Blake Shelton photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

Blake Shelton‘s “Honey Bee” has so much buzz, it’s not surprising his record label, Warner Bros. is following up its success by releasing his ninth album on July 12. Produced by multi-award winner Scott Hendricks, the album will include “Honey Bee,” his fastest rising single to date. Just one week after its debut, “Honey Bee” sold over 138,000 digital singles, a feat unmatched by any country male soloist. Beginning tonight, Blake will join superstars Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine as a coach on NBC’s “The Voice.”

“There are so many things I’m excited to share with everyone this year,” said the reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year. “I can’t wait for people to hear the record; I have found some of the best songs of my career. I also think people will be surprised at all the talent they will see on ‘The Voice.’ There were so many great vocalists who just blew me away and it has been the coolest thing to be part of it all.”

Check out Blake and the rest of “The Voice” coaches singing the smash hit, “Crazy” (originally sung by coach Cee Lo Green in his duo, Gnarls Barkley): Continue Reading

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Kenny Edwards main photo by Gabriel Judet-Weinshel. Inset: Kenny with Linda Ronstadt. Photos courtesy of kennyedwards.com.

Bass player and guitarist Kenny Edwards, who worked extensively with Linda Ronstadt and played on a number of country hits in the 1980s and ‘90s, died Wednesday in California at age 64.

Kenny had a rare blood disorder and had been in chemotherapy for prostate cancer, according to the Los Angeles Times, yet he continued to tour with singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff. He collapsed in Denver earlier this month and, after reaching out to fans via his website, received funding to be airlifted back to a hospital in Santa Barbara, where he passed away.

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Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Interscope Records.

This fall will mark a whopping 40 years since Loretta Lynn hit radio waves with “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” but the song is enduring enough that it made news in not just one, but two different ways on Wednesday.

For starters, the book that carried the same name, Coal Miner’s Daughter, will be reissued in September by Vintage Books, which will market the autobiography as a paperback, an e-book and an audio book, narrated by Sissy Spacek. Sissy is, of course, a natural for that job, since she won an Oscar for portraying Loretta in the movie that was built around the book and even got a Grammy nomination for her own recording of “Coal Miner.” The movie, in fact, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

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