Recommendations

Bad Plus tickets

Alejandro Fernandez concert tickets

Nightwatchman tickets

Lifehouse concert tickets

ALAN JACKSON’S GOOD TIME IS THE #1 COUNTRY ALBUM FOR SECOND WEEK, AS “SMALL TOWN SOUTHERN MAN” TOPS COUNTRY AIRPLAY

Superstar Alan Jackson holds the #1 slot on Billboard’s Top Country Albums
chart for a second consecutive week with his acclaimed new album,
Good Time, the only new country release of the year to score
back-to-back weeks at #1. After debuting atop both the pop and
country album sales charts last week, the disc and its first single,
“Small Town Southern Man,” are indeed delivering a good time
for fans as “Small Town Southern Man” also hit #1 this week
on both the Billboard and Country Aircheck country airplay charts.
Helmed by longtime producer Keith Stegall, Good Time’s 17
tracks and 71 minutes of music were all written by Jackson, marking
the first time in his career he’s been the sole writer on his entire
album. A winner with fans and critics, t he disc has drawn praise
from such outlets as Rolling Stone, USA Today,
The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and more,
with a four-star Chicago Sun-Times review recently cheering,
“Jackson’s discography already includes a few country classics,
and this disc is yet another one.”Jackson is also the cover feature
of the March 24 issue of Country Weekly, on sale now.

Celine Dion Concert Tickets

FIRST ROUND OF PERFORMERS ANNOUNCED FOR “THE 42ND ANNUAL CMA AWARDS”

The star-packed lineup for “The 42nd Annual CMA Awards” launches with the announcement today that nominees Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban will perform. “The 42nd Annual CMA Awards” airs live from the Sommet Center in Nashville, Wednesday, Nov. 12 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“The CMA Awards shine a three-hour spotlight on Country Music, exposing our artists and their music to the world” said Tammy Genovese, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “This first group of performers continues to raise the bar not only for Country Music, but for all forms of entertainment. We are excited to showcase their amazing talents on the CMA Awards this year.”

Brooks & Dunn, who have won more CMA Awards than any other artist (19 Awards), are nominated this year for Vocal Duo (which they have won a record 14 times) and Album of the Year for Cowboy Town. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn could each receive an additional trophy for producing their Album with Tony Brown.

Chesney, the reigning Entertainer of the Year (with three total wins in this category), is this year’s top-nominated artist. He received seven nominations including Entertainer; Male Vocalist; Album for Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates; Single and Music Video for “Don’t Blink,” (video directed by Shaun Silva); and two Musical Event of the Year nods (one with Reba McEntire for “Every Other Weekend” and the second with Strait for “Shiftwork”). Chesney could receive two additional trophies for producing his Album and Single with Buddy Cannon.

Jackson has 79 total career CMA nominations, the most of any artist in history. In 2008, he received four nominations: Male Vocalist; Album for Good Time (produced by Keith Stegall); and Song and Music Video of the Year for “Good Time,” directed by Trey Fanjoy.

Lambert received two nominations with Female Vocalist and Single of the Year (her first nomination in this category) for “Gunpowder and Lead,” produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Strait received five nominations including Entertainer; Male Vocalist; Album for Troubadour; Single for “I Saw God Today” (which also received a Song of the Year nod for its writers Rodney Clawson, Monty Criswell and Wade Kirby); and Musical Event of the Year with Chesney on “Shiftwork.” Strait could also receive two additional trophies for producing his Single and Album with Brown.

Sugarland, the reigning Vocal Duo, received five nominations including Entertainer (their first nomination in this category); Vocal Duo; Musical Event for “Life in a Northern Town” with Little Big Town and Jake Owen; and Single and Music Video for “Stay,” (video directed by Silva). Sugarland members Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles could each receive a second trophy for producing “Stay” with Byron Gallimore. Nettles also received a solo Song of the Year nomination as songwriter of “Stay.”

Reigning Horizon Award winner Swift received her first Female Vocalist of the Year nomination this year.

Urban received two nominations this year, with Entertainer (which he won in 2005) and Male Vocalist of the Year (which he won three consecutive years in 2004-2006).

Alan Jackson Biography

"Good Time" is a honky-tonk jam that kicks off Alan Jackson's new Arista Nashville album for a tremendously easygoing yet edgy five minutes-plus. It's a Friday night country tune sung by a dog-tired guy who has worked straight through the week yet doesn't want to sleep—not now; not when "all the conditions are right," as Alan sings, for something sweeter. The guy has cashed his check, cleaned his truck, picked up his girl across town, and as the sun goes down, he's heading out for some fun—some beer, some Bocephus, some relief.

Madonna Concert Tickets

Alan's new collection—for which he wrote all seventeen songs—is named Good Time as well. Loose, inventive, traditional, high-spirited, sad, intense, laid-back, clear as a bell, the album is a great Alan Jackson hang. "I guess I felt like I needed something that wasn't entirely a big, heavy album," says Alan, whose last release, 2006's profoundly acclaimed Like Red on a Rose, was an adventurous exploration of country-soul with producer Alison Krauss.

"You know," Alan continues, "I felt like I wanted something that had some fun on it, because when I play in concert people still want to hear songs like 'Chattahoochee' and 'Don't Rock the Jukebox'—all those are a big part of our success too, as well as the big ballads. That's why I wanted to call it Good Time, even though the whole album's not a bunch of party songs."

The collection reunites Alan with his excellent long-time Nashville producer Keith Stegall, who encouraged him to stick with his own songs for this record. "We just went into the studio and started fooling with them," Alan says of the 22 songs he brought to the studio. "And every one I played, Keith would say, 'Yeah, we ought to cut that one.'

"I don't push my own songs; I always look for guidance from Keith. I've always gone in and said, 'We just want to make a good record.' I don't care if I write any of them or all of them. But this time I said, 'Are you sure you think we should do all these of mine?' We had some good outside songs he had found.

"The songs that ended up on the record all have different qualities that make up the record. It's a mixture of styles and subjects so somebody can hopefully find something on there to like."

As a songwriter, Alan always has been a little tricky to classify. His work is a hybrid of Nashville professionalism and personal expressiveness: His songs offer the hummable polish of the most expert Music Row copyrights at the same time that they expose the personal interiors that listeners associate with the work of self-contained singer-songwriters.

With its 17 straight-up original tunes related but not limited to what Alan calls "fun," Good Time is his most ambitious demonstration of how—whether working with the great '60s-based country-soul of "When the Love Factor's High," the strummed memories of "1976," the deceptive dittiness of "I Still Like Bologna," the harmonica-flecked "Never Loved Before," a duet with Martina McBride, or the Nashville elegance of "I Wish I Could Back Up"—the country song, in Alan Jackson's hands, is capable of all things.