Keith Urban has presented two possible options for his album “Get Closer,” which arrives in stores on November 16th.  One is a picture of Keith “getting closer” with his flawlessly pale and gorgeous wife, actress Nicole Kidman (Keith hasn’t said it’s her, and you can’t see her face, but why would he hire a look-alike model and then lovingly caress her arm?).  The other option is of Keith by himself, sitting by a bed with his guitar nearby.  Your vote will determine if Keith ends up with Nicole on the cover or by himself.  Now maybe I’m selfish, but I’m just not that into looking at Keith being embraced by his perfect wife.  I’d rather look at him sitting alone on that bed, guitar at his side, ready to sing me a song.  Frankly, the wife just gets in the way.  And based on the vote tally so far (Keith by himself has more than double the votes of the Keith/Nicole cover) I guess I’m not the only one.  Click here to cast your vote on which cover he’ll release.

With Wife…..

…Or Without?

Sure, Kenny Chesney has a big hit with THE BOYS OF FALL.  But what about the guys who didn’t play football?  Like Mike Chase.

If Mike’s high school diary could sing, it might sound like this:   Boys Of Fall – Mike sings

That doesn’t happen too often, but it did last night.  Blake was on hand to re-open the Grand Ole Opry after the devastation from the flooding back in May, and at one point, Trace Adkins handed him a phone with a tweet on the screen, which was the Opry’s invitation to join.  Watch the whole thing here:

With all the trouble Miss Lohan has gotten into these days, directors are less likely to want to work with her.   In fact, she’s supposed to star in a romantic comedy called “One Night With You” that starts shooting soon.  The current rumor racing through Hollywood is that Taylor Swift is the #1 choice to replace Lindsay in the lead role.  Right now, Taylor’s camp says this won’t happen, that she’s too focused on music to work on a movie, but you never know…that’s kind of a tempting offer.  Here’s Taylor at a fashion show this week in NYC:

Today’s the day that Kenny Chesney releases his much anticipated album, “Hemingway’s Whiskey.”  Kenny says this project is a result of starting from scratch a year ago when he decided he wasn’t happy with his recent work.  While listening to a collection of songs he had put together, he realized that he had basically been phoning it in, and that maybe only four of them were any good.  This inspired him to take some time off and start from scratch, and he’s much happier with the new stuff.  his favorite song, he says, is “You and Tequila,” a duet with Grace Pottter, a rocker from Vermont.  Click here to hear it.

Is the City of Portland mad at us for publicizing a sewage spill?  Hear the discussion….and the call to the sewage spill hot line.  Portland sewage hotline 2010-09-29 8-20a

The next season of “American Idol” (which starts back up in January) promises to be very different, with new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler replacing Simon, Ellen, and Kara.  But the type of songs they sing may also change, according to the producers of the show.  Most importantly, there will be no more country night!  It’s always my favorite night on the show because singers who wouldn’t normally sing country get to stretch out a bit, and those who are comfortable in the format get to shine.  But now, finalists will basically be asked to sing a song from an era, like, say, the 70s, and they can sing whatever type of song they want from that era.  So if there’s no one on the show who likes country music, we may not hear any of it this season.  Bummer.

Carrie Underwood’s next leg of her tour kicks off right here in Portland on Saturday, and so does her new “36 cents” program.  She plans to donate 36 cents of every ticket sold to Save The Children’s US programs.  Why 36 cents?  It’s a lyric in her song “Change” about the small change in your life and how it can change someone else’s life.

It’s almost like a home video, because Carrie Underwood’s new video for “Mama’s Song” features her mom and also a very brief appearance from her new hubby Mike Fisher.  Click here to check it out.  Or watch this behind the scenes video about the video…

Thanks to Mary of Vancouver and her $1000 bid to benefit The Union Gospel Mission.  Mary scores backstage passes to meet Carrie Saturday night, an autographed guitar, and tickets to her Rose Garden show.

All proceeds go to The Union Gospel Mission.