We’ve all seen pictures of “Grumpy Cat” and maybe you’ve even seen him on TV. But there’s more to this little guy than just a pretty face. Here’s a quick look at the real Grumpy Cat.

Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert brought their much-decorated ballad ‘Over You,’ which they penned together about the death of Shelton’s brother, to ‘The Voice‘ on Tuesday, performing the intimate and deeply personal song with a different purpose.

Sitting next to one another on a stage illuminated by foot lights, Shelton strummed his acoustic guitar, looking at his wife with pain all over his face while she belted out the lyrics. You could see the mix of emotion and admiration in his eyes as she delivered the words. Both looked to be welling up with tears, in light of the tragedy of their home state of Oklahoma, where a devastating tornado ripped through the region earlier this week.

The couple called attention to the situation in their state, as a text box was featured on the screen, calling for donations to aid the Red Cross in relief efforts for the victims.

“I think ‘Over You’ was the perfect song for this situation,” Shelton said after the show. “The moment was right. I wish things could have been different. I wouldn’t have thought about performing a song like that, but it seemed like the right thing to do.”

He is working with NBC, the network which airs ‘The Voice,’ on a benefit concert. “Hopefully, it will be something big and will raise a lot of money, and obviously it will be televised,” the singer and coach said. “It will happen really quickly and, hopefully, I can call in some really big favors.”

Shelton has plenty of friends in country music and beyond, and he can certainly use his star power to help his fellow Oklahomans.

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Source: Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert Bring ‘Over You’ to ‘The Voice’ in Tribute to Oklahoma

Last night, just before The Voice eliminations kicked off, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert paid tribute to the victims of the Oklahoma tornado tragedy.

The two performed an acoustic version Miranda’s hit, Over You, with a little spin on it.  This song brings a tear to my eye on a good day, but given the situation this will just give you goosebumps.

Grab a tissue, sit back and keep everyone in Oklahoma in your thoughts.

A new poll says Americans think Will Ferrell is the funniest person in America, followed by Tina Fey at number 2, Chris Rock came in third, Daniel Tosh (Tosh.O) fourth and rounding out the top five was Jon Stewart. What do YOU think? Is Will Ferrell the funniest man in America? I think he’s VERY FUNNY and can’t wait for “Anchorman 2:The Legend Continues“. See a trailer of the movie below.

Carrie Underwood invited Hunter Hayes out on her “Blown Away” tour this past year and she decided she wanted to mess with Hayes on their last show in Edmonton, Canada. Underwood used screaming goats to pull off the hilarious prank. See the joke unfold on Hayes below.

Sugarland fans went in to a bit of a panic when Jennifer Nettles revealed she was working on a solo album.  Having seen them perform live several times, it’s pretty easy to see how in sync with each other these two are.  Many thought this signaled the end of the duo but rest assured this is not the case.

Check out the video below to see Jennifer’s response when she was asked whether or not this was the end of Sugarland.  She also reveals some details on her upcoming solo album, which is expected to be released this fall.

This is possibly the most beautiful dance routine I’ve ever seen. Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough blew everyone away with their freestyle dance this week. I want to watch it over and over again!

Every day is a good day to be George Strait, but now the superstar has more cause to celebrate his illustrious career than usual. Strait ignited 60 for 60 campaign, pushing to clinch his 60th No. 1 hit before his 61st birthday, which he celebrated over the weekend. The iconic country star hit his goal — and his fellow country artists couldn’t be happier for him.

Strait and his label, MCA, launched the push to get his latest single, ‘Give It All You Got Tonight,’ to the top of the charts. They rolled out the campaign via Facebook and Twitter on Valentine’s Day, calling on country radio stations to play the tune as much as possible.

Before long, country stars like Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, Little Big Town, Scotty McCreery and more turned out to help call attention to the goal.

And it worked! Based on Mediabase charts, ‘Give It All You Got Tonight’ clinched the top slot on the country chart for the week of May 12-18. Strait turned 61 on Saturday May 18, so he and his label are calling their campaign a success. Talk about an awesome birthday present!

In honor of Strait’s 61st birthday and 60th No. 1 hit, country artists turned out again to offer up kind words and congratulations. Most stars offered up “Happy Birthday!” messages and a general, “Congratulations on your 60th No. 1 hit!” But a few movers and shakers added personal touches to their warm wishes.

“Nice to be your friend, George,” Paisley told to the camera. “Congratulations!”

“You’re the King of Country Music, hands down,” Gary Allan added to his message.

