Rascal Flatts Greatest Hits Album For Only $5

Amazon is running a great deal right now- allowing you to download the Rascal Flatts Greatest Hits I Album for the low low price of 5 bucks. Reminds me of a Subway $5 footlong.... mmmmm... must be dinner-time. Click the artwork to go straight to this good deal (for the That Nashville Sound email subscribers, click the headline of this post and it will bring you into a link):

Trent Willmon Narrates New Children's Book‏

Multi-talented country music artist Trent Willmon just added children’s book narrator to his long list of accomplishments. Trent lends his voice to the reading of The Knock-Kneed Cowboy: A Tale of Being “Just Right”…Just As We Are. Written and illustrated by Willmon’s mother, Billie Willmon Jenkin, The Knock-Kneed Cowboy is a story for kids and anyone whose self acceptance could use a boost.

Jenkin wrote the story for her sons when they were children and recently self-published the work. “Most people’s beliefs about their worth come from others’ opinions of them. I was determined that kids know that they don’t have to let others’ ideas about them become their own. I see the book as an adventure in self-acceptance and I’m delighted that Trent agreed to record this book. Even kids who are not terrific readers will be motivated to read along with Trent and will grasp exactly what I intended for them to.”

“I love the book,” Willmon says. “It was taken from a story Mom made up for my brother and me when we were kids. Casey is a knock-kneed cowboy who wants to be bow-legged like all his peers. When the book starts out, you think it’s just for elementary-school kids. But as you read on, you realize it’s a parable about all of us who feel ‘different.’ It’s a message – and a fun tale – for all ages.”

As Willmon reads the story, available on a three CD set, he becomes characters like Honey - a fifth-grade girl, Grandpa, Troubles - a bad-luck cow dog and Gus - the fairy god-frog.

“I’ve enjoyed Trent’s vocal power on his CDs and in his concerts; I can hardly wait to hear him read Knock-Kneed Cowboy. Reluctant readers and those of us who spend a lot of time in the car will love the opportunity to listen to him read this book,” one fan stated.

New Rascal Flatts Album "Unstoppable" Hits 4/7- Fans Design The Cover

Get out your magic markers. Rascal Flatts will release their new album, Unstoppable, on April 7 on Lyric Street Records. The album was co-produced by Dann Huff and Rascal Flatts. In a unique twist, the band wants you to design their next album cover. That's right, Rascal Flatts' next album could be designed by you.

The country supergroup this week announced a contest for a fan based album sleeve.
At rascalflatts.com, you can find the rules for the contest and a tool-kit to help you put it all together.

You can read the full rules here

There are set by step instructions on the site, and photos of the band you can use. Submissions must be in by January 22. The submitted artwork will then be voted on by the fans. A fan will design the cover. Fans will choose the cover.

Dolly Parton Chosen For Gospel Music Hall Of Fame

Grammy Award-winning Country music singer Dolly Parton has been selected to be inducted to the Gospel Music Association Hall Of Fame. The ceremony will take place at Nashville's Richland Country Club on February 2nd. This will by Dolly's third induction into different Hall Of Fames- adding to her Country Music Hall Of Fame and Songwriters Hall Of Fame inductions.

Other inductees include Michael W. Smith, Dr. Bobby Jones and the Dixie Hummingbirds as well as producer Lari Goss, for their knowledge about gospel music, GMA President John Styll to the Associated Press.

Parton has released several gospel albums and inspirational songs. Her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., is also home to the Southern Gospel Music Museum and Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, Patron is also participating in an aural U.S. history lesson with a three-CD project titled "This Is America" that features Dolly among 56 artists and songwriters who've recorded songs that tell the story of the United States. Charley Pride, Kathy Mattea, Billy Dean and fiddler Mark O'Connor have all made contributions to the album among others.

Previous Gospel Hall inductees include Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Amy Grant, Tennessee Ernie Ford, the Jordanaires, the Fairfield Four and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Steve Martin Unveils Release Date & CD Title Of New Bluegrass Album

Awhile back, we reported on Steve Martin making a new country bluegrass album. Now word comes out that it's being released just around the corner. Martin, a banjo player for 45 years, spent nearly that long crafting tunes for The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo, available Jan. 27 exclusively at Amazon.com for the first 90 days.

Produced by Martin's high school friend John McEuen, Crow contains 14 original songs plus Clawhammer Medley (with Red Is the Rose, Sally Ann, Johnson Boys and others). The title track, first recorded for Tony Trischka's 2007 album, climbed the bluegrass charts to become Martin's second hit (after King Tut).

