Alabama, 1983
• “Lucky Old Sun,” Kenny Chesney, 2008
• “Sometimes I Get Lucky And Forget,” Gene Watson, 1983

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Joe Nichols made a nice move this week to launch his current single, “Gimmie That Girl,” into the Top 15 on the Country Aircheck Mediabase chart. It’s the first time he’s cracked that level on the chart in more than three years, and part of the reason is likely because he connects on a personal level to the upbeat sentiment of the song.

Watch Joe’s video for “Gimmie That Girl” »

When Joe married Heather Singleton in the fall of 2007, it had a huge, calming effect on his life. They’d actually known each other as friends for more than a decade, and she’d been a rock of support for him even when everything else was kind of wacky.

“I’ve been in relationships and she’s been in relationships before, throughout the course of this time,” he says. “But we’ve always been able to talk, we’ve always been able to share, we’ve always been like the best of friends. I just got the opportunity to marry her, my best friend, which some people cannot say, so I’m a very fortunate guy.”

Joe went into rehab shortly after their wedding, and his current album, Old Things New, is the first he’s recorded since then. It was a different process for him, particularly because his mind was working differently than it had when he drank. Heather was invariably able to help him find his way through what was essentially a new experience.

“She’s a great person to bounce things off of,” Joe reasons. “She doesn’t pull a lot of punches, she doesn’t lie. She makes me be a better person, makes me get a real good grasp of who I am, who I can be, when I’m bein’ a jerk and when I’m not, what parts of me need to grow, what parts of me need to ask for forgiveness, what parts of me need to feel proud.”

“Gimmie That Girl” is doing nicely while another part of Joe’s career has been delayed. He and Lorrie Morgan are slated to appear in the Broadway production of Pure Country, which was tabbed at one time to debut at the start of the year. It’s currently projected to hit the Great White Way in the fall.

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Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Even before Dierks Bentley had his first hit, he made it a point to pay homage to his roots. He made a passionate plea to take part in a bluegrass tribute album, and his enthusiasm won out: Even though he was unknown, Dierks showed up alongside Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Marty Stuart on Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: The Songs Of The Louvin Brothers.

Seven years later, Dierks is playing up his musical influences again in several different efforts. He debuts his own one-hour radio show Monday afternoon on classic-country WSM, the station that introduced the Grand Ole Opry. He’s got a roots-referencing album, Up On The Ridge, coming out this summer. And next month he launches a 30-date Up On The Ridge Tour with a couple of appropriate opening acts: bluegrass icons the Del McCoury Band and award-winning Americana singer-songwriter Hayes Carll.

“The only way I know to explain what this new album is to all the fans is to just get out on the road and play it for them,” Dierks says. “I’ve been rehearsing and working on set lists already. Every show is going to be different and really special. There aren’t any better acoustic musicians in the world than the Travelin’ McCourys, period. And I’ve been a big fan of Hayes for a long time. It’ll be a total blast. I’m already plotting and planning on how to fit more dates into the schedule.”

The itinerary kicks off with an April 21 show in Portland, Ore., and concludes with a May 22 gig at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium. The McCourys provide an important link to the Up On The Ridge album: They guest on the project along with Alison Krauss, Jon Randall, Miranda Lambert, Chris Thile, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush and the Punch Brothers.

Meanwhile, Dierks’ radio show, “Threads,” can be heard at wsmonline.com at 2 p.m. CT. It’s also being made available as a podcast via iTunes. He’s not the only artist debuting a WSM radio show this week. Pam Tillis debuts “Lettin’ My Roots Show” on Tuesday, and “The Jim Lauderdale Show” launches Wednesday.

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