Lady Antebellum poses in the press room with the award for Best Country Album for 'Need You Now' at the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at the Staples Center, February 13, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kristian Dowling/PictureGroup)

– Written by Shannon Heim

Country’s own Lady Antebellum was the big winner at the 53rd Annual GRAMMY® Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night, taking home the trophy in five of the six categories in which they were nominated. The group’s crossover hit “Need You Now” won Song and Record of the Year as well as best Country Album, Best Country Song and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Lady A members Dave Hayward, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott were clearly stunned by the Recording Academy’s accolades. “We just cried our eyes out backstage and I can’t believe we’re up here once again,” Charles said while accepting for Record of the Year.

During their performance, the group slowed down a shortened version of “Need You Now” and sung bits of “American Honey,” and the classic “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” a nod to Teddy Pendergrass, who died last year.

Lady Antebellum was the only country nominee in the Album of the Year category, which ultimately went to Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs.

The group’s dominance marked the second straight year a country crossover act was the night’s top story. Continue Reading

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Merle Haggard has been called the Poet of the Common Man, and his ability to capture the hopes and fears of real people with his songwriting — not to mention his expressiveness as a singer — helped him lock up a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Now he’s got a place in another hall of honor: the California Hall of Fame, housed at the California Museum, just one block from the State Capitol in Sacramento. Merle’s induction was announced Wednesday by the state’s First Lady, Maria Shriver, among a class of 14 new members. The class includes Barbra Streisand, Betty White, former Governor Pat Brown, jeans maker Levi Strauss and director James Cameron.

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The Winter Olympics brings hockey, figure skating, ski jumping and bobsledding back to television beginning Friday. So if you were Rascal Flatts and wanted to redo one of your hits for the Olympics, what would you call it?

“‘Bob That Sled,’” Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney laughs.

Actually, the group has put new lyrics to its current single, “Unstoppable,” for inclusion in a digital-release Olympics album, 2010 AT&T Team USA Soundtrack, which also features Gloriana’s “The World Is Ours Tonight” and Sugarland’s “Wide Open” alongside tracks by Mariah Carey, 3 Doors Down, Hoobastank and the All-American Rejects.

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Kenny Rogers photo courtesy of Capitol Records.

He knows when to hold ‘em, and there’s no need to fold ‘em: The man they call The Gambler hopes to pull an ace out of his sleeve with a television special, “Kenny Rogers: The First 50 Years.”

Kenny hasn’t found a TV home for it yet, but he has got a date and place for the shoot: April 10 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino’s MGM Grand Theater in Mashantucket, Conn. He also has a bunch of friends lined up to help out: Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Alison Krauss, Wynonna and the Oak Ridge Boys.

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Sugarland photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Twenty-five years after Kenny Rogers’ then-manager Ken Kragen helped coordinate the landmark USA For Africa single “We Are The World,” the song was re-recorded Monday in Los Angeles with a cast of characters that apparently dwarfed the original, which featured nearly 50 artists of the time.

With Quincy Jones back to produce and Lionel Richie, who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson, at the center of the event, more than 100 artists were expected to take part, according to CNN, though none of the artists who played on the first version were asked back this time. That means no Bob Dylan, no Bruce Springsteen, no Tina Turner and no Paul Simon. Country music’s Willie Nelson was on that first version, too.

Even without Willie, and without Kenny, country has a role again in the 2010 version.  Zac Brown, Sugarland, Julianne Hough and Miley Cyrus are among the artists who joined the crew in Los Angeles, according to an official release. They sang alongside Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, the Jonas Brothers, Celine Dion, Wyclef Jean, Jason Mraz, Jeff Bridges, Josh Groban, Pink, Usher and Carlos Santana.

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