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

The Academy of Country Music is hosting two days of all-star concerts at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas during The Week Vegas Goes Country™! ACM Weekend on Fremont Street Experience will feature top newcomer category winners, Luke Bryan, Joey + Rory and Gloriana, special guests and headliners Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert performing on two different stages to crowds downtown. The weekend-long party leading up to the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards is sponsored by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and will feature Emily West, The Band Perry, Danny Gokey, David Nail and Lady Antebellum on April 16, 2010 and Joey + Rory, Gloriana, Randy Rogers Band, Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert on April 17, 2010.

DETAILS: Friday, April 16, 2010

7:00-7:30pm Emily West 1st Street Stage

7:45-8:25pm The Band Perry 1st Street Stage

8:40-9:30pm Danny Gokey 3rd Street Stage

9:45-10:30pm David Nail (Single Record of the Year Nominee) 1st Street Stage

10:45-Midnight Lady Antebellum (Top ACM Nominee with 7 Nods) 3rd Street Stage

Saturday, April 17, 2010

7:00-7:30pm Joey + Rory 1st Street Stage

(Top Vocal Duo Nominee & Top New Vocal Duo winner)*

7:45-8:25pm Gloriana (Top New Vocal Group winner)* 1st Street Stage

8:40-9:25pm Randy Rogers Band (Top Vocal Group Nominee) 3rd Street Stage

9:40-10:30 Luke Bryan (Top New Solo Vocalist winner)* 1st Street Stage

10:45-Midnight Miranda Lambert (ACM Nominee with 6 Nods) 3rd Street Stage

*Joey + Rory, Gloriana and Luke Bryan will compete for Top New Artist on Sunday’s LIVE telecast of the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Fremont Street Experience
Fremont Street Experience is a five-block entertainment zone in downtown Las Vegas that is one of the world’s most-visited attractions. Fremont Street Experience features the world’s largest video screen at 1,500 feet long 90 feet above the pedestrian mall. VivaVision, with 12.5 million digital lights and a 550,000-watt sound system, dazzles visitors nightly with light & sound shows. Encompassing 10 hotel-casinos, 60 restaurants and free entertainment, Fremont Street Experience attracts over 18 million annual visitors. Visit www.vegasexperience.com for more information.

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Lady Antebellum on the Orange Carpet at the 44th Annual ACM Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 5, 2009. Photo © Sara de Boer / Retna Ltd.

Lady Antebellum heard their name called a whopping seven times this morning as Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire announced the nominees for the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on the CBS program, The Early Show. The ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 8 at  p.m. ET (delayed PT) on CBS and will be hosted by Reba for the 12th time.

For the third year, fans will select the winner of the Academy’s most prestigious honor, Entertainer of the Year and for the second year, the three newcomer categories for the annual Academy of Country Music Awards —Top New Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Group and Top New Vocal Duo — will also be opened up to fan voting. The winner in each Top New category will then move on to compete for Top New Artist which is also a fan voted category. Online voting for all fan voted categories will be available at http://www.voteacm.com/.  The winners of Entertainer of the Year and Top New Artist will be announced live during the 45^th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. 

Lady A‘s seven nominations include Album of the Year for Lady Antebellum and Top Vocal Group.  In addition, the trio was nominated for Single Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Video of the Year for “Need You Now.” They were also nominated as a producer for Single Record of the Year and as a composer for Song of the Year. Continue Reading

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Blake Shelton photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

It’s safe to say Blake Shelton‘s having one of the best days of his life today. This morning, he announced the nominees for the 45th Annual ACM Awards with pal Reba McEntire — and heard his name announced as a nominee for Vocal Event of the Year for his duet with Trace Adkins — and the title cut from his new EP — “Hillbilly Bone.”

“This is the best day of my life – I got to read the nominations with the ‘queen of country music,’ Reba,” said Shelton. “And, then I find out ‘Hillbilly Bone’ is nominated! I’m glad that my first nomination in years is with one of my great friends, Trace Adkins. The only thing that could make this day better is if Betty White was there to give me the award should I win!”

Hillbilly Bone is in stores now. Click here to enter our “Blake Shelton Six Pak Sweepstakes” for your chance to win an autographed guitar, all of his albums, a T-shirt and more – and click on the clip below to find out why Blake prefers making EPs to full-length CDs.

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The Academy of Country Music and Great American Country (GAC) announced today that for the second year, the three newcomer categories for the Academy of Country Music Awards— Top New Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Duo and Top New Vocal Group —will be opened up to interactive fan voting through VoteACM.com. As previously announced, the Top New Solo Vocalist category will take the place of the Top New Male Vocalist and Top New Female Vocalist categories.

Following is the list of final nominees in the Top New categories that the Academy announced today: Continue Reading

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George Strait photo by Vanessa Gavalya, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

George Strait has a uniquely successful career. With more than 50 No. 1 singles, he’s topped the charts more than any other artist in history. He was named this year by the Academy of Country Music as the Artist of the Decade. And he’s still consistently earning hits three years after being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

How has he been able to make it happen? Even he is not really certain.

Continue Reading

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GAC's Bill Cody (r) chats with Randy Travis and Carrie Underwood on the red carpet at the second annual ACM Honors. Photo by Keri Braswell, GAC staff.

Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center was crawling with star power Tuesday night as the Academy of Country Music celebrated Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr., Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton among others in its second annual ACM Honors.

Hosted by Lee Ann Womack, the event recognized a horde of winners of lifetime awards and musicians trophies with performances by Jamey Johnson, Joe Nichols, Blake Shelton and Steve Wariner, among others.  Carrie Underwood sang Randy’s “I Told You So,” Continue Reading

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Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Miranda Lambert is barely two weeks away from releasing her third album, Revolution, and she’s packed it with music — 15 tracks in all.

It’s more material than artists usually put on their CDs, and she had to make some financial concessions with her record label to make it happen. But Miranda was willing to do that because she believes so strongly in the music she’s made — and that it belongs together.

“We made this record as a whole album,” she told Billboard. “If we took even one song off, it wouldn’t be complete.” Continue Reading

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