Pretty much from the moment Garth Brooks opened his mouth to announce he was setting up residency at the Wynn in Las Vegas, every show on his calendar was sold out. However, here's an interesting and unexpected new option for fans to possibly snag a seat to see the legendary crooner live.

Brooks will be performing on August 1 in collaboration with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley, Idaho. The show, a fundraising event for the symphony's free concert and education programs, will feature Brooks playing both solo and with the orchestra. Sounds pretty cool, eh?

The collaboration came about with the help of billionare hotelier Steve Wynn, who initially drew Brooks out of retirement last fall. Wynn's a Sun Valley resident and supporter of the Sun Valley Pavilion, where the concert will be held.

No doubt many of Brooks's fans will be eager to attend. But will they actually be able to obtain seats at what is likely going to be an extremely smoking-hot event?

The local press

Hey country fans out there. Even if by some chance you haven't yet heard of Sarah Buxton, you probably are familiar with at least one of her songs: The evocative and melancholy tune "Stupid Boy"--which, of course, Keith Urban made a smash hit out of (and won a Grammy for!) a few years ago.

In addition to this, Sarah's been a pretty active presence--if a bit under the radar--in Nashville. A quick synopsis: She's been signed to Rascal Flatts' label, Lyric Street Records, since 2005; had a few charting singles, worked with various heavyweights around town, and was nominated twice for Best New Female Artist by the Academy of Country Music. Given all this, plus her infectiously un-selfconscious vocal style, it's a bit of a wonder that it's taken her so long to release a debut full-length record.

However--it's finally here. This week, Sarah's self-titled album hit the streets, and she's been enjoying quite a rush of critical acclaim, as well as a packed schedule (she's currently on tour

The nominations for this year's Academy Of Country Music Awards are out, and while Lady Antebellum--with an amazing seven nods--may be the band grabbing all the headlines this week, here's something from another artist that you're surely not going to want to miss.

Luke Bryan is up for Top New Solo Vocalist at the ACMs. This is one of three new-artist categories that fans can vote on to help determine the winner (visit http://www.voteacm.com/ until March 12 to cast your own ballot).

Luke really wants to win this award. A lot of his friends want him to win it, too.

In fact, his friends all want him to win so much, they created this fun little viral video to convince you all to get online and put in your personal support for Luke.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to play favorites, because Jamey Johnson and Chris Young are also up for Top New Vocalist, and I like them a lot, too. But, I will give you a few reasons to at least check out Luke's call to action.

1) It's funny as hell. I swear.

I've been talking quite a bit here about the new project from the Dixie Chicks sister-duo Emily Robison and Martie Maguire--a.k.a, the Court Yard Hounds. If you've found time to mosey over to their new official site and get a taste of their music, I'm sure you'll agree the girls are sounding in fine form. I'm really looking forward to their album release in early May.

Here's a little bit of something to get you all even more excited for the new record--Emily and Martie recently taped a series of behind-the-scenes videos documenting the making of their album. This piece is exclusive to Yahoo! Music, and has Emily telling us about the inspiration for the name "Court Yard Hounds," as well as other tidbits explaining their songwriting process. You'll get a glimpse of the sisters at work, plus hear yet more of their brand-new sound.

I hope you all enjoy it--please let me know what you think!

As always, be sure to:

Follow me on Twitter

Follow Yahoo! Music on Twitter

If you're like me (and a lot of other funlovin' folks out there), you start your day with a few snorts over Blake Shelton's Twitter account. The country star/unofficial comedian generally has the most uproarious tweets of any given day--all the more amusing because a great deal of his smart-aleck remarks have a sly bit of truth to them.

In fact, just the other day he tweeted the following: "Pre-order my new album!!! It's almost as much fun as watching mother nature make Al Gore look like a dips--t!!!"

True, true, as usual. Blake's new record, Hillbilly Bone, is out today, and it's a lot more fun than most anything having to do with Al Gore (or any other politician, to be fair to Mr. Gore). It's also unique in that it contains only six tracks. This shortened tracklisting is a new album-release model which Blake and his record label developed in order to give him the opportunity to present new music more often to his fans.

The concept, dubbed a "six-pak," was presented to Blake back

Remember back last year when the Oak Ridge Boys covered the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army"? Or, just recently, when singer-songwriter Butch Walker put his spin on Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me"? Here's a new one for the "having fun with country covers" files.

This time, the band in question is Brooklyn's the Morning Pages, a six-piece roots-rock band with a penchant for Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Gram Parsons. And they are putting an alt-country spin--complete with slide gee-tar and lots of twang--on Lady Gaga's "Telephone."

Does it work? It sure does--the dancefloor hit is oddly infectious in country form. The Morning Pages spin the rhythm of the tune into a galloping, rodeo-like beat which may actually be catchier than the original version. In fact, the spirit of this cover reminds me of Jack Ingram's take on Hinder's "Lips Of An Angel," which in my opinion sounded far sweeter and more realized coming from a country rather than rock standpoint.

The Morning Pages'

If you've been wondering why Blake Shelton has been rather quiet on his (usually hopping) Twitter account--here's one possible explanation: He's busy being recruited by all his pals to help stump for Academy of Country Music Awards votes.

As you country fans probably know by now, the ACM Awards are partially decided by fan voting. This year, fans can vote on several categories, including Top New Artist and Entertainer Of The Year, by visiting voteacm.com. A few weeks ago, Blake made an appearance in the viral "Vote For Luke Bryan" video, which urged fans to vote for Luke in the category of Top Solo Vocalist. (Luke did end up winning.) Now, Blake is lending his comedic talent to a similar clip for hot quartet Gloriana, who are nominated in the Top New Artist Category.

It's a pretty hilarious little skit, in which Blake passionately kisses a framed photo of the group's Mike Gossin ("He's my favorite"), and solemnly urges fans to vote for Gloriana, or else. (Else what? Hint: The video is

The name Dolly Parton calls up many varying roles, most of them almost cartoonishly theatrical: Backwoods Barbie, Doralee Rhodes, doyenne of Dollywood (which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year), godmother to Miley Cyrus and defender of Jessica Simpson, all-around legendary platinum blonde who admits cheerfully her look is completely fake. In terms of excessively over-the-top musical icons, she's rivaled pretty much only by Elvis Presley.

Given all of this, every time I listen to her (or Elvis's, for that matter) classic material, I find myself in the old paradox of being stunned anew by her crystal-clear, pure ability to directly grab a listener by the heart/throat/whatever emotional source she's going for. It's kind of hard to write about her and not drown in cliches.

That said, those who share this opinion of Dolly--and that's just about everyone, isn't it?--will be excited to learn that she's reissuing some of her best classic gospel recordings from early in her career. Back