411 Country Connection 2.14.09: Award Show Fever

Posted by Stormin Norman on 02.14.2009

This week in the Express: Country music’s night at the Grammy’s, Dierks Bentley scores a double-double with Billboard, Gloriana officially releases their debut single, Darius Rucker’s ‘gold’en crossover success, Keith Urban keeping fan’s wallets in mind and the ACM nominees. As well as your Hot Country Songs chart Top 5 update.

the Express

The 51st Annual Grammy Awards was a night where a tremendous spotlight shined bright on the country music industry. And no moment was bigger than when Alison Krauss and Robert Plant won the prestigious Record of the Year for "Please Read This Letter" from their album Please Read the Letter. But a close second was when country music icon George Strait won his first Grammy ever, winning the Best Country Album award for his hit album Troubadour. Jennifer Nettles took home two awards; a songwriting award for Best Country Song for "Stay", and an artist award along with Sugarland band mate Kristen Bush for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocals for the same song. Brad Paisley also won two awards on the night Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "Letter to Me" and along with James Burton, Vince Gill, John Jorgensen, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner won the award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Cluster Pluck". The night also featured powerful performances from Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. Here is a list of the top winners in the Country categories, and it looks like I was 5 for 9 on my predictions last week. How about you?

Best Country Album – Troubadour George Strait

Best Female Country Vocal Performance – "Last Name" Carrie Underwood

Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "Letter to Me" Brad Paisley

Best Country Song – "Stay" Sugarland, Jennifer Nettles, songwriter

Best Country Collaboration with Vocals – "Killing the Blues" Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Best Country Vocal Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocal – "Stay" Sugarland

Best Country Instrumental Performance – "Cluster Pluck" Brad Paisley, James Burton, Vince Gill, John Jorgensen, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner.

Best Southern, Country, Bluegrass Gospel Album – Lovin' Life Gaither Vocal Band

Best Bluegrass Album - Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947 Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder





Dierks Bentley has scored his first Billboard country chart double-double with the #1 country album and single. Feel That Fire, Dierks' fifth studio album, released Feb. 3, has overthrown Taylor Swift's sophomore album Fearless from the top spot for the first time in twelve weeks. This also is his fourth consecutive top 10 album on the Billboard 200 and third chart-topper on the country albums chart, and has sold over 71,000 units. And the self titled singles, which has been hanging around the top 5 for a few weeks, has finally reached the top spot replacing Blake Shelton's "She Wouldn't Be Gone" which fell to the fifth spot on the chart. "Feel That Fire" is Bentley's sixth #1 single.





Tom Gosssin, Mike Gossin, Rachel Reinert and Cheyenne Kimball or simply Gloriana, have officially released their debut single "Wild At Heart", which has already been on the R&R Chart for two weeks and currently sits at #54. Even before they had name the quartet was performing free tours across the southeast using a different stage name each night. Their bluegrass/contemporary country fusion sound was capturing fans all throughout the bible belt before catching the ear of Grammy Award winning producer Matt Serletic who brought them to the their current label Emblem Music Group. They recently wrapped up a brief stint opening up for LeAnn Rimes and will soon hit the road with Taylor Swift on her first headlining tour. West coast fans can check them out in Los Angeles on Feb 22 when they open up for Brooks & Dunn.





Darius Rucker is officially a crossover success. The former Hoot & the Blowfish frontman's debut country album Lean to Live has sold over 500,000 copies and received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America earlier this week. "Gold records are hard to come by these days, and I am proud of this accomplishment," Rucker said in response to reaching this milestone. The first single released from Learn To Live (which debuted at #1) "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" spent 4 weeks at #1 on the Hot Country Songs Chart. And his second single "It Won't Be Like This For Long" cracked the Top 10 this week. Rucker is the first African American to have a #1 single since Charley Pride's "Night Games" in 1983.





Keith Urban has decided to take a page from the Kenny Chesney concert playbook and put a little Aussie twist on it. Understanding that times are tough for his fans Urban has decided to make tickets to his shows extremely affordable. "Affordable" that is such a relative term, how "affordable" can these tickets possibly be? How about cheaper than it cost me to fill up my Honda Civic or take date out to dinner. A select number of seats on his Escape Together World Tour will be sold for $20 each. Also the excess transaction fees for the bargain passes have been waived, the only blackout dates are May 7 and 8 shows Uncasville, CT and May 30 in Huntsville, AL. "It's easy to see that people out there are hurting. And if these ticket prices can help some of them to let loose, forget about their daily grind and enjoy a night of music, then that's what we intend to give them and everyone else who comes out to our shows," Urban released in a statement. It is great to see country music artist is stepping up for their fans in these tough economic times and making their ultimate concert experience accessible to their whole fan base.





