Reba McEntire & Blake Shelton, co-hosts of the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

This week country music takes over Las Vegas for the 46^th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, but it hasn’t always been that way. From Tinsel Town to Sin City, the ‘Academy of Country & Western Music awards,’ as it was called back then, has seen its fair share of superstars through the decades.

In this week’s GAC Trivia Time, we travel back in time to  Hollywood for the first ACM Awards show in 1966, then follow the history all the way to this year!

Mar 28, 1966 - Roger Miller, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens are double-winners at the inaugural Academy of Country & Western Music Awards, held at the Palladium in Hollywood. Miller is named Man of the Year and Top Songwriter

Mar 22, 1971 – Merle Haggard wins a trio of honors in the sixth Academy Of Country & Western Music Awards at the Hollywood Palladium, giving him a lucky 13 total in his career.

Mar 27, 1975 - Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard win two honors apiece during the 10th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Roger Miller at Los Angeles’ Aquarius Theater. Lynn claims Top Female Vocalist and shares Top Vocal Group with Conway Twitty

Apr 27, 1978 - Kenny Rogers dominates the 13th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium, winning four honors: Top Male Vocalist; Album of the Year, for Kenny Rogers; and Single Record and Song of the Year, for “Lucille”

May 9, 1983 - Willie Nelson is a double-winner, claiming Single Record of the Year, for “Always On My Mind,” and Album of the Year for an LP of the same name during the 18th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards, aired on NBC from Knott’s Berry Farm in California Continue Reading

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Toby Keith photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.

If you look at the credits on Toby Keith’s albums, it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to figure out that he writes most of his own material — and that he’s pretty prolific.

As it turns out, Toby’s writing even more songs now than ever. It’s not that he gets more ideas than he used to. He’s simply figured out a better way to manage them.

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Toby Keith photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.

Sometimes those licky trittle words don’t come out rite quight. If you’re Toby Keith, misspeaking can mean money!

Toby has a hit on his hands with “Trailerhood,” which is currently in the Top 10 on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown. It’s got a load of references to pink flamingos, poker games, beer and football on TV, but it’s a song that Toby pretty much stumbled upon. To be more specific, he tripped over his own tongue, and he was smart enough to figure out his flub could be fab.

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Lady Antebellum on stage at the Ryman Auditorium during the Music City Keep On Playin' benefit concert. Photo credit: Photo by Ed Rode/edrode.biz.

The stars came out in a big way, as did a number of companies and the American people when GAC presented Music City Keep On Playin’ — A Benefit For Flood Relief.

Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and Dierks Bentley were among the artists who delivered nearly 20 songs during Sunday’s three-hour live special from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The event raised more than $1.7 million as of midnight CT and counting.

Music City Keep On Playin’ was the first national fundraiser organized to aid victims of a devastating flood that engulfed much of Nashville two weeks ago. In a scant 48 hours, the city took in over 13 inches of rain, more than the Middle Tennessee ground could absorb. The Cumberland River swelled over its banks, damaging some of the city’s landmarks, including the Grand Ole Opry House, LP Field, Bridgestone Arena and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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Laura Bell Bundy photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Hot off her performance at last Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards, Laura Bell Bundy planted herself in an enviable position this week as Achin’ And Shakin’ debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Country Albums chart.

Laura Bell is a new artist to many — if not most — country fans, but she’s got a long list of entertainment credentials backing her up. Most of them stem from the theater, where she’s appeared in productions of Legally Blonde: The Musical, Wicked and The Sound Of Music. But she released an album in 2007 and got a very concentrated push for her new project, which got its Achin’ And Shakin’ title because one half is songs of heartache and the other is for shakin’ your booty.

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The 2010 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees, clockwise from upper right: Don Williams, Ferlin Husky, Billy Sherrill and Jimmy Dean. Photos courtesy of the CMA.

Don Williams, Jimmy Dean, Ferlin Husky and record producer Billy Sherrill are the latest additions to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Country Music Association announced the honor Tuesday via press release, with a formal induction ceremony promised later this year.

“I thought I was already in there!” Jimmy joked. “Seriously, it brought a huge grin to my face. I am honored.”

Each of the four has contributed significantly to the genre. Jimmy, whose name is synonymous with a line of sausage, gave country music plenty of TV exposure as the host of several different programs, most notably “The Jimmy Dean Show,” a 1960s ABC variety series. He often featured the likes of Roger Miller, Buck Owens or Faron Young. One 1964 episode aired live from the Grand Ole Opry, while a 1965 installment captured Eddy Arnold’s recording session for “Make The World Go Away.” The CMA also used “The Jimmy Dean Show” as a vehicle to announce the Hall of Fame inductees in 1966. As a recording artist, Jimmy is best known for “Big Bad John,” a recitation about a coal-mining accident that sold a million copies after crossing into the pop charts.

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Vince Gill photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Dwight Yoakam sang about “guitars, Cadillacs and hillbilly music,” and the guitar is central to current stories involving three different Halls of Fame — one of which contains a Cadillac owned by the late Elvis Presley.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, previously known as the Cowboy Hall of Fame, has a new guitar exhibit at its home in Oklahoma City, where instruments used by the likes of Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and Marty Robbins are on display.

A guitar Taylor Swift used during a fundraiser to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame in the fall is now being sold at auction to raise even more money for the facility. And the Musicians Hall of Fame, located just blocks from the Country Hall in downtown Nashville, has to put guitars owned by some classic figures — including Charlie Daniels and Elvis musician Scotty Moore — into storage by the end of the week.

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Dolly Parton photo courtesy of Dolly Parton Management.

Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, Charlie Daniels and the founder of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge join Kid Rock as the newest members of the Music City Walk of Fame when the latest round of markers are added in a downtown Nashville ceremony this Sunday.

Sponsored by GAC, the induction brings the total number of Walk of Fame markers to 42, including Hank Williams, Reba McEntire, Emmylou Harris and Steve Wariner.

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Tammy Wynette photo courtesy of tammywynette.com.

Eleven years after her death, Tammy Wynette — whose “Stand By Your Man” ranks among the best-known country songs in history — will finally enter the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame during a ceremony Oct. 18 at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.

Tammy will be inducted alongside two full-time songwriters who wrote their own iconic pieces: Kye Fleming was responsible for Barbara Mandrell’s theme song, “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool”; and Mark D. Sanders authored Lee Ann Womack‘s mega-hit “I Hope You Dance.” Continue Reading

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