Happy Birthday To Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle (who turns 58 today) is best known for a series of country-pop crossover hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Grammy Award-winning, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." She accumulated 18 No. 1 country hits during the 1970s and 1980s. Famous for her nearly floor-length hair and was voted one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1983. She is the sister of singer Loretta Lynn (who is 17 years her senior) and a distant cousin of singer Patty Loveless. She's one of the most awarded singers in history, country or not, winning:

American Entertainment Magazine
* Best Female Entertainer (2007)
American Music Awards
* Favorite Female Country Artist (1979)
* Favorite Female Country Artist (1980)
* Favorite Female Country Artist (1986)
Academy of Country Music Awards
* Top New Female Vocalist (1975)
* Top Female Vocalist (1976)
* Top Female Vocalist (1977)
* Top Female Vocalist (1979)
Country Music Association Awards
* Female Vocalist of the Year (1977)
* Female Vocalist of the Year (1978)
Grammy Awards
* Best Female Country Vocal Performance - "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
Hollywood Walk of Fame (2007)

Catch this video of her singing "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." The song became a worldwide hit single and in the United States hit #1 on the country charts and #2 on the pop charts. The album received Platinum status, the first by a female country singer.

Listen To Danielle Peck's New Album Here

Danielle Peck was born in Jacksonville, N.C., the daughter of a U.S. Marine and grew up in Coshocton, Ohio. Her mother's side of the family traveled and sang in churches. Her father's parents and grandparents were steeped in country music, playing dances in the area. Peck could sing before she could talk and by the time she was 3, she would sit on a counter banging on pots and pans as her extended family played country music. The first song she learned to sing was Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

She wrote her first song before she was 10 and made cassette labels for her imaginary Danielle Peck records, complete with song titles and cover art. She sang in church both as a soloist and in the choir. At age 16, she joined a local band, the Neon Moon Band, and played bars around her hometown, as well as local summer fairs. At 18, her dad bought her a sound and light system that the family jokingly referred to as her 'college tuition.' When she graduated from high school, she hit the road leading her own band, adding regional fairs and festivals to the schedule.
After several years on the bar and festival circuit, Peck moved to Nashville, taking a job waiting tables and spending the rest of her time working on her songwriting. Soon after her Nashville arrival, she met publisher Clay Myers. When Myers took a job with Barbara Orbison's Still Working Music he brought Peck with him and insisted that Orbison sign her. After one meeting, Peck had a publishing deal.

Peck was waiting tables when she was asked to do an impromptu late-night audition right at a table in the restaurant for Scott Borchetta, while he was still at the DreamWorks label. After she sang, he promised that they would work together. The next day, Myers called Borchetta to ask if he was serious or if he was just in a celebratory mood. Borchetta explained, "No way. I think she's great! Let's get a meeting together." Peck signed briefly to DreamWorks but left the label after industry mergers. She resurfaced on the roster of Big Machine Records, an imprint founded by Borchetta in 2005.

Click HERE to listen to the new album.

Chely Wright To Release New Music In 2009

Chely Wright arrived on scene back in 1994, receiving an ACM award for Top New Female Vocalist that same year. In 1997, Chely had her first Top 10 country hit, "Shut Up & Drive". Two years later, she scored her first #1 single with "Single White Female"and went on to score several hit records and chart-topping videos to follow. Her most recent big hit was "The Bumper Of My SUV" which came off her 2004 Metropolitan Hotel album. Chely's seventh full album, Notes to the Coroner, will be arriving in the near future- most likely summer of 2009. It is being produced by country star Rodney Crowell. You can watch Chely in the studio talking a little about the process here:

"This Is My America" CD Box Set Combines History & Music

Fifty-six award-winning, American songwriters and performers have united to tell the history of the United States in a musically unprecedented, three-disc concept album called This Is My America.

Developed by Canadian producer Douglas Hutton, This Is My America employs songs and spoken narratives to chronicle a timeline of significant events that helped to shape the path of American history."

The 'star' of this project is a place called America," says Hutton, executive producer and president of King Motion Picture Corporation. "Portraits of the American experience have been expressed and distributed through film, television, recordings and countless literary works, but I wanted to tell it in a more inventive way that respects and reflects today's American values. What better way to do that, than through the international language of music?"

The epic set features an impressive array of some of Nashville's most talented singers and songwriters, including dozens of award-winning North American Songwriters Association (NSAI) composers, such as Charlie Black, Rory Bourke, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Roxie Dean, Steve Dean, Matt King, J Fred Knobloch, Wood Newton, Tim Ryan, Bill Shore, Sharon Vaughn, Jon Vezner, Jim Weatherly, Brian White, Lynn Wilbanks and David Wills. Dolly Parton, Kathy Mattea, Charley Pride, Mark O'Connor, Billy Dean, the Nashville Symphony and the Fisk Jubilee Singers are just a few of the performers that contributed to one of the most expensive projects ever recorded in Nashville. "

This is My America is simply one of the most amazing projects the Nashville Songwriters Association International has had the privilege to be involved with," says NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison. "The music is incredible, the stories are amazing, and the concept is fabulous." This Is My America chronologically spans more than 500 years of American history, touching on Native American themes, European exploration, Western settlement, and specific events such as the arrival of the Mayflower, the California Gold Rush, the Civil War, World War I and II and the recent tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.

