NashvilleGab - Nashville news and country music gossip

Alan Jackson has some serious real estate to unload

19,000 square feet and $38 million.  Those really are the only two things you need to know about the house Alan Jackson is selling in Franklin, Tennessee.  Okay, I'm a little in awe of the fact that this 19,000 square foot only has 6 bedrooms. So make that three things you need to know about Jackson's home, 19,000 square feet, 6 bedrooms, and an asking price of approximately $38 million. 

Seriously, I so would have jumped on this deal last year, but this year in this economy I think I'll stick with the lower seven figure homes.

Alright, all kidding aside, Alan Jackson has put his really big, really beautiful estate up for sale.  The property is surrounded by  equestrian estates and has the Harpeth River nearby. Amenities include stocked & aerated lake w/boat house & 3 ponds, 20 car garage, gymnasium, 2 bed log cabin overlooking river, barn w/2 bed apt above, pole barn, an airplane landing pad, & more.

The move isn't that surprising since Alan had told Nashville Scene  not too long ago that he and his wife, Denise, were considering dragging out the moving boxes and going for something a wee bit smaller.

"It's just like a Disney World out here," he says. "But we realized, as our girls got older, that they don't really use the property much. Once they get to be teenagers, they're mostly hanging out with their friends and on the iPod and cell phones in their rooms. If I'd had three boys instead of girls, they might be out here fishing and riding four-wheelers or something."

So Alan's stuck to his word and the result is one heck of a big real estate listing.  Check out all the info on Real Estalker.  You can also check out closeup pictures of the house here.  

So do you suppose Alan and Denise will be having the king of all moving sales? 

Okay children, don't try this at home

Random act of country singer silliness here.  The Barnyard (my radio buddy Broadway) had this video of Butter from Trailer Choir showing us some car surfing.  And as the extremely appropriate title says, don't try this at home - well unless of course you don't mind scratched paint, broken windshield wipers, and probably broken bones and casts.

Explaining how my blog works, lesson 342

I read a comment about the Kellie Pickler story I wrote earlier today and despite being called the lowest of the low (or worst of the worst as the commenter said), I think the commenter made a point that I think I should maybe address to save confusion in the future.  It's not that I want to point out the commenter specifically, I just think if she's a little confused, then others could be too so I want to do a little bit of explaining of the whole blog posting process that's sometimes involved in running this site.

Here's the comment on the "Wait-a-minute-kellie-pickler-admitted-to-dating-kid-rock? story: I love reading your blog...but must say I think your headline was very misleading on this story. You even had an update in the same blog...knowing full well she DID NOT admit to dating Kid Rock. That makes you getting down there with the worst of the worst..and you seem to be a little more ethical than that! Kellie dates Kyle Jacobs...and has for over a year. Do your homework before you state this junk. Kellie was sitting with Kyle at the CMT Awards!!

First off, the title.  Yes, once again my title has got someone up in arms.  Except in this instance it wasn't misleading or even bad.  It was a title that fit the story at the moment that I wrote it.

Okay, here's how this whole thing worked out.  I had come across a video from Fox News where they said that Kellie Pickler had admitted to dating Kid Rock.  Holy smokes.  If you can't trust Fox News, who can you trust? So I wrote the post and posted the video.  Then I set off to find the radio interview audio that Fox News had referred to.  At that moment in my thinking process Fox News said Kellie had admitted to dating Kid Rock, I wasn't lying to my readers, I was simply passing on the info I had heard on the video which was from today.  I thought maybe they had new info about the rumor that no one else had yet.  As I started searching for the audio, that's when I started coming across lots of other posts that mentioned the radio interview she gave last week.  Oh yeah, that was part of The Globe's reasoning, Kellie had given this radio interview stating she had a man but never mentioned the man's name.  I put 2 and 2 together and figure while I assumed she was talking about Kyle Jacobs, The Globe and obviously Fox News thought she was talking about Kid Rock.  That's when I came back and put an update at the bottom of the post like half an hour to an hour later updating with what I had figured out.  I didn't want to delete the whole story, but I did want to update it to reflect the new (well in this case old) info I had come across. 

I do that a lot.  Rather than updating every single story with a new post I just add updates at the bottom of the original post if it's not a majorly important update.  It's easier that way so that someone who is coming across the story for the first time has the updates all in one spot rather than having updates spread all over my site - that and it saves me having to write all these update blog posts for stories that aren't exactly world news, ya know?  Sometimes updates will happen the same day as the original blog post and sometimes they'll happen days or months later. 

So see, it wasn't some smear campaign against Kellie Pickler and it wasn't me purposely misinforming anyone, it was simply a case of mistaken interview audio.  That's how this crazy world of blogging works, a news story comes out and you write about it, sometimes those stories end up being true and sometimes they end up not being true, it's not a matter of doing homework, it's just a matter of going with the flow and trying to keep up with the stories as they happen.  

New baby alert

Awww, nothing like a little bit of baby news to brighten the day. 

 The Lost Trailers’ Stokes Nielson (second from left above) and his wife Maria are the proud parents of a healthy baby boy born Monday, June 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.  Weighing in at 7.7 lbs, both the little one and his mom are doing well.  The newest Nielson member is being welcomed by his big sister and the rest of The Lost Trailers’ members. 

CMA Music Fest gets an air date

Thanks to Meg who sent me the link to this press release.

