It was a meeting of country music superstars yesterday as Shania Twain and Taylor Swift were in the small town of Thompson’s Station, TN to tape a segment for the CMT Music Awards. The two recreated a scene from the early 1990′s blockbuster hit Thelma & Louise. We also hear that Glee‘s Chord Overstreet was in on the segment as well as other surprise celebrities.

The CMT Awards will air tomorrow night, live at 7pm on CMT.

That really is TRACE ADKINS’ daughter Trinity co-starring with him in his “Just Fishin’” video.  It’s ALSO Trace’s real house . . . but NOT the one that was destroyed by the devastating fire.  This house is in Eagleville, which is in rural Tennessee.  

RASCAL FLATTS is offering all kinds of whacky activities for fans to enjoy at their “Flatts Fest 2011 Tour”.  Hours before the concert actually starts, fans can take part in Karaoke Challenges . . . Scavenger Hunts . . . and even a “Why Wait” wedding chapel.

New Country In Stores Today

–“Ronnie Dunn”, Ronnie Dunn  (–His debut album as a solo artist.  Includes the hit single “Bleed Red”.)

“Anniversary Celebration”, Randy Travis  (–It features a series of duets and re-recordings of classic hits and new songs with stars from all musical genres.)

(–Guests include:  Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Don Henley, Zac Brown Band and Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, Lorrie Morgan and others.)

SUGARLAND has released a performance and video clip of their song “Stand Up”.  They recorded it on the road with their touring partners LITTLE BIG TOWN.  It’s for sale now on iTunes . . . and the proceeds will benefit the victims of the tornadoes in Missouri and Alabama.

Somebody posted a YouTube video of BLAKE SHELTON doing a duet with KELLY CLARKSON at Blake and REBA MCENTIRE’S Tornado Relief Concert.  They’re singing Kelly’s hit with JASON ALDEAN, “Don’t You Wanna Stay”.  It’s pretty solid. 

Scotty McCreery and Laren Alaina are wasting no time getting acquainted with country music fans; they’re planning multiple appearances in Nashville next week during the 2011 CMA Music Festival. As of now, they are confirmed to attend the 2011 CMT Music Awards as well as play in the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge, but McCreery says they have plans to do more.

I’m pretty happy to finally give you a couple of NON-TABLOID items about LEANN RIMES.

First of all, she has a new song out . . . and it’s been leaked online.  It’s called “Give” . . . It shows off the vocals that we sometimes forget she has.

–Also . . . LeAnn is doing a special acoustic concert that will benefit the United Way and victims of the recent tornadoes in Missouri and Alabama.

–It’s called An Evening With LeAnn Rimes, and it’s going down June 5th in Jacksonville, Florida.  LeAnn’s husband EDDIE CIBRIAN will be the show’s MC.

Kenny Chesney has sold more than one million tickets on the hottest tour of the year, his 2011 Corona Presents Kenny Chesneys Goin Coastal Tour, making it an amazing eight times the superstar has achieved these blockbuster numbers. It’s more proof of why Billboard just named Chesney the biggest ticket seller in country music and among the elite touring artists in the world.

TOBY KEITH 

raised over $650,000 at his 8th annual Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic.  Proceeds are going toward construction of the OK Kids Korral, which will provide a home for pediatric cancer patients.

MIRANDA LAMBERT and BLAKE SHELTON are staying true to their country roots.  Instead of jetting off to some exotic honeymoon . . . they strapped on the hip waders and went angling. 

–Miranda even Tweeted a photo of the fish she caught, which looks to me like a largemouth bass.  She wrote in the Tweet, quote, “Honeymoon bliss!” 

 –Miranda is also staying away from that hyphenated married name fad.  She is now officially Miranda Shelton.  That’s what her driver’s license says.

 –Of course, she Tweeted that too.  Just a couple days after the wedding, she wrote, “Mrs. Shelton here!  Winning!”

 -Unfortunately, your Miranda Lambert albums will not become collector’s items because she’s keeping her maiden name professionally.

TAYLOR SWIFT is the cover story in the June issue of “InStyle” magazine.  They leaked a little of the riveting interview where she talks about, what else, love.

 –Taylor said, quote, “There are no rules when it comes to love.  I just try to let love surprise me because you never know who you’re going to fall in love with. 

–”You never know who’s going to come into your life . . . and for me, when I picture the person I want to end up with, I don’t think about what their career is, or what they look like.  I picture the feeling I get when I’m with them.”  The issue is out Friday.

