94.5 COUNTRY NEWS Taylor Teaming Up With Adam? Adam Young - of synthpop musical project Owl City fame - is a big fan of Taylor Swift. He reveals to buzznet.com what he thinks is the best love song, naming "'Love Story' by Taylor Swift." Taylor appears to like Adam's music as well, considering that – when he played New York's Bowery Ballroom last year – Swift tweeted him, "If I was in town, I'd be there! Front row, super-fan style." In the end, Taylor ended up making the concert and was spotted in the VIP section. So any chance of Taylor appearing on Young's next album? Adam shares with HitFix.com, "I have talked to her. She's so busy, but she said if there's time, she said it'd be lot of fun. There's this weird hybrid country song I'm working on. There's no title because I haven't made any lyrics yet. But that would be the one."
Joe On Heather & Fertility Treatments Joe Nichols is featured in Ladies Home Journal online. Joe reveals that the most powerful lady in his eyes is his wife, Heather Singleton. Joe, who has been open about his past substance abuse treatment, shares, "She's a very strong woman. She's tough as nails. I've seen her take a very impossible situation - me - and work with it. She's actually tough enough to look me in the face and say, 'No, you're not going to get away with that.' ...And I think a lot of my success, especially my latter success, is because of her."
Nichols also chats about having openly discussed fertility testing on ABC's The View. (He joked about providing samples, saying he left the TV in his private room on a gardening show when he was done, just to have some fun with the nurses.) Joe admits Heather is still embarrassed by it a little bit. He adds, "You know, you've gotta poke fun at that kind of thing because it's such an uptight situation. Everybody's already so uncomfortable. You gotta laugh it off." Nichols shares an update that they are making sure every little thing is done according to plan, so that makes it a slower process. He adds, "We just want to make sure we're both healthy and able to do everything right. So all things look good and we’re just waiting on God to do the rest."
Impressive Debut For Niemann
The jury is in and newcomer Jerrod Niemann has the #1 country album in the nation as Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury tallies first-week sales approaching 34,000 copies, breaking Lady Antebellum's six-month streak atop the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Jerrod's new album becomes only the second country album to debut at #1 this year and the first by any male country artist in 2010. One of only three albums this year to earn the #1 spot on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, the album also scores an impressive debut on the all-genre Billboard 200 album sales chart, where it enters at #7.
Rounding out the Top 5 on the Country Albums chart are Lady Antebellum's Need You Now at #2 and Zac Brown Band's The Foundation at #3, followed by Miranda Lambert's Revolution in the #4 spot and Carrie Underwood's Play On lands in fifth place.
Daddyhood When Dierks Bentley became a dad a couple of years ago to daughter Evie, his life simply changed forever. Having taken a quick vacation earlier this month with the family, Dierks admits he didn't feel like he vacationed much. He says, "I was in San Diego for a couple days of vacation. Vacation was, you know, to make you believe like you're relaxing on your own free time, chilling out a lot. That's not really the case when you've got a little girl." So, does it make Dierks ponder going on vacation without his baby girl, Evie? Not really. He says, "You never sleep the same after having a kid even [if she's] with your mother-in-law or whoever. You're always still worried, thinking about it, you know? It's tough."
Songwriting Man Shortly after the death of legendary songwriter Hank Cochran, Toby Keith spoke with Saskatchewan Canada's The Leader Post about the man who penned Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces." Keith said of Cochran's days in country music, "You know, Hank and those boys were just writing country songs. They only had to work with that genre. There wasn't a bunch of people coming from the outside, trying to cut a pop record and put steel guitars on it. In his day, Hank Cochran - along with Harlan Howard - was probably the most prolific songwriter. So the songwriters who are into the traditional country smashes, the classic songs, all owe a great deal of debt to the Harlan Howards and Hank Cochrans of the world."
Keith also shared that early on in his life he found himself drawn to the songs of Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Charlie Daniels, Bob Seger, Merle Haggard and Billy Joel, among others. Toby said, "They write their own songs. You look at the people who span three or four decades in country music, and can still go out today and sell tickets. They're all writers."
Otto's Country Soul Declaration
James Otto is stoked about his self-titled, upcoming record. He shares with AOL's The Boot, "This is a declaration of who I am. This country-soul sound is where we're going, and if you like it, this is for you." The first single off the album is "Groovy Little Summer Song," which is currently making its way up the country charts. Otto reveals about the tune, "It celebrates everything I love about summer, and it was the perfect first single, because it really sets the tone for the whole record." Referring to another song on the CD, he reveals, "I have a really cool collaboration on this album with Ronnie Milsap on a song called 'Good Thing Gone Bad.' That was one of my favorite parts of making this record - being able to collaborate with one of my favorite artists of all time, a guy I consider the godfather of country soul. He's the guy I point to most often when I bring up my style of music, because he is the guy who bridged the gap between those types of music." So what's his wife Amy's favorite tune on the album? James shares, "'Soldiers and Jesus.' It's a really powerful song, something that only comes along once in a while and really moves people. It's about the only two people who ever died for me, soldiers and Jesus. It's really resonated with the country fan base." Look for Otto's new CD to drop this September.
Five Things You Didn't Know About Azar
Steve Azar is opening up about five things that you didn't know about him in GAC's "5 Things About Steve Azar." First on the list, Steve shares, "I love to cook, beyond yours and my wildest imagination, I would have loved to have been a chef." Second, he reveals, "I don't love golf as much as everybody thinks I do. I used to really love the game, but it's in perspective now." Moving on to #3 on the list, Azar admits, "I would have loved to have been a hooper, playing basketball. I'm not short – I'm around six foot – but it wasn't tall enough to be taking it to any other level past high school." Steve says for #4, "I'm not a great driver. In Mississipi, I hold the first and second rankings as the worst two drivers in the state of Mississippi." As for the fifth thing you didn't know about Azar, he reveals, "I don't like being on the back of the bus. It's a lonely place and it's a lot of wasted time."
Wilson Helps High School Dropouts
Gretchen Wilson has teamed up with The Advertising Council and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to launch a national public service advertising campaign, designed to help pave the way for high school dropouts to get their GED Diplomas. Gretchen, a campaign spokesperson, dropped out of school at 15 and received her GED at the age of 34. Since then, Wilson has become an advocate for the funding needs of adult education programs and the adults on waiting lists with goals of furthering their education. Gretchen shares, "People need the right tools to succeed, and, at the very minimum, a major tool on the road to success is a high school diploma or GED. This campaign will go a long way toward educating people on how to take that first step to make a difference in their lives and the lives of their families, and I'm honored to be a part of it."
In the spring of 2009, Wilson spoke to a Congressional subcommittee about the need for continued funding. That same year, she was honored with a National Coalition for Literacy Leadership Award at a reception at the Library of Congress.
Tidbits
-- The rumor mills are spinning this week that Taylor Swift may be casually dating 27-year-old British actor Toby Hemingway, according to Hollywoodnews.com. The two were spotted together recently and photographed. They reportedly met on the set of one of her music videos.
-- The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's All for the Hall fundraiser will take place on Thursday, September 23 at Club Nokia, returning to Los Angeles for a second consecutive year. The event will again follow a "guitar pull," which will feature performances by Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson, Taylor Swift, and a fourth chair that must remain anonymous.
-- The 8th Annual Shania Twain Centre Fan Convention will be held August 5-8 in Timmins, Ontario (Canada). Many of Shania's fans from all over the world are expected to register for the program of activities. Check out the event via the Shania Twain Centre website.
