Joe Nichols Makes $125,000 Donation

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Joe Nichols has donated winnings of $125,000 from his appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader to Missouri’s Camp Barnabas. The camp provides life-changing opportunities each summer for almost 1300 young people with special needs and chronic diseases. Nichols’ younger sister Kelli has been among the attendees over the past several years.

According to Cyndy Teas, the camp’s co-founder and director of development, Nichols’ donation will be combined with a fund program from the Mabee Foundation making it possible for the camp to break ground immediately on a much-needed Health Care Facility.

“Every camper who comes to our summer program has a medical need,” Teas explains, “applying the money from Joe in this way provides the maximum benefit for the dollar to all of the campers. We are so appreciative of his honoring us and his sister Kelli in this way.”

Nichols will continue to tour through early December while his latest single, “The Shape I’m In” moves up the charts.

Opry Plans “Spirit Of Nashville Day”

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Opry member Dierks Bentley will host a virtual tour of the refurbished Opry house Saturday, Oct. 2

With the Grand Ole Opry now returned to its permanent home at the Opry House, visitors and fans are invited to celebrate its homecoming on “Spirit of Nashville Day” Saturday, October 2.

The day will offer free tours of the Opry House from 10 am – 4 pm CT, as well as free music in the plaza starting at 12 noon and including a 6 pm performance by CMA Award nominees The Band Perry. Special Opry shows will recognize persons affected by the May 2010 Nashville flooding, as well as many who assisted with the relief efforts. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will join the 7 pm Opry show as a Guest Announcer, and performers for the night’s shows include Charley Pride, Craig Morgan and Kevin Costner.

For those unable to attend in person, Opry member Dierks Bentley will host his own Opry House tour for fans around the globe on the Opry’s Facebook page, starting at 10 am. Bentley is also celebrating his 5th anniversary as an Opry member with a performance tomorrow night (Oct. 1).

“Spirit of Nashville Day” kicks off the Opry’s 85th Birthday Month, which includes highlights such as the 85th Birthday Bash (Oct. 8-9) with Trace Adkins, Roy Clark, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and more; Opry Goes Pink (Oct. 15) supporting breast cancer awareness with the Judds and Kimberly Williams-Paisley; and Blake Shelton’s Opry Induction (Oct. 23).

Republic Nashville's The Band Perry will play a free concert Saturday, Oct. 2 at the Grand Ole Opry House.

Aldean’s Concert For The Cure

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Jason Aldean will donate all proceeds from his Oct. 15 show in Evansville, Ind. as part of his 5th Annual Concert For The Cure to benefit Susan G. Komen For The Cure. Ticket and donation information is available at www.jasonaldean.com.

“Most of my long-time fans know that I had a really good friend die of breast cancer when she was only 29.  The day she passed away, my family decided that we would always do something to carry on her memory and to help in the fight,” explains Aldean.  “Everybody I know has been touched by it…they say a woman dies every 69 seconds from it.  October is breast cancer awareness month, and it just felt like the right time to do our event this year.  We’re taking it out of Nashville this year too, so that fans from other parts of the country can be involved.  It’s going to be a great night.”

Aldean is set to release his fourth studio album, My Kinda Party, on Nov. 2.

ZBB This Week’s Top Dog, Next Week Chesney?

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Country’s big sales stories are the No. 1, 2 and 3 CDs on this week’s Top 75 Current Country Albums list—Zac Brown Band (153k+), Billy Currington (45k) and Jamey Johnson (30k). ZBB’s last studio album is close to 2.3 million and so this debut’s opening number may seem a bit shy of expectations, but it bin jumped with enough heat to also own the No. 1 spot on the Top Current Albums chart. Based upon Zac’s last CD, which opened with sales of only 44k on 11/18/08, the real measure of success will be the build between this week’s starting gate and the close of the holiday season. By the way, 53k of ZBB’s 153k total sales were digital, about 34%. Also of note is Johnson’s 2-disc set which saw sales slide a  less than normal (for a 2nd week) 52%. Johnson’s tour de force is generating buckets of critical acclaim.

A bit further down the list we see Randy Houser’s No. 8 debut, They Call Me Cadillac with almost 9k units sold.

Checking a few more of country’s vital signs, 818.5k country tracks were sold on the Digital Genre Country 100 chart down slightly form 821k last week. YTD album sales (physical & digital) for both the overall business and for country are starting to align. The overall business is down 13.1% Y/Y, and country, including this week’s debuts is down 13.3%. There was lots of talk this week about the sputtering market for physical CDs, but note that this year, 80% of all country album sales are physical (72% of all-genre sales are physical.) However, despite the heavily tipped physical format scale, the overall numbers are dropping, so the pie is indeed shrinking. (Source: Nielsen SoundScan)

Looking to next week’s numbers there is an increasingly good chance that country music might again occupy the pinnacle on the all-genre album list. After first day sales, insiders are predicting that Kenny Chesney’s new title Hemingway’s Whiskey may scan from 180-200k units which should place him in the exalted “top dog” position.

