Image Courtesy Sony Music NashvilleTyler Farr is kicking off the ACM Lifting Lives Club Shows series with two shows this January. The first one is set for January 9 at Joe’s Bar in Chicago, and the second one is happening January 10 at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tickets for Tyler’s shows go on sale Friday, and more club dates will be added soon.

Proceeds from each ticket go to the ACM Lifting Lives organization to help people through the power of music. Fans who go to any of the ACM Lifting Lives Club Shows can tweet a picture of their ticket for a chance to win tickets to the sold-out 50th Annual ACM Awards on April 19, 2015 in Texas. Be sure and tag @ACMawards and use #ACMLiftingLivesBenefit in the tweet.

Go to ACMLiftingLives.org for more details.

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Image Courtesy Warner Music NashvilleHunter Hayes is kicking off CMA Week with a free concert this Monday night outside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The show is part of the USO’s Every Moment Counts campaign. 

Hunter will help pay tribute to Sergeant First Class Tyler Arnold and his family during his set. Arnold has been deployed six times including stops in Iraq and Afghanistan, which means he’s missed quite a few “moments” with his wife and two young daughters. The USO hopes this concert can help create a special memory for them all to share.

Several servicemen and women from Fort Campbell near Nashville will be on hand for Hunter’s Monday night concert, too. Dan + Shay and new group The Railers will also perform.

Hunter Hayes is also incorporating the USO’s Every Moment Counts campaign into his Tattoo (Your Name) Tour, where invited troops and their families will be honored at every stop on the trek.  You can get involved, too, by downloading the official Hunter Hayes Tour App before they go to the show. Check HunterHayes.com for tour dates.

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Image Courtesy Republic NashvilleFlorida Georgia Line‘s hip-hop influence is heavy as ever on their new album, Anything Goes, available now. While they’re rooted in country music, FGL’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley have been rap and hip-hop fans since they were kids.

Brian says, ” We grew up listening to anybody from Lil’ Wayne, Eminem. Currently, Drake, Wiz Khalifah. ASAP Rocky.”

You’ll find all those artists on FGL’s backstage playlists, too.

Says Tyler, “We do have bus parties, and there’s a lot of rap music that gets played. Hip-hop and country all day and all night, baby.”

Look for FGL’s new video, “Sun Daze,” to premiere on CMT Wednesday.

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Comstock/ThinkstockDarius Rucker named his second country album after the city where he was born. Name the city. ANSWER: Charleston, SC.

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Image Courtesy CMABrad Paisley and Carrie Underwood stopped by NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers Monday to plug the upcoming 48th Annual CMA Awards.

As you know, Brad and Carrie will be hosting the show for the seventh year in a row, and they revealed during their chat with Meyers that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are the country artists the co-hosts most like poking fun at.

“Tim and Faith are great. We’ve picked on them a bunch,” said Brad.

Brad said the couple made themselves easy targets for jokes after they put out their own Barbie dolls a few years ago. “That was the biggest gift we’ve ever been given,” declared Brad.

Carrie is known for changing her outfit numerous times while hosting the awards show, but it will be more challenging this year because she’s pregnant.

Carrie admitted to Meyers, “I definitely have like outfit ADD, I think, and I can’t stay in the same one.”  As for the challenge her pregnancy will present when it comes to outfit changes, Carrie said, “We’re figuring that out within the next couple of days.”

The 48th Annual CMA Awards will air November 5 on ABC.

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Image Courtesy Capitol NashvilleDarius Rucker‘s first-ever Christmas album, Home for the Holidays, is out this week featuring some very special guests on “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Darius invited his kids into the studio to help him out on the holiday classic, and they were very excited to be included in the project.

Darius says, “They were in the studio, and every time they’d get it right, I’d go, ‘You guys, that was great.’ My son [Jack] would do the fist pump, “Yes!” He was so excited.”

Of course, Darius is more than happy to show off his offspring’s talent.

“I beam with pride. I love my kids, and they’re awesome human beings, and just proud to have them. Proud to have them on my record and proud to call them my kids.”

Home for the Holidays also features Darius’s collaboration with Sheryl Crow on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” as well as the original songs “Candy Cane Christmas” and “What God Wants for Christmas.”

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Burke/Triolo Productions/ThinkstockRandy Houser and Montgomery Gentry‘s Troy Gentry have joined the lineup for the annual Tootsie’s Birthday Bash celebrating the 54th anniversary of Nashville honky-tonk, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. The free event takes place November 12 on Nashville’s Lower Broadway.

Chris Young appears in a new series of TV commercials for Kidde Fire Safety’s Worry-Free smoke and carbon monoxide. Look for the clips to air on select ABC affiliates in the days leading up to the 48th Annual CMA Awards on November 5.

Carrie Underwood revealed her baby is due in spring 2015 during an appearance on ABC’s The View Monday morning. She sat down with the show’s hosts and Brad Paisley to promote the 48th Annual CMA Awards coming up November 5 on ABC.

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Image Courtesy Bob D’Amica/ABCThe cast of Nashville is getting in the Christmas spirit with a new holiday album, Christmas with Nashville, coming out November 4. Rascal Flatts bassist Jay DeMarcus, who made a cameo on Nashville last season, produced the album. It features Clare Bowen as Scarlett O’Connor singing “Santa Baby” and Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne singing “Blue Christmas.”  Will Chase‘s Luke Wheeler and Connie Britton‘s Rayna Jaymes are also featured on a duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Heading up this project was a real treat for Jay DeMarcus.

“I was blown away by the consistent talent level of each actor as they came into the studio,” Jay tells Rolling Stone Country. “I realized immediately that I was working with gifted singers, as well. They are so meticulous about their craft of acting, and they were just as meticulous about making sure the music was right.”

Here’s the full track list for Christmas with Nashville:

“Santa Baby” — Clare Bowen
“Blue Christmas” — Charles Esten
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” — Jonathan Jackson
“White Christmas” — Hayden Panettiere
“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” — Connie Britton
“River” — Sam Palladio
“Baby’s, It’s Cole Outside” — Connie Britton and Will Chase
“Merry Christmas, Baby” — Aubrey Peeples
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” — Chaley Rose
“Christmas Coming Home” — Lennon & Maisy
“Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem” — Will Chase
“Celebrate Me Home” — Sam Palladio, Clare Bowen, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson

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Image Courtesy Nick Rau/Sony Music NashvilleMiranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are celebrating the platinum success of their duet, “Somethin’ Bad.” The collaboration has been certified for hitting the one million mark for combined downloads and online streams. The platinum certification is appropriate since “Somethin’ Bad” is included on Miranda’s latest album, Platinum.

“Somethin’ Bad” has also earned Carrie and Miranda CMA Awards nominations in the Music Video of the Year and Musical Event of the Year categories. See if they walk away with the trophies on the 48th Annual CMA Awards airing live from Nashville Wednesday, November 5 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Image Courtesy MCA NashvilleReigning CMA Entertainer of the Year George Strait has signed on to perform at the 48th Annual CMA Awards. This will be the 24th time George has performed on the CMA Awards during his 33-year career.

Nashville star Connie Britton, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Good Morning America correspondent Tim Tebow and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler are all set to present trophies on the show, too.

The 48th Annual CMA Awards broadcast live from Nashville Wednesday, November 5 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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