As 2011 comes to close we are one step closer to Arizona Country Thunder, and organizers are proud to unveil over ten additional acts that have joined the festival line-up, including 3-time CMA Entertainer of the Year Alan Jackson as Sunday’s headliner!  Jackson has earned 16 CMA Awards, 17 ACM Awards, 35 #1 hits, and has sold nearly 60 million albums to date – all of which make him one of the most successful and respected singer-songwriters in music today. Jackson is set to close out the 19th annual Arizona Country Thunder festival and will join previously announced headliners Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley, and Big & Rich for the premiere country music, camping, and entertainment festival taking place on April 12-15, 2012.

Go on the last run of the CMT Tour with Luke Bryan and his crew…and witness the pranks and antics that go along with it…toilet paper and opening acts, Lee Brice, Josh Thompson and Matt Mason. More LBTV coming in 2012.

Lady Antebellum’s Own the Night and Eric Church’s Chief have both been nominated for Best Country Album for the 2012 Grammy Awards.

Following the Grammy nominations announcement last night, Lady A tweeted, “We are so excited about our Grammy nomination! Congrats to all the nominees! Incredible. Thank you!!”

Eric poured a lot of heart, soul and energy into his latest offering, Chief, and says the album was driven by his fans’ passion. “We have built our career on the backs of our fans. We have not cared what else was going on around us,” he says. “The other thing, we went and played shows, and we have given those fans the keys to this vehicle, and we said, ‘Drive it!’ And they have told people about it, and they’ve spread the word, and they’ve preached that gospel, and they’ve just become an army out there.”

The two compete against Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party, Blake Shelton’s Red River Blue, George Strait’s Here for a Good Time and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now. The 54th Annual Grammy Awards will broadcast live February 12th at 8p ET on CBS.

AUDIO: Eric Church talks about making his latest album, Chief.

Eric Church (making of Chief) OC: …its heartbeat. :59

“We have built our career on the backs of our fans. We have not cared what else was going on around us. The other thing, we went and played shows, and we have given those fans the keys to this vehicle, and we said, ‘Drive it!’ And they have told people about it, and they’ve spread the word, and they’ve preached that gospel, and they’ve just become an army out there. This record when we made it, it needed, for me, to sound like a live show. It needed to sound like we had recorded it live, like you were watching something that we didn’t rehearse, that we didn’t think out. And there’s so many tracks on this record, where I am interacting with the musicians, because I am in the room with them, and either I will sing a melody line or the guitar will be playing a melody line, and we’ll pick up on each other, and it will turn into this little jam moment. And that is where the magic happens. We didn’t plan it, we didn’t talk about it, there’s as much unrehearsed magic on this record as we’ve ever had. There’s a lot of mistakes on it, and I think that’s part of a live show. We mess up every night live, and we talk about it after a show. We left it on this record. Those mistakes are in there, and I think that’s what gives it its heartbeat.”

AUDIO: Own The Night is the title of Lady Antebellum’s third album, and the band’s Hillary Scott explains what kind of statement she hopes the album makes.

Lady Antebellum (Title statement) OC: …celebrate it. :23

HS: “We hope that this album makes an honest statement and one of just truly enjoying your life, every moment in it, whether it’s a heartbreaking moment or a moment where you’re about to float off the ground you’re so head-over-heels for someone. It’s really — embrace every single moment and choose to celebrate it.”

Lady Antebellum reveal all the crazy fun antics they pull while waiting to go on stage for their Own the Night 2011 Tour. Check out the song Lady A’s Charles Kelley and his brother Josh come up with prior to a show, as well as the “music” the band creates on the bus!

In  the latest episode of DBTV (#44), Dierks Bentley, the Eli Young Band and Jerrod Niemann celebrate the close of the first leg of the Country & Cold Cans Tour. Thanks to everyone who made it out to the shows! For those who couldn’t, be sure to keep an eye out for more dates in 2012. Check out dierks.com for more information on next year’s tour dates.

As the weather outside turns a little frightful and Old Man Winter comes a’calling, Lady Antebellum‘s Hillary Scott happily breaks out her winter clothes and brews up the figurative hot chocolate to sit in front of a blazing fire. “I absolutely love when the air starts to get a little chilly and you get to bundle up in your fun fall clothes and wear scarves,” says Hillary. “I think there’s something so nice about summertime, but there’s something so cozy and wonderful about the winter and being able to turn on the fireplace and cuddle up by the fire.”

