John Shearer / Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images

Here’s a look at some notable birthdays being celebrated today:

Aziz Ansari
Age: 29
Occupation: Actor, Writer and Comedian
Known For: Starring in the NBC sitcom ‘Parks and Recreation,’ appearing in movies including ‘Get Him to the Greek,’ ‘Funny People’ and ’30 Minutes or Less,’ and hosting the 2010 MTV Movie Awards

Dakota Fanning
Age: 18
Occupation: Actress
Known For: Well-respected performances in films like ‘I Am Sam,’ ‘War of the Worlds,’ ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ ‘The Twilight Saga’ and ‘The Runaways,’ and being the older sister of actress Elle Fanning

Peter Fonda
Age: 72
Occupation: Actor
Known For: Being an icon of the counterculture of the 1960s, starring the films ‘Easy Rider,’ ‘Ulee’s Gold’ and ’3:10 to Yuma,’ and being the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda and father of Bridget Fonda

Howard Jones
Age: 57
Occupation: Singer, Songwriter and Musician
Known For: Merging upbeat pop with the technology-intensive sound of new wave on a string of hit singles in the 1980s including ‘What Is Love?,’ ‘Things Can Only Get Better,’ ‘No One Is to Blame’ and ‘Everlasting Love’

Emily Blunt
Age: 29
Occupation: Actress
Known For: Roles in the movies ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ ‘The Young Victoria’ and ‘The Adjustment Bureau,’ a previous relationship with singer Michael Bublé, and her marriage to actor John Krasinski

Keystone, Getty Images

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history:

1896 – The Tootsie Roll is introduced (More info)

1927 – President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill establishing the Federal Radio Commission — later the Federal Communications Commission — which regulated the use of US radio frequencies (More info)

1945 – During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of US Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag (More info)

1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh (More info)

1980 – US speed skater Eric Heiden wins an unprecedented fifth gold medal at the Winter Olympic games in Lake Placid, New York (More info)

Kevin Winter / Rick Diamond, Getty Images

Fans are eagerly anticipating new music from Carrie Underwood, and the singer gave a taste — but just a taste — of what she’s been working on in a new video that leads today’s Taste of Country Daily Roundup. Hank Williams Jr. also made news with information on his new album, as did Jason Aldean.

Check out all of the top country music news headlines and a few others from around the web — like what song the President is singing now — by scrolling through the list below.

Today on Taste of Country:

Carrie Underwood Previews New Song ‘Good Girl’ in Web Video
Hank Williams Jr. to Release ‘Best Of’ Album in March
Rascal Flatts Given Humanitarian Award at 2012 Country Radio Seminar
Wade Bowen Releases Acoustic Video for ‘Saturday Night’
Jake Owen Performs ‘Alone With You’ + ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’ on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
Miranda Lambert Says She and Blake Shelton Can’t Blend in Anymore
Before They Were Famous: David Nail
Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift + More Make 100 Greatest Women in Music List
Jason Aldean’s Next Album Will Have ‘Hard-Charging’ Sound His Fans Love
Aaron Lewis, ‘Endless Summer’ – Song Review
Craig Morgan Donates Guitars to Tennessee Middle School
The Band Perry Debut New Songs on the Ryman’s New Stage
Taylor Swift Admits She’s ‘Stupid’ in Love on ‘The Tonight Show’

Taste of Country Also Recommends:

Howard Stern Grills Adam Levine About Christina Aguilera’s Weight
President Obama Sings ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ With Mick Jagger – How Did He Do?
Adele Sells 730,000 Copies of ’21′ Following Her 2012 Grammy Wins
Ron Wood Says Rolling Stones ‘On the Verge of Touring’
The 8 Annoying People Who Always Show Up at an Oscars Party

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Michael Buckner, Getty Images

As the annual Country Radio Seminar kicked off this morning in Nashville, Rascal Flatts were honored for their charitable efforts. The country trio received the 2012 Humanitarian Award during Wednesday’s opening session.

Country Music is Love reports that Jay DeMarcus, Joe Don Rooney and Gary LeVox were on hand to accept the glass statuettes. “It’s a little uncomfortable to be recognized for something we feel we should be doing,” DeMarcus said. “We have been so blessed with an amazing career, to pay the blessings forward seemed the most natural thing to do.”

