Carrie Underwood and Blake Shelton will be a part of the Grand Ole Opry's upcoming All-Star Weekend, March 4 & 5, 2011. Photos courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

If you’ve been thinking about visiting the Grand Ole Opry, March 4 & 5 would be a really good time to go. Some of country’s biggest stars will take part in the ”Opry All-Star Weekend.” Scheduled to perform are Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, The Band Perry,  Rodney Atkins, Hall of Famer Little Jimmy Dickens and more. A second show has been added to the weekend line-up on Fri., March 4, and artist performance dates are available at opry.com.

Additionally, fans will have a chance to meet Opry member Terri Clark, who will sign copies of her latest CD, The Long Way Home, and her new DVD, “Live At Cedar Creek,” in The Opry Shop on March 5 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. before appearing on that night’s Opry show. Continue Reading

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Country music stars sure love Twitter! Here at GAC, we follow them too. Tonight we’re giving you a special GRAMMY version of Top 10 Tweets of the Week. And yes, there are way more than 10 — but there were so many good ones we didn’t want to stop! Here are our picks for the Top 10 Country Tweets Of The Week , GRAMMY style, starting with a cool photo of multi-GRAMMY winners Lady Antebellum on the red carpet. Here’s a little bit of what the stars tweeted during the GRAMMYS. Don’t forget to check out our GRAMMY wrap-up HERE!

Lady Antebellum on the red carpet at the 2011 GRAMMY Awards. Photo courtesy of Lady Antebellum/Twitter.com/ladyantebellum.

Laura Bell Bundy:  @LauraBellBundy    And @blakeshelton that was the sweetest intro I’ve ever seen. Those are gonna be talented and pretty babies!

Laura Bell Bundy:  @LauraBellBundy   @Miranda_Lambert that’s my girl!!! So raw, emotional and beautiful

The Band Perry:  @thebandperry    Beautiful @Miranda_Lambert , as always.

Emily West:  @emilywestmusic    Miranda. You are a beautiful flower tonight. Sing that song, girl…. It’s gonna win.

Little Big Town:  @LBTmusic    @martinamcbride you just looked and sounded amazing. So proud of you girl! KF

Jewel:  @jeweljk    Wow- loved the Aretha tribute- u guys?

Terri Clark:  @TerriClarkMusic    Ga ga has gone from a meat dress to a chicken getting ready to hatch – i want some of whatever she’s on…

Laura Bell Bundy:  @LauraBellBundy    Holy Fashion police! I have seen some doozy’s tonight! #grammy’s Continue Reading

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Country music stars sure love Twitter! Here at GAC, we follow them too. This week, country music lost one of its legends, Charlie Louvin, and Dierks Bentley tweeted his respects. Reba McEntire posted a photo from her video shoot for “If I Were a Boy,” and Martina McBride admitted to indulging a little before her upcoming photo shoot. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Country Tweets Of The Week.

Charlie Louvin and Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Twitter.com/DierksBentley.

Dierks Bentley:  @DierksBentley   an old school pic of me and charlie louvin. I learned a lot listening to louvin brothers records.God bless them.. 

Kellie Pickler:   @kelliepickler    trying to convince my husband that we should get rid of everything, sell our house & live like gypsies in a airstream. travel and dream.

Whitney Duncan:  @whitneyduncan    Taking a bubble bath while being serenaded by my bf & his guitar. This would b super romantic if he wasn’t playing me my own songs. Haha

Martina McBride:  @martinamcbride    Came home from studio and had a Fat Tire, a yummy brownie, glass of milk, and some pistachios. Photo shoot in a month. Me..in total denial.

Jimmy Wayne:  @JimmyWayne    I remember sleeping outside when I was 14 yrs old & going to bed hungry .. now I’m having breakfast w/a Senator. Bea & Russel saved me! Continue Reading

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Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Two major icons are celebrating their 50th anniversaries in 2010: Loretta Lynn and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.

You certainly know Loretta, the woman whose feisty songs about contemporary womanhood made her an easy selection for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

If you don’t know about Tootsie’s, you should. The purple bar sits on Lower Broadway in Nashville, across the alley from the Ryman Auditorium, where the the Grand Ole Opry was held when Loretta made her debut in 1960. Tootsie’s is a small watering hole that still exists. During its early years, it was the gathering place for many of country’s songwriters and biggest stars, including Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Mel Tillis, Faron Young, Marty Robbins, Harlan Howard and Hank Cochran.