But of all the congratulations, Eddie Montgomery‘s might have been the most creative. “Hey George, hey man, 60 for 60, that’s awesome! But I’ll tell you — what about going 80 for 80? What about that?” he asked the superstar.

We sure wouldn’t mind seeing Strait go 80 for 80! But for now, we’ll just say congratulations to the King of Country on his 60th No. 1 single.

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Source: George Strait Is 60 for 60, Fellow Country Artists Celebrate in Fun Video

Zac Brown Band just released the video for their new single Jump Right In.  The song itself is a catchy tune that will at least get your toes tapping.  I’m fairly certain most people, myself included, break out in a full fledged dance.    The video really adds to the song because it contains classic Zac Brown humor and it has a really fun island feel to it.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few people break out their maracas after they check it out.

This is the third single from their critically acclaimed Uncaged album.  The group is currently on tour with Kenny Chesney, opening a number of stadium shows for him.  Zac Brown Band will play with Kenny at Target Field on July 12th.

Jake Owen is nothing if not creative and able to think on the fly — and with his fly down. The singer ripped his pants while performing onstage in Charleston, S.C. on May 17.

It was quite eventful, since he admitted via Twitter that he had gone commando and therefore had to improvise, using his white t-shirt as emergency sash to hold his pants together to avoid really putting on a show.

Owen had a terrific sense of humor about his pants predicament, and came up with a clever yet makeshift solution to a very real problem. He was said to be climbing around to say hello to a fan in the crowd, and that’s when his pants parted at the seams. Necessity is the mother of invention, so he used his shirt to create a bandage of sorts that ended up looking like one of his daughter’s diapers.

Only Jake Owen could make that look good, especially since he is so in shape lately. His female fans were undoubtedly happy to see the singer go shirtless.

One amused fan tweeted: ”Jake Owen split his pants on stage and said, ‘that’s when you know you’re rockin your balls off!’”

The singer himself hit the social media site following the show, writing: “Charleston, SC will never be forgotten. My jeans ripped on stage tonight. Going commando=bad idea. Although, great breeze here. Coastal town.”

“Tonight was totally “nuts” in Charleston,” he joked. We bet he’ll never skip the undies again.

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Source: Jake Owen Rips His Pants Onstage

Hot country trio the Band Perry performed ‘Better Dig Two’ at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night (May 19), bringing their unique electricity to the stage with one of the coolest, edgiest mainstream country tracks the genre has seen in recent years.

Clad in black and illuminated from behind by dark, mysterious mood lighting punctuated with laser-like colored beams, the sibling trio turned in a performance that demonstrated not only their hip country-rock crossover appeal, but underlined exactly why lead singer and frontwoman Kimberly Perry is one of the most interesting performers in mainstream country music right now. She gave a star turn that was energetic, edgy and perfectly-sung — not to mention that she knows how to work the stage like a veteran far beyond her years, with a theatrical presence that emphasized the song’s bold, dramatic themes.

‘Better Dig Two’ features an interesting mix of traditional instrumentation like banjos and fiddles with a contemporary country slant that made it the group’s choice for the first single from their sophomore album, ‘Pioneer.’ Its success makes the Band Perry one of the very few contemporary country artists whose roots reach back deeper into the genre — as well as one of the few who can truly play live and deliver the kind of performance they did on Sunday night in Las Vegas.

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Source: The Band Perry Perform ‘Better Dig Two’ at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards

Hot young country newcomer Hunter Hayes got the opportunity of a lifetime when he opened up for superstar Carrie Underwood on her Blown Away Tour this year. He wrapped up his dates with Underwood at a performance in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Saturday night (May 18) — but she wasn’t going to let him get away without a proper sendoff, pulling an onstage prank that really got his goat.

In the clip above, Hayes is performing as usual when about thirty seconds into it, a goat appears on the large screen to the side of the stage. It can be heard “singing” along with the young performer briefly, then vanishes, only to re-appear and scream a few more wordless lines in unison, much to the delight of the audience.

The prank is part of a strange internet trend called “goating,” in which a screaming goat is randomly added to a musical performance. It’s seemingly been sweeping the world, with a number of viral videos featuring goat versions of top songs. Underwood planned the prank in advance and posted about it to Twitter, writing, “Hunter Hayes’ last show on the #BlownAwayTour = time for pranks!” A couple of minutes later she added a picture of the goat on the screen and wrote, “Need I say more?”

Later that night Underwood posted a link to the fan video of the prank, writing, “Tee hee! Thanks @HunterHayes for being on the road with us! You will be missed!”

