Blog Posts by Wendy Geller

It's late September, and that means fall has arrived, and that means sports. But if all you overeager sportsfans have already burned out on your fantasy football leagues, Craig Morgan has something new and fun for you to try out...fantasy hunting!

Morgan, who in addition to his music career is also an avid sportsman (in fact, he hosts his own show on the Outdoor Channel, Craig Morgan: All Access Outdoors), has a personal interest in this game. He's become the first country music artist to join the Fantasy Hunting League!

If you've never heard of this, FHL is the first and only website dedicated to following the seasons of the top professional hunters in North America. Fans of the sport can register for free, and select a team of five professional hunters to follow throughout the hunting season.

When hunters harvest animals, registered users score points and win prizes. (A pretty good chunk of prizes, it seems, too--according to the FHL site, they're awarding more than $60,000 worth

It's pretty safe to say that we here at Our Country have been covering Taylor Swift's Speak Now tour pretty thoroughly--right? We're bringing you all the highlights--the clever cover songs! The extra-special guests!--so you can relive the magic. (Or be bummed that you weren't there.)

But just in case we aren't doing a good enough job, Swift herself has some welcome news for you. She's captured the tour on DVD, and it'll be available for you to watch in the comfort of your own living room this fall!

Speak Now World Tour--Live will be released as a CD/DVD and CD/BluRay pack on November 21, which is one day before her U.S. tour ends. The video portion will feature all 17 songs that Swift has been performing on tour, plus some bonus content. The CD offers 75 minutes of music, including live versions of songs from Speak Now.

"For fans who weren't able to land a coveted ticket to see Taylor's Speak Now tour, as well as for everybody who's ready to see the show again and again, the Speak Now

Watch out, all you city slickers--Beverly Hills is going country! Last month, we announced that Kellie Pickler would be making her acting debut on the new season of 90210, playing a country singer. Now, another country star will be joining the series.

That star would be Billy Ray Cyrus--who, according to Entertainment Weekly, has signed on to play the role of "Judd Ridge." He'll be playing dad to another new character, Austin Ridge, who portrays a southern rich kid hanging out with the West Beverly crew.

As fans know, Cyrus is a seasoned actor with several TV roles under his belt (the most recent being his five-year stint on Hannah Montana with daughter Miley). Unlike Pickler, who is new to the acting space and admitted to being a bit nervous about her performance, Cyrus is likely to breeze through this latest role without a second thought.

At any rate, it will be fun to see him "go Hollywood" yet again. Cyrus is slated to appear on the program in November. 90210 airs on the CW

When you hear a song or an album that you really just love, the first thing you want to do is tell someone about it, right? This concept has shaped the debut release from the Dirt Drifters--if you pick up a physical copy of their album, This Is My Blood, you'll actually get two copies. One for you--and one to give to someone you think would like it, too!

The band has been appearing at tour dates stocked up with 30,000 free copies of the album, which features two discs packaged together with a "tear and share" perforated fold. Pretty cool, right? Why didn't someone think of this before?

After all, it shouldn't be hard to find a friend who'll appreciate the Dirt Drifters' tunes. The band of five musicians--who "drifted" together from all parts of the country to Music City--have spent years honing their style on the Nashville circuit, as well as opening up for some big names on tour along the way. The result of these efforts is a hard-edged, rocking, honky-tonkin' take on today's

Taylor Swift has been exciting crowds on the North American leg of her worldwide Speak Now tour with all sorts of surprises--covers of songs by hometown musical heroes, and appearances from some of her well-known buddies (Justin Bieber in Los Angeles, anyone?).

While she's been unafraid to lean toward the pop side of things in other cities, it was expected that Swift would be all about the country when she played a two-night stand in Nashville.

And, well, wow. Let's say, she sure did bring the country. Leave it to Swift to do it up right.

Her first night, September 16, Swift brought out the newly (well, not so newly anymore) solo Ronnie Dunn, and joined him in singing his ballad "Bleed Red"--resulting in a rather unexpected and lovely pairing of two very different but very seasoned professionals.

For her second night in Nashville, Swift teased on Twitter, "Wonder if we'll have guest performers tomorrow night?" Well, hmmm. I wonder...

Swift didn't keep everyone wondering too long,

Okay, we've all heard about fans paying homage to their favorite artists via drawings, paintings, photographs...even tattoos. But I have to say, this particular work of art dedicated to a country star is a first. For corn's sake!

And I mean that literally. A North Carolina corn maze--you know, those things that open up every year for the fall/Halloween season; you bring the kids and get lost in it, then have some apple cider and a hayride afterward?--has used the image of Jason Aldean as its design for 2011.

Sound crazy? It really is. But it's really cool, too! Check it out:

A-maize-ing, right?!

The Aldean design is part of a 10th anniversary celebration for the maze--apparently, the country star is the owner's favorite musician. According to local news outlet the Greensboro News-Record, Alice Pyron was in touch with Aldean's manager for months in her attempt to get a green light to use his image. When she finally got the okay, she was "thrilled."

It seems as if other country

You've seen the cover artwork, you've heard the first single, you know it's coming out in a few short weeks. But I'm sure many of you are still itching to know more about Miranda Lambert's new album, Four The Record, which will be available November 1.

Luckily for fans who are impatiently waiting, Lambert has released a few key details about the release. First and foremost--there will be a duet with her husband, Blake Shelton!

The newlyweds will pair up on "Better In The Long Run," a tune which was co-written by Ashley Monroe (who, of course, is one-third of Lambert's smash side project Pistol Annies). Charles Kelley--yes, the guy in Lady Antebellum--is another writer on the song. Put all this star power together on top of the currently hottest couple in country music? I haven't heard the song yet, but it already sounds like a hit to me.

However, Lambert doesn't want fans to concentrate on any one song on the record over the others. As exciting as a pairing with Shelton may be, she

Earlier this week, I shared American Idol Scotty McCreery's tracklisting for his upcoming debut album--so it's only fair I give you first runner-up Lauren Alaina's as well, right?

The tracklisting for Alaina's Wildflower, which comes out October 11, was not inadvertently up on Amazon for a brief period (as happened with McCreery's album last weekend). However, USA Today has obtained the list of songs as well as songwriting information.

Alaina's new record certainly seems as if it's going to be a heady match for McCreery's effort (which comes out a week earlier). McCreery, as I pointed out a couple days ago, has a superstar roster of songwriters on his debut, and boasts a Keith Urban tune among his crop. There's no less shimmer on Alaina's debut, however--her songwriters include none less than fellow Idol alum Carrie Underwood herself, who shares writers' credit on a song called "Eighteen Inches." Additionally, Alaina's album has considerable contributions from songwriter Hillary