Lady A, who just hit the top of the Billboard country chart with “We Owned the Night,” are enjoying the winter weather on the road, as they continue their Own the Night 2011 Tour on Thursday (December 1st) in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Want to star in your own music video, featuring friends and family? Now, you can, and Dierks Bentley will help you put it together. Visit dierksbentleyhome.com to upload personal photos and customize your own music video to the tune of the singer’s latest smash, “Home.” Some of your videos will be featured on Dierks’ own Facebook page.

Dierks Bentley and Darius Rucker were among the artists taking part in the special event, Country Music: In Performance at the White House. Hosted by President and Mrs. Obama, last week’s performance celebrated country music. Check out a couple of the performances, as well as some behind-the-scenes video clips–one of which showcases Dierks as the interviewer.

Lady Antebellum’s “We Owned the Night” has climbed to the top of the Billboard country chart, marking the trio’s sixth career No. one hit. The track has already scored big internationally, having spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Canada country chart.
 
“This is our tour opener, and every night when we start into it, you can definitely feel the support that country radio has given this song.  Everyone is ready for it, and the energy really helps get the night kicked off right and sets the tone,” says Lady A’s Charles Kelley.  “It’s crazy to think we’ve had six No. one hits…we want to send out a big thank you to all of our friends at country radio, our record label and our fans!  We know these don’t come easy…it’s a big group effort!”

“We Owned the Night” is the second No. 1 single off the group’s Platinum certified new album , Own the Night, which became country music’s biggest first week debut this year.

The trio will be honored as one of CMT’s five Artists of the Year in December.

Fans can catch Lady A on the Fall leg of their headlining tour, which was recently extended into next year as the OWN THE NIGHT 2012 WORLD TOUR with Darius Rucker and special guest Thompson Square. 

AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott explains why “We Owned the Night” is one of her favorite songs on the band’s latest album, Own the Night.

Lady A (WOTN) OC: …joy in it. :32

“I love that song. It’s not necessarily with a guy, you know, in a romantic sense, but just nights in college, you know, before I met Charles and Dave and our career took off; like hanging out with my friends and staying out and staying up until four in the morning and laughing and having a great time. It’s not so much about a romantic night to me, so much as just those nights that I remember growing up that were just like, you feel like you could just float off the ground, it was so much fun, and there was so much joy in it.”

Little Big Town have released “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and the band says it was pretty difficult to choose just one holiday release. “We’re thinking about making a Christmas record, so this was like another start of a Christmas record, and it is so much harder [to choose],” says LBT’s Karen Fairchild. “You just think, ‘Oh, I’ll just pull together all my favorites.’ But when you start looking at all the great classics and how you want to cover ‘em…you don’t want to mess ‘em up.” Karen’s bandmate (and hubby) Jimi Westbrook agrees. “You hear all the versions that, the great versions that artists have done, you know, and you have to do something kind of different, you know, and  make it your own.”

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is now available on iTunes.

LBT (picking Christmas single) OC: (Karen) …can’t mute us. [Jimi laughs] :50

KAREN: “It was hard!” KIMBERLY: “It really was. We went through a ton of Christmas songs.” KAREN: “‘Cause we’re thinking about making a Christmas record, so this was like another start of a Christmas record, and it is so much harder. You just think, ‘Oh, I’ll just pull together all my favorites.’ But when you start looking at all the great classics and how you want to cover ‘em and you don’t want to mess ‘em up and you have fond memories.” JIMI: “You hear all the versions that, the great versions that artists have done, you know, and you have to do something kind of different, you know, and  make it your own.” KAREN: “Yeah. But I’m proud of the way this one turned because it is, I think, uniquely ours, and Wayne Kirkpatrick plays the most beautiful acoustic guitar part I think I’ve ever heard. You could just mute us and just listen to him, and it would be gorgeous.” KIMBERLY: “Yeah, it’s like straight from Heaven.” KAREN: “Don’t do that, though. Luckily, you can’t mute us. [Jimi laughs]”