Gary Allan goes gold

Gary Allan’s “Greatest Hits” album was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies!

Released in March, the 15-song collection includes “Smoke Rings in the Dark,” “Man to Man,” “Tough Little Boys,” “Nothing on but the Radio” and “Best I Ever Had.” Allan’s most recent album, “Living Hard,” was released in October.

Little Big Town's Phillip & Rebecca Sweet Have a Daughter

Little Big Town's Phillip Sweet and his wife, Rebecca, welcomed a little girl over the holidays.

Penelopi Jane was born on Dec. 27 at 5:47 p.m. at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville and weighed 6 lbs., 4 oz. She was 19-inches long and was born with a head of curly brown hair, reads a statement from the band's rep.

"We never knew we could love someone so much," Phillip Sweet, 33, said. "We are truly blessed!"

Little Big Town (consisting of Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Roads Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Sweet) is currently on tour with George Strait, which means Schlapman's 5-month-old daughter, Daisy Pearl, has a new playmate on the road.

Sweet says on their site that watching Daisy Pearl grow up on tour has "given me lots of examples to pull from" in respect to his new daughter.

"We're trying to plan as best we can, and also realize that all those plans might go out the window. ...It's going to be something dealing with Penelopi and Daisy out here on the road, I'll tell you what," Sweet says on his bio page. "Look out, world!""

Trace Adkins' 'Celebrity Apprentice' On NBC Tonight

Show Moved Up One Week!
NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," which was previously scheduled to premiere on Thursday, January 10, will now debut on tonight (1/3) at (9pm).

For its seventh season, "The Celebrity Apprentice" returns to New York City as Donald Trump welcomes an all-star celebrity lineup of candidates who will work to raise over $1 million for various charities.

Trace Adkins and 13 other celebrity candidates go head-to-head on the streets of New York and in the Boardroom with Donald Trump -- all for their favorite charities.

Reba's Valentine

Reba McEntire will be releasing an album this month but it’ll only be available at Hallmark Gold Crown stores!

“Love Revival” will be available through January and February as a Valentine’s Day release and will feature four new songs: “Big Blue Sky,” “Bad For My Own Good,” “With You I Am” and “I’ll Still be Loving You,” as well as six other songs including “Forever Love,” “The Heart Won’t Lie” and the title track, which first appeared on “Room to Breathe”.

“I’m so excited about this album because true love really is the sweetest thing in life,” says Reba. “I hope the music on Love Revival will move others to love those in their lives even more.”

The album will $7.95 with the purchase of three Hallmark cards.

Jason Aldean's Big Year

Jason Aldean says 2007 left him with almost too many blessings to remember, but one in particular stands out.

"We celebrated my first album going platinum, so I think that was a big accomplishment," Jason tells The Tennessean. "The second album came out this year and was already verified gold. Being out with Rascal Flatts all year was fun. We got nominated for a few awards this year, and that was cool. We didn't win any of them, but we were nominated for a lot of stuff."

But he says none of those achievements compare to the birth of his second daughter, Kendyl, who is almost four months old. "That was definitely the biggest highlight of the year," he says. "We're excited. My wife and I both always knew we wanted to have at least two kids, and I think we're done now. So that this year is the first year that the whole family is complete, and we got to spend our first Christmas together, is really cool. It just feels like all the missing pieces are in place now."

Jason says he and his wife, Jessica, count themselves lucky that those pieces have fallen into place as smoothly as they have, especially where their four-year-old daughter, Keeley, is concerned.

"Whenever you have the second child, you're always a little nervous at how the first one is going to accept it just because they've been the center of attention for so long," Jason says. "For us, my four-year-old, she's kind of a free spirit anyway and she just kind of goes with the flow. She's excited and has actually been a big help with her, which is really cool. Right now it's kind of tough because she wants her to get up and play with her but she can't. She loves her to death."

Jason enjoyed some quality time home with his family over the holidays, but he's about to hit the road again, this time on his first headlining tour. "It's not one of the major arena kind of tours, but we're going out and trying to headline some smaller arenas and theaters and start doing that," he says. "So we're a little nervous and a little anxious at the same time."

Miley Cyrus Controversy

Miley Cyrus: Pics with Friend 'Nothing Bad'

Photos of Miley Cyrus, shown frolicking on a hotel floor with a female friend and sharing a piece of candy, have been circulating the Internet this week, but the 15-year-old pop sensation insists that the candid shots and what took place are strictly innocent.