The three-disc set, beautifully designed by artist Rollow Welch, is currently available online at www.ThisIsMyAmerica.com.

A Country Music Reason To Visit The Mouse

As is the case with many of the travel destinations across the United States (and the world for that matter), Disneyland has suffered an attendance drop at the landmark theme park due to the economic malaise we find ourselves in. They've come back with a three unique value-added opportunities for the new year to help stimulate patrons, however:

1. You're able to attend for free on your birthday

2. Disney is offering a 'three nights free' deal to Disney visitors who book a week-long vacation. You buy four nights in a Disney hotel with a four-day Magic Your Way theme park ticket and get the extra three days free.

3. There's a current offer floating around the internet offering 30% off any Disney hotel during their non-peak time through the end of 2009.

But now, there's a couple more reasons for the country music fan to plan a visit soon to the "happiest place on earth." At the Downtown Disney location, the famed House Of Blues has scheduled three concerts with artists with Nashville music roots:

* Thursday, January 15, 2009- Bayou country rocker Marc Broussard

* Monday, January 19, 2009- The Country Rat Pack- Tracy Byrd, Tracy Lawrence & Richie McDonald

* Monday, April 7, 2009- Billy Currington

A Songwriting Award & A Birthday For David Lee Murphy

In recognizing David Lee Murphy on his birthday today, (he turns 50), we also recognize a major ASCAP award he was recently given. He became a part of the ASCAP Silver Circle of writers who have been with the organization for 25 years or more.

Murphy's four albums have produced a total of thirteen singles on the country charts, including the Number One hit "Dust on the Bottle" from 1995 and four more Top Ten hits

While David Lee Murphy hasn't had a record released since 2004's Tryin To Get There, he has found continued success as a songwriter, most notably recently as a co-writer on Kenny Chesney's Number One single "Living in Fast Forward", Gary Allan's "A Feelin' Like That" (co-written by Ira Dean, then a member of Trick Pony, Van Zant's "Goes Down Easy", and Blake Shelton's "The More I Drink". 2008 saw the release of Keith Anderson's "Somebody Needs a Hug" and the Eli Young Band's "Always the Love Songs", two more songs co-written by Murphy.

You can watch/listen to his big #1 smash, "Dust On The Bottle" here:

David Lee Murphy - New Music - More Music Videos

James Otto Undergoes Surgery

Big James Otto stunned everyone but himself in 2008 with one of the biggest smash singles of the year- Just Got Started Loving You. Now word comes out that he'll have to do a little less Loving and little more healing. From his blog, James writes:

"I haven't told anybody cause I didn't want you to worry.... But I'm going under the knife today to repair a torn rotator cuff & remove the bone spurs that caused it. I wont be canceling any shows but could be in a sling for a few. I should recover pretty quickly but will require 6 weeks of physical therapy. There are lots of exciting things this year and I need to be at full strength to accomplish them all. I love you all and will see you on the road soon."

Here's wishing James a speedy recovery and a wish to head back in the studio and record more tracks for his next album.

Up & Coming New Nashville- Reckless Kelly (With Exclusive Interview)

Each week, That Nashville Sound showcases a new artist on the verge of hitting a national scene. Reckless Kelly is much further along than most of the artists we feature. Their new CD, Bulletproof, has already ranked among the top ten 2008 releases from several country music critics including Country Universe.

Reckless Kelly began making waves in Texas shortly after moving to Austin from Bend, Ore., where the band formed more than 11 years ago. They’ve built a fiercely loyal fan base in the Lone Star state and western territories, including the brothers’ native Idaho, but they’re captivating new audiences in Chicago, New York, the Southeast (including the Chapel Hill, N.C. home of their new label, Yep Roc), and even industry-hardened Nashville.

That’s hardly a surprise when one considers how long the Braun brothers have been stepping on stages; they’ve been harmonizing together since they were kids performing in their dad’s western swing band, Muzzie Braun & the Boys, with brothers Micky and Gary (who now have their own band, Micky & the Motorcars). The Boys played “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” when they were preteens — and did so well, they were invited back.Growing up in rural Idaho without TV, they weren’t even aware of who Johnny was — and didn’t know enough to be nervous that first time. Now, the brothers say, the only kind of performance that generates butterflies is when they sing the national anthem in one of their beloved ballparks; both Cody and Willy are baseball nuts. “It’s kind of a hard song to sing,” Willy explains, “and if you screw up, everybody knows it.” Still, they were particularly proud to serenade a Mother’s Day audience at Wrigley Field that was broadcast live on Chicago’s WGN-TV.Not that audience members would ever detect any jitters.

