Lady Antebellum photo by David Johnson, courtesy of The Greenroom PR.

Lady Antebellum can add another accolade for their hit song “Need You Now.” The track has become the No. 1 downloaded country song of all time this week, passing Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” The track, which spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on both the country and pop charts, won GRAMMY Awards for “Song of the Year,” “Record of the Year” and “Country Song of the Year,” the CMA Award for Single of the Year and the 2010 ACM’s Single Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards.

After winning Album of the Year for Need You Now and their second straight Vocal Group of the Year award at last Sunday’s ACM Awards, Lady Antebellum flew to Australia to join Keith Urban on his Get Closer World Tour, which kicks off Friday in Adelaide.

GAC caught up with Lady A both on the ACM’s Red Carpet and backstage after their big wins. Check out their interviews HERE!

ShareThis

Gwyneth Paltrow & Tim McGraw from the upcoming movie, Country Strong, in theaters January 7, 2011. Photo by Scott Garfield, courtesy of Sony Pictures USA & Monarch Publicity.

From Crazy Heart to Country Strong, Hollywood and Nashville were tightly linked in 2010.

Tim McGraw, Julianne Hough, Trace Adkins and Carrie Underwood all went in front of the cameras. And artists as diverse as Ryan Bingham, Billy Currington, Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney got their music on the big screen in one way or another.

Country’s role in a large number of movies ranks No. 7 in GAC’s countdown of the dozen top stories of 2010.

Continue Reading

ShareThis

Taylor Swift photo by Amanda Eckard/CMA, courtesy of Erickson PR.

Taylor Swift has promised for some time that a new album would be in her fans’ hands by the end of the year, and it appears she’s started the building blocks for the marketing campaign.

She showed up rather quietly in Maine this week, according to The Portland Press Herald, for a video shoot that soon created a stir as the locals reported Taylor sitings: She was spotted Wednesday at Ram Island Farm in Cape Elizabeth outside of Portland; she had a hamburger that night at Becky’s Diner on Porland’s waterfront; and shot a wedding scene Thursday at a church in Kennebunk.

Continue Reading

ShareThis

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.

Continue Reading

ShareThis

Taylor Swift performs “Forever & Always” 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. Provided by Country Music Association.

Another week goes by, Taylor Swift does something else remarkable.

This time she’s released a new single — and it’s already gold. And that seems to be a first-time thing. It appears there’s never been another moment in history in which a single was shipped to country radio after it had already been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Continue Reading

ShareThis

Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition of country music’s best-selling artists from two different eras. When Taylor Swift was born, Garth Brooks had hit No. 1 for the first time just days earlier with “If Tomorrow Never Comes.” When her first album came out in the fall of 2006, Garth was just days away from a bevy of certifications that would push his career album sales over 120 million.

Both artists sold a ton of concert tickets at the end of last week. With her single “Fifteen” in the Top 15, Taylor put 15 arena shows up for sale on Friday, and all of them sold out in minutes. Garth, who was already retired when she Swiftly became the genre’s new top seller, put his comeback tickets in Las Vegas on the market Saturday, and after overloading the Wynn Las Vegas website, his first 20 performances sold out as well.

Continue Reading

ShareThis