• Rascal Flatts’ previous record label, Lyric Street/Hollywood Records, will release a greatest hits set of their music, titled “The Best of Rascal Flatts Live,” on Nov. 8.

The 10-song set includes live versions of some of the group’s biggest hits including “Bless The Broken Road,” “Stand,” “These Days,” and “What Hurts The Most,” along with fan favorites “Here’s To You” and their cover of “Life Is A Highway.” The set also includes a medley of “I’m Movin’ On,” “Skin (Sarabeth),” and “Feels Like Today.”

 

• Joe Nichols will release his sixth studio album, “It’s All Good,” on November 8. The 10-song set features the lead single, “Take It Off.”

 

“Yes, this is about commercial success,” Nichols says of the project, “but if you want to make something that lasts, it’s about art, too. I want to bring a traditional sound into 2011 and 2012, to keep it faithful and make sure we’re still connecting with today’s listener. On every album, we’re looking for hit singles, but every time out I want to satisfy the artistic part of my soul, too.”

 

• At the Oct. 13 Americana Music Awards in Nashville, Buddy Miller was the night’s big winner, scoring trophies in both the artist of the year and instrumentalist of the year categories. Miller (right) now has a career total of 12 AMA trophies. Robert Plant won album of the year accolades for “Band Of Joy,” a project that prominently features Miller as well. The Avett Brothers were named duo/group of the year, an honor they previously won in 2007 and 2010. Justin Townes Earle won the song of the year prize for “Harlem River Blues.” Earle previously won the AMA’s new/emerging artist prize in 2009. This year’s winner in that category was Mumford and Sons.

 

• Colt Ford will be launching a signature line of liquors, Goodtime Vodka and Goodtime Moonshine in conjunction with United Distributing. He’ll be unveiling the spirits at an Oct. 18 press conference in Atlanta.

 

• Billy Dean, best known for his string of 1990s hits like “Somewhere In My Broken Heart” and “”Billy The Kid,” stars in a new TV movie that premiered on the Gospel Music Channel tonight. The film, titled “Decision,” also stars Christian music singer Natalie Grant.

In the film, shot in Kingston Springs, Tenn., just outside of Nashville, Dean (right) plays the role of Grant’s fireman-husband, who is killed in a car accident after falling asleep at the wheel and leaving her to face hard times and raise their teenage son alone.

“Decision” isn’t Dean’s first acting role. He co-starred with Crystal Bernard in the 1999 TV movie “A Face to Kill,” and with Dolly Parton in “Blue Valley Songbird” that same year.

 

Jason Aldean (left) and the Zac Brown Band (pictured below) top the nominations for the second annual American Country Awards, announced Thursday. Both acts landed eight nominations each. Thompson Square earned seven nods; and the Band Perry and Taylor Swift each scored six. Many of the nominees are newcomers, a way the ACA organizers differentiate the show from other country awards.

 

The ACA Awards show will air live on FOX Dec. 5 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Hosted by Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth, as previously announced, the two-hour show gives fans the opportunity to vote for their favorite artists not only in traditional categories, but also in largely unrecognized areas of the business such as touring.

 

Effective immediately, fans can vote once each day for their favorite nominees at www.theacas.com. Voting is open until Nov. 11 for all categories, except for artist of the year, which closes three days prior to the telecast.

 

The nominees for each award category were determined by sales, radio and video airplay, media and touring information compiled by four industry sources. The show’s performers and presenters have not yet been announced.

 

Here’s the complete list of the new nominees:

ARTISTS

Artist of the Year

Jason Aldean

Kenny Chesney

Lady Antebellum                           

Taylor Swift

Zac Brown Band

 

Artist of the Year: Male

Jason Aldean

Luke Bryan

Kenny Chesney

Brad Paisley

Blake Shelton

 

Artist of the Year: Female

Sara Evans

Alison Krauss

Miranda Lambert

Taylor Swift                             

Carrie Underwood

 

Artist of the Year: Duo or Group

The Band Perry

Lady Antebellum

Rascal Flatts

Sugarland

Zac Brown Band

 

Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist

Eric Church

Eli Young Band

Justin Moore

Jake Owen

Chris Young

 

Artist of the Year: New Artist

The Band Perry

Scotty McCreery

Jerrod Niemann                                                              

Pistol Annies

Thompson Square (pictured above)

 

Album

Album of the Year

Jason Aldean, “My Kinda Party”                                     

Kenny Chesney, “Hemingway’s Whiskey”

