“God bless the working man,” sings Alan Jackson in “Hard Hat and a Hammer,” the latest hit single from his acclaimed Freight Train album.  Award-winning director Theresa Wingert (Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Taylor Swift) traveled all across the Southeast to film real working men and women on construction sites and in mines, at fire stations and in restaurants, to star with Jackson in the new video for “Hard Hat and a Hammer,” which makes its world premier this Friday, June 18, on CMT’s Big New Music Weekend.

Wingert captured imagery of Americans “getting the job done” as a celebration of the great workforce that is “the glue that keeps the world together.” Featured are miners from Stilhouse mining in Benham, KY, workers from the Bayou La Batre, AL shipyard, railroad workers from TRR Railroad in Mobile and more. She filmed at paper mills, foundries, taxi stands, Nashville’s Fire Station No. 16 and Bar-B-Cutie and more than a dozen other locations.

“Hard Hat and a Hammer” is the latest of Jackson’s songs to honor his working class roots and family upbringing. Last month he honored the fallen miners and rescue workers from April’s Upper Big Branch mining disaster with a benefit concert performance at the Charleston, WV Civic Center. The 31 families affected and 230 rescue workers who were on site at the mining disaster were offered free tickets to the show. Jackson met with the families who lost loved ones and raised over $150,000 for the Montcoal Mining Disaster Fund.

Just last week, Billboard Magazine announced that Jackson was voted in the top 5 of the top 25 country artists of the last 25 years.

VIDEO LOCATIONS:
Rock Slide, TN
Stilhouse Mining, Benham, KY
Yeehaw Industries (printing press), Knoxville, TN
Domtar Paper Mill, Kingsport, TN
Golden’s On The Square, Newnan, GA
Royale Cafe, Columbus, GA
Golden Foundry, Columbus, GA
All State Port Authority, Mobile, AL
Shipyard in Bayou La Batre, AL
TRR Railroad, Mobile, AL
Farmers Market, Nashville
Nashville Fire Station No. 16
Johnson’s Hardware, Nashville, TN
Nashville Yellow Cab
Nashville Intercity Ministry
Bar-B-Cutie, Nashville

On July 27 Rounder Records will release the soundtrack to Sony Pictures Classics’ Get Low. The soundtrack features new material recorded especially for the film by Rounder artists Alison Krauss – her first new track since 2007’s A Hundred Miles or More – and The SteelDrivers (the latter also appear in the movie).  Academy Award winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (Finding Neverland) and 12-time Grammy-winning dobro player Jerry Douglas wrote the scores, while the rest of the soundtrack includes vintage tracks from The Ink Spots, Gene Austin, Paul Whiteman and Bix Beiderbecke.

Starring Academy Award winner Robert Duvall, Golden Globe winner Bill Murray, Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black, Get Low is based on the true story of Felix “Bush” Breazeale – a Tennessee recluse who planned his own funeral while he was still alive and could enjoy it. To draw a crowd, Breazeale sold lottery tickets offering his valuable plot of land as the prize, and the ploy worked. The “living funeral” commanded national attention and in the end it was said that as many as 12,000 “mourners” from at least 14 different states showed up on June 26, 1938, including a Life Magazine photographer and major newspaper reporters – to pay their respects to Breazeale as he watched it all transpire.

The SteelDrivers will also be releasing their much anticipated sophomore release, Reckless, September 14 on Rounder Records.

Get Low Track Listing:
1. Lay My Burden Down – Alison Krauss
2. If I Didn’t Care – The Ink Spots
3. Jesus Come For Me – The SteelDrivers
4. Sitting Mule/Drive to Town ‐ Score – Jerry Douglas
5. Drive to Town for Clothes ‐ Score – Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan
6. No Haircut ‐ Score – Jerry Douglas
7. Farewell Blues – Paul Whiteman
8. Monkey Bay – Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer & Russ Barenberg
9. Whiskey Before Breakfast – The SteelDrivers
10. East Virginia Fast – The SteelDrivers
11. North ‐ Score – Jerry Douglas
12. Bush Shows Maddie Around ‐ Score
13. Angelina Baker – The SteelDrivers
14. The Mystery of Felix ‐ Score
15. I’m Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover ‐ Bix Beiderbecke (aka Billy Murray & Jean Goldkette Orchestra)
16. My Blue Heaven – Gene Austin

Some of country music’s most authentic voices pay tribute to the enduring legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd with Sweet Home Alabama – The Country Music Tribute To Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Balancing the band’s bedrock southern rock and outlaw country roots,  Sweet Home Alabama – The Country Music Tribute To Lynyrd Skynyrd is a distinctive collection of many of the band’s most iconic tracks by artists including Eric Church, Randy Houser, Shooter Jennings, Jamey Johnson, Uncle Kracker, Randy Montana, Ashley Ray and Eli Young Band. The album was produced by Jay Joyce.

