Blog Posts by Wendy Geller

Country's hottest (and coolest) gal of the moment, Miranda Lambert, has finally announced the date for her much-anticipated wedding to fellow Nashville star Blake Shelton. According to Country Weekly, the pair will be getting hitched on May 14.

This will make the wedding almost exactly one year after Shelton proposed to Lambert (May 9, 2010). "Well, ol' Blake finally got a brain," Lambert memorably tweeted on that occasion, which took place outdoors near her Oklahoma home and after Shelton received an old-fashioned blessing from her father.

Lambert and Shelton have been dating for six years now, and have enjoyed their biggest surges in their careers to date as a couple. While sharing achievements together has no doubt been exhilarating, Lambert says there have been downsides to their both being high-profile musicians.

"I really never thought about him being in the business, to be honest. I mean, I fell in love with the person," she noted in an interview for the current issue of

Avid fans of country music may have caught wind of the news that pop/R&B legend Lionel Richie is recording an album of duets, all with notable country stars as partners. The album is set to come out this year--likely around fall--but nothing has been publically heard from the project just yet.

That is, until this week! Music industry folks attending a private showcase on Wednesday in Nashville were stunned and delighted when Richie made a surprise appearance on the historic Ryman Auditorium stage. The superstar sat down at a piano and launched into the first verse of his 1984 classic hit "Stuck On You," to much cheering from the audience.

The cheers grew even louder when none other than Darius Rucker strode on stage and joined in, harmonizing beautifully with Richie's familiar vocals. The two singers melded together perfectly to the end, resulting in a standing ovation from the smiling crowd.

Richie's appearance with Rucker served as the showstopper finale of a showcase for

Avid readers of the Our Country blog may recall our 2010 Memorial Day and Veteran's Day shoutouts to the Zac Brown Band's dedication to appreciating our armed forces. The ZBB, in conjunction with Ram Trucks, created an innovative initiative last year called "Letters For Lyrics," encouraging music fans to write letters to U.S. soldiers stationed overseas. The concept's simple--write a letter, submit online or at a ZBB show, and receive a CD from the band in return.

The ZBB is still working hard to generate letters for our brave men and women serving far from home, and their goal is to get even more written in 2011. So they've decided to raise fan incentive even higher. Now, fans who write a letter and submit it via the ZBB's site or Ram Trucks' site will be entered into a contest to win a fantastic prize--a VIP concert experience at the band's April 16 show in Arlington, Texas.

The lucky winner, who will be selected at random, will get to treat three buddies to a three-day, two-night

It's funny to think about it. Back just a few months ago--November 2010, to be exact--Gwyneth Paltrow was prepping like mad and sweating bullets about stepping on a stage and performing in front of an audience.

That would be the 2010 Country Music Association Awards, at which Paltrow--fairly recently indoctrinated into the country world via a film role which required her to sing country music--was invited to perform. The Oscar-winning actress, no stranger to, well, anything having to do with performance at any level, admitted to countless outlets she was pretty much quaking in her boots when she finally (and successfully) hit the CMAs stage.

How things have changed. Let's flash forward to the present, namely, the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, in which she also stepped onto a stage and performed a country-music number. Let us count the ways that things have shifted.

Number One: Despite being at the Oscars as this year's representative of the country music world (Keith Urban as Nicole

Family outfit the Band Perry have good reason to celebrate this weekend--they've just been named the Academy of Country Music's 2011 Top New Vocal Duo or Group. The Perry siblings prevailed to win this award, which is fan-voted, over stiff competition: The JaneDear Girls and Steel Magnolia, both equally buzzworthy names this year.

Fans were invited to vote for the award through most of February (voting closed on the 23rd), and will now have the opportunity to rule them in for the overall Top New Artist Category (they'll be up against Eric Church, who won the the similarly fan-voted Top New Solo Vocalist award). Voting for Top New Artist will begin March 11 at VoteACM.com. That prize will be announced at the actual ACM Awards, which will take place April 3 in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, we at Yahoo! Music are itching to get our eyes on the Band Perry's upcoming new video, which should be ready next week. The clip is for the dark-flavored "You Lie," a tune which gives a scathing scolding to

Back in June of 2010, when Kellie Pickler announced her engagement to Kyle Jacobs, fans doubtless were anticipating a fabulous white wedding with all the trimmings.

The couple, after all, is Nashville connected--in addition to Pickler's celebrity, Jacobs is a hit songwriter for some of the town's biggest names. And hey, who could forget Pickler's proclamation that she planned to have her pets as part of the ceremony? (Including her snake as ring bearer!)

Instead, what did we get? A surprise elopement on New Year's Day on a private Caribbean island. It's clear the couple were delighted with their decision--but if you were a little stunned by it, you weren't alone.

Picker has finally come out with the reason why she and Jacobs decided to take the less-fuss route. As she told Ellen DeGeneres during an appearance on DeGeneres's talk show Wednesday--she had a big wedding all set to go, then suddenly realized something important toward the end of her planning.

"Every time we got to the

Pop as well as country fans were intrigued to hear the news late last year that teen sensation and Best New Artist Grammy nominee Justin Bieber would be collaborating with one of country's most successful crossover stories, Rascal Flatts. "I'm honored they're making music with me!" he tweeted in December. 

The trio matched up with the Biebs to duet on a remix of his bittersweet ballad "That Should Be Me," for Bieber's Valentine's Day album Never Say Never: The Remixes. The results? As one might guess, pretty harmonious--and a nice standout on a collection filled with appearances from A-list names, including Miley Cyrus, Usher, and Chris Brown.

Now, more good news for fans of the combination. Both the Flatts and Bieber announced Monday via Twitter that they shot a video for the duet that morning. Even better? Flatts bassist Jay DeMarcus posted a few snaps from the video set on his Twitter account, including this cute mug shot:

DeMarcus accidentally misspelled Bieber's

Some folks say that three of anything is a charm. In sports, they call it a "hat trick." In country music, it's just called "hitmaking." Well, whatever one wants to term it, Blake Shelton has done it--he's hit No. 1 on the charts three consecutive times in a row; the latest chart-topper being the single "Who You Are When I'm Not Looking."

The single is actually Shelton's 8th No. 1 over the course of his career. (The rundown? "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking," "All About Tonight," "Hillbilly Bone," "She Wouldn't Be Gone," "Home," "Some Beach," "The Baby" and "Austin.") However, this is the first time he's scored a triple back-to-back set.

"Who You Are"--a sweet and affecting ballad contemplating a beloved woman's lesser-known sides, which was first cut by Joe Nichols in 2007--comes from Shelton's album All About Tonight, which he discussed with us during its release week back in August of 2010. "This album is more laid-back, more down-the-middle country," he explained. "It's got