Blog Posts by Chris Willman

As a newlywed, Miranda Lambert might seem disloyal for being happy that any nominee in the CMA Awards' Entertainer of the Year category won besides her husband. But that wasn't the case, Lambert said backstage.

"When Taylor won entertainer, I secretly sang, 'Who runs the world? Girls!'" Lambert said, singing a snippet of the familiar Beyonce gal-power anthem.

Indeed, it was a more female-driven night than the CMAs have ever had before, with women or bands fronted by women locking down almost every category that didn't have "male" in its name. Lambert repeated as best female vocalist, of course, but The Single Ladies — i.e., Swift and Kimberly Perry -- ruled in some of the most contested and unpredictable categories.

Taylor Swift at the CMAsSwift won the top Entertainer trophy for the second time in three years… and if she looked particularly surprised, it may have been because she wasn't even nominated last year, after winning it on her first try in 2009. Swift would have had good reason if the voters had

If the guys in Montgomery Gentry were inclined to speak Latin instead of Kentucky-ese — and trust us, they're not — then they might talk about their last year, in fancy-pants terms, as a true annus horibles. For Eddie Montgomery in particular, it was a series of setbacks.

"You find out that you have cancer, and then a little while later, you find out that you're getting a divorce," he recapped, during a visit to the Yahoo! Music studio. "So, yeah, it was all kind of wild. But it was great getting back in the studio, and it just pushed me even that much harder, I reckon."

The result of Montgomery's post-cancer rebound is Rebels on the Run, which they consider a return to their core sound. The pair stripped three of the songs from the album down to acoustic arrangements for this exclusive Ram Country performance.

If you expected an album that's deeply meditative in reflecting on the difficulties of the last year, you probably don't know Montgomery Gentry very well. If anything, it's a

Taylor Swift

Were songwriters always such hotties? (Answer to this rhetorical question for the kids: No, children, they were not.) But the red carpet at Nashville's annual BMI Awards is a lot more glamorous than it used to be, thanks to the fact that the likes of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and the Band Perry's Kimberly Perry are now among the winners.

It doesn't hurt when Nicole Kidman shows up to stand by her man. Or when Miranda Lambert and LeAnn Rimes come by to help pay musical tribute to the legend who's getting the lifetime achievement award, the inestimable Bobby Braddock.

Darius RuckerAlan Jackson had a No. 1 hit with "Gone Country," which poked gentle fun at fading rockers who suddenly see Nashville as fertile territory for a comeback. When that song came out in 1994, Jackson could have only guessed at the greater number of pop stars who would come calling on Music Row in the years and decades to follow.

Only one, Darius Rucker, has been an overwhelming success. But the one-time Hootie & the Blowfish frontman — who performs on tonight's CMA Awards — has enjoyed so many smashes, and such a renewed career, that he has just about single-handedly ensured years of crossover attempts to come.

The CMA Awards will also give us another would-be country artist: Lionel Richie, who's about to release his first album in the genre. The list of established country artists he'll be collaborating with in a duets segment includes Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, and —ironically, or maybe not so ironically — Rucker.

It's been a few years since Vince Gill had a new album out…
five, to be exact. Bear in mind, though, that that last album, These Days, was an unprecedented four-CD
set of all new material. So if he had just parceled the discs in that
collection out on an annual basis in the intervening years, he would've seemed
like the busiest guy in country.

How do you follow up a 43-song, four-CD set? Did Gill feel
under any pressure to make a six-disc set this time?

"I didn't know the heck what to do," he laughs. "I thought
about doing just one downloadable song and making that available and seeing
what happened. Go from 43 to one!"

Fortunately, he's back with Guitar Slinger, a set that features a very reasonable… no, not 43,
and no, not just one, but 12 tracks. He performed three of them for the Yahoo!
Music cameras in Nashville, including his new single, "Threaten Me With Heaven." 

After his set, we sat down with the Country
Music Hall of Fame's youngest member about the origins and meaning of

Every girl who was alive in 1964 just had her dreams crushed again, as The Cute One has removed himself from the market for a third time. Paul McCartney married his American bride, Nancy Shevell, on a London Sunday afternoon, partaking in a civil ceremony witnessed by only the closest of family and friends--in stark contrast to the lavishness of his previous wedding to Heather Mills at a castle.

Beatles fans who've wanted to see their man happily in love with an appropriate partner since Linda's death in 1998 are hoping that yes, Nancy will still need him, and yes, she'll still feed him, when he's 74, and 84, and 94. The very fact that Shevell is so under-the-radar is seen as a positive sign.

But what do we really know about the woman who's eclipsed any other Beatlemaniac's lingering dreams of being Mrs. Macca? Here's a catch-up on everything you need to know about the relatively mysterious New Jerseyite who'll be wearing McCartney's wedding band on the run:  

THE SETUP

Shevell was

First, let's address the most burning question surrounding
the 2011 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominations: No, Rush didn't make the
cut, again. Let the annual wailing and gnashing of teeth begin!

But, the great prog blackout notwithstanding, some other traditional
oversights did get addressed with this year's round of 15 nods.

Most gratifyingly, rock's female pioneers of the mid-'70s
are finally getting a shot at getting their due. It's sometimes seemed as if
the Rock Hall doesn't believe women did much of anything between Janis' death
and the Madonna nation's birth. But now they're coming straight on for you! The figures who arguably did the most to advance women in rock in the Me Decade, Heart and Joan Jett, both picked up first-time nominations.

So did Rufus with Chaka
Khan. Two previous women nominees associated with the era, Laura Nyro and Donna Summer, are also back among
this year's mix of contenders. (Maybe the nominating committee actually visited the Hall of Fame's new "Women

Cue the rapid-eye-mourning.

R.E.M. shocked the rock world today by announcing a wholly
unexpected breakup. "As lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided
to call it a day as a band," read the not-terribly-explanatory statement on
their website. "We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and
of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by
our music, our deepest thanks for listening."

Now, if they'd put a fork in it five or ten years ago, when R.E.M.
really did seem to be running on fumes, everyone would have understood and
murmured appreciatively, quietly pouring out a 40 in their honor. Reveal (2001) or Around the Sun (2004)? Now, those
are the kinds of wan, can't-even-rouse-the-faithful albums that bands are supposed to break up on.

But jaws dropped at their pulling the rug now, because R.E.M. was on a roll that bands aren't supposed to experience going into their second
decade together, much less their fourth. Three years