Country Music takes center stage when "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" airs Monday, Aug. 31 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Filmed in Nashville June 11-14, the special has been expanded to three hours to showcase more of today's most exciting Country Music stars. Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Sugarland and Taylor Swift are the first performers to be confirmed, with more artists to be announced soon.

The annual CMA Music Festival is unlike any other, with four days filled with more than one hundred hours of live music, 30 hours of autograph signings by Country Music's biggest names and up and comers, hundreds of artists and celebrities, and a party list of thousands of avid fans. This is the fifth time ABC will broadcast this special - which invites the whole country to America's biggest Country Music bash - since the original Fan Fair(R) was launched in 1972. This year an average of 56,000 fans attended each day of CMA Music Festival, its biggest turnout yet.

"CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" is executive-produced by Robert Deaton and directed by Gary Halvorson. The 2009 CMA Music Festival is organized and produced by the Country Music Association. "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" will be shot in high definition and broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound.

Your daily dose of Honky Tonk TV

Country Music News on Kid Rock, Countryopoly, Katie Armiger and Lady Antebellum http://www.honkytonktv.com

Wait a minute, Kellie Pickler admitted to dating Kid Rock?

Whoa!  Color me totally shocked.  I made fun of the story The Globe had up about Kellie Pickler and Kid Rock dating because it seemed so far-fetched, especially because she's been dating Kyle.

Well thanks to Idol Stalker we have this video of Fox News saying Kellie admitted the relationship in a radio interview last week. 

Holy smokes, where is THAT audio?  Take a look at the video while I do my blogging duty by seeing if I can dig up the interview. 

Update: Okay, not so exciting. Fox is I assume talking about the cryptic radio interview Kellie did last week where she says she's got a man but never mentions a name. I still think she was talking about Kyle Jacobs, the same guy she Twitters all her sweet Twitters to. Whew.

Be careful when feeding those sea pigs

Okay, this is sort of an unexpected video.  Jewel recently got back from an exotic vacay with her hubby, Ty, and has been posting all kinds of videos and blog posts and pictures.  I haven't posted any but then I came across this video.  I felt the urge to post it just for it's utter strangeness. 

Never can be sure what you'll come across while vacationing I guess.

Get a brand-spanking new song from Taylor starting tomorrow

Due to the fact that everyone involved with Taylor Swift has been losing money on this very unsuccessful tour Taylor's got going on, Verizon and Rhapsody have decided to jointly release a newly recorded Taylor Swift tune. 

Trying to recoup some of their losses, Verizon has a mobile recording studio that goes along on Taylor's tour with her in the hopes of mining a little gold from the girl. Well the portable studio worked it's magic and Taylor and her band, The Agency, recorded their take on Tom Petty's American Girl which will be offered up for sale starting tomorrow, June 30.  

From K92FM  

June 30th, Verizon/Rhapsody To Feature a Taylor Swift Track Exclusive This Tuesday, June 30th, Verizon, in conjunction with Rhapsody, will feature an exclusive track from Taylor Swift as recorded on her FEARLESS 2009 Tour using Verizon's mobile recording studio. Taylor, with accompaniment from her band, The Agency, offer up their take on Tom Petty's "American Girl". The track will be available for full-song download, ringtone download, ringback download via Verizon, and it will also be available on Rhapsody. A video for the track, featuring exclusive footage captured on Taylor's sold-out arena tour, accompanies the song on Verizon's V-CAST platform and can be viewed beginning Tuesday 6/30 at www.vcastlive.com.

Tracy Lawrence - from hell raiser to country hymn maker

 

Tracy Lawrence, there's a name I haven't heard much about for a while.  Tracy went from unknown to 90's hit maker to rowdy country hell raiser to alleged batterer all in the timeframe of less than 10 years.

Well Tracy is back with a brand new (out June 9) album of inspirational Christian songs with a decidedly country sound - you can check out clips of the music here.  Tracy chatted with Reuters about how his newest project came about. 

Lawrence says that he'd wanted to do a Christian record for several years, but "I haven't been in the right place spiritually. I didn't feel I could do the album justice."

Now remarried with two children, Lawrence has returned to the family values of his childhood. "Having kids brought me back around to that place," he says. "And my career is thriving again. It seemed like it was the right time."

Instead of recording a collection of classic hymns, Lawrence chose originals. "I wrote a few things for the album but only put one on there called 'Dear Lord,'" he says. "I did a three-month search for new material and was overwhelmed and inspired by the caliber of songs I found."

The lead single, "Up to Him," speaks to the struggles of America's working class. "When I recorded this music last year, I had no idea the country was going to be in the shape that it's in financially," Lawrence says. "In retrospect, it seems like I've never done a more appropriate album for the times."

Lawrence has been doing in-stores at Wal-Marts and Christian retailers as well as press, including an interview with the Gospel Music Channel. "Oh yeah, the questions were asked," Turner says, noting that Christian gatekeepers questioned his rowdy past and current motivation.

"My wife and I joined a Methodist church five or six years ago," Lawrence says, "and it's been extremely healthy for me getting close to people within the organization and close to the pastor. It's brought a great peace to my life. It's just been a very healthy few years for me, a lot more so than the first 15 of my career."

Congrats to Tracy for the new CD and turning his life around.  Celebrity hard living doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to recover from and I applaud anyone able to do just that.