Consummate professionalism is one reason the band has fans like Steve Earle, with whom Reckless Kelly recorded tracks for Warren Zevon and Alejandro Escovedo tribute albums, and Joe Ely, who took the band on the road with him in 2007 after they recorded a song together for a Randy Newman tribute. Ely describes Reckless Kelly as “my kind of band: hell-raising, hard-playing, kick-ass songwriting, feet firmly in the present, but with an amazing knowledge of where it has all come from.” Discussions are in the works for another tour together; it’ll give them the opportunity to dig out those “Joe Ely & Reckless Kelly Show” (JERKS) T-shirts again.

Levity, of course, is one of the secrets to enduring road life and getting along together. You’ve gotta keep it fun, and for this band, that includes such activities as creating elaborate mini-movies and irreverent TV-show take-offs that look every bit as professional as any film school grad’s. (View their handiwork on RKTV at www.recklesskelly.com.) They’re also a gang of incorrigible (if not outlaw) pranksters who love a good party — especially if their fans are invited. They wouldn’t miss their annual foray to Steamboat Springs, Colo., for MusicFest, a skiing- and spirits-filled mountain sojourn, or a chance to join Cross Canadian Ragweed on the Big Music Cruise that floats from Texas to the Caribbean, or Willy and Cody’s favorite weekend of the year, when they go back home to Challis, Idaho, for the Braun Brothers Reunion, which attracted 5,000 friends and fans in 2007.

“That’s something my dad’s been doing with his brothers and his dad since we were little kids and even before we were born,” says Willy. “Every year, it’s gotten a little bit bigger, and in the last three or four years, we started bringing out friends of ours from Texas, like Cross Canadian Ragweed and Robert Earl Keen and Randy Rogers.”

Promoter John Dickson, the man behind MusicFest and the cruise, says they connect so well with fans because their music is genuine, and so are they. “You do get to know ’em through their music,” says Dickson. And it becomes a personal relationship. They’re approachable, he says, and they enjoy interacting with fans. “It’s like the Braun reunion — that family spirit and energy and closeness and friends.”

Yeah, getting to make music and have fun with family and friends on a regular basis. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Which is why the guys in Reckless Kelly intend to stick together for a long, long time to come.

That Nashville Sound had a brief chance to do an interview with Cody Braun (vocals/fiddle/mandolin/ harmonica). You’ll see their trademark humor shine through...

TNS- What brought you to Nashville?

CB- A bus

TNS- Looking over your career thus far, what do you rank as a couple of the highlights?

CB- Singing the National Anthem at Wrigley Field, Making a living playing the music we want to play for over 10 years.

TNS- What might people be surprised to find out about you?

CB- All of our parents are still married.

TNS- What kind of music are you listening to? What's in your iPod?

CB- "Undone" a tribute to Robert Earl Keen, Hayes Carll "Trouble In Mind", Ray LaMontagne " Gossip in the Grain"TNS- If you had a crystal ball and looked forward ten years, what do you see for yourself?

CB- Living in a van down by the river.

You can check out their video for Ragged As The Road here:

Happy Birthday To Patty Loveless & Deana Carter

That Nashville Sound would like to give a hearty big birthday wish to two of Nashville’s most celebrated country music queens- Patty Loveless and Deana Carter (pictured)- both born today. Loveless turns 52 and Carter turns 43.

Since her emergence on the country music scene in 1987 with her first, self-titled album, Patty Loveless has been one of the most popular female singers of the Neotraditional country movement, although she has also recorded albums in the Country pop and Bluegrass genres.

To date, Loveless has charted more than forty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including five Number Ones. In addition, she has recorded fourteen studio albums (not counting compilations); in the United States, four of these albums have been certified platinum, while two have been certified gold. She is also the 65th member of the Grand Ole Opry. Loveless is also a distant cousin of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle.

Deana Carter broke through in 1996 with the release of debut album Did I Shave My Legs for This?, which was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in the United States for sales of over five million. It was followed by 1998's Everything's Gonna Be Alright, 2003's I'm Just a Girl, 2005's The Story of My Life, and 2007's The Chain. Overall, Carter's albums have accounted for fourteen singles, including three which reached Number One on the Billboard country charts: "Strawberry Wine", "We Danced Anyway", and "How Do I Get There".

We’ve added two videos by the two icons for your viewing pleasure. The first is Patty’s How Can I Help You Say Goodbye, the second is Deana’s Strawberry Wine. Enjoy.