Of course, turnabout is fair play; Underwood herself has been goated, along with Taylor Swift, in a couple of hilarious viral videos.

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Source: Carrie Underwood Pranks Hunter Hayes at His Last Blown Away Tour Show

Nothing gets you in the spirit of summer quite like seeing thousands of college kids hanging out at the beach during Spring Break. Beaches, beer and bathing suits — what else do you need? Nothing! That’s why Luke Bryan used Spring Break footage to capture the ultimate party-time summer vibe in his new ‘Just a Sip’ video.

You might think that the 36-year-old country music star is too old to party with Spring Breakers, but this music video proves that he’s not. It’s only fitting that ‘Just a Sip’ is one of the tracks from Bryan’s ‘Spring Break … Here to Party’ album.

And party, they do.

They clip opens with a shot of two shirtless guys carrying a cooler out to the beach. Judging by the fact that it takes two dudes to carry one small cooler, it’s probably full of ice and beer. Then the video pans to a shot of Bryan signing autographs and being carried through a crowd on someone’s shoulders.

All footage from the video was shot in Panama City, Fla., during Spring Break this year, and it’s obvious that Bryan, his fans and their fellow spring breakers had an awesome time.

The ‘I Don’t Want This Night to End’ hitmaker is shown shaking it on stage while bathing suit-clad fans scream for him in the audience. College pals dance together while clutching red cups and beer cans, no doubt taking more than just a sip of their beer or cocktail.

There’s not much to the three-minute clip other than good music and good times. With so many shots of people having an awesome time on the beach, it’s only a matter of time until ‘Just a Sip’ becomes country music’s summer 2013 anthem.

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Source: Luke Bryan’s ‘Just a Sip’ Video Brings the Ultimate Spring Break Party

2012 was not a good year for Randy Travis.  He was arrested in February for public intoxication.  When that happened the public got their hands on the video footage and got a good laugh out of it.

His troubles didn’t stop there.  In August, police responded to a call where an unclothed man was lying in the street.  That man was Randy Travis and when the police arrived they discovered he had crashed his car in a construction zone and was indeed lying in the middle of the road with no clothes on.

Video of his arrest was taken that night and he is now trying to stop it from being released to the public.  A judge in the case had decided that the video be destroyed and the transcript would remain confidential.  However, the attorney general decided some of the information should be made public.

On Tuesday, Randy filed a lawsuit with Travis County against the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Office of the Attorney General.  He’s seeking $100,000 in damages and an order to keep the information private.

I don’t care to see the video personally and I can understand why Randy wouldn’t want it released.  It’s embarrassing but with all the technology that is available, it’s difficult to keep these kinds of things under wraps.

Richard “Dick” Trickle died Thursday at the age of 71. His body was discovered next to his pickup truck at a cemetery in Lincoln County, North Carolina, after the longtime NASCAR and short-track driver shot himself, according to police.

Trickle was retired from competitive racing and had been living in Lincoln County for some time. Around noon, the Lincoln County Communications Center received a phone call, saying that there would be a dead body at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City. Soon after, authorities found his body.

Over the course of a career that began at age 17 in 1958, Trickle was a two-time American Speed Association champion (1984, 1985), he won seven ARTGO championships, and he took the 1968 USAC Stock Car Rookie of the Year and the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year.

Trickle became quite famous for his name, becoming a repeated punch line on shows like ESPN’s ‘SportsCenter.’ And though he never had much success on the NASCAR circuit, that didn’t hurt his sense of humor. In 1997, he filmed a commercial for NAPA Auto Parts in which he predicted the winner of an upcoming race: “It’s gonna be me!” A graphic then flashed across the screen that read “Dick is 0 for 243 in Cup races.”

Trickle then smiled and said, “I think we get champagne!”

[Charlotte Observer]

It’s the “Hot Tub Boat”, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.  A hot tub that has a motor on it and you can tool around on the water while sitting in warm bubbly water.  So no matter how chilly it might be outside, you can stay night and warm in the tub.

And if you DO want to cool down you can jump in the water for a quick swim.  You can also use it as a regular boat too, see photos here.

It might be one of the greatest inventions in modern times, right next to the hat that hold a six-pack of beers.  See the “Hot Tub Boat” in action here.

Brad Paisley made a promise last autumn to Lee Feldman, an Ephrata, Penn. resident who was stricken with pancreatic cancer. That promise was to use Feldman’s gift of a prized custom-made guitar on Paisley’s new album, ‘Wheelhouse,’ and to not let the guitar lay unused and forgotten.  

