Martina McBride at the press conference announcing her new record deal with Big Machine/Republic Nashville on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. Photo courtesy of twitter.com/martinamcbride.

To affix an old Reba McEntire album title on Martina McBride’s career, Martina is… Starting Over.

The Kansas-born powerhouse took part in a press conference Monday at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to announce she’s ended an 18-year relationship with historic RCA Records to sign with a label still in its infancy, Republic Nashville Records.

Sound crazy? Well, at a very surface level, maybe. But there’s a much bigger picture to the whole deal. In the process, she becomes the biggest drawing card on Republic, which means she’s sure to get the kind of intense marketing attention that every artist craves. And it puts her at the hottest company in Nashville: Republic is one of three labels of the Big Machine family, part of a playpen that also includes Reba, Rascal Flatts, Justin Moore and The Band Perry. Oh, and some youngster named Taylor Swift.

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Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

When Dierks Bentley booked his Miles & Music For Kids charity motorcycle ride for rainy Seattle, he had to know it was a possibility that the event would get drenched.

That possibility became reality. The city was hit with a heavy downpour last Saturday, but the good folks of Washington State still came out in full force. They raised $50,000 for Seattle Children’s Hospital, as Dierks continues his work for kids charities. Since he established the Music & Miles program in 2006, he’s raised a whopping $1.3 million in all.

“Rainy days aren’t typically when most people are itching to get out the motorcycle for a leisurely afternoon ride,” Dierks says. “But we’ve come to learn over the last few years of putting these rides on that motorcycle riders may look big and bad, but they have a heart of gold, and it would take a lot more than a little rain to deter them.”

Dierks has another Miles & Music date on the horizon, but it’s just one of numerous charity events that country stars are undertaking in the near future. They include:

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Nan Kelley, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill at the Nashville Rising Flood Benefit. Photo by Jenny Dew, GAC staff.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill assembled an impressive array of stars for this week’s Nashville Rising flood-relief concert, and a bunch of them join host Nan Kelley on this week’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

Jason Aldean, Julie Roberts, Luke Bryan and LeAnn Rimes all found their way onto the stage at Music City’s Bridgestone Arena as Nashville’s music community gathered together to assist the town as it recovers from a devastating flood the first weekend in May. Altogether, organizers expect the show will generate $2 million to $3 million total to aid a bevy of rejuvenation efforts.

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Trace Adkins (l) and Blake Shelton rehearse on Friday, April 16, 2010 for the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. Photo courtesy of the Academy of Country Music.

From the minute Tim McGraw and Faith Hill announced plans for their multi-artist flood-relief concert Nashville Rising, the event looked like the kind of evening ripe for surprises. And it was.

Even after Brooks & Dunn were forced to cancel because of Ronnie Dunn’s throat problems, a few unannounced stars made their way Tuesday to Music City’s Bridgestone Arena, one of numerous downtown facilities that took in water during the early-May flood. Trace Adkins popped onstage to join Blake Shelton on “Hillbilly Bone,” according to USA Today. And Sandra Bullock — who worked with Tim on the movie The Blind Side — took the spotlight and comically picked out the opening chords from Deep Purple’s classic-rock standard “Smoke On The Water.” Then she got serious.

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

After Tim McGraw earned his first hit 15 years ago with the novelty “Indian Outlaw,” he took a 180-degree turn with his next single by releasing the almost-morbid ballad “Don’t Take The Girl.”

That approach has since become a minor signature in his career: Tim followed the pleading ballad “Please Remember Me” with the playful “Something Like That”; balanced the heavy message of “Live Like You Were Dying” with the goofy wordplay of the next single, “Back When”; and contrasted last December’s alcohol-fueled “Nothin’ To Die For” with the flip follow-up “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You.”

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