Rascal Flatts on TV - WHERE?

"Unstoppable" is in stores now and Rascal Flatts is all around your TV promoting it.

Look for them today on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Tuesday - They're on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" results show.

April 16th - They'll be on Fox News Channel's "Hannity," and CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman"

George Strait's Brother Found Dead

My thoughts and prayers go out to George Strait and his family. John "Buddy" Strait was found Friday morning in a Texas Hotel room by the cleaning crew. The Bexar (Bear) County deputies believe he died from natural causes, but an autopsy was scheduled for the weekend to determine the exact cause of death. John is two years older than George, who was just honored as the Academy of Country Music's Artist of the Decade, and he just celebrated his 57th number one song with "River of Love." George and his family are asking for privacy at this time.

ACM AWARDS

And the Winners are...

Entertainer of the Year
Carrie Underwood - the first female to win the award since The Dixie Chicks in 2000 - she is only the 7th woman to have won Entertainer of the Year!

Top New Artist
Julianne Hough

Top Female Artist
Carrie Underwood - 3rd in a row!

Top Male Artist
Brad Paisley -3rd in a row!


Top Vocal Group
Rascal Flatts - 7th in a row! They have now surpassed their heroes Alabama who had won 6 in a row!

Song of the Year
"In Color" - Jamey Johnson (James Otto was a cowriter)

Single of the Year
"You're Gonna Miss This" - Trace Adkins

Album of the Year
"Fearless" by Taylor Swift


I confess that when Matthew McConaughey walked on the stage to introduce the Entertainer of the Year I rolled my eyes. He's got a movie coming out so he's there to promote it, and truth be told, I hate that about these awards. I mean, so what he has a movie coming out? It's an award show for country music and I hate when the network running it puts presenters in to promote their own shows (hello Jennifer Love Hewitt of CBS's Ghost Whisperer - can I tell you that I hate what you've done with the show this year so I stopped watching when you killed Jim, and IDK how you've brought him back!).

Well Matthew proved to be the highlight of the show. I really don't know if he went off script or what, but it was pure gold!



The show had a fantastic opening last night with Brooks & Dunn performing "Play Something Country" that they wove inbetween Taylor Swift's "Picture to Burn," Sugarland "It Happens," Carrie Underwood's "All-American Girl," and Rascal Flatts "Me and My Gang."





Probably the most poignent moment of the show last night was Trace Adkins performing with The West Point Glee Club on his song from his CD "X" "'Til the Last Shot's Fired." You can download the performance at itunes right now with the proceeds benefiting the wounded warrier charity.



Many great performances last night including one from Top Male Vocalist Nominee Toby Keith of his last number one "God Love Her."





Taylor Swift had a very 'magical' introduction to sing her new song "You're Not Sorry" via David Copperfield (who really should not wear a black cowboy hat like that again - seriously dude, not your look - next time try one like Toby's).




After her performance Taylor got a special award.





Carrie performed her current hit "I Told You So" in a very secretly guarded dress. She said we would either love it or think it was "weird." I thought it was both! LOL




Keith Urban performed his hot new song "Kiss a Girl" from his hot new CD "Defying Gravity."




Billy Ray Cyrus introduced his daughter Miley for her fun performance of her new song "The Climb" from the Hannah Montana Movie that is in theaters this Friday.




One of my fav performances from last night was, of course, Sugarland and their song "What I'd Give."





It was a great show last night and I found this of the best moments to share with you.




One of the surprise performances last night was Blake Shelton's "She Wouldn't Be Gone." Blake was a last minute fill in for Tim McGraw. Something happened during rehearsal Saturday night that caused Tim to walk out and his management to remove him from the lineup. I will let you know as soon as I find out what happened. Tim will be part of the tribute to George Strait in the ACM Artist of the Decade tribute concert that is being taped today and will air May 27th on CBS.

WELCOME TO ACM WEEK!!

The Academy of Country Music Awards are Sunday at 7pm on CBS.

Reba McEntire is hosting for a record 11th time.

This is where you can find ACM Scoopage. Make sure to click on the ACM icon on the side to take you to the ACM site.