Brad Paisley, “This Is Country Music"

Taylor Swift, “Speak Now”      

Keith Urban, “Get Closer”

Zac Brown Band, “You Get What You Give”

 

SINGLES

Single of the Year

Billy Currington, “Let Me Down Easy”

Tim McGraw, “Felt Good On My Lips”

Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”

Chris Young, “Voices”

Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson, “As She’s Walking Away”

 

Single of the Year: Male

Jason Aldean, “My Kinda Party”

Luke Bryan, “Someone Else Calling You Baby”

Billy Currington, “Let Me Down Easy”

Tim McGraw, “Felt Good On My Lips”

Chris Young, “Voices”

 

Single of the Year: Female

Sara Evans, “A Little Bit Stronger”

Miranda Lambert, “Heart Like Mine”

Reba, “Turn On The Radio”

Taylor Swift, “Mean”

Carrie Underwood, “Mama's Song”

 

Single of the Year: Duo or Group

The Band Perry, “You Lie”

Rascal Flatts, “Why Wait”

Sugarland, “Stuck Like Glue”

Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”

Zac Brown Band, “Colder Weather”

 

Single of the Year: New Artist

The Band Perry, “You Lie”

Craig Campbell, “Family Man”

The JaneDear Girls, “Wildflower”

Jerrod Niemann, “What Do You Want”

Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”

 

Single of the Year: Vocal Collaboration

Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, “Don’t You Wanna Stay”

Kenny Chesney featuring Grace Potter, “You and Tequila”

Brad Paisley with Alabama, “Old Alabama”

Zac Brown Band with Jimmy Buffet, “Knee Deep”

Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson, “As She’s Walking Away”

TOURING

Touring Headline Act of the Year

Jason Aldean 

Kenny Chesney         

Toby Keith      

Tim McGraw  

Brad Paisley   

Rascal Flatts  

George Strait 

Taylor Swift    

Carrie Underwood     

Keith Urban

 

VIDEOS

Music Video of the Year

Sara Evans, “A Little Bit Stronger”

Jerrod Niemann, “What Do You Want”                          

Blake Shelton, “Who Are You When I'm Not Looking”   

Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”                                          

Josh Turner, “I Wouldn’t Be A Man”                               

 

Music Video: Male

Jason Aldean, “My Kinda Party”

Jerrod Niemann, “What Do You Want”                          

Blake Shelton, “Who Are You When I'm Not Looking”   

Josh Turner, “I Wouldn't Be A Man”                               

Keith Urban, “Put You In A Song”

 

Music Video: Female

Sara Evans, “A Little Bit Stronger”

Reba, “Turn On The Radio”

Ashton Shepherd, “Look It Up”

Taylor Swift, “Back To December”                                

Carrie Underwood, “Mama's Song”

 

Music Video: Duo, Group or Collaboration

Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, “Don’t You Wanna Stay”                                

The Band Perry, “You Lie”

Lady Antebellum, “Hello World”

Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”                                          

Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson, “As She's Walking Away”

 

Music Video: New Artist

The Band Perry, “You Lie”

Craig Campbell, “Family Man”

Brett Eldredge, “Raymond”

Jerrod Niemann, “What Do You Want”

Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”

 

Scotty McCreery has the No. 1 album in the country this week, and breaks some chart records in the process.

His debut album, “Clear As Day,” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard’s all-genre top 200 chart, as well as its Top Country Albums chart, making the 18-year-old singer the youngest male artist in history to open at the top of the Billboard 200 with a debut release. His first week sales of nearly 197,000 copies is also the highest first-week album sales for any solo country artist so far this year. Additionally, he is the first new country artist this year to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

McCreery is the first “American Idol” winner since 2003 to land his debut album atop the Billboard 200 (Ruben Studdard was the last “Idol” champ to debut at the summit), and the first country male singer from the show to ever do so. “Clear As Day” is the first debut by a new country artist to top 100,000 in first-week sales since Carrie Underwood’s debut in 2005.

“My hopes were just to go out there and have fun and let people know that the album was out there,” McCreery says in a press release statement. “Everybody hopes for the No. 1, but you never really expect it. To see it up there is pretty incredible.”

An estimated 15,000 people attended his recent album release party homecoming concert and birthday celebration that was held at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek in Raleigh, N.C. At the event, he was presented with a gold record (pictured) by his label staffers to celebrate achieving a gold certification (500,000 copies) in digital sales for the single “I Love You This Big.”

McCreery won season 10 of “American Idol” in May, becoming the youngest male winner in the show’s history.

