Country music’s top artists and celebrities from all facets of entertainment will gather for an evening of star-studded performances, tributes and camaraderie in celebration of the first ever, CMT Artists of the Year, a 90-minute special premiering Friday, December 3 on CMT. Performers and host to be announced.

CMT Artists of the Year will recognize five of the year’s top acts based on album and download sales, radio airplay, online activity and touring. The evening will also include multiple musical performances from the country world and beyond. Taping in Nashville, CMT Artists of the Year will take place in an elegant, yet relaxed setting that allows attendees to kick back, cut loose and enjoy the show.

“Make no mistake: This is not an awards show or a competition, but a year-end party on a grand scale,” said John Hamlin, senior vice president, music events and talent, CMT. “CMT Artists of the Year celebrates the artists that made this year a great one for country music. It’s their night because it’s been their year and they deserve to be wined, dined and entertained like no other evening anywhere else.”

CMT Artists of the Year is produced by Audrey Morrissey and Chad Hines. Hamlin and Margaret Comeaux serve as executive producers for CMT.

Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives celebrated the release of their new album, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions, with an SRO performance at Nashville’s Belcourt Theater last night (8/25). The perfectly paced show featured plenty of virtuosic mandolin and guitar picking from traditionalist Stuart and showcased his Superlatives – guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson, bassist Paul Martin and steel guitarist Gary Carter. From full-band country workouts like “Tempted” to harmony-soaked, a capella gospel numbers like “Working On A Building,” the Superlatives more than lived up to Stuart’s description as “the best hillbilly band in town.” (photo by www.izzynashville.com)

L-R: Marty Stuart, Harry Stinson and Paul Martin

Grand Ole Opry officials today announced that the show, displaced from its permanent home due to May’s historic Nashville flood, will return to the Grand Ole Opry House with a star-packed show Tues., Sept. 28. Among the artists scheduled for the show are Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Charlie Daniels Band, Diamond Rio, Jimmy Dickens, Del McCoury Band, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, Mel Tillis, and Josh Turner.

The show will air live on GAC: Great American Country. Special events and artist appearances will follow throughout October in celebration of both the show’s return and its 85th Birthday.

The announcement came just before the Opry House’s signature element, a six-foot circle of oak wood taken from the historic Ryman Auditorium when the show moved to the Grand Ole Opry House in 1974, was returned this morning to its home center stage at the Opry House. The circle, along with the full Opry stage, had been covered by 46 inches of water during May’s flood. Rescued immediately after waters receded from the Opry House, the circle has been painstakingly refurbished. The country music treasure was placed in its rightful spot with assistance from Dickens and Paisley. The two Opry members then took to the circle behind an Opry microphone stand for an acoustic performance of the country classic “Will the Circle be Unbroken.”

“It is the best feeling in the world to see our beloved circle back home,” said Grand Ole Opry Group President Steve Buchanan. “We can not wait for the curtain to go up as we launch a new chapter in the Opry’s history on September 28, just in time to celebrate our 85th birthday. There is no doubt the next two months are going to be some of the most memorable and emotional ever for our performers and fans.”

“It is as it should be,” said Paisley. “That circle means the world to all of us who love country music. I’ve always said that the circle still contains the dust from Hank Williams’ cowboy boots. Well now it contains that dust, but also the heart and soul of this town and all the people who have worked to rise above this spring’s floods. I know I speak for all my fellow Opry members when I say, ‘we are so excited to come home!’”

The Opry has not missed a single show since the flood, broadcasting from several Nashville venues including former Opry homes the Ryman Auditorium and the War Memorial Auditorium.

(L-R): BMS/Chace COO John Sarappo; DDEX Secretariat Niels Rump; Producers & Engineers Wing Sr. Executive Director Maureen Droney; and BMS/Chace President John Spencer. (Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy)

A three-way partnership between The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, BMS/Chase and the Library of Congress has yielded a standardized approach and software model for gathering and managing metadata for recorded music. Computers love metadata, information about files, embedded in those files. In this case it’s the information about tracks, musicians, song titles, producer, engineer credits and more.

The resulting standard, dubbed CCD (Content Creator Data), and accompanying studio collection application, were previewed June 14 and 15, 2010, in New York City at the DDEX (Digital Data Exchange, LLC) Plenary and NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Digital Task Force meetings. The application is designed to be an integral part of the recording process from a work’s inception. The resulting metadata can remain linked with a recording through subsequent filing of e-copyright and point of sale. It will also interface with other open standard systems in publishing and e-commerce.

This open-source, open-standard application is on track to be widely available in 2011 and has been garnering great interest in the recording community. The intent of the project is to harmonize with existing work from SMPTE, DDEX, AES and other relevant standards organizations to create a compatible metadata environment that includes common business-related fields such as ISRC codes, official song titles, producer and engineer credits, performers and copyright ownership. Other partners in the project include Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Disney Music Group.

“We see this project as a huge step forward,” said Maureen Droney, Senior Executive Director of the Producers & Engineers Wing. “It’s essential to incorporate metadata gathering into the actual recording process, where recording personnel have accurate information about the content contributors: what musicians played, what takes were used, who engineered, etc. This application provides a standardized way to gather that data and to make it easily flow upstream.”

States BMS/Chace President John Spencer, “It is the first attempt to bring documentation of commercial recordings into the 21st century and to actively work with standards organizations to promote a unified metadata environment. CCD puts the collection of metadata where it is most accurate, at the actual genesis of the recording process, and it is accessible to all content creators, whether they are recording in a multi-room commercial facility or a home studio. Proper metadata and crediting are invaluable from a historical perspective, for archiving and repurposing, and ultimately, for connecting those who participate in the royalty stream — in other words, getting people paid.”

The application is being shown at meetings held at The Recording Academy’s Santa Monica headquarters, as well as Chapter offices in Nashville and New York City, during the month of August. After testing, which is scheduled to be completed by the beginning of 2011, the application will be available at no charge via a simple registration and download process, with the underlying metadata schema published and freely available.