New country trio Edens Edge are opening dates on Brad Paisley’s H2O II Tour this summer, and bravely dared to draw first blood in the prank wars between artists Paisley’s tours are famous for. The band secretly swapped out Paisley’s West Virginia University bus doormat for one featuring a famous logo from their own home state, the Arkansas Razorbacks. They also left a note under the new mat claiming responsibility.

 

Paisley quickly tweeted the following ominous message: “Dear @edensedge Saw your little Arkansas\WV door-mat prank. This will not end well for you.”

 

Watch the prank go down here.

Paisley responded by dousing the mat with lighter fluid and torching it. Watch here.

 

Singer and new mom Jewel will release her second children’s album, “The Merry Goes Round,” via Fisher-Price on Aug. 16. The album includes songs with such titles as “Supermarket Song,” “Play Day,” and “Snooze Button Blues,” plus such familiar titles as “She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain,” “Oh! Susanna,” and “My Favorite Things.”

 

In addition to the album’s 16 songs, every physical copy sold also includes a free download card for six acoustic versions of songs from the album. A deluxe version, which retails for $4 more than the standard $12.99 version, also includes a baby bib featuring artwork from the album and a free download of acoustic and album versions of the album track “Just Like Penguins Do.”

 

Believe it or not, there is still more material from the legendary Hank Williams that has yet to see the light of day. When Williams died at age 29 in 1953, he left behind notebooks full of lyrics. Now, a number of other artists have written music to go with those lyrics, and recorded the songs, which will be released as “The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams” on Oct. 4 in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

 

The set contains 12 songs written by 13 other artists who count Williams as a musical influence. They include Bob Dylan, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow and Norah Jones.

 

Here’s the complete track listing:

 

1. You've Been Lonesome, Too - Alan Jackson

2. The Love That Faded  - Bob Dylan 

3. How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?  - Norah Jones

4. You Know That I Know – Jack White

5. I'm So Happy I Found You  - Lucinda Williams

6. I Hope You Shed a Million Tears – Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell

7. You're Through Fooling Me – Patty Loveless

8. You'll Never Again Be Mine – Levon Helm

9. Blue Is My Heart – Holly Williams

10. Oh, Mama, Come Home – Jakob Dylan 

11. Angel Mine – Sheryl Crow

12. The Sermon on the Mount – Merle Haggard

 

 

Trace Adkins will reprise his role as host of FOX’s American Country Awards, and he will be joined this year by a co-host, Emmy and Tony Award winning performer Kristin Chenoweth. Expect some visual humor as the 6’ 6’’ Adkins takes the stage next to the 4’ 11’’ Chenoweth. The show will air live from Las Vegas on Dec. 5 from 8-10 p.m. (ET).

 

The show, in which all categories are voted on by fans, made its debut on the network last year, joining the Country Music Assn. Awards, the Academy of Country Awards and the CMT Music Awards in the country music awards show space. Nominees, performers and presenters for this year’s show have not yet been announced.

 

Chenoweth’s first country album, “Some Lessons Learned,” will be released September 13. She is known for her Broadway stints in “Wicked” and “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” and her television work on “Glee,” “The West Wing,” and “Pushing Daisies.” Next, she stars in the upcoming series “Good Christian Belles.”

 

The Band Perry announced today The Purveyors of Performance Tour, a run of about 75 tour dates that will include some of their own headlining dates, as well as support dates for Keith Urban and Reba McEntire, plus some yet-to-be-announced dates with an unnamed act described by the The Band Perry’s reps as “one of country music’s major touring forces.”

 

After the band wraps up its current gig as an opener on Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic tour, the Purveyors of Performance Tour will kick off August 15, and will continue into next year with shows at a variety of venues ranging in size from theaters to stadiums. Only a few country acts can sell enough tickets to fill stadiums, so at this point, our best guess for the mystery touring partner is Kenny Chesney.

 

The title of the tour was inspired by the family band’s new video in which, as previously reported here, they play a traveling vagabond troupe. The Band Perry has been on the road performing together for 13 years.

