Morgan with the stars of "Rizzoli & Isles"Craig Morgan has established a pretty sweet TV career in addition to his successful country-music endeavors--the singer has just started the third season of his reality show Craig Morgan: All Access Outdoors, and has made cameo appearances on various other shows such as Army Wives. However, he's never actually played anyone but himself to date.

However, Morgan can now add "actor" in good faith to his list of talents! On Tuesday, he made his first scripted TV appearance on TNT's crime drama Rizzoli & Isles. Morgan played Dr. Billy Ray Higgins, a medical examiner who comes to Boston for a symposium...and ends up helping leads Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) with a murder case.

You can check him out in this clip--what do you think? We think he's a natural!

The air date of the show coincided with Morgan's 48th birthday. Not a bad way to celebrate, eh?

Did country music ever have a wronged woman quite as wronged as Kitty Wells? Not even her greatest successor, Loretta Lynn, could pull off a run of heartache songs quite like Wells, the Grand Ole Opry veteran who died Monday at the grand old age of 92. With a list of hits that included titles like "There's Poison In Your Heart," "Lonely Side Of Town," "Living As Strangers," "A Woman Half My Age," "I Gave My Wedding Dress Away," and the immortal "Will Your Lawyer Talk To God," she sometimes seemed like America's most cheated-upon woman.

Nick 13Those familiar with California band Tiger Army probably wouldn't classify the band as "country" in any way, shape, or form--except maybe for a bit of a country-leaning song here and there in what's basically ID'd as a punk/psychobilly catalog.

However, frontman Nick 13 has loved country music for years, and when he decided to put out a solo project, he went ahead and followed his heart in that direction. He turned to his impeccable list of classic influences--Hank Sr., Carl Perkins, Ray Price, George Jones, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard--to guide his music. He even pulled himself out of Los Angeles and moved to Nashville in order to get the sound just right.

The result was his self-titled debut, which showcases a surprisingly lovely vintage feel, calling to mind dusty roads, vinyl record players, static-y radio, and subdued but powerful emotion. Nick additionally has an amazing voice that lends itself well to the genre: Not that of a Tennessee or a Texas country boy, but just what he is--a California singer.

Danny Gokey and wife LeyicetFirst came love--and then came marriage just a mere six months ago for American Idol alum Danny Gokey. Now the newlyweds are already thinking about a baby carriage!

Yup, Gokey and his second wife, Leyicet Peralta, are thrilled to announce that they're expecting a baby early next year. Gokey tweeted the happy news on Sunday: "Hey guys I'm happy to announce that my wife and I are having a baby!! She a little over 3 months pregnant & due in January!!! Yay!"

Meanwhile, his wife joked on her own Twitter account, "Yes, my husband has finally announced it, I'm not fat! I am actually pregnant," adding that she and Gokey are "very excited."

The new little addition should arrive just in time to help the couple celebrate their first anniversary, which falls on January 29. Congrats!

It's nice to see such a happy 2012 developing for Gokey, as he's weathered considerable tragedy already in his life. The singer lost his first wife, Sophia, in 2008 when the 27-year-old died following surgery for

Zac Brown Band {Photo: Alexandra Wyman}If you're a fan of the Zac Brown Band, I hate to break it to you--but you're far from alone. Despite the band's ability to convey an unpretentious family feel with its shows and fanbase, there's actually quite a massive crowd of you lovers out there.

Okay, okay. I'm sure you probably have realized by now that all things ZBB are doing quite well these days, but sometimes it's a bit surprising (and fun) to consider just how well. According to Yahoo! Music's Paul Grein, who writes our Chart Watch blog keeping tabs on the sales of all your musical favorites--the ZBB's third album, Uncaged, will debut at No. 1 on the all-genre albums chart next week with sales in the 210K range.

To give you a bit of a gauge for this information, this week's No. 1 album is R&B star Chris Brown's Fortune, which debuted with 135K copies sold.

Another interesting way to look at the ZBB's projected over-200 range is to consider the biggest first-week debut of the year so far, pop sensation Justin Bieber's

One of the most unexpected delights of covering the music scene are those random encounters with celebrated, truly iconic figures that one rarely expects to meet.

At the top or very close to it? Ram Country's recent jaunt to New Haven, Ct., where with full crew and a strange sense of the surreal, we boarded the tour bus of no less a legendary figure than Willie Nelson.

Nelson--only one of a handful of working musicians whose name and image is recognizable to inhabitants of virtually every continent on the planet--was outside New Haven's Shubert Theater, where in a few brief hours he'd be doing what he does best--singing and playing in front of an audience that clearly loved the man, the music, and all he represents.

And what Willie Nelson represents is the finest in American music tradition: An outstanding songwriter--the man wrote "Crazy," "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Hello Walls," among many other standards--a world-class singer, a poet, a movie actor, one hell of a guitar

Hank Williams Jr. {photo: Frederick Breedon IV}It's no secret that Hank Williams Jr. is no fan of our country's current administration--last year, he infamously compared the president to Hitler during an appearance on Fox & Friends. However, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, the always-outspoken country legend leaves no doubt as to just how much he dislikes President Obama.

"The guy is the worst," Hank Jr. noted, point-blank. "Giveaway programs, hates America in the first place, forget about the flag."

When asked to elaborate why exactly he thought the president hated America, Junior again minced no words: "It's kind of obvious. I guess when you take a tour, a world tour, to apologize for America. He did that...You know, 'We're sorry.' Going on a world tour saying, 'We're going to be even with everyone else, we only have 6 percent of the population.'"

Luke BryanOh say can you see...a cheat sheet in Luke Bryan's hand?

Singing the National Anthem in front of a crowd of thousands can be a nerve-wracking experience--even for a seasoned performer. So, one would think that folks would have cut Luke Bryan a little slack when he did the honor at Tuesday night's Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Kansas City.

However, it proved hard for fans not to comment on Bryan's performance. During his rendition of the Anthem, the country singer was observed surreptitiously glancing at his hand, causing spectators to wonder if he'd actually written the words down on his palm.

"Luke Bryan sings the national anthem the way I used to take geometry tests," joked a fan on Twitter following the performance. Other (kinder) fans wondered if Bryan may have simply been checking his watch.

Turns out both theories were true. Bryan took to his own Twitter account to apologize in case he'd miffed any patriotic types out there, explaining that he had "a few key words