Blog Posts by Wendy Geller

Country Music Hall-of-Famer Glen Campbell--beloved by many for his massive hits such as "Rhinestone Cowboy"--has announced that he has Alzheimer's Disease.

Campbell, who is 75, revealed his illness in an exclusive interview with People this week. He says he learned of the official diagnosis just six months ago, although he has been suffering from short-term memory loss for years. He and his wife, Kim, explained that they wanted fans to understand his condition, as he hopes to play a series of "farewell" performances this fall.

Campbell's wife noted that he is still able to play and sing. "But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn't want people to think, 'What's the matter with him? Is he drunk?" she told People. 

The farewell tour will also be in support of Campbell's upcoming album, Ghost In The Canvas, which is set for release August 30. News of the tour buzzed about earlier this year, but at the time was positioned as a final outing before his retirement.

"I

We're only halfway through 2011, but it's already time for the Hollywood-powers-that-be to unveil their first round of celebs who will get stars on the Walk Of Fame in 2012. I think all of you country fans will be satisfied with the Nashville rep on the list: It's Vince Gill.

Gill's the only country musician to make the cut for 2012 so far, and he's in the company of Boyz II Men, Jennifer Lopez, Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart, America, and (the late) Barry White, among others, in the "recording" category. The date for his ceremony and the location of the star haven't been determined yet.

Gill, who has sold more than 26 million albums and won 20 Grammy awards over the span of his career, will now join his wife and fellow musician Amy Grant in the honor of having a star on the famous sidewalk. Grant received her star back in 2006.

It's shaping up to be a very busy period for Gill overall--fans are no doubt excited by the news of his upcoming album, Guitar Slinger, which is set for

Need to gauge if you are truly famous? (We should all have such problems.) Here's a new determination of the level of one's career success--having fans track down someone with your name, then harrassing them with emails in hopes that person is The One.

Yep, apparently this has happened to some guy named "Taylor" who seems to have an email address that is similar to Taylor Swift's--or, more accurately, looks as if it could belong to Taylor Swift. (Because who of you out there actually has Taylor Swift's email address? Not me, and I'm pretty sure you don't either!)

It seems as if this person has been receiving quite a bit of email intended for the real Taylor Swift. Some of the emails are pretty funny. So what did the guy do? Start a Tumblr account detailing all the gems he's collected so far.

The alleged--and I say "alleged" because it's not apparent if this is real, or just an amusing idea cooked up by someone with a bit of time on their hands--emails contain an expected range of fan

Okay, we all know Kenny Chesney is a huge football fan. He wrote a hit song about football, after all. And most of us know that he even played football in high school.

But, despite all this, it's not too often that we get to see Chesney in...well, some actual honest-to-Gawd football gear.

How about if we change that right now? Here you go, have a good long look. You're welcome.

All right then, what's actually going on here? I'll clear things up--Chesney was playing a sold-out show in Philadelphia on Saturday night when he was joined on stage by none other than the Philly Eagles' head coach, Andy Reid (that's him in the photo with Chesney, for all youse non-sportsfans out there). Reid announced Chesney's hit "The Boys Of Fall," then handed the singer an Eagles helmet. Chesney jumped right into the spirit of things, gave his cowboy hat to Reid, and donned the headgear.

Reid's appearance wasn't the only fun moment of the evening. Singer-songwriter Grace Potter, who added guest vocals

After a couple of grueling months in which he and his fellow contestants were put through just about every challenge a budding musical artist could anticipate--Matt Mason has been crowned CMT's Next Superstar. The 25-year-old Indiana native, who's been playing and singing since he was in grade school, managed to beat out stiff competition (most markedly soulful crooner and first runner-up Steven Clawson) to win the prize of a recording contract with Warner Music Nashville, as well as a primo opening spot on Luke Bryan's tour starting this September.

Mason seemed to have carried the show on the strength of just a consistent traditional-country vibe, from his low-key demeanor to the outlaw-flavored music he produced each episode. Fans' comments on CMT's Superstar site ranged from "the most natural of all of the others," to "the next big thing in country music," to "I'm not into country but this guy caught my interest!"

Sounds like the right guy won; do you agree? If you do, you'll be

Consider this a glowing testament to the producers of NBC's hit The Voice--fans of this show sure take it very seriously. As do the cast and characters!

Case in point: Last week, I reported a little bit about how it's not smart to throw taunts toward Voice coach Blake Shelton, because his wife Miranda Lambert might just get mouthy on Twitter. This week, well, I'm suggesting not taking on Blake himself. Unless you've got a pretty thick hide and a good sense of humor!

Shelton, who's well-known for being outspoken and occasionally crude on his Twitter account, took a Voice viewer's critical tweet on Saturday to task. The comment, addressed to him, read "you're so weird. go sing with your 'shy girls'" (referring to Shelton's "team" on the show) "and lose the voice. i thought it was a competition you wanted to win?"

To this, Shelton replied with two scathing tweets, one calling the hapless viewer a profanity, and the second asking, "How many songs have you had in the itunes top 10?

It's that time of year again for music fans to realize just how well-off their favorite artists can be--Forbes has released its annual list of the world's 25 highest-paid musicians. While some of the artists named were surprising and some were totally expected, I'll make the point of this easy and quick: Country music represented more than one-fifth of the entire list.

In a group that encompassed pop, modern rock, classic rock, hip-hop, and adult alternative as well as country, a full six of the (extremely well-compensated) artists named were none other than Nashville's finest.

Not bad, right? While country didn't manage to crack the top 5--or even the top 10 (unless you count the occasionally country Bon Jovi at No. 2, or the Eagles, who landed at No. 8)--it's still an impressive showing.

Wondering which country artist ranked highest? Well, that would be Toby Keith, who ranked just outside the top 10 at No. 11 with a net of $50 million, according to Forbes.

Taylor Swift followed

If you aren't familiar yet with the evocative vocal work of Mandy Barnett--just ask any true-blue Patsy Cline fan, and they'll be sure to fill you in.

Barnett, a Tennessee native, has been portraying Patsy Cline since she was a teenager in the critically acclaimed biographical musical Always...Patsy Cline and has garnered shining reviews for her spot-on command of the role. How shining? Well, to the point where the Tennessean actually noted "If you closed your eyes, Patsy Cline was there in the room with you." Her extraordinary talent in the production led to a record deal under her own name, several albums, regular tours, and a host of soundtrack work.

Barnett reprised her role as Cline when the musical returned to Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium--the same stage where Cline made a name for herself so many years ago--in 2009. The production skipped a year due to the devastating floods that ravaged Nashville in May of 2010.

However--much to Barnett's (and Cline's) fans' delight,