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.

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Alan Jackson's beach-themed birdhouse. Photo courtesy of The Birdhouse Thing.

Now’s your chance to own a home designed by your favorite country star! Disclaimer: you can’t actually live in this home unless you are a bird. GAC and The Grand Ole Opry have partnered with The Birdhouse Thing organization to offer you the opportunity to bid on one-of-a-kind, autographed birdhouses designed by country superstars including Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Sara Evans, Alan Jackson, LeAnn Rimes and many more. Proceeds benefit The W.O. Smith Music School. Hurry and get your bids in now — the auction closes on March 23. Continue Reading

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Clint Black with wife, Lisa Hartman Black.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, causing single people to gnash their teeth, men to pony up for flowers and women to get positively squishy about romance.

For kicks, we’ve endeavored to come up with the Top 20 country love songs of all-time, and only two people — Clint Black and John Michael Montgomery — are two-timers on that list. Clint’s “Something That We Do” and “When I Said I Do,” the latter recorded with his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, are well thought-out expressions of the work involved in making a relationship last. John Michael’s “I Swear” and “I Can Love You Like That” lean toward the age-old pop approach of giving love a fairytale stamp. “I Can Love You Like That,” in fact, makes a Cinderella reference; and it’s no coincidence that both songs were simultaneously pop hits at the time John Michael had them on the charts.

The following list is partially subjective but not entirely. It’s mostly a reflection of success on the charts and at awards shows — and in a title’s ability to wear well over time.

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Tim McGraw photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Curb Records.

#10 on GAC’s Top Stories of 2009 |  View all »

You can count on seeing country music in certain places on television. It’s a 24/7 proposition on GAC. And the daily talk shows — including “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” and “The Late Show With David Letterman” — obviously need a good smattering of country acts to fill out the music slots on their programs.

But country artists did an excellent job in 2009 in grabbing a larger share of acting roles and musical moments on TV and in the movies. Led by Tim McGraw’s part as Sandra Bullock’s husband in The Blind Side, by Taylor Swift’s TV acting debut on “CSI” and by the bevy of country stars who appeared on the platinum soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie, the genre was well represented in the visual media in the last 12 months.

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Kenny Chesney performs at the VAULT Concert Stage at LP Field in Downtown Nashville Sunday, June 14 during the 2009 CMA Music Festival. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Association.

Kenny Chesney’s made a lot of friends in the music industry, and several of them have joined him on a variety of recordings.

He shared the mic with George Strait on “Shiftwork,” duetted with Reba McEntire on “Every Other Weekend,” collaborated with Mac McAnally on “Down The Road,” worked with Willie Nelson on “Lucky Old Sun” and even did a track with NFL quarterback Peyton Manning on an NFL Country album.

Kenny’s now found a way to make Dave Matthews a hit on the country charts. Continue Reading

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