Edens Edge photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Have you made your New Year’s Eve plans yet? Check out where you can catch some of your favorite country stars ringing in 2012, both live and on TV:

Edens Edge will perform at the third annual “Bash On Broadway” in Nashville along with The Farm, Jeffrey Steele and headliner Lynyrd Skynyrd.The free show will take place on Broadway beginning at 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and will be broadcast live to a national audience on Sirius XM Radio. GAC’s Storme Warren will serve as emcee.

The Band Perry will close out the year with a performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, as part of the Los Angeles celebration. The special will air on ABC December 31.

Rodney Atkins, Joe Nichols and Lauren Alaina will perform live from the Las Vegas strip during FOX’s American Country New Year’s Eve Live special. Hosted by Rodney Carrington, the special will also feature performances by Eli Young Band and Toby Keith and include coverage from the ball drop at New York City’s Time Square. Tune in to FOX at 11/10c December 31 to catch it.

Chris Young will be headlining a New Year’s Eve show at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, Texas.

Sarah Darling will headline the 4^th annual New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop at Pier Parkin Panama City Beach, FL. Taking the stage at 10:45 p.m., Sarah will be the final performer before the 800-pound glowing beach ball begins its descent and final countdown to 2012.

The Grand Ole Opry will ring in 2012 with Friday and Saturday night Opry performances at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. John Conlee, Craig Morgan, Mandy Barnett, Jeannie Seely, Jimmy Wayne, Little Jimmy Dickens and Jean Shepard are all on the schedule for the December 30 show, while Little Jimmy Dickens, Jimmy Wayne, Jett Williams, Jan Howard, Mandy Barnett and Dailey & Vincent are all scheduled to appear on December 31.

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Photo by Chris Hollo, courtesy of Schmidt Relations.

The Grand Ole Opry celebrated its  86^th birthday with a night of music, the Opry debut of one of country music’s most recognizable voices, the induction of its newest member, a giant cake and lots of balloons. The show was aired live on GAC as part of Opry Live.

Little Jimmy Dickens, Jeannie Seely, The Whites, Charley Pride, Jimmy C. Newman and Chuck Mead were all on hand to start off the evening. Opry member Craig Morgan was also in the Opry House. He kicked up the tempo with his new single, “This Ole Boy,” before performing his first ever No. 1, “That’s What I Love About Sunday.” He also debuted a brand new song, “More Trucks Than Cars,” for the Opry audience that will be on his upcoming album. Continue Reading

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Jean Shepard & Mandy Barnett

The Grand Ole Opry is inviting fans to set sail with classic country music artists aboard the Royal Caribbean International’s Voyager of the Seas. Famed country music broadcaster Ralph Emery, along with fellow Hall of Fame member Jean Shepard, Jan Howard, Jeannie Seely, T.G. Sheppard and Mandy Barnett will entertain fans on this year’s Opry Country Classics Cruise from January 28 to February 4, 2012. The cruise will leave from New Orleans with stops at three ports of call.

“We are delighted that the Grand Ole Opry is sailing with Royal Caribbean again,” said Vicki Freed, senior vice president of Sales, Trade Support and Services, Royal Caribbean International. “Every guest will enjoy Voyager of the Seas innovative onboard amenities and world-renowned Gold Anchor Service from our friendly and engaging staff and crew. Country stars and fans alike will have a great time aboard Voyager of the Seas, especially during our first season back in the exciting city of New Orleans.” Continue Reading

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A Bill Anderson & Jan Howard album from 1972.

If you’re coming to town for CMA Music Festival, you might want to add ‘The Duets of Country Music’ to your list of must-see events. For those of you who love old country music, this event pairs Bill Anderson and Jan Howard, Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius, Jack Green and Jeannie Seely, David Frizzell and Shelly West and new Hall of Fame Member Jean Shepard and son with Harold Hawkins. Kyle Cantrell will host the event.

Sponsored by R.O.P.E., Duets of Country Music will take place in Nashville on June 8 from 7 to 10 pm. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children ages 6-12. Advanced tickets can be purchased by mailing check or money order to R.O.P.E, P.O. Box 2048, Madison, TN 37116. Continue Reading

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Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of artist.

It rained. And rained. And rained some more.

Nashville took in over 13 inches of water in a 48-hour period in May, and some areas of the region were swamped with as much as 20 inches. It was more than the rivers and streams could handle, and by May 3, the drainage system was overflowing. The stage and much of the floor seating at the Grand Ole Opry House was covered, water seeped into one room at the Country Music Hall of Fame, LP Field — the site of the CMA Music Festival — became a swamp, and an instrument storage unit was drowned, destroying guitars and equipment owned by Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Toby Keith and Vince Gill, among others.