 

Fans of  “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery and finalist Lauren Alaina will soon get their first glimpse of each of the teen artists’ first solo music videos.

 

McCreery’s video for “I Love You This Big” will premiere on CMT, CMT Pure and GAC Aug. 9. Alaina’s video for “Like My Mother Does” will premiere on the same networks, as well as CMT.com, on Aug. 8.

 

CMT will debut both videos as part of individual 15-minute specials that include behind-the-scenes footage from each artist’s video shoot.

 

Meanwhile, GAC cameras have been following both McCreery and Alaina all summer in preparation for two new specials set to premiere on the network this fall.

 

McCreery recently shot his video with director Shane Drake while in Los Angeles for rehearsals of the American Idols Live tour. “He was the guy who shot all of our music videos for the Ford commercials for American Idol,” McCreery says of Drake. “It was great because I already knew him and we had a good relationship.”

 

The video was shot in an area called Angels Point. “The location for the shoot was really cool,” McCreery says. “If you looked one way, you could see Dodger Stadium, and if you looked another way, you could see downtown L.A.

 

“We found this park that had a little country feel to it,” he continues. “If I hadn’t told you that, you would think we would have shot that in North Carolina. The music video has a summertime barbecue feel, like a July Fourth party with fireworks and hot dogs and families.”

 

Alaina’s video was shot by Nashville video director Shaun Silva in Altadena, Calif.

 

“The video is all about my mom and it has footage from my childhood and pictures of me and my family while I was growing up,” she says. “It’s all projected on this beautiful Southern-style house. It shows my life, so people will know more about me after they see it.

“I love that it shows who I am and how I became who I am. It shows my family and all about what I’ve done all through the years, and I love that.”

 

Meanwhile, McCreery’s debut album is due this fall, and he says of the project, “I’m really excited to let people hear what we’ve been working on and putting so much effort and energy and time into. It’s something that I’m really proud of . . . Hopefully they’ll feel what I was feeling in the studio.”

 

 

Who the heck is Eric Church? That’s a question a lot of music fans who don’t closely follow the country format are asking themselves this week after Church’s new album, “Chief,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (all genre) chart, setting some interesting new chart benchmarks in the process.

 

With this week’s debut, he became the first core country artist since 1994 to have a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 without having had a No. 1 on the radio airplay-based Hot Country Songs chart, according to Billboard. And 1994, by the way, is when Tim McGraw’s “Not a Moment Too Soon” album hit No. 1, although just a week before his single, “Don’t Take the Girl,” reached the top of the country songs chart.

 

More incredibly, Billboard reports, Church is the only core country artist to have a Billboard 200 No. 1 without having previously earned a top five single on Hot Country Songs since way back in 1967. That’s when Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” topped the albums list.

 

Even though he’d posted a video prior to the album’s releasing asking his fans to help him land a it at No. 1, Church tells Billboard “Chief” has exceeded even his expectations.

 

“The numbers are unreal,” he says. “People were looking at Kelly Rowland’s [new album’s] numbers. All of a sudden, we blow by everybody and people were asking, ‘Who the hell is Eric Church and how did he sell this many records [145,000] without No. 1 songs?’

 

“We played a lot of shows and we’ve made other records that people regarded well enough that they were going to buy this record,” Church continues, explaining his success. “There was excitement. I didn't know there was this kind of excitement. I don’t tweet. I’m not a Facebook guy. I don’t do any of those things. To have this kind of success the first week, it’s about the music. [It is] really restoring my faith.”

 

Miranda Lambert (pictured at left with her band) will kick off the final leg of her headlining tour, dubbed “The Revolution Continues,” Sept. 8 in Terre Haute, Ind. Twenty dates have been announced so far, running through Oct. 22 in Jonesboro, Ark., but additional shows are expected to go on sale soon.

 

Lambert’s opening acts on this leg are Justin Moore and Randy Rogers Band. On select dates, Little Big Town, Charlie Worsham and Pat Green will also be joining the tour.

 

As previously announced, her next album, “Four The Record,” goes on sale Nov 1.