“I was given a guitar in my meet and greet by a man who was dying of pancreative cancer and had weeks to live,” Paisley explains of how he got the instrument. “He was a really feisty, wonderful old guy, gave me this great old guitar that was an electric, sort of Les Paul-like, and he said, ‘I want you to have this… if you’re going to play it, I want you to have it. If you ain’t going to play it, give it to someone else. I don’t want it collecting dust.’”

Paisley followed the instruction he was given. Toward the end of recording ‘Wheelhouse,’ he brought the guitar into the studio and set it down — and then it hit him. “And I went, ‘I know the song for that,’” the singer recalls, “And that’s what plays the guitar leads on ‘Officially Alive.’ As the album ends, it’s one of the last things you hear.”

“He told me, he said, ‘I want this to live on,’” Paisley remembers. “So we ended the record with it.”

It’s exactly how the terminally ill fan, who sadly passed away in November, would have wanted it. He and his guitar are living on forever in music history on ‘Wheelhouse,’now a No. 1 record for the country star.

Paisley will probably always hold a soft spot in his heart for that special promise and the guitar that Lee Feldman didn’t want just anyone to have. Whether he brings it with him on tour or he leaves it in the safekeeping of his home, it’s certain that the guitar will be cherished by its new owner for years to come.

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Watch Brad Paisley Explain How He Kept This Very Special Promise

Source: Brad Paisley Keeps His Promise, Honors Deceased Fan in Very Special Way

George Strait’s highly anticipated album Love Is Everything came out yesterday and yes, I did go pick up a copy right away yesterday morning.

There’s no question George knows how to put together a great album but he has had some that are better than others, like Troubadour.  Part of the reason this album is so special to George and his fans is the fact he’s out on his last official tour.

I spent last night and part of this morning listening to the album and put together a track-by-track review.

The album starts off with I Got a Car, which is a cute little number about a boy who meets a girl and wants a shot with her.    He’s got a car and they take off on their journey together which centers around this car right up to the point where she is due to give birth to their child.

The second track is shaping up to be his 60th Number 1 hit, Give It All We Got Tonight.  When George first heard the song, he had his doubts as to whether he could do it.

“The first time I heard it I thought, ‘Hmm, that’s a great song. [It’s] a little different for me, you know, a little risqué kinda.’ I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can pull this off or not.”

Check out more of George’s thoughts on the song here.

Blue Melodies is the third track on the album.  Lyrically and musically the song takes you back to classic country.  It’s very sad and could just as easily have been a George Jones tune.

I Just Can’t Go on Dying Like This is not a new song in terms of age and even for George himself.  He recorded this song several years before he signed with MCA and it also appeared on his Strait Out of the Box set.  There are some differences, the most obvious being a slower melody.

I Thought I Heard My Heart Sing is a catchy, upbeat song with a Cajun feel to it.  It is reminiscent of his hit from the ’90′s, Adalida, which has always been one of my favorites.

The sixth track, That’s What Breaking Hearts Do, is absolutely one of my favorites.  It’s a timeless song that would fit well on any George album.

When Love comes Around Again is another favorite of mine.  It’s about someone who is heartbroken but they’re optimistic about their future and finding love again.

The Night Is Young is a really fun, upbeat, party song.  Being in the midst of summer (well, kind of), I can see this one being played at several parties in my neighborhood.

Sittin’ On The Fence describes a situation we have all been in, getting burned in a relationship.  It describes how difficult it can be to start fresh, no matter how much you like the person.

The tenth track will make you think and touch your heart.  I Believe speaks volumes about George’s faith.  There’s a line in the song that goes ’there’s 26 angels looking down from above, resting in His mercy, grace and love, time may never heal the sadness we feel’ which reminds of the school shooting in Newtown, CT.  I haven’t heard of a connection yet but I am thinking there could be one.

The title track, Love Is Everything, talks about all the different emotions that love entails.  Love is happiness and rainbows but sometimes it isn’t.  You take the good with the bad because love is everything.

You Don’t Know What You’re Missing definitely has an older feel to it and reminds of some of his other songs on past albums.  It’s three guys sitting in a bar and one is complaining about his life and the guy sitting on the end by himself is wishing he had what the other guy is complaining about.

Fittingly, When the Credits Roll closes out the album.  I think this song is really cool because it talks about all the different roles a man has played during his lifetime.  He looks back on it he gets a glimpse of his soul.

Love Is Everything is quickly becoming one of my favorite George Strait albums.  There is such a variety of songs and he stays true to his country roots while venturing a bit out of his comfort zone.  Any one of these songs could easily be released and go to Number 1, but that’s George for you.