Run Jo Dee RUUUUUUN

Jo Dee Messina completed the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, with a finish time of 5:45:48. She ran the 26.2-mile race with her brother, Vincent Messina, who completed the course in 4:52:37. Messina completed the Boston marathon in 2006 in 5 hours and 47 minutes following a knee injury halfway through the race. The humid weather forced many runners to quit before finishing the race. One runner also collapsed and died during the run.

Rodney Atkins Performs For The Troops

(He performs for you... THURSDAY!)
CMA "Horizon Award" Nominee, Rodney Atkins, helped bring a little bit of home to the troops on Saturday night. The "Watching You" singer appeared via Satellite for the Freedom Calls Foundation's "Appreciation for the Troops Rally" during sound check for his show in Northern Virginia. Atkins performed his hit song "If You're Going Through Hell" acoustically and sent a personal message of thanks to the troops. The rally took place at Voice of America Park in Cincinnati and was also broadcast live to thousands of soldiers in Iraq.

Rodney was so thrilled for the opportunity to perform for the troops that he asked if he could do it again that night during his live set. The entertainer then gave the men and women of our armed forces a special treat by performing all of his hits during his high-energy show.

"It was a lot of fun - knowing that I get to sing about camo pants and cowboy boots to the guys who really know what that's all about! It makes it even more intense and drives the point home yet again how blessed I am by who those soldiers are and what they are doing." Atkins said.


The Platinum-selling hit-maker added about the Freedom Calls Foundation, "I'm so proud to be part of an organization that keeps the soldiers part of what's happening at home while they are defending our country in places around the world."


Atkins won the Academy of Country Music Award for "Best New Male Vocalist" last May and is nominated for the Country Music Association's "Horizon Award" this November. He is currently on the road with Brad Paisley on the "Bonfires and Amplifiers" tour presented by Hershey.

Faith demands you have... uh, well faith

Faith Hill is already working on her next album... but keeping any details very very quiet (she's hunting wabbits?). She asked her record label’s permission to have as long as she needs to work on the new album, in addition to not wanting a deadline -- Faith does not want to be restricted to any particular format... meaning her new album may not be very "country" at all.

Them lil' Rascals

Rascal Flatts’ Still Feels Good sold 547,000 copies during its first seven days in stores, the largest opening week for a country album so far this year.

The album became the group’s third in a row to debut atop the Billboard Top 200 all-genre chart. More than 44,000 units of Still Feels Good were sold digitally, making it the biggest-ever country debut in that format.

In other Flatts news, the group has donated $829,581 in proceeds from their Sept. 28 Nashville concert to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. It’s the third year in a row the group has given the earnings from its hometown arena show to the hospital.

Taylor Taylor Taylor

TAYLOR STORY 1: CMA Horizon Award nominee Taylor Swift will perform two songs on Live With Regis & Kelly this Wednesday, October 10th.

TAYLOR STORY 2: Late last night Taylor hit another milestone on her MySpace page (www.myspace.com/taylorswift), topping 26 million music streams. Her stream count reached 25 million less than two weeks ago. Taylor’s appearance on Live With Regis & Kelly will be her first televised performance of her new single, “Our Song,” which is climbing the Billboard charts even more rapidly than her previous releases. Taylor is especially excited about the success of “Our Song” because it is her first single released that she wrote by herself without any co-writers. "Like 'Tim McGraw,' the song was finished in like 20 minutes," she says. "I wrote it about this guy I was dating, and how we didn't have a song. So I went ahead and wrote us one. I think there's just some sort of magic in the way the track sounds like it's bouncing, almost!"

TAYLOR STORY 3: Still no word on that rumored new haircut... but the world waits...

Garth is awesome

... Duuuuuuuh.

Garth Brooks on Saturday (Oct. 6) sold out nine concerts at Kansas City's Sprint Center, a new arena designed to seat approximately 18,000 people. Brooks initially scheduled a Nov. 14 concert in Kansas City to thank Wal-Mart for its efforts in marketing his music in recent years, but tickets were made available to the public and went on sale Saturday morning. When the Nov. 14 concert sold out immediately, tickets to the other eight performances went on sale one-by-one until Brooks' previous obligations prevented him from adding another date. The additional shows, taking place Nov. 5-12, sold out in just under two hours. Brooks' new CD/DVD package, The Ultimate Hits, goes on sale Nov. 6. Brooks has rarely performed since announcing his retirement in 2000. Elton John is scheduled to perform at the Sprint Center's grand opening on Oct. 13.

Blake Shelton is Pretty

Well... duuuuh.

Blake Shelton is featured in Nashville Lifestyles magazine’s 25 Most Beautiful People issue, currently on stands.

When asked what he does when he’s not working Blake responded, “I love deer-hunting. I love listening to all types of music. I love to plant crops. And I love a tall, cold adult beverage. On any given day, I may be doing any combination of those.”

New Music and Video From Taylor Swift

CMA Horizon Award Nominee Taylor Swift has an exciting new music and video collection hitting stores Nov. 6 — The Taylor Swift Limited Deluxe Edition.

The project is an enhanced version of Taylor’s self-titled debut CD, which was released in 2006 and has reached multiplatinum status. The CD/DVD dual set contains exciting new music and video extras, including three new songs from Taylor and a very special behind-the-scenes home movie of her life over the past year, compiled and edited by Taylor herself. The Taylor Swift Limited Deluxe Edition also includes her hit singles “Tim McGraw” and “Teardrops on My Guitar.”

GARTH IN CONCERT

Tickets for Garth Brooks' November 14 concert at Kansas City's Sprint Center will go on sale this Saturday, October 6, at 10 a.m., but only to residents of Missouri, Kansas and portions of Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

According to ticketmaster.com, residency is based on the buyer's credit card billing address, and orders by residents outside specified areas will be canceled without notice and refunds given. "However," the website states, "in the event that exceptional ticket demand warrants the scheduling of additional Kansas City performances, additional regions and states will be opened for ticket sales."

The show is titled "One Artist, One City, One Time," and according to Chicago radio station US99.5, Garth is is ready to get back on stage, "We are going to drag the stage back out and fire the rig up, get those pants back out...and I'm looking forward to that," he says. "I'm looking forward to just knocking the rust off. I can already tell you that halfway through the show I won't have a voice, but I'm going to enjoy myself."

Nashville's WKRN reports that concert organizers are promising a special guest at the concert, who just might turn out to be Garth's wife, Trisha Yearwood.

Toby Keith Concerts Raise $1.2Mil For Scholarships

NONE of it is for YOU. That's just what happens when you're well-known for being a juice-box addict.

As “Love Me If You Can” heads to the top of the Country charts, Toby Keith and his Big Dog Daddy tour performed two concerts last weekend in Corpus Christi & Hidalgo, TX raising over $1.2million for STARS (South Texas Academic Rising Scholars). STARS provides scholarships for South Texas college students and was the perfect way to wrap up the hugely successful Big Dog Daddy tour.