Sunday night, Rascal Flatts will participate in a very high-profile performance at the ACM Awards, to be seen by untold millions of viewers. Two days later, their new album, Changed, drops. What an amazing fluke of timing and coincidence, right? What were the odds?

"Amazing how that all worked out," singer Gary LeVox quipped to Yahoo! Music Friday, confirming that this was all part of the evil-genius scheme undertaken by their label, Big Machine.

As it turns out, it is also totally not coincidental that Rascal Flatts will be on theater screens nationally, for one night only, two days after the album comes out.

"Next Thursday, we'll be in New York City, doing the premiere," says Jay DeMarcus.

"Grand opening, grand closing," adds Joe Don Rooney, referring to the film's one-night-only status in theaters.

But before these release-week activities, there is the ACMs to keep Rascal Flatts busy. Slightly famous bluegrass enthusiast Steve Martin will be joining them for a performance of their

If you were a betting country music fan, you'd probably already be in Las Vegas to get some roulette spinning in, in advance of Sunday night's Academy of Country Music Awards. But if you prefer your wagers to be purely symbolic, there's no reason not to be an armchair gambler and lay odds on who'll win the top prizes at the ACMs.

In what are usually the three most-watched categories—entertainer, male vocalist, and female vocalist of the year—we're placing our bets on a three-peat by Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, and Miranda Lambert, respectively. But everything else is up for grabs. See if our prognostications meet with your approval:

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

• Jason Aldean

• Kenny Chesney

• Brad Paisley

• Blake Shelton

• Taylor Swift

Taylor SwiftWILL WIN: Swift. This award goes to the person who's considered the best ambassador to the outside world for country music and/or the biggest touring act. Without a doubt, both criteria fit T-Swift to a tee. And if she won it last year, how much easier

You know Chris Young as the king of balladic sensitivity. But that's not the Chris Young you're going to see in the opening half-hour of the ACM Awards Sunday night.

"We're actually doing 'Save Water, Drink Beer,' which is what I open my shows with," Young tells Yahoo! Music. "I think it'll be cool, because at least on TV, while I think I've gotten to play a lot of different things... one thing they haven't really seen yet, unless they've been to one of my shows, is kind of just a fun uptempo party song. And that's definitely what this is. There's not a whole lot of confusion about a song with the title 'Save Water, Drink Beer'!"

He has a message for viewers about timeliness. "We're actually performing fairly close to the beginning, which is awesome. But at the same time, I have to tell everybody, 'Hey guys, make sure you are home! Don't pull in the driveway 15 minutes and miss part of the breginning'. Because it's not just [about] me—in the beginning of the show, the first little

Remember when the "best vocal group" category at the various country music awards shows was kind of a joke... because there virtually were no groups in country? But suddenly that's a particularly competitive category. Rascal Flatts pretty much had the category to themselves for the seven consecutive years they won, before they were supplanted two years ago by Lady Antebellum. Now the nominations are rounded out by two acts that have quickly become among the biggest in country: the Band Perry and the Zac Brown Band.

Which pretty much leaves first-time nominees the Eli Young Band as the underdogs in the category. Or are they? Because they did just happen to have the biggest country song of 2011, in the form of "Crazy Girl," and that's an honor that not even a behemoth like Lady A can claim. It certainly makes the Eli Young Band contenders in the Single and Song of the Year categories, where they're also modestly storming the gates for the first time.

"The whole thing with the group

Brad Paisley, who's nominated for entertainer and male vocalist of the year at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards, has no doubt been used to the perks of stardom for quite some time now.

However, a decade ago when his career was just taking off, he admitted to one advantage of fame that changed his life completely.

What would that advantage be? Well, it's pretty safe to say that any old average Joe out there wouldn't be able to call up a beautiful girl out of the blue, cast her in a music video, and eventually make her his wife.Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley

That's of course exactly what Paisley did, though, after seeing a memorable film in 1995. The movie that captured his interest, Father Of The Bride Part II, remained on his mind for several years, and he even titled a song and his 2001 album Part II after it.

Something else that stuck in his head was the lead actress--Kimberly Williams. More than five years after seeing her in the movie, Paisley decided to see if she'd appear in the video for his hit single at the time, "I'm Gonna Miss Her."

Kenny Chesney is spending a busy few days this week. Not only is he the most-nominated artist at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards--and will be performing at the show with his friend Tim McGraw--he's also just revealed the title and artwork for his upcoming album.

Welcome To The Fishbowl will hit stores June 19, and features a rainbow-hued cover. The album is the follow-up to 2010's Hemingway's Whiskey (which is up for album of the year at the ACM Awards this weekend). Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.Chesney's new album cover

Are you looking forward to the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday? Well, here's a bit of exclusive news we've uncovered that'll be sure to make you want to tune in even more!

Country music fans know that vocal group of the year nominees Rascal Flatts will be performing on the show. And, as you'd probably guess, they're slated to play their latest hit single "Banjo," off their new album Changed, which hits the streets next week. So, no big news there. However, what is news is who will be the Flatts' special guest on stage. I bet you'll never guess!

Steve Martin--yup, the actor/comedian who is also an accomplished Grammy-winning musician, will showcase his banjo skills Sunday night along with the Flatts on the ACM stage. Steve Martin

Legendary banjo picker Earl Scruggs, one of the pioneering figures of bluegrass music, has died of natural causes in a Nashville hospital at 88.

Thanks in large part to his ongoing activity on the concert circuit as an octogenarian, Scruggs had hardly been forgotten in the years and months leading up to his death. Just two months ago, writing in the New Yorker, Steve Martin said, "A grand part of American music owes a debt to Earl Scruggs. Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl has, putting him in a category with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins, and Jimi Hendrix."

"The Essential Earl Scruggs"Scruggs reached his highest level of fame in the 1960s when he and partner Lester Flatt recording the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies, which became a beloved weekly staple in living rooms that wouldn't think of ever putting on a bluegrass record, as well as a No. 1 smash on the not usually so rootsy Billboard country chart.

But his stardom continued to give him a healthy touring