Houser delivers a soulful rendition of “Simple Man,” while Eli Young Band offers up a raucous version of “Three Steps,” both from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s groundbreaking debut. Johnson keeps with tradition on the dobro-laced “Four Walls of Raiford,” and Church’s smoky vocals are front and center on the powerfully evocative tale, “The Ballad of Curtis Loew.” The 8-song compilation will be released exclusively through Wal-Mart stores on July 20.

More than 25 years after the release of their debut album (pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd), Lynyrd Skynyrd’s legacy remains irrefutable. The band has cataloged over 60 albums with sales of more than 30 million with 13 platinum or multi-platinum albums. The list of artists influenced by Lynyrd Skynyrd includes everyone from Blues Traveler to Metallica to Montgomery Gentry to Kid Rock.

Sweet Home Alabama – The Country Music Tribute To Lynyrd Skynyrd track listing:

1.   “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew” Performed by Eric Church
2.   “Simple Man” Performed by Randy Houser
3.   “All I Can Do Is Write About It” Performed by Uncle Kracker
4.   “Call Me The Breeze” Performed by Shooter Jennings
5.    “Four Walls Of Raiford” Performed by Jamey Johnson
6.    “Tuesday’s Gone” Performed by Randy Montana
7.    “Gimme Three Steps” Performed by Eli Young Band
8.    “Sweet Home Alabama” Performed by Ashley Ray

Ricky Skaggs and Gordon Kennedy Perform at the Dove Awards

With his new album, Mosaic, due on August 24 from Skaggs Family Records, 14-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs is back with a full band sound. Following an unparalleled string of success in country music in the 1980s and early ‘90s, including eight CMA Awards (1985 Entertainer of the Year), Platinum records and a performance at the Grammys, Skaggs created Skaggs Family Records in 1997 and for the next 13 years focused almost exclusively on bluegrass and acoustic-based music.

For Mosaic, Skaggs worked closely with fellow Grammy winner Gordon Kennedy, known for his work with Eric Clapton, Garth Brooks and Bonnie Raitt, to create an album that mixes elements of country music with Beatles-esque melodies and lyrics that speak to Skaggs’ faith, resulting in what the singer describes as “music that is in my head and in my heart.”

The album’s title track signals all to realize that no matter how small we feel sometimes, we all have a unique place in life. “Someday Soon” opens with banjo and piano over a sturdy drum beat before kicking into a catchy chorus. Ethereal keys, hand drums, a 12-member choir and electric guitar played by rock star Peter Frampton kick off album standout “My Cup Runneth Over,” while “Picture” has a lush sound accented by strings and hammered dulcimer. “Return to Sender” features an orchestra and vocals from Tommy Sims.

The new musical partnership between Skaggs and Sims is the latest in a 50-year journey that has seen Skaggs work with everyone from Bill Monroe to Jack White.

Comedian Paul Harris joined the ranks as a performer on the LP Field Stage on Sunday, June 13 to close out the sold out 2010 CMA Music Festival. In his debut appearance at the festival, Harris entertained a crowd of 40,000-plus fans that had spent the last four days enjoying country music’s hottest entertainers. His comedy reached through and quickly grabbed the audience and he held them throughout the evening.

“I got the call from my managers that I had been asked to perform on CMA Music Fest and I knew I was dreaming,” says Harris. “I have been performing stand up and fronting my bluegrass group The Cleverlys for years, but this was out of the ball park for me. The biggest crowd I had been in front of was around 6,000 and to walk out there on that stage and see 40,000 people; wow is all I can say. The experience was great, the fans, the artists and the organizers all made me feel so welcome. I am still reeling.”

Harris is currently heading back to Missouri for this week’s performances at the Music City Centre in Branson.