The 2009 ACM Award Nominees are...
(My picks will be in this lovely shade - in italics:)

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Kenny Chesney (2008 winner)
Braid Paisley
George Strait
Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban (Go ahead Keith Urban - prove me wrong:)
** This is a fan voted award so click on the ACM icon on the left and you can vote

TOP MALE VOCALIST
Kenny Chesney
Toby Keith (????? - I know I just thought this last album really showcased his fab voice again)
Brad Paisley (2008 winner)
George Strait
Keith Urban

TOP FEMALE VOCALIST
Miranda Lambert
Heidi Newfield
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood (2008 winner) [It is still her year!]
Lee Ann Womack

TOP VOCAL GROUP
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts (2008 winner) [I think that they are still the leaders of this group]
Randy Rogers Band
The Lost Trailers

TOP VOCAL DUO
Big & Rich
Brooks & Dunn (2008 winner)
They have won this award 15 times - there have only been three years that they have not won! Last year was the 9th consecutive year that they won.
Joey + Rory
Montgomery Gentry
Sugarland

SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR [Award to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company]
"Gunpowder & Lead" - Miranda Lambert
"In Color" - Jamey Johbnson
"Johnny & June" - Heidi Newfield
"Waitin' on a Woman" - Brad Paisley
"You're Gonna Miss This" - Trace Adkins

SONG OF THE YEAR [Award to Composer(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)]
"I Saw God Today" - George Strait
writers: Rodney Clawson, Monty Criswell, Wade Kirby
"In Color" - Jamey Johnson
writers: Jamey Johnson, Lee Thomas Miller, James Otto
"Johnny & June" - Heidi Newfield
writers: Deanna Bryant, Heidi Newfieild, Stephony Smith
"Waitin' on a Woman" - Brad Paisley
writers: Don Sampson, Wynn Varble
"You're Gonna Miss This" - Trace Adkins
writers: Ashley gorley, Lee Thomas Miller

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
George Strait - Troubadour
Jamey Johnson - High Lonesome Sound
Taylor Swift - Fearless
Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride
Montgomery Gentry - Back When I Knew It All

VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR
"Another Try" - Josh Turner featuring Trisha Yearwood
"Cowgirls Don't Cry" - Brooks & Dunn featurning Reba McEntire
"Down the Road" - Kenny Chesney with Mac McAnally
"Life in a Northern Town" - Sugarland featuring Little Big Town & Jake Owen
"Start a Band" - Brad Paisley duet with Keith Urban ** - winner (announced early)





TOP NEW MALE VOCALIST
Jamey Johnson
James Otto
Jake Owen - fan voted winner

TOP NEW FEMALE VOCALIST
Sarah Buxton
Julianne Hough - fan voted winner
Ashton Shepherd

TOP NEW DUO OR GROUP
Eli Young Band
The Lost Trailers - congrats to lead guitarist Stokes Nielson and his wife Maria who are expecting their 2nd child to follow 18 month old Averly. The baby is due July 4th.
Zac Brown Band - fan voted winner

From the TOP NEW MALE, FEMALE, AND DUO or GROUP nominees, the fan voted winners will vie for the TOP NEW ARTIST AWARD.

So, competing for...
TOP NEW ARTIST
Jake Owen
Julianne Hough
Zac Brown Band

PERFORMERS ON THE SHOW
Toby Keith
Rascal Flatts
Taylor Swift
Miranda Lambert
Tim McGraw
Heidi Newfield
Sugarland
Reba McEntire - sings her new single "Strange"
Miley Cyrus - sings her new single "The Climb" - it's her ACM debut
Lady Antebellum
John Rich
Lee Ann Womack
Garth Brooks
George Strait
Kenny Chesney
Carrie Underwood
LeAnn Rimes
Brooks & Dunn
Rodney Atkins
Trace Adkins **
Montgomery Gentry
Dolly Parton
Kellie Pickler
Brad Paisley
Keith Urban

** Trace is teaming up with the West Point Glee Club on "'Til the Last Shot's Fired" from his "X" album. You can download the performance with all the profits going to the Wounded Warrior Project thru iTunes. Trace calls it, "a privilege to perform this song with such a distinguished choir for the great servicemen and women in whose honor it was writen. We should always let our military know how much we appreciate them putting their lives on the line for us every day. The WWP provides an incredible service to those wounded in combat, so it's an honor to donate proceeds of the performance downloads to support this important and worthy charity."


