Vince Gill photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Vince Gill made his way to Chicago this weekend to take part in Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, and he was surrounded by some pretty impressive players.

John Mayer, B.B. King, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck and ZZ Top were all there, and Vince’s set found blended him with some very respected fellow musicians. Acoustic bluesman (and new Nashvillian) Keb’ Mo’ joined Vince along with Earl Klugh, a jazz guitarist who recorded with Chet Atkins; and Albert Lee, who appeared on Brad Paisley’s Grammy-winning “Cluster Pluck.” Vince also got an on-stage visit from former Elvis Presley sideman James Burton, whose collaboration on “Mystery Train” was one of the highlights of the day, according to The Chicago Tribune.

As if that weren’t enough, Sheryl Crow popped out to join Vince on a version of Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally,” Premier Guitar reported.

Vince and Sheryl are familiar musical partners. She provided backing vocals on “What You Give Away,” recorded for his Grammy-nominated album These Days. And both of them joined Brooks & Dunn on the 2006 single “Building Bridges,” which won a Vocal Event of the Year trophy from the Academy of Country Music.

Vince has some other collaborations on the way, too. He produced LeAnn Rimes’ upcoming album, and he’s recorded some parts for songs by Clay Aiken and Johnny Mathis. He worked on each of those projects at his home studio, which makes it extremely easy to work with musicians from all over the globe.

“The flexibility of it is really great,” Vince told The Pasadena Star-News. “I think that technology being the way it is today, you don’t really need the giant real estate area to have a studio. You just need a little bit of room.”

You do have to tour, however, to reach people in person, and Vince has a major concert stop on his schedule for the Fourth of July weekend. He begins a three-day run Friday at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It’ll be the first time he’s ever played that historic stage.

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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.

“They say a community is only as strong as its weakest link,” she told the crowd, according to The Tennessean. “And from where I stand, I see no weak links.”

It was definitely not a weak show in terms of star power. Carrie Underwood kicked things off with a set that included “Undo It” and “How Great Thou Art,” the Associated Press reported. Taylor Swift chipped in “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story,” Martina McBride sang the ultra-appropriate “Anyway,” ZZ Top cranked out “La Grange” and “Tush,” Jason Aldean served up “She’s Country” and “Big Green Tractor,” Faith offered “Piece Of My Heart” and Tim closed the night with “Southern Voice” and “Live Like You Were Dying.”

In all, about 20 acts took part, including Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Amy Grant, Miley Cyrus, Luke Bryan, LeAnn Rimes and Michael W. Smith. Dolly Parton, Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey sent videotaped messages, and a plethora of companies and organizations offered donations.

Flooding at the Bridgestone is documented in the GAC special Brad Paisley Underwater, which re-airs at 11 p.m. ET on Thursday and three more times on Friday. Floods also hit the Wildhorse Saloon, which reopened nearly three weeks ago; the Country Music Hall of Fame, which took water in the theater where new members are typically inducted; and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which sustained a whopping $42 million of damage, according to The Tennessean.

Organizers anticipate Nashville Rising brought in $2 million to $3 million in aid, a drop in the bucket compared to the $2 billion in estimated damages from the disaster.

“These things always seem to happen to people who really can’t afford for it to happen, people that are livin’ paycheck to paycheck and barely gettin’ by,” Tim said recently. “It’s not rocket science, what we do. We’re musicians and we sorta get to goof off for our whole career, so all we can do is put on a show and have all our friends do it.”

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Tim Mcgraw performs at the Nightly Concerts at LP Field on Thursday, June 10 in Downtown Nashville during the 2010 CMA Music Festival. Photographer: John Russell / CMA.

When Tim McGraw turned up last Thursday to help kick off the opening night of the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, even he was shocked to discover it was his first time to play the fan-centric event in a decade.

Tim made his return in a big way, taking the stage at LP Field to play for more than 40,000 fans. He also spent time signing autographs for several thousand people.

“With kids and family and the way records have fallen and tours have fallen, when this time always showed up, I was right in the middle of doin’ something or I’d been doin’ so much that I just needed the time off,” he said backstage, explaining the long absence. “The kids were just gettin’ out of school, we were goin’ on vacation. It just never lined up right for us, and this year it did.”

The Country Music Association made good use of his return. Tim’s been tapped to host this year’s network special, “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night To Rock,” when it airs Sept. 1 on ABC.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said, “so I’ll see if I can not screw it up too bad.”

Meanwhile, Tim’s got some big plans on the table for next week. He and Faith Hill are hosting Nashville Rising, a flood-relief concert at Bridgestone Arena June 22. Toby Keith, Billy Ray Cyrus, Montgomery Gentry, Julie Roberts, Blake Shelton and ZZ Top are the latest additions to the lineup, which already included Taylor Swift, Brooks & Dunn, Martina McBride and plenty of others.

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Brooks & Dunn photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

When Brooks & Dunn announced Aug. 10 that they were calling it quits, they promised to make one final tour to tell their fans goodbye.

Set to begin April 23 in Sacramento, the Last Rodeo Tour will come to a halt almost exactly one year after they told fans they were leaving. The final date on the 47-city itinerary takes place Aug. 8 in Chicago.

The duo goes out on a high note. They’ve won 19 Country Music Association awards during their career, second only to George Strait, and “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” is in the running for a Grammy. They recently earned a hit with “Honky Tonk Stomp,” featuring ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

But material has always been a point of contention for Brooks & Dunn. That process helped them decide it was time to pack it in.