Farm Aid Concert To Be Broadcast On Sirius XM

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The 25th Annual Farm Aid concert Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope For America, will take place Saturday, October 2 at Milwaukee’s Miller Park. Scheduled performers include Farm Aid President Willie Nelson, board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds), as well as Norah Jones, Jamey Johnson, Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco), Jason Mraz, Randy Rogers Band, the BoDeans, Band of Horses, Amos Lee, and more.

Sirius XM listeners will be able to catch the concert live on Sirius XM channel Willie’s Place (Sirius ch. 64 / XM ch. 13) starting at 1 pm CT. Sirius XM’s Dallas Wayne will be on hand to offer backstage interviews and behind-the-scenes coverage.

Armiger Celebrates CD Release At SESAC

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Cover girl Katie Armiger. Photo: Izzynashville.com

Katie Armiger celebrated the upcoming Oct. 5 release of her third Cold River Records album, Confessions Of A Nice Girl to a packed house at SESAC (9/29). Armiger performed selected tracks from the new CD with musical help from special guests such as Rebecca Lynn Howard, guitarist Jesse Tucker, Bruce Wallace, Joe West and others. In the crowd was Bonnie Baker, who produced and co-wrote “Can You Handle It.” The album’s name was chosen by fans who voted for the title. Armiger co-wrote 9 of the 13 tracks.

GAC streamed the event live, powered by AristoWorks. Radio personality Scott Lindy, interviewed Armiger during several strategic breaks, asking her questions that had been submitted online by fans. Over 1300 fans from all over the world logged in to view the stream. Music from Confessions Of A Nice Girl can be previewed at www.katiearmiger.com

Writer’s Den Adds Alex Heddle

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Alex Heddle has recently been added to the team at Writer’s Den Music Group as Catalog Manager/Song Plugger. Heddle formerly oversaw all creative aspects at Propel Music, where he spent the past two years.

“We are thrilled to have someone with Alex’s experience and enthusiasm as a part of our group,” says Head of Publishing, Bobby Rymer. “We look forward to working together as we continue to grow the company.”

Artist Run-Down: Dunn Goes Solo; Urban Seeks Fan Input

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Keith Urban’s camp is seeking fan feedback about the cover of his upcoming album, Get Closer, in stores on November 16. Which one do you like better? Vote on his Facebook page.

Ronnie Dunn is self-producing a solo album expected to release in 2011 on the Arista Nashville label.

Steve Azar was a recent guest on Southern Fried Flicks With Hazel Smith. His single “Sunshine (Everybody Needs A Little)” is Top 30 and climbing.

Catch Blake Shelton tonight (9/29) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He’ll perform “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking.”

Jewel “got in the ring” to film the music video for her new single “Ten.”

Matt Gary has partnered with the Quarterback Records team (founder Chris Allums and Ettinger Talent Associates’ John Ettinger) for promotion of his second single “I’m Just Sayin.’” Written by Frank Myers, Gary B. Baker and Billy Montana, it goes for adds October 11.

Congrats to Love And Theft’s Brian Bandas and girlfriend Kelly Barons who were married over the weekend.

Joe Nichols was in the house—and onstage— when Nickelback kicked off their latest tour at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The band did a short rendition of Nichols’ “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” and then their own hit “Rockstar.” The audience got a surprise when the band brought Nichols onstage to sing along (video below).

Pictured (l-r): Nickelback's bassist Mike Kroeger, frontman Chad Kroeger, Nichols, and Nickelback's drummer Daniel Adair and guitarist Ryan Peake.

Crystal Ball Signals Publishing Change

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The Crystal Ball began flashing this morning, offering only an incomplete message as is its wanton way. The data source from the Shiny Globe seemed to flow from our industry’s publishing sphere, showing an imminent departure. While we are unable to pull the rabbit from our info chapeau, it seems that this 30-year industry veteran has a resume that includes A&R, artist management, concert promotion and TV production. Her past signings include this year’s top CMA nominee..

CMA Awards Sets First Performers

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Top nominee Miranda Lambert is one of the performers scheduled for the CMA Awards.

The star-packed lineup for “The 44th Annual CMA Awards” launches with today’s announcement that Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, and the pairing of Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson are the first group of performers confirmed for “Country Music’s Biggest Night.”

“The 44th Annual CMA Awards,” hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, will air live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Wednesday, Nov. 10 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on the ABC Television Network.

All of the just-announced performers will vie for awards that night. Lambert, the top nominee for 2010, goes into the show with nine nominations. She will compete for Entertainer of the Year with five-time nominee Lady Antebellum and four-time nominee ZBB. Shelton is up in four categories, Bentley is nominated in three, and Chesney and Jackson will go for one each.