Taylor Swift performing for fans at her 13-hour Meet and Greet during the 2010 CMA Music Festival in Downtown Nashville. Photo courtesy of John Russell / CMA

Billboard.com has just released their “Top 40 Money Makers 2011″ list outlining the artists who rolled out of 2010 with the most dough!  Billboard has a very in-depth and complicated formula for projecting the net earnings of artists based primarily on what they make from touring and music sales.  My guess is these are pretty good estimates but on what I know about their calculations but don’t hold me to it.  It definitely shows how much a major tour and a hit record can impact a bottom line.

It should come as no surprise that the overall top money maker on Billboard’s list is Lady Gaga.  From our side of the tracks, a total of 11 country acts made their way onto the list lead by Taylor Swift who lands at the No. 6 position, sandwiched smack in between Bublé and Bieber.

Here’s how the country acts stacked up:

No. 6 – Taylor Swift:  $20,730,431

No. 12 – Brad Paisley:  $13,995,990 Continue Reading

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Rascal Flatts photo courtesy of Big Machine Records. Photo credit Chapman Baehler.

It looks like not even country superstars are immune to Bieber Fever. Rascal Flatts has recorded a duet with teen pop sensation Justin Bieber, “That Should Be Me,” which will be included on Justin’s new seven song album, Never Say Never: The Remixes. The album hits store shelves on Valentine’s Day, three days after Justin releases his 3D movie, Never Say Never, on February 11.

This isn’t the first time Rascal Flatts has collaborated with someone outside the country genre. The trio recorded “She Goes All The Way” with Jamie Foxx and Natasha Bedingfield duets with them on “Easy,” a cut from their latest album, Nothing Like This. Continue Reading

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Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Earlier this year, Taylor Swift headlined stadium shows in Baton Rouge and Foxborough, Mass., for the first time in her career.

Next year, she’s expanding the number of giant-sized venues on her itinerary as she plays a full half-dozen stadiums during her Speak Now World Tour, which begins Feb. 9 in Singapore. In all, she’ll play 87 shows in 19 countries across four continents with six NFL sites on the books. She’ll return to Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts in addition to stadium gigs in Dallas, Kansas City, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

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Taylor Swift will be inducted into the International Bowling Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of gobowling.com.

Taylor Swift is best known for her songwriting and her singing, but that’s not what has propelled her into a hall of fame.

Taylor has been added to the International Bowling Hall of Fame in a popularity vote that had her competing against pop singer Justin Bieber, sports star Dwight Howard and comedian Bill Murray, among others.

Jim “Moose” Brown, a songwriter known for “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” is also getting a place in the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, and Buck Owens has been permanently installed in a sidewalk hall, the Bakersfield Walk of Stars.

Details on these Hall of Fame inductions:

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Jerrod Niemann photo by Jeremy Cowart, courtesy of myspace.com/jerrodniemann.

When Jerrod Niemann went over and over the vocal parts for “Lover, Lover” — literally singing all eight or nine harmony lines himself — he had no idea what the song’s future held.

At the time, Jerrod was an unsigned singer-songwriter who had decided to put some of his friends to work and build an album that may, or may not, find a label home. Not only did it eventually land somewhere, the single rose all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Songs chart this week. It hit that spot as Jerrod is observing a personal anniversary.

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David Nail up to bat during the All-Star softball game. Photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

There aren’t too many country stars who can boast that they’ve hit a homerun in a major-league ballpark – but David Nail can.

David popped one over the fence during a celebrity softball game Monday in Angel Stadium during the festivities surrounding Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.

His homerun is just one of numerous current sports-related items in country music, including Big Kenny’s World Cup debut and Taylor Swift’s shot at induction into a hall of fame.

Here are country’s latest sports-related stories:

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Kenny Chesney photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

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

In the midst of a depressin’ recession, it’s a huge gamble to put on a stadium concert, and very few acts are willing to roll the dice on the up-front expenses for that kind of a gig. Of those that do, it seems nearly all of them were country acts in 2009 — and usually that act was Kenny Chesney.

Kenny played a dozen stadiums during his Sun City Carnival Tour, joined for most of the schedule by Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry, Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum. Kenny created a party atmosphere, often bringing up hometown athletes — including members of the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots, for example — to connect with the city. By the time Sun City ground to a halt in Indianapolis in September, the Zac Brown Band had replaced Lady A and Kenny had topped every other act in any genre as the top touring artist, according to USA Today.

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Taylor Swift wins Entertainer of the Year at “The 43rd Annual CMA Awards,” on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: John Russell / CMA

When Taylor Swift won Entertainer of the Year at last month’s Country Music Association Awards, she supplanted Kenny Chesney at the top of the organization’s food chain. Now, she’s taking his place in Boston, too, selling out Gillette Stadium Saturday in a mere 20 minutes, according to The Attleboro Sun Chronicle.

Taylor becomes the first female solo artist to top the bill at the home of the New England Patriots’ football team, though she’s hardly the only country artist to do that. Toby Keith sold out the stadium in Foxborough, Mass., at least once, and Kenny’s done it every summer since 2005.

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