Covington To Help Hard Rock Cafe Open New Venue

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buckyLyric Street recording artist Bucky Covington will perform as part of Hard Rock Cafe Nashville’s “Countdown to 2010” music series. The week-long live music event celebrates the venue’s grand re-opening. As part of these festivities, ASCAP is presenting An Evening With Bucky Covington on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 7 pm.

Spreading the holiday cheer, Covington and the Hard Rock will donate proceeds from the event to the Arthritis Foundation (Tennessee Chapter). Earlier this year, he was named Celebrity Ambassador for the organization and will continue serving in this role throughout 2010.

Doors for the Hard Rock show open at 7:00pm and the performance begins at 8:00pm. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door and available for purchase online or at HRC Nashville’s Rock Shop.

Covington will also be appearing at the Hard Rock’s Guitar Smash, the venue’s official grand opening ceremony on December 30, 2009 at 10:30am at the Hard Rock Cafe Nashville. From there, he is off to Winston Salem, NC for a New Year’s Eve concert.

CMT Counts Down Top Videos of ’09 On Host Smith’s Final Show

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Swift's "You Belong With Me" video.

Swift's "You Belong With Me" video.

Taylor Swift tops the list when CMT counts down the 20 biggest country music videos of the year in a special year-end episode of CMT Top 20 Countdown on Friday, December 25 at 11:30 a.m., ET/PT. CMT host Lance Smith will count down the best videos of 2009, as well as his favorite moments of the past nine years, on his final episode as host of the series. Smith recently announced that he would be exiting the show at the end of 2009 to pursue a career in acting.

Lance Smith

Lance Smith

Swift’s smash video “You Belong With Me” spent 19 weeks on the countdown this year, and held court at the No. 1 spot for eleven of those weeks in a new Top 20 record.

The Countdown is based on a weekly analysis of CMT.com activity, digital and physical retail sales, radio airplay, other online activity and viewer voting. For the second year in a row, Swift was the most-streamed artist on CMT.com, CMT VOD and CMT Mobile.

CMT’s Top 20 videos of 2009

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Publicists Featured On CMA Industry InSite

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cma-logoUnderstanding the importance of publicity is the focus of the latest installment of CMA Industry InSite, an online educational series, which is now available on CMA’s member Web site, My.CMAworld.com.

The eighth episode, “Publicity – The Portal to the People,” is available now and features interviews with Mary Hilliard Harrington, President, The Greenroom; Dixie Owen, Sr. Director, Media & Public Relations, Capitol Records Nashville; Wes Vause, Vice President Media, Sony Music Nashville; and Jeff Walker, President, AristoMedia/Marco Music Group.

The series is part of CMA’s ongoing strategic mission of being a resource for the Country Music industry. The Association launched the monthly online educational series in May. The series is an exclusive benefit for members of CMA.

Episodes are posted on the third Monday of the month. With each new episode, CMA members are able to submit questions to the panel of experts. Each segment, which is roughly 10 minutes long, is archived for easy access at any time.

Gokey Album Coming In March

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danny gokey19 Recordings/RCA Nashville is planning an early March release of the debut album by Danny Gokey. The American Idol finalist’s first single, “My Best Days Are Ahead of Me,” is at radio now, and the album will be called My Best Days.

The digital single is available this week for the first time, and listeners can stream the track on the recently launched dannygokey.com.

Today’s (12/23) issue of USA Today highlights Gokey and his special online performance of “O Holy Night.” The song is available on the newspaper’s Web site for a limited time.

Over the holidays, Gokey is confirmed to sing the national anthem prior to the 1:00 p.m. ET FOX network broadcast of the Green Bay Packers/Seattle Seahawks game on Sunday, December 27.

Jimmy Wayne To Walk Halfway Across US For Homeless

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jimmy wayneJimmy Wayne is on a crusade for the homeless. The singer plans to walk from Nashville to Phoenix to raise funds and awareness for at-risk individuals, particularly youth and young adults. He will sleep outdoors and in shelters along the way.

His journey—called the “Meet Me Halfway” campaign because he is walking halfway across the country—will start on New Year’s Day at Nashville youth services organization Monroe Harding.

Wayne says his journey is inspired by his teen years, during which he experienced homelessness, and was spurred on the nation’s recent economic downturn which has given rise to the number of people without a safe place to sleep.

“I realize beginning a mission like this in the dead of winter and walking through the middle of the country is going to be difficult, but I hope and pray I am up to the challenge,” Wayne said. “But that’s what the homeless are dealing with each and every winter they go without a home of their own.” Marmot Sportswear is providing Wayne with essential cold weather clothing.

As a teen growing up in North Carolina, Wayne occasionally found himself homeless. He was shuffled between shelters and foster care until an older couple took him in and changed his life at age 16.

Wayne has selected HomeBase Youth Services in Phoenix, where he will end his trip, as the recipient of donations because of the work they do with homeless young adults (age 18–21).

According to Google Maps, walking the more than 1660 miles from Nashville to Phoenix would take at least 22 days.