PRESENTERS
Clint Black
Sara Evans
Jewel
Brooks & Dunn
Little Big Town
Lady Antebellum
Brad Mates (of Emerson Drive)
John Rich
Carrie Underwood
Randy Owen
Clay Walker
Trisha Yearwood
Martina McBride
Dierks Bentley
Kellie Pickler
Billy Ray Cyrus
Darius Rucker

The winner of the Video of the Year has been announced.

Nominees for VIDEO OF THE YEAR
"Johnny & June" - Heidi Newfield
"Just a Dream" - Carrie Underwood
"Love Story" - Taylor Swift
"Troubadour" - George Strait

And the winner is....
"Waitin' On a Woman" - Brad Paisley

Watch it here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvKgnkIN8C8

American Idol Results

Shocker!!! Alexis went home!!! I know most people thought it was going to be Michael when they saw the final two! Craig (Warmbold) and I were talking about how shocked he was to see Allison in the bottom 3, but the fact is Idol didn't feature Allison at all until The Top 36, so she hasn't had the chance to develop a fan base like some of the others. Idol wasted too much time on jokes like Tatiana and Norma (don't get me wrong - I thought Tatiana could sing, but she was a fake drama queen, and I loved Norman, but neither had a chance to make it into the Top 12). I would be a bit miffed if I were the very talented Allison.

OK - I don't normally watch the Idol results show. I can't stand the fill. Plus, I am a LOST addict (therefore I must record it even when watching live), and I love Life (on NBC) so I don't waste my time on the results show except to channel surf over during commercials (and really that usually works out well for me ). But last night I wanted to watch the performances (Brad, Carrie and Randy - how could I not?) so I suffered. And boy it was painful.

That stupid group sing of T-R-O-U-B-L-E was...stupid. That is not a song meant for a group to sing (I thought they all sounded fine). It is meant for a guy to sing solo (and maybe it's the one Michael should have sang Tuesday!) not a bunch of guys and girls together. To me it had a creepy Partridge Family vibe. LOL

Brad Paisley debuted his brand new single "Then" (it was the first time the song was heard on national TV) and it was amazing. I didn't think it sounded that great because I thought his vocals were drowned out by the music, but the song itself was a swooner! (And Craig grabbed it off of itunes for me so we are now playing it on WXRO - request away!) I think it's gonna shoot up to number one for him. It is the leadoff single from his American Saturday Night album.

YouTube doesn't have the performance up from the show (perhaps for the reasons I sited), but there was something up there with the song, so I am posting that for you to watch/listen to.



Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis knocked it out of the park with their duet of "I Told You So." The fab Sharon who works here thought Randy would just look at Carrie with pride and amazement. I think she was right, but you can be the judge.

American Idol Goes Country

Randy Travis was the mentor last night (he has a new Greatest Hits in stores "I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits of Randy Travis"). I thought he did a great job.

just had to post some of the shows performances from last night.

I'm going to start with what I thought was the worst of the night. In my house, we laughed thru the entire thing! And then when we heard the recap we laughed hysterically again. Kara said she kind of liked it and I found a quote from a blog that I thought was a great description of the song, "seductively weird." I completely agree with Simon thou - it was "indulgent nonsense." Here it is.





Here's "hometown" guy Danny Gokey's take on "Jesus Take the Wheel." I thought the beginning was rough, but he brought it home nicely! I loved how he was so nervous to meet Randy that he kept screwing up!



One of my top picks last night was Anoop's version of "Always on My Mind." Just a stellar version!



Allison Iraheta is something else! She has a wonderfully original voice. She sang Patty Loveless's "Blame It On Your Heart."



I'm not going to put up all the performances - but wanted to add one more - my fav of the night - Kris Allen singing one of my fav songs. The Bob Dylan penned Garth Brooks romantic song from Hope Floats "To Make You Feel My Love." Kris was amazing!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

May the Road Rise up to Meet Your Feet!




May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live!




There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be.