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Rascal Flatts photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Rascal Flatts and four members of the Country Music Hall of Fame will all receive additional recognition next month when they’re embedded in the Music City Walk of Fame in downtown Nashville.

Little Jimmy Dickens, Kris Kristofferson, Mel Tillis and the late Eddy Arnold — all of whom have bronze plaques nearby in the Hall of Fame — will have their names etched in the pavement alongside Rascal Flatts Nov. 7. So will the late Bobby Hebb, a Nashville-based artist who earned a 1960s hit with “Sunny.”

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Country music stars sure love Twitter! Here at GAC, we follow them too. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Country Tweets Of The Week!

Brad Paisley photo courtesy of twitter.com/BradPaisley.

Brad Paisley:  @BradPaisley  You guys sure have some big game up here in Montana.

Laura Bell Bundy: @LauraBellBundy   Okay guys if u go vote on gactv.com & make Drop On By the #1 video this week, I’ll come take bath @ ur house & dress as any character I do

Kellie Pickler:  @kelliepickler  my respiratory infection & bronchitis is getting the best of me. wish my granny were alive so I could crawl up in her lap & let her hold me.

Blake Shelton:  @blakeshelton  Can someone explain to my financy that a speed bump isn’t for speeding up!!!!!!

Miranda Lambert:  @Miranda_Lambert  I am engaged to a member of the Grand Ole Opry!!!! That rocks:) Continue Reading

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Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Five decades ago, Loretta Lynn and her husband-manager, “Mooney” Lynn, drove station to station around the U.S. promoting her first single, “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl.” All these years later, she’s a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and a global symbol for country music, and she was honored Friday at her Coal Miner’s Daughter Museum in Tennessee for 50 years as an American icon.

A bevy musicians and music-industry executives were on hand for the occasion, including Marty Stuart, Crystal Gayle, Jack Greene and Terri Clark. Ronnie McDowell presented Loretta a painting he had created, depicting her when she was 10 years old and living in Kentucky. A string of presenters included John Carter Cash, arranger Bill Walker and Ray Walker, of the Jordanaires, the Hall of Fame vocal quartet that backed Loretta on such classics as “You’re Lookin’ At Country,” “Blue Kentucky Girl,” “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

There were also video tributes from Wynonna, Big Kenny, Keith Anderson, Martina McBride, Kellie Pickler and Dolly Parton. The ceremony took place in a sweat-filled tent outside the museum. The museum houses an extraordinary volume of memorabilia, including letters from presidents, stage wear and a string of awards — none of which have led Loretta to think of herself as anything other than the little girl who grew up in poverty in an eastern Kentucky shack.

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Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of artist.

Dierks Bentley announced on Sunday that he was cancelling shows from his Up On The Ridge Tour in Knoxville and Charlottesville, Va., as Nashville grapples with devastating floods.

Travelling around — or out of — Music City became a hazardous Rubik’s cube over the weekend as many major roads became impassable and sections of at least two water-covered interstates were shut down. Dierks’ band members and some of their relatives faced potentially severe property damage, leading Dierks to skip his concerts Sunday and Monday.

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Terri Clark photo courtesy of Spalding Entertainment.

One of the inherent difficulties with the music business is implied in the industry’s name: Music is an art, but business requires one to make money. The two don’t always go hand in hand, and it’s one of the frustrations Terri Clark has faced in her career.

She broke through in 1995 with the feisty “Better Things To Do,” and she quickly became a regular presence on the radio for the better part of the next decade. Unfortunately, she’s convinced that people who’ve only heard her singles have missed her best work.

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Jason Aldean photo courtesy of Broken Bow Records.

If you got the bucks, you can load up the truck with lots of country music memorabilia. Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood and Montgomery Gentry are among a slew of artists who’ve contributed autographed merchandise to Women Rock For The Cure, a Nashville-based agency that raises money for breast cancer research and awareness.

Jason, Carrie and Montgomery Gentry each put their names on instruments with starting bids that range from $200-$500 at http://myworld.ebay.com/womenrockforthecure. Another guitar bearing signatures from the Oct. 2 Opry Goes Pink night has a $500 minimum. Artists who inked the PRS model include Lorrie Morgan, Terri Clark, Jo Dee Messina, Bill Anderson, Mindy Smith, Connie Smith, Little Jimmy Dickens, The Whites and Caitlin Lynn.

But that’s just a start. Continue Reading

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