Country Music | featured news

The country music world reacted with deep emotion upon learning of the death of legendary singer George Jones. Here's a sampling of quotes and tweets about Jones: "The world has lost the greatest country singer of all time. Amen." - Merle Haggard

Luke Bryan pulled off a shocking win on Sunday night when he beat out heavyweights Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift to win the Academy of Country Music Award's biggest prize of the evening: entertainer of the year. The winner is chosen by fan votes.

As he gears up for a slew of summer tour dates, John Mayer will hit Las Vegas on Sunday for the Academy of Country Music Awards. The newly-single musician will join Brad Paisley on stage during the ceremony, which will also feature collaborations from Hunter Hayes and Stevie Wonder, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban, as well as George Strait and Garth Brooks – among a laundry list of additional performers.

Authorities say they found country singer Mindy McCready's body on the same porch of her northern Arkansas home where her boyfriend was found dead of an apparent suicide last month.

Spend a lot of time with a guy over five years and you get to know him pretty well. In the time Carrie Underwood has spent co-hosting the Country Music Association Awards with Brad Paisley, she's learned there's nothing fake about the man with the white hat. Paisley's not projecting the family first, fun-loving, good-guy persona that's made him one of country music's most popular stars. That's who he is, and he's found an uncommon balance Underwood really didn't believe existed in show business.

Name just about any trophy, lifetime achievement award or honorific, and Garth Brooks can claim ownership. Sunday night he'll get the big one: Country Music Hall of Fame member. Brooks will be inducted along with Connie Smith and Hargus "Pig" Robbins in a surprise-packed performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville.

Legendary country musician Willie Nelson has been hospitalized because of breathing problems, organizers told an audience in Colorado after the 79-year-old failed to show up for a concert.

Randy Travis was charged with driving while intoxicated and threatening law officers after the country singer crashed his car and was found naked and combative at the scene, officials said.

His manager, Mitchell Greenhill, said in a news release that Watson died Tuesday at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Carrie Underwood promised that her fourth album, “Blown Away,” would be “darker” than the country-pop sun rays she’s been known to radiate. False alarm. This is merely a trans-faux-mation — that thing pop stars do when they dabble in minor-key melodies, frowny lyrics and/or smoky eye shadow, hoping their listeners will mistake a superficial shift in tone for a meaningful artistic left turn.