Well, at least 7 out of 12.  The 5 biggest ones will be announced tomorrow.  Here’s what we’ve got so far:

New Artist
Luke Bryan
Easton Corbin
Jerrod Niemann
Chris Young
Zac Brown Band

Vocal Group
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts
The Band Perry
Zac Brown Band

Vocal Duo
Brooks & Dunn
Joey & Rory
Montgomery Gentry
Steel Magnolia
Sugarland

Single of the Year
(Award goes to artist and producer.)
“A Little More Country Than That”
Easton Corbin
Producer: Carson Chamberlain

“Hillbilly Bone”
Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins
Producer: Scott Hendricks

“Need You Now”
Lady Antebellum
Producers: Paul Worley and Lady Antebellum

“The House That Built Me”
Miranda Lambert
Producers: Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke

“White Liar”
Miranda Lambert
Producers: Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke

Song of the Year
(Award goes to songwriter.)
“A Little More Country Than That”
Songwriters: Rory Lee Feek, Don Poythress and Wynn Varble

“Need You Now”
Songwriters: Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Josh Kear

“The House That Built Me”
Songwriters: Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin

“Toes”
Songwriters: Zac Brown, Wyatt Durrette, John Driskell Hopkins and Shawn Mullins

“White Liar”
Songwriters: Miranda Lambert and Natalie Hemby

Music Video
(Award goes to artist and director.)
“Hillbilly Bone”
Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins
Director: Roman White

“Need You Now”
Lady Antebellum
Director: David McClister

“The House That Built Me”
Miranda Lambert
Director: Trey Fanjoy

“Water”
Brad Paisley
Director: Jim Shea

“White Liar”
Miranda Lambert
Director: Chris Hickey

So some big dude got really, really rowdy at a Toby Keith show in Cincinatti, and when he finally wouldn’t stop threatening some cops by telling them that he was going to stab them, they arrested him and threw him into a squad car.  At that point, he used his powerful legs to kick out a window in the squad car, and when they transferred him to another vehicle, he proceeded to smash his face against the plexiglass partition until he was bloody and battered.  When they asked the guy his name, he replied that it was Forrest J. Frankenstein, jr.  Well of course it was.  Here  is the story in case you don’t believe me.

If you want Alan Jackson’s “Where I Come From” to be one of the songs the NASA atronauts will wake up to while in space, you can vote to make it happen by clicking here.  you can also vote for songs by Willie Nelson and Aaron Tippin…

Josh Turner and his wife Jennifer are already the proud parents of two boys, 3 year old Hampton and 1 year old Colby.  And now they’ve found out that their third one is going to be a boy as well!  What is going on in Nashville?  Zac Brown has got a gaggle of girls (3) with one more on the way, and now Josh is populating the earth with one boy after another.  Perhaps Josh’s boys and Zac’s girls will all marry each other?

Check this out:  Zac Brown has three daughters:  Justice, age 3; Lucy, age 2; and Georgia Sloan, 11 months.  And now his wife Shelley is expecting a fourth baby, and IT’S A GIRL.  So pretty soon the Browns will have 4 girls under the age of 4.  Yikes.  If Zac knows what’s good for him, he’ll be doing a lot of touring in the next few years.  Actually, he should also plan an extensive tour for about 2024, when they’re all teenagers.  Congrats, Zac!

I’m a big fan of the Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood CMA hosting combo, so I’m happy to report that the twoof them will be back again as co-hosts for this year’s show.  Next week, the nominees will be announced, and the date of the show has been set for November 10th.

Has there ever been a video with more hype around it than Taylor Swift’s “Mine,” which debuts tonight on CMT?  If you’ve watched CMT at all this week, you’ve seen the annoying countdown clock in the corner of the screen with Taylor popping up every few seconds to point at it.  Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Taylor.  Love her.  But that little countdown thingy has been driving me nuts.  So just in case you have somehow missed out on the huuuuuge announcement, I’ll remind you:  Tonight.  8 o’clock.  Taylor.  “Mine.”  Done.

We were just playing James Otto’s version of the song, which he co-wrote, and Mike and I remembered these color photos that were just released from the 1930s and 40s…stuff you have really only ever seen in black and white.  It’s some amazing stuff. 

Check it all out here:

The “Just Got Started Lovin’ You” singer and….are you ready?…the husband of the sister of the wife of Rascal Flatts’ Jay Demarcus, are the proud new parents of Ava Katherine, born Tuesday night.  James’ wife Amy is doing great.  Her sister, Alison DeMarcus, is also expecting so we’ll have some country cousins soon. (Does anyone else remember the restaurant in Hillsdale called The Country Cousin?  They had the world’s greatest crinkly fries.  Ooooh, yum.)  Anyway, congrats to James and Amy.

How many musical formats can say that there’s a place where every single great artist of the past 85 years has stood and performed?  Only country music, I think.  I’m talking about the famous wooden circle that was taken from the original location of the Grand Ole Opry to the current location in 1974.  When the Opry was flooded this spring, that circle was under 46 inches of water, but luckily someone rescued it, dried it out, and restored it.  Now a date has been set for the grand re-opening of the Opry, and so on September 28th when Brad Paisley, Josh Turner, Blake Shelton and a bunch of other big stars help re-open the facility, they’ll be standing on the same wood floor that everyone from Hank Williams to Johnny Cash to Little Jimmy Dickens have stood on through the ages.  That’s cool.