Country music stars sure love Twitter! Here at GAC, we follow them too. Dierks Bentley‘s week was red hot, in spite of Nashville’s freezing temperatures. He met Lady Antebellum‘s Charles Kelley for a drink and when he left, he found his car on fire! Also, judging from this week’s tweets, country has gone to the dogs — literally! Several stars tweeted pictures of their incredibly cute pups. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Country Tweets Of The Week.

Charles Kelley & Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Dierks Bentley.

Dierks Bentley:   @DierksBentley  met my friend charles kelley at a bar. he wanted to see my new ’67 camero [sic]. we walked back outside. it was on fire. not cool.

Dierks Bentley:   @DierksBentley   some footage from last night. hard to sleep w images of flames coming out from under the engine stuck in head. (Editor’s note:  Click here for a “fire report” from Dierks and Charles.)

Sarah Buxton:  @sarahbuxton    @DierksBentley I was next door @whiskey kitchen w Cassady, some dude told us about your flaming camero! [sic] I thought he was joking! Guess not!

Photo courtesy of twitter.com/juliannehough.

Julianne Hough:  @juliannehough    This is what I wake up to every morning… I’m a lucky girl!! Continue Reading

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

A dismal, sluggish economy was central to every part of American life in 2010, and it certainly had an effect on Music Row. Nowhere was it more obvious than when Disney shut down the Lyric Street Records office in April, creating turmoil in the lives of several artists, including Rascal Flatts.

The Lyric Street closing and all that it represented is the No. 12 story among country music’s one dozen most important stories of the year.

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Love And Theft photo courtesy of Lyric Street Records.

It’s been five months now since Love And Theft discovered that its record label had shut its doors. Which left the group that got its first hit in 2009 without an outlet to turn “Runaway” into runaway success.

They aren’t freaking out about it, in part because working as a band on a national level isn’t quite like other jobs. For one thing, the trio — Brian Bandas, Eric Gunderson and Stephen Barker Liles — doesn’t have just one boss or one way to draw income. A record deal is one potential revenue stream, but so are concert-ticket sales and songwriting, and they’re still doing those things.

So when Disney first closed Lyric Street Records, the guys weren’t initially bothered by it.

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The 48th Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards were handed out on September 14, 2010 at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium. Pictured (l-r): Dierks Bentley, Artist/Songwriter of the Year; Josh Kear Song of the Year for “Need You Now,”; Chris DuBois, Publisher of the Year, Sea Gayle Music ; Brett James, Songwriter of the Year and Tim DuBois, ASCAP vice-president and managing executive, Nashville. Photo by Kay Williams.

Dierks Bentley won Songwriter/Artist of the Year, Josh Kear took Song of the Year for co-writing “Need You Now” with Lady Antebellum, and Brett James walked off with Songwriter of the Year during the star-studded ASCAP Country Music Awards for songwriters Tuesday at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium.

Dierks picked up the Songwriter/Artist trophy after two of his songs — “Sideways” and “I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes” — were recognized among the performing rights agency’s most performed songs of the year.

Dierks played a bluegrass version of “Sideways” during the two-hour presentation in which each of ASCAP’s Top 5 songs was rendered live. Chris Young sang “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” songwriter David Lee Murphy played “Big Green Tractor,” Darius Rucker offered “Alright” and Josh Kear teamed with Lady A for a dramatic acoustic version of “Need You Now.” Josh was cheered heavily by the songwriting community when he sang some of the lines that Charles Kelley usually sings — Josh proved he was an admirable singer in addition to being an ace songwriter.

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l-r: Love And Theft, GAC's Storme Warren, Chuck Wicks, Joey + Rory and Chris Young at the GAC Breakfast during the CMA Music Festival, June 9, 2010. Photo by Kay Williams.

A limping Chuck Wicks laughed off an injury Wednesday morning as he took a stage in the lobby of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to sing four songs and welcome a contingent of fans to Nashville. Chuck, Chris Young, Joey + Rory and Love and Theft took part in the third annual GAC Fan Breakfast, an adjunct event to the CMA Music Festival, which officially began with a parade just a few hours later.

It wasn’t Chuck’s first public moment of the week. He took part Monday in the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge, joining Joe Nichols, David Nail, Vince Gill and others on the “After Midnite With Blair Garner” team, which defeated the Grand Ole Opry squad 15-10. Chuck unfortunately got a raspberry chasing a ball, and the wound still stung Wednesday a.m., explaining his hobbling entrance at the Hall of Fame.

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Clay Walker photo courtesy of Curb Records.

Clay Walker is positioned nicely on the chart with the video for “She Won’t Be Lonely Long,” and he’ll drop in to talk with host Nan Kelley this weekend during GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

Currently at No. 6 on the countdown, the song is the title track for Clay’s next album, due out June 8. On the day of release, he’ll be spending time with GAC, joining network personality Suzanne Alexander to handle the host/emcee duties during the fourth annual Country Weekly Fashion Show and Concert at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon. The event, which raises money for a hospital-visitation agency called Musicians On Call, will also feature Aaron Tippin, Joe Nichols, Bucky Covington, Love And Theft, Pam Tillis and Bo Bice, among others.

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Love And Theft photo courtesy of Lyric Street Records.

Love And Theft can look back on the last 18 months with a lot of joy. Looking ahead, however, is requiring a little bit of faith.

The band — Eric Gunderson, Brian Bandas and Stephen Barker Liles — earned its first hit in 2009 through Carolwood Records, a sister label to the Disney-affiliated Lyric Street. “Runaway” led the guys to their Grand Ole Opry debut and the release of their first album, World Wide Open.  Martina McBride recorded their song, “Wrong Baby Wrong.” They also had a chance to make a cameo appearance on “American Idol,” to take part in a Kraft sweepstakes and to hit the road on Tim McGraw’s current Southern Voice Tour, which also features Lady Antebellum.

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Wynonna and Naomi Judd arrive on the Red Carpet for "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Jim Hagans / CMA.

When the Judds reunite for a tour this year, they’ll take a huge number of fans down a nostalgic road. You can bet Wynonna and Naomi have already been taking that trip as they’ve been in the studio again — and as they contemplate the eight-year ride to stardom they took during the 1980s.

Naomi had many of those moments in mind Saturday when she and Joe Galante, the record executive who signed her to RCA Records, chatted with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Michael McCall in a public Q&A. She was particularly mindful of the day in March 1983 when she and Wynonna secured their recording deal by auditioning for Joe and several other decision-makers at the RCA offices.

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Nashville’s Music Row took a hit on Wednesday when the Disney Music Group announced it’s shutting down Lyric Street Records, the home of Rascal Flatts.

The guys in the group — Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney — should be OK. They’re working on one last album for Disney, and an official release indicates that project will still come out in the fall on a different Disney-affiliated label. In addition, the guys are in talks about a new recording deal with the Mouse. If, for some reason, they can’t come to an agreement with Disney, it’s a sure bet that the band could find another partner willing to invest in its massive career.

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Love And Theft's Eric Gunderson married Emily Emily Hagar in a private ceremony at Hazel Path Mansion in Hendersonville, Tennessee on Saturday, April 3, 2010. Photo by Elle DuVal Hobbs bespeshl.com, courtesy of Lyric Street Records.

Eric Gunderson, one-third of the new band Love And Theft, became the first member to tie the knot this weekend, marrying Emily Hagar in a private ceremony Saturday at Hazel Path Mansion in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville.

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