Read more about “Meet Me Halfway” at www.jimmywayne.com.

Alive at The Bluebird Series Returns

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Amy Grant

Amy Grant

More than 70 songwriters are set to perform in the 17th annual Alive at The Bluebird concert series this January. Many artists and writers who have long supported the benefit for Alive Hospice are returning in 2010, including Amy Grant, Suzy Bogguss, Doug Crider, Kathy Mattea, Jon Vezner, Kim Carnes, Matraca Berg, Becky Hobbs, Benita Hill, Kent Blazy, Gary Burr, Jim Photoglo, Kasey Jones, and Allen Shamblin.

The series will run Tuesdays through Saturdays in January at the Bluebird Café. Opening night is Jan. 2 at 9:30 p.m. with performances by Tony Arata, Pat Alger, Ralph Murphy and Bat McGrath.

Alive Hospice provides end-of-life care and bereavement support services in 12 Middle Tennessee counties. Funding from this concert series will help the nonprofit agency provide comfort to uninsured and underinsured patients who face life-threatening illnesses and limited life-expectancies.

Admission to most shows will range from about $8-20, depending on the show. Schedule, prices and reservations at www.bluebirdcafe.com or by calling The Bluebird Café at 615-383-1461.

Swift, Lady A Set For Grammy Performances

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taylor_swift_13557Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum are among the first performers announced for the Grammy Awards airing Sun., Jan. 31, 2010. They will join fellow nominees Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, and Maxwell, in performing at the 52nd Annual event, taking place at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

Swift will vie for eight awards that night: Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year (with Liz Rose), and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “You Belong With Me”; Album Of The Year and Best Country Album for Fearless; Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for “Breathe” (with Colbie Caillat); and Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song (with Liz Rose) for “White Horse.”
lady-a

Lady Antebellum is nominated in two categories: Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals and Best Country Song (with Tom Douglas) for “I Run To You.”

Ten-time Grammy winner Beyoncé leads with 10 nominations. Three-time winners the Black Eyed Peas are up for six awards, as is Maxwell.

Music fans can upload a 20-second video of themselves singing along to a portion of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” for a chance to have their video appear as part of the Peas’ performance on Music’s Biggest Night®. Videos may be uploaded here through Jan. 15, 2010.

Additional performers, presenters and special segments will be announced soon.

The show also will be supported on radio via Westwood One worldwide, and covered online at GRAMMY.com and CBS.com, and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/thegrammys.

Break-In at Charlie Daniels Museum

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From the City Paper:

Metro Police are continuing their investigation into an early morning burglary at the Charlie Daniels Band Museum downtown on Second Avenue.

Thieves grabbed $200 from the museum’s cash register but did not steal any of the band’s memorabilia, police said. Click here for more.

Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Gets UK Approval

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live nation TMThe UK Competition Commission today (12/22) approved the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, propelling the deal one another step closer to completion. Amid antitrust inquiries, the United States and Canada have yet to sign off on the merger. However, both companies remain optimistic there will be a successful outcome.

A statement from the U.K. Competition Commission said, “the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in the market for live music ticket retailing or in any other market in the U.K., including live music promotion and live music venues.” UK clearance follows regulatory approval in Norway and Turkey.

Live Nation announced plans to buy Ticketmaster Entertainment for about $400 million in stock in February. This news came not long after Live Nation launched its own ticketing service, and signed multimillion dollar 360 deals with superstars including Jay-Z and Madonna.

Ticketmaster holds a majority stake in Front Line Management, which in turns has partnerships with several top Nashville managers, including Dale Morris & Associates (Kenny Chesney), DS Management (Alison Krauss), and Spalding Entertainment (Brooks & Dunn, Jason Aldean).

Opponents of the merger argue that Live Nation Ticketmaster would have a monopoly on the touring industry. They say the combined company would have control over a large share of the ticketing market, many of the country’s major venues, and would have ties to numerous superstar artists.

Underwood Gets Engaged, Earns Top Country Album of Decade

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carrie uCarrie Underwood is engaged to hockey player Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators. He shared the news with his hometown newspaper the Ottawa Sun today (12/21), adding that he proposed yesterday. Underwood’s publicist Jessie Schmidt says the news is true: “I’m happy to confirm Carrie Underwood is engaged to Mike Fisher, and the couple couldn’t be happier. No wedding date has been set at this time.”

mikeThe Sun reports that Underwood was in Ottawa through the weekend and cheered on Fisher’s team as they beat the Minnesota Wild Saturday. The couple has been dating for approximately a year.

Also this week, Billboard named Underwood’s Some Hearts the Top Country Album of the Decade.

The 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville hit-maker’s TV appearances this week include an encore airing of Carrie Underwood: An All-American Holiday Special on Fox, Tuesday, December 22, 8-10 pm/7-9 pm Central and A Home For The Holidays on CBS, Wednesday, December 23, 8-9 pm/7-9 pm Central. On both shows, she will perform her current single, “Temporary Home,” which she co-penned with Luke Laird and Zac Maloy.