"They're nothing bad!" Cyrus explained on Friday, right before her sold-out Best of Both Worlds concert at Nassau Coliseum.

"At first, I was really upset. It really sucks," said the Hannah Montana star, who at one point exclaimed, "Look at me getting all upset!"

Not that she simply plans to shrug off the controversy, or the fact that the photos were even leaked. "It's not something I'm going to let slide," she said. "I'm really upset about it, 'cause it was, like, not even a big deal."

As for the blonde with her in the shots, Cyrus calls her "a friend of mine that's a normal girl. ... That's one of my best friends. I have all these girls who I hang out with all the time."

While Cyrus says she's used to all the attention, both good and bad – "I have to deal with that anyways," she said – her friend is not. "This girl doesn't even have to deal with that, and it's so hard," said Cyrus. [Now] she has to go to school and deal with this crap."

Concerning the photos themselves, Cyrus said, "It's two girls at a sleepover, and if all of a sudden that's bad, then what is the world coming to?"

Cyrus also says that she's into the tour for the fun of it – and once the fun goes away, so will she.

"What I decided before I came out to L.A. and started working," she told the radio station's Niko, "was the minute I didn't have fun was the minute I go home. I don't want to go home, and I don't want to not do what I do, because I love it, but this ... it's Satan attacking."

Taylor's Charity

Taylor Swift's record company surprised her with a big pink pick-up truck for her 18th birthday, and she has found the perfect use for it.

On her MySpace blog, Taylor writes, "I'm very happy to say that I've decided to give my pink truck to Victory Junction Gang, a camp for really sick kids. That thought just makes me smile. For a few weeks, it's being kept at the Country Music Hall of Fame here in Nashville, in case you want to go check it out."

Taylor's donation goes along with her upcoming appearance at Nashville's Sound & Speed event, the country music and NASCAR celebration to be held Jan. 11-12. The event benefits NASCAR's Victory Junction Gang Camp and Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. Taylor and Alan Jackson are headlining a concert Jan. 12 at the Sommet Center as part of the event.

The Victory Junction Gang Camp will use Taylor's pick-up to pick up children wih chronic medical conditions or serious illness from the airport and take them to camp. Taylor will officially present the keys to the truck to NASCAR's Kyle Petty and his wife, Pattie, at Sound & Speed.

In other news, Taylor's single, "Our Song," is No. 1 for the fourth week.

No Resolutions for Josh Gracin

When Josh Gracin told his wife he would be spending New Year's Eve playing a show in New Mexico, she was not pleased.

But Josh thought he could get away with it this once. "She's had 11 years of me being home for New Year's, so she can suffer for one year without me," he tells Dial Global.

As far as New Year's resolutions go, Josh says he doesn't make them. "I try not to set any goals — more like expectations, what I want to do or where I would like to see myself rather than goals," he says, "because any time you can achieve something you didn't think you were going to, it's so much better when you don't put the pressure of making it happen. So I hope 2008 is going to be my biggest year and it's gonna be the year that I feel like I've finally got a foothold in country music."

Early in 2008, Josh will release his sophomore CD, which includes his latest single, "We Weren't Crazy," which he co-wrote. He also plans to make his upcoming tour more fan-friendly by allowing attendees to videotape his shows and trade the clips online on his website, joshgracin.com.

Blake's Hangover Cure

Blake Shelton is not shy about his drinking, and it's a pretty sure bet that he celebrated a bit after his show in Lexington, Ky., on New Year's Eve.

But Blake tells Dial-Global he's always prepared for the morning after a party as he has a sure cure for a hangover. "I've learned to avoid hangovers — and this is probably the worst thing you can do if you care at all about your image — I'll go and just absolutely eat," he says. "Before I go to sleep that night if I'm headed in the direction of a hangover, I'll go to Waffle House — or Taco Bell is the place to go to avoid a hangover because you can just fill up on those Mexican pizzas and the new crunch wrap with the extra hot sauce on it. Just fill up and get sick that night by eating that way because the next morning, you've already been sick. It's over. You wake up and you're ready to go again."

Joe Nichols On Leno Tomorrow Night

\Nichols will premiere his new single, "It Ain't No Crime," on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno tomorrow (1/3) night.