“We definitely have to go back and forth with songs,” Kix Brooks told USA Today. “That’s always a challenge where you’re having to compromise. There have always been hurt feelings. There have always been opinions.”

After going over potential songs earlier this year, Ronnie Dunn told Kix he was tired of that grind and didn’t want to have to go through the compromises anymore. Kix didn’t disagree about breaking up, but he immediately decided he wanted to hit the road one more time with his longtime musical partner.

“I was willing to walk out and never look back,” said Ronnie, who eventually agreed with Kix about the final tour romp. “Sometimes, I work a little more from emotion than I do from rational thought.”

Jason Aldean has signed on as the opener for the first part of the tour. Gary Allan is on tap as the warm-up act beginning mid June.

The end date for the tour might still change. Brooks & Dunn’s slate doesn’t yet have Nashville on the schedule, though they promise they’ll play Music City one more time before it’s all done.

Following are announced dates for Brooks & Dunn’s Last Rodeo:

• April 23 Sacramento, Calif.
• April 24 Mountain View, Calif.
• April 25 Indio, Calif.
• April 30 Spokane, Wash.
• May 1 Tacoma, Wash.
• May 2 Vancouver, Wash.
• May 4 Calgary, Alberta
• May 5 Edmonton, Alberta
• May 6 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• May 14 St Paul, Minn.
• May 15 Bloomington, Ill.
• May 16 Columbus, Ohio
• May 21 Phoenix, Ariz.
• May 22 Albuquerque, N.M.
• May 27 Wichita, Kan.
• May 28 Tulsa, Okla.
• May 29 Dallas, Texas
• May 30 Baton Rouge, La.
• June 3 Charleston, W.Va.
• June 4 Charlotte, N.C.
• June 5 Raleigh, N.C.
• June 11 Tampa, Fla.
• June 12 West Palm Beach, Fla.
• June 13 Jacksonville, Flla.
• June 17 Hershey, Pa.
• June 18 Virginia Beach, Va.
• June 19 Washington, D.C.
• June 25 Hartford, Conn.
• June 26 Boston, Mass.
• June 27 Bethel, N.Y.
• June 29 Milwaukee, Wis.
• July 2 Dauphin, Manitoba
• July 8 Fort Loramie, Ohio
• July 9 Cleveland, Ohio
• July 10 Darien Lakes, N.Y.
• July 15 Atlanta, Ga.
• July 16 Indianapolis, Ind.
• July 17 St Clairsville, Ohio
• July 18 Cincinnati, Ohio
• July 23 Minot, N.D.
• July 24 Cheyenne, Wyo.
• July 25 Omaha, Neb.
• July 29 Detroit, Mich.
• July 30 Pittsburgh, Pa.
• August 6 Kansas City, Kan.
• August 7 St Louis, Mo.
• August 8 Chicago, Ill.

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Tim McGraw photo courtesy of Curb Nashville.

When Gregg Allman showed up Tuesday with Tim McGraw on “The Jay Leno Show,” it was a bit of an event, though maybe not quite as unusual an event as it would have been in years gone by.

Gregg was an appropriate musical partner — after all, Tim’s current single “Southern Voice,” which he performed on “Leno,” namechecks the Allman Brothers along with Tom Petty and Chuck Berry.

But Gregg’s hardly the only pop star or rocker with an attachment to country these days. The Zac Brown Band’s “Toes” is co-written with singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins, who referred to Los Angeles as “Nashville with a tan” in his 1998 pop hit “Lullaby.” Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova” counts Mike Elizondo, who’s worked with Maroon 5 and Snoop Dogg, among its writers. Brooks & Dunn’s “Honky Tonk Stomp” gets a signature vocal stamp from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. Jimmy Wayne enlisted Daryl Hall & John Oates to back him on his remake of “Sara Smile.” And Darius Rucker came to country music after first establishing himself in Hootie + The Blowfish.

Then there’s Kenny Chesney, who brought Dave Matthews in to sing on his current Top 10 hit “I’m Alive.”

“It was a good message for me, to me, about priorities,” Kenny says of the song. “You know, remembering what matters, keeping perspective, trying not to get so lost in running after whatever, that you forget what it is you’re chasing. And that’s really reinforced for me by having my friend Dave Matthews on this record. He’s someone I respect and I never get enough time to visit with, and that’s not the way we all oughta live. Every time I hear his voice, I smile and remember.”

That’s not where the pop influences end. Canadian rock band Nickelback got covered in Bucky Covington’s latest single, a remake of “Gotta Be Somebody.”

“When my producer came to me with this I said, ‘I’m not really sure about that idea.’” Bucky told BlogCritics.com. “Trying to put a banjo and a fiddle on a Nickelback song to a lot of people sounds unheard of. But we did do it, and it’s an amazing song. I’m very fortunate to have done the song, and I just love it to death.”

And Nickelback brings it all back to Tim McGraw, whose previous single, “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You,” was written by Nickelback vocalist Chad Kroeger and producer Joey Moi.

For the record, Tim was not the first to jump on the Allman bandwagon. Willie Nelson recorded Gregg’s “Midnight Rider” for the soundtrack to The Electric Horseman way back in 1980. And the Allmans’ “Ramblin’ Man” was mentioned in the lyrics of a couple of recent hits: the Eli Young Band’s “Always The Love Songs” and Brad Paisley’s duet with Keith Urban, “Start A Band.”

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