It took a while for people to notice outside of Middle Tennessee. The focus of the major news organizations at the time was on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. So Music City rolled up its sleeves and started digging out on its own.

The Nashville flood is No. 1 on the list as GAC concludes its countdown of the top country news stories of 2010.

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Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens perform on the newly-refurbished circle of wood at the Grand Ole Opry on August 25, 2010. Photo courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

He’s the oldest current member of the Grand Ole Opry, someone the other members look up to — even if they have to look down to do it. Little Jimmy Dickens, all 4’-11” of him, turns 90 on Sunday, and some of his music industry friends have a party cooked up for him this weekend to celebrate.

And he’s got plenty of friends. Randy Houser was thrilled to make the introductory speech last month when the Music City Walk of Fame inducted “Tater,” a nickname Jimmy picked up from Hank Williams for his first hit, “Take An Old Cold ‘Tater (And Wait).” Fellow West Virginian Brad Paisley has repeatedly employed Little Jimmy in his videos and plopped him onto his albums in comedic tracks. And that’s just a start on the list.

But Little Jimmy’s always been a friend of his fellow Opry members. He used to walk across the alley between the Ryman Auditorium and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge with Hank. And he got his shot at the Opry and his first recording contract when he was championed by Roy Acuff, who was considered the King of Country Music.

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(l-r) Keith Urban, Brad Paisley & Steve Wariner jam during the Opry's return to the Grand Ole Opry House on Tuesday, September 28, 2010. © 2010 Grand Ole Opry® Hollo Photographics

The Grand Ole Opry House reopened Tuesday in a GAC special hosted by Nan Kelley, and many of the acts who took part — including Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Martina McBride — will join Nan on this weekend’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

The Opry House was deluged with water when the Cumberland River overflowed its banks in May. The flood poured some 46 inches over the top of the Opry House stage, and the 85-year-old radio show was forced to hop scotch from venue to venue in Nashville while its regular home underwent a renovation. Five months later, Country Comes Home: An Opry Live Celebration delivered an all-star homecoming edition of the Opry with Jason Aldean, Josh Turner, Trace Adkins and Blake Shelton, who was invited to become the newest member of the cast.

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Hank Cochran photo courtesy of So Much Moore Media.

Hank Cochran, a legendary songwriter who had hits in four decades, died Thursday after battling pancreatic cancer. A longtime member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, his words and melodies were significant in the careers of such signature artists as George Strait, Patsy Cline, Keith Whitley and Eddy Arnold.

Hank was part of the first generation of Nashville’s full-time songwriters. Born in Mississippi, he was living and performing in California when he signed his first songwriting contract in 1959 with Pamper Music, a publishing company owned in part by Ray Price. In January 1960, he moved to Music City, where he became a regular at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a legendary music-business hangout. Tootsie’s provided an informal meeting room for country’s artists and writers, including Harlan Howard, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins and Willie Nelson, who Hank first met there. He helped Willie get signed to Pamper and even gave up a raise to make sure the company could afford Willie.

Hank’s legend was practically cemented when he and Harlan co-wrote “I Fall To Pieces,” a landmark Patsy Cline song with a nicely contoured melody and deftly direct lyrics. It was not just a great calling card. The National Endowment for the Arts named it one of 365 culturally significant recordings in a new-millennium list of the Songs of the Century.

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Luke Bryan photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Between the Brad Paisley H2O World Tour and May’s Nashville flood, country music has been waterlogged this summer.

But the liquid is still flowing in the genre. Brad’s weekend lake show set a record, Luke Bryan rode a gusher to the top of the chart, and yes, there’s more flood-recovery news, thanks in part to Chuck Wicks and Grand Ole Opry star Jeannie Seely.

Here’s a look at the way water continues to stream into country’s current landscape:

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Laura Bell Bundy photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

When Laura Bell Bundy sings on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time on Saturday, the moment will blend a very odd series of events.

For starters, Laura Bell established herself first as a performer on Broadway. Shifting from the Great White Way to Music Row is a career path that’s only happened once or twice before.

Making the evening even more unique, the Tennessee floods have the Kentucky-born singer showing up on the Opry from a location she probably never heard of before moving to Nashville. Since 1974, the Opry’s been housed at the Grand Ole Opry House, but the Cumberland River covered that stage the first week of May, and it’s unclear when the venue will be able to reopen. The Ryman Auditorium was the Opry home for more than 30 years prior to the Opry House, and it still hosts a number of Opry performances over the course of the year.

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