Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

It’s a good time to be Joe Nichols. Baseball season is underway, and he’s at the top of the country singles charts. Both of them.

Joe’s current release, “Gimmie That Girl,” was hailed as the nation’s No. 1 country song by both Billboard and Mediabase this week, marking the first time he’s hit the top spot since “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” did it in 2005.

Joe got the news while he was inspecting his brand new tour bus on Monday, so it gave him a sense that he could actually afford the new purchase. As he tours the highways in that vehicle, Joe’s travelling down a creative road that was paved by some of his heroes, including Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley. And that’s a reason why his current album, Old Things New, is perfectly titled. He brings new life to those old sounds, though Joe’s haunted a bit by the power of those singers’ influence when he hears his own vocals.

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Joe Nichols made a nice move this week to launch his current single, “Gimmie That Girl,” into the Top 15 on the Country Aircheck Mediabase chart. It’s the first time he’s cracked that level on the chart in more than three years, and part of the reason is likely because he connects on a personal level to the upbeat sentiment of the song.

Watch Joe’s video for “Gimmie That Girl” »

When Joe married Heather Singleton in the fall of 2007, it had a huge, calming effect on his life. They’d actually known each other as friends for more than a decade, and she’d been a rock of support for him even when everything else was kind of wacky.

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Joe Nichols recently visited troops on US military bases in Kuwait and Iraq. His trip was filmed for the GAC special, Joe Nichols: My Military Diary, premiering Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 at 10 p.m. Eastern.

This summer, Joe Nichols took his first trip to the Middle East to perform for American troops serving in the nation’s two wars, and the journey is captured on a GAC special, Joe Nichols: My Military Diary.

It’s a visit he’d thought about for some time. Joe has an affinity for the work U.S. soldiers do, and he’s convinced that had things gone in a different way earlier in his life, he might well have ended up an enlisted man.

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Joe Nichols released his latest album, Old Things New, this week, and one of the things that’s new about it is the lack of a Joe Nichols songwriter credit.

It’s the first time he’s not put one of his own songs on one of his releases, and there’s a good reason for that: He’s a huge believer in good material, and he simply didn’t feel the titles he could have brought to the CD were better than the ones he picked up from other writers. Continue Reading

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Joe Nichols came to prominence in 2002 after signing with Universal South Records in Nashville, the city he called home for more than a decade.

But that changed after he married Heather Singleton in 2007. Heather is originally from Texas, and he relocated to the Dallas area, which guarantees she can feel at home even when he’s out touring.

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Joe Nichols has titled his next album Old Things New, and it’s an appropriate name on several levels. For one, it stylistically balances old-school country with the genre’s current tone. For another, it’s the first time he recorded a CD since he underwent alcohol rehab.

Joe approached his music with a clearer mind than ever before. But that meant that when doubts crept into his mind, he couldn’t use liquor to numb his fears. As a result, it took 11 months to make the album.

“Everything was a sober thought for this album — very clear, very difficult, very difficult,” he told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. “A lot of emotions, a lot of questions. At one point in the middle of this album, I was like, ‘Man, can I even sing? Continue Reading

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