TIM MCGRAW is being sued by his record label, Curb Records, for breach of contract.  Tim’s already signed with a different label.  Curb’s beef is that Tim gave them the master recordings for his upcoming album “Emotional Traffic” too close to the completion of his last album, “Southern Voice”, which came out in 2009.  Because of that, the new album is not “topical and new”.  Apparently, that was stipulated in his contract.

ALABAMA is headlining a fundraising concert to benefit those affected by the devastating tornadoes in their state.  It’s called “BAMA RISING:  A Benefit Concert for Alabama Tornado Recovery” . . . and it’s going down June 14th in Birmingham, Alabama.  Tons of other artists are on board, including Rodney Atkins, Dierks Bentley, Sara Evans, Brad Paisley and Kellie Pickler.

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  • MIRANDA LAMBERT and BLAKE SHELTON are husband and wife.  They made it official on Saturday at the Don Strange Ranch, which is a resort (slash) ranch some 35 miles north of San Antonio, Texas.

–According to “Us Weekly”, 550 friends and family attended the festivities.  Blake’s buddy NEAL MCCOY sang at the wedding. 

–Other famous guests included Reba McEntire, Dierks Bentley, Martina McBride (Lady Antebellum’s) Charles Kelley, Josh Kelley and his wife Katherine Heigl, Kelly Clarkson, Cee Lo Green, Chris Young, and the Bellamy Brothers.

–Here’s Miranda’s very prepared after-ceremony statement, quote, “I’m married to my best friend!  Looking forward to a lifetime of laughter.”  Blake added, quote, “I wanted to be married to Miranda the day I proposed.  Finally, it’s official!”

–For those of you who care about such things . . . Miranda wore her mother’s wedding dress.  No word on what Blake was wearing.

–The couple is spending the next week or so enjoying their honeymoon at a location they don’t want you to know about.

–This is Miranda’s first marriage.  Blake was married to high school sweetheart Kaynette Williams from 2003 to 2006.

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  • Even if you’re not an “American Idol” fan, you’ve probably heard of SCOTTY MCCREERY.  He’s the 16-year-old. . . and current Top 3 Finalist . . . that sounds a lot like JOSH TURNER.

–Well, the two finally met.  Josh surprised Scotty while he was performing on Saturday in Garner, North Carolina.  And Scotty was visibly stunned.  Josh entered the stage and said quote, “All these people are here for you. 

–”I had heard you never sang this song with a band before and were a little bit nervous, so I decided I would bring a few of my guys in.”  Then they performed Josh’s song “Your Man”, which Scotty has done on “Idol”.

Less than two weeks after her wedding to Eddie Cibrian, it was back to work for LeAnn Rimes! Pictured above, the new Mrs. Cibrian is in Toronto on the set of her new TV movie Reel Love.

The movie tells the story of a successful, big city girl (Rimes) who returns to her small town roots after a family emergency. Her character will try to reconnect with the family and friends she left behind and potentially find love along the way.

Reel Love is set to debut on CMT in September.

Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland have been announced as performers at the “2011 CMT Music Awards”.  The show airs June 8th.

TAYLOR SWIFT will be the “big cheese” closing performer at this year’s “CMA Music Festival”.  The festival kicks off June 9th . . . and Taylor will wrap it all up on Sunday, June 12th.

“Maxim” magazine released its annual Hot 100 list yesterday.  TAYLOR SWIFT ranked pretty high at #20 and JULIANNE HOUGH came in at #48.

My favorite new show is The Voice on NBC. Favorite performance so far Jared Blake from Star City,

Arkansas

Here’s yet another advantage of marrying MIRANDA LAMBERT. BLAKE SHELTON has talked her into doing another duet.  A couple of Nashville songwriters posted on Facebook that Blake and Miranda recorded their song “Red River Blue”.

–It’s supposed be on Blake’s still untitled new album, which is due out July 12th.  (–Blake and Miranda’s other duet together is “Draggin’ the River“.)

If you are a True Blood or Craig Campbell fan. You’ll be happy to know CRAIG CAMPBELL’S 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Amy Grant. Her mother passed away on Saturday . . . so Amy and her husband VINCE GILL canceled their performance at “The Nashville Choir presents a Tribute to the Songs of Bill & Gloria Gaither” event on Sunday.  Also, Vince respectfully canceled his appearance at last night’s flood commemoration event, “Voices Rising:  Remembering One Year Later”.

