Briefs: News from The Band Perry, Randy Travis, Taylor Swift and more

• The Band Perry set a release date for their sophomore album, which has not yet been titled. The set, which includes the band’s current hit, “Better Dig Two,” will hit stores April 2. Rick Rubin co-produced the project.

In other Band Perry news, the group has launched a new Web site for fans, thefansperry.com, which was named via a fan contest. The free site includes band news, meet and greet opportunities, pre-sale ticketing, photos and events. Fans are able to post photos, videos and comments of their own.

• The Academy of Country Music is planning a three-day country lifestyle event, called The ACM Experience, in Las Vegas April 5-7 at the Orleans Hotel and Casino. The ticketed music festival will feature performances from The Band Perry, Brantley Gilbert, Justin Moore, Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley, Kix Brooks, Eli Young Band, Hunter Hayes and more to be announced. The festival will also feature food and retail vendors.

• The Associated Press reports that blood alcohol results just in from last summer show Randy Travis was legally drunk when he was arrested naked following a traffic accident in Texas. Travis was formally charged last week with driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol level greater than 0.15, the AP reports. The legal limit for driving in Texas is 0.08. The Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to two years in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Travis had been arrested on a DWI charge and freed on bond following the Aug. 7 single-vehicle accident near Tioga, about 60 miles north of Dallas. He still faces a retaliation charge for allegedly threatening officers at the time of his arrest.

• Taylor Swift is among the first performers announced for the 55th annual Grammy Awards telecast, set for Feb. 10 in Los Angeles, and televised on CBS. Also performing are Swift’s fellow Grammy nominees the Black Keys, FUN., Mumford & Sons and Rihanna. LL Cool J returns as host.

• Kristy Osmunson, formerly of the Curb Records-signed female duo Bomshel, has teamed with fellow singer/songwriter Jon Stone to form the new duo, American Young, which has also been signed to Curb. Stone is a writer of the hit “A Woman Like You” for fellow Curb artist Lee Brice.

• Martina McBride’s fans recently wrapped a three-month mission to fund a breast cancer research grant in honor of the star. In turn, McBride treated “Team Martina” to a special “Sound Check for A Cure” dinner and event at her sold-out concert at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center in Morgantown on January 12. 

“Team Martina,” organized in the summer of 2011 following the release of McBride’s “I’m Gonna Love You Through It,” is approaching $40,000 in online fundraising through the T.J. Martell Foundation, a music industry charity that funds leukemia, cancer, and AIDS research. Donations are still being accepted via teammartina.com.

• Grammy-winning group The Mavericks have moved the release date for their new album, “In Time,” back a second time. The album, the band’s first in seven years, is now set for release on February 26. A tour will kick off in New York on February 25 at the Bowery Ballroom.

• Craig Morgan is set to appear for a second time on Travel Channel’s “Hotel Impossible” series today (January 14). In the episode, Morgan joins hotel “fixer” Anthony Melchiorri at Glacier Bear Lodge in Yakutat, Alaska, a hotel the attracts commercial and sport fishermen, but which is out of date, not very accommodating and literally rotting away. Melchiorri enlists the help of Morgan, an expert outdoorsman, in turning the lodge into a world-class destination.

Craig previously joined Melchiorri on “Hotel Impossible” last summer in an episode that featured Nashville.

• Sarah Darling is set to digitally release her “Home To Me EP” Jan. 29. It is comprised of new music from her forthcoming album, produced by Dann Huff.