The nominees have been announced for country music's party of the year, the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, and it seems the man atop the nominee list is once again Brad Paisley who leads all nominees with 6 nominations. Paisley is nominated for Entertainer of the Year and Top Male Vocalist, Vocal Event of the Year for "Start A Band" with Keith Urban and his smash single "Waitin' on a Woman" received three nods – Single Record of the Year, Song of the year and Video of the Year. The biggest surprise of the year has been Jamey Johnson, who as a songwriter won the 2006 ACM for Song of the Year "Give It Away", nominated for four ACM's, including Top New Male Vocalist, Sing Record of the Year and as an artist and composer for Song of the Year for "In Color".

Coming off of winning his first Grammy ever, George Strait received four nominiations – Entertainer of the Year, Top Male Vocalist, Song of the Year for "I Saw God Today" and Video of the Year for "Troubadour". He has also been name the Academy of Country Music's Artist of the Decade and will be honor in a T.V special later this year. Grammy award winning Carrie Underwood received three nominations, including an Entertainer of the Year in which she is the first female finalist for the award since 2000. She is also nominated for Top Female Vocalist of the Year and Video of the Year for "Just A Dream".

Aussie sensation Keith Urban records three nominations, including Entertainer of the Year, Top Male Vocalist and Vocal Event of the Year for his duet with Brad Paisley for "Start A Band". And if he wins Entertainer of the Year to go along with his two Top Male Vocalist awards, his Album of the Year award and Top New Male Artist award, he will be eligible for the Academy's Triple Crown. The Triple Crown is the Academy's recognition of those who have taken Top New Artist, Top Artist and Entertainer of the Year awards. Not be left out of the multiple nominations club, the following artist have received two nominations – Trace Adkins (Single Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "You're Gonna Miss This), Brooks & Dunn (Top Vocal Duo and Vocal Event of the Year), Little Big Town (Top Vocal Group and Vocal Event of the Year), James Otto (Top New Male Vocalist and producer credits Song of the Year for "In Color"), Jake Owen (Top New Male Vocalist of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year), Taylor Swift (Top Female Vocalist and Video of the Year for "Love Story") and Sugarland (Top Vocal Duo and Vocal Event of the Year).

There will have some unprecedented changes this year. After the spectacular success of allowing the fans to vote for the Entertainer of the Year award last year, the ACM has decided to the opportunity to open up fan voting to three newcomer categories – Top New Female Vocalist, Top New Male Vocalist and Top New Vocal Duo or Group. With the winners moving on to compete for the inaugural Top New Artist award. To vote for your favorite new artist, visit GACTV.com. The 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards will air Sunday, April 5th at 8 pm on CBS and will be hosted by Reba McEntire.

Hot Country Chart Top 5

With Blake Shelton's "She Wouldn't Be Gone" dropping from the top spot last week down to #5 this week, he has opened up the door for a new #1. The vacancy at the top left by Shelton has helped move Toby Keith's "God Love Her" up a spot to #4. Keith Urban's "Sweet Thing" has also jumped up a spot to #3, right behind Kenny Chesney's heartfelt single "Down The Road" with Mac McAnally which is sitting at # 2 this week. And Dierks Bentley finally has his third chart topping single with "Feel That Fire", the title track from his 5th studio album makes its first appearance at #1, up from #2 last week. The single that made the biggest jump in the latter half of the top 10 is Darius Rucker's "It Won't Be Like This For Long" climbing up from #11 to #8, and looks to crack the top 10 very soon.

1. Dierks Bentley – "Feel That Fire" (Last Wk.2)


2. Kenny Chesney w/ Mac McAnally – "Down The Road" (Last Wk.3)


3. Keith Urban – "Sweet Thing" (Last Wk. 4)


4. Toby Keith – "God Lover Her" (Last Wk.5)


5. Blake Shelton – "She Wouldn't Be Gone" (Last Wk.1)