Country Music Out Today

 –“Randy Travis”, Randy Travis  (–This is a Cracker Barrel exclusive.  It includes nine of Randy’s hits plus the three new songs, “This Song Doesn’t Rhyme”, “She’s Okay and I’m Okay” and “I’m Free”.  A portion of the proceeds will be devoted to the military’s Wounded Warrior Project.

 

 

–“Every Chance I Get”, country rap artist Colt Ford  (–This is his third studio album and it has loads of guest artists, including Tim McGraw, Craig Morgan, Eric Church, Luke Bryan and Charlie Daniels.

song “Family Man” is going to be used “prominently” in the July 3rd episode of HBO’s “True Blood”.

SHANIA TWAIN’S new autobiography “From this Moment On” is out today . . . and her new TV series “Why Not? with Shania Twain” premieres this Sunday on OWN:  Oprah Winfrey Network.

BLAKE SHELTON likes to talk . . . a lot.  Nobody knows that better than his fiancée MIRANDA LAMBERT.  She even ordered him to shut his trap regarding the details of their upcoming wedding, which is May 14th.

-And Blake . . . being on his best behavior . . . is toeing the line.  He explains, quote, “It’s one thing when your record company tells you, ‘Don’t talk about this or that for these reasons.’  Sometimes I forget they say those things.

–”But it’s another thing when your fiancée is Miranda Lambert and she says, ‘Don’t talk about this.’  I take that a little more seriously because the wrath is pretty bad.”

REBA MCENTIRE will start a four-episode run on tomorrow night’s episode of “The Voice”.  She’ll team up with BLAKE SHELTON as part of the show’s “battles” segment.

You may recall that HILLARY SCOTT auditioned twice for “American Idol”, and was rejected both times.  So it’ll be pretty sweet for her when LADY ANTEBELLUM performs on “Idol” this Thursday.  You should check it out too because they Tweeted that they’re debuting a brand new song.

DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON . . . who is currently starring in “Fast Five” . . . will star in, and co-produce a movie based on the life of CHARLEY PRIDE.  No word yet on a title or when it will be out.

And Now . . . Our List of Country Music’s Royal Couples

With the Royal Wedding clogging up today’s airwaves, we thought it might be nice to talk about the kind of couples you and I actually care about.  And so . . . our list of Country Music’s Royal Couples. 

 –To qualify, EACH half of the couple had to be a country music performer.  And just as important, they had to be artists who are widely respected.  We found seven couples that made the grade.  Here they are . . .

1.)  Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash.  And the world loved them almost as much as they loved each other.  (–And they got married in a fever: “Jackson”.)

2.)  Tim McGraw & Faith Hill.  They’re so dang good looking they HAVE to be together. 

3.)   Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton.  They’re sexy, they’re hip, and they’re funny. (news about Blake’s Bachelor party)

“I think me and my buddies are going to take a camping trip somewhere,” Blake told Parade magazine in March. “Maybe try to find something to go hunt. Turkey or bears or something like that. Something country. The last ten years of my life has been a bachelor party, so I don’t need an extra one night to add to my life. I’ve had plenty of that stuff.”

4.)  Waylon Jennings & Jessi Colter.  Yes, they were country before country was cool. 

5.)  George Jones & Tammy Wynette.  You’re grandparents loved ‘em. 

Back in 2008, TAYLOR SWIFT wrote a song called “Hey Stephen”.  And she freely admitted it was about STEPHEN LILES BARKER . . . who’s one-half of the band LOVE AND THEFT.  Well, Stephen returned the favor and wrote a song with Taylor in mind.  It’s called “Try To Make It Anyway”, and it’s out now. 

Eric Church and his wife Katherine are expecting their first child this fall. Just like many first-time parents.

Eric admits one of his biggest fears is having to explain the meaning behind his music to his son or daughter.

“I’m still waiting on the time when [he or she is]10 years old [and] brings the iPod out and plays ‘Smoke A Little Smoke’ for me. I’ve got some explaining to do.”

Trace Adkins, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum are headlining this year’s “Country Fest 2011″ . . . which is going down June 23rd through the 26th in Cadott, Wisconsin.  Other artists include Dierks Bentley, Gretchen Wilson, Craig Morgan, Josh Thompson, Justin Moore, Chris Young and Jerrod Niemann.