 

“Clear as Day” marks the biggest debut sales week of any “Idol” winner’s first album since 2008, when David Cook’s self-titled set started with 280,000 at No. 3. Kris Allen’s eponymous 2009 debut launched with 80,000 (No. 11) and in 2010, Lee DeWyze’s “Live It Up” arrived with an anemic 39,000 (No. 19).

 

Read MSN Music’s current feature on McCreery here.

 

 

 

On a recent visit to “The Ellen DeGeneres show,” Keith Urban and DeGeneres (in a long blonde wig) shot a funny fake commercial for the singer’s new men’s fragrance, Phoenix. While Urban’s job in the clip was just to look sexy, he pulls some memorably uncomfortable facial expressions reacting to DeGeneres’ oversexed character, who at various points licks his face, throws ice at him and douses him with water! At the end of the clip, Urban can be heard telling DeGeneres she’s the only woman his wife, Nicole Kidman, would let him get away with working with on such a venture.

 

Toby Keith has just released a hilarious new video for the song “Red Solo Cup” from his forthcoming album, “Clancy’s Tavern,” and the clip is packed with guest stars paying tribute to the ubiquitous keg party receptacles in their own unique ways.

 

Guests in the clip include TV host Craig Ferguson and his robot sidekick, Geoff; sports figures Roger Clemens and Larry Bird; fishing guru Jimmy Houston; ventriloquist Jeff Dunham (with puppet Bubba J); comedian Carrot Top; magician Lance Burton; and fellow recording artists Sammy Hagar, Ted Nugent, Eric Church, and Keith’s label mates Joe Nichols, JT Hodges (and his dog), Carter’s Chord and Trailer Choir’s Butter.

 

The group playing the band in the video is actually the song’s four writers, Brad and Brett Warren, and Jim and Brett Beavers. The two sets of brothers (pictured below with Keith) also provide instrumental tracks and background vocals on the album cut.

 

The half spoken, half sung song is both thoroughly goofy and impossibly catchy. Watch the boozy video here, but note this is an unedited version, so some of the lyrics in the very beginning may be not safe for work, and the shot of Church using the cups as a bong may not be appropriate viewing for kids.

 

“Clancy’s Tavern” is due out Oct. 24, as previously reported here.

 

Radney Foster is returning to his hometown of Del Rio, Texas, to record a live album. Del Rio was the inspiration for Foster’s 1992 hit solo album, “Del Rio, Texas, 1959.” Two decades later, he’ll be back on January 27 and 28, 2012 to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary with two shows at the Paul Poag Theater. 

Foster and his band will perform and record the classic album in its entirety, along with other hits, a new song and a country classic.

 

The live album, “Del Rio Revisited: Live At The Paul Poag Theater,” will be released in spring 2012. Tickets for the historical Del Rio performances will go on sale November 14 at radneyfoster.com.

 

Tim McGraw will get his day in court November 29 in a hearing that will decide whether he can record any new albums during an ongoing legal dispute with his longtime record label home, Curb Records, with whom he has had an increasingly contentious relationship for the last several years.

 

Nashville newspaper The Tennessean reports that the hearing, which is expected to last two days, will “first make a final determination on whether or not Curb is entitled to prevent Mr. McGraw, by injunction or otherwise, from recording for other entities other than Curb,” court records state.

 

Also, a trial date has been set for July 9, 2012.

 

As previously reported here, Curb filed a breach of contract suit against the singer in May, and McGraw responded with a countersuit a few weeks later. McGraw has recorded for the label since 1992.

 

Sugarland will be returning to Indiana for the first time since the Aug. 13 stage collapse that happened just prior to their scheduled performance at the Indiana State Fair, claiming seven lives and wounding more than 40 others. The duo’s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush plan to stage a free concert at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (home of the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever) on October 28. This full-band show will also serve as the final stop of Sugarland’s 2011 Incredible Machine Tour. Special guests are expected to be announced at a later date.

 

The band plans to honor all tickets from the Oct. 13 show, even if the ticket holders already received a refund. Ticket distribution will start with a first-come, first-serve “presale” for previous ticketholders before the release of seats to the general public. The “presale” will begin Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. (ET), and end Oct. 14 at midnight (ET). Remaining seats for the Conseco Fieldhouse show will be released to the general public October 15 at 10 a.m. (ET). Tickets will be available free of cost and service fees via Ticketmaster.com.

 

Contributions to the Indiana State Fair Remembrance Fund will be accepted throughout the night.