According to a press release at the group’s website, Rascal Flatts donated $3 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt’s Pediatric Surgery Center (named the Rascal Flatts Surgery Center) in 2010. They serve as celebrity spokespersons for numerous charitable organizations and have been members of the American Red Cross Celebrity Cabinet for seven years.

In 2012, the trio will begin raising money for the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt’s neonatal center. “‘Cause, you know, it’s the only thing, medically, that they just have no clue on why children are born premature,” LeVox said in January. “So we’re going to do what we can to help try to find out and see if we can’t just be a small part of trying to change history a little bit.”

“The board is very pleased to honor Rascal Flatts with the CRS Artist Humanitarian Award,” CRS Executive Director Bill Mayne said. “They join a long, distinguished list of celebrities who have received this prestigious award since it was instated in 1990.”

On April 3, Rascal Flatts will release their eighth studio album. ‘Changed’ will feature their current single, ‘Banjo.’

Source: TasteofCountry.com

borderfilms, Flickr

According to a new Gallup poll, United States citizens truly love our neighbors to the north — in fact, in the company’s annual favorability ratings, 96 percent of Americans said they have a generally favorable view of Canada, while only three percent view it unfavorably.

So who else is in our good graces?

Australia and Great Britain, which respectively had 93 and 90 percent favorable ratings from Americans. Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran are at the bottom of the rankings — they earned favorable ratings of 14, 13, and 10 percent.

“Iran is the least well-regarded country measure this year, with 10% of Americans viewing it favorably and 87% unfavorably,” Gallup wrote on its website. “Americans’ favorable ratings of Iran have been consistently low since Gallup’s first measurement with this question in 1989, mostly registering around 10% but with a range from 5% (in1989) to 17% (in 2004).”

Here’s the top 20 list — check out the full report for more.

2012 Favorability Toward Countries

1. Canada – 96 percent
2. Australia – 93 percent
3. Great Britain – 90 percent
4. Germany – 86 percent
5. Japan – 83 percent
6. France – 75 percent
7. India – 75 percent
8. Israel – 71 percent
9. Greece – 62 percent
10. Mexico – 51 percent
11. Russia – 50 percent
12. Egypt – 47 percent
13. Saudi Arabia – 42 percent
14. China – 41 percent
15. Cuba – 37 percent
16. Libya – 25 percent
17. Iraq – 24 percent
18. The Palestinian Authority – 19 percent
19. Syria – 17 percent
20. Pakistan – 15 percent

[Gallup]

Rick Diamond, Getty Images

Texas native Wade Bowen recently released an acoustic video for his chart-climbing single ‘Saturday Night.’ The video is just somber enough to fit with the sad feel of the song. Shot all in black and white, it simply shows Bowen sitting on a stool in a large empty room playing his guitar, or standing in front of a window with a train passing by.

Riding on the remorseful lyrics of loneliness and heartbreak, Bowen sings, “So why does everybody love Saturday night / Stale smell of beer and the smoke in your eyes / I keep sittin’ and drinkin’ and thinkin’ ’bout a sad good-bye / So tell me why is everybody so in love with Saturday night.”

In a past interview with Taste of Country, Bowen explained some of the mystery behind the song. “I’ve been doing this for 14 years now, and I’ve stood onstage quite a few Saturday nights a year,” he said. “I’ve been hearing a lot of songs about Saturday nights and how great they always are. So as a songwriter, I always try to take ideas and twist them around a bit.” To twist this song, he said he decided to write about the one lonely guy in the bar who is obviously not enjoying the party as much as everyone else.

“I just felt like this song overall was really country, but it still has a lot of the Wade Bowen thing that I’ve always tried to keep,” he further explained. “We tried really hard to kind of take what I’ve been doing in the past and try to mature it a little bit. That’s what I try to do with every record and every song, really. I really feel like this song does that for us.”

Watch Wade Bowen’s Acoustic Video for ‘Saturday Night’

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Relativity Media / Summit Entertainment / Lionsgate / Universal Pictures

We know winter has been long and cold, so duck into a theater this weekend to shake off the doldrums — the four new flicks opening in wide release should have a little something for everyone.

The long-awaited ‘Act of Valor’ stars real active-duty Navy SEALs in a fictionalized account of SEAL operations that takes audiences on an adrenaline-fueled, edge-of-their-seat journey.

In the suspense thriller ‘Gone,’ a woman who escaped from a kidnapper a year before discovers her sister has now been abducted by the same maniac.

‘Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds’ is the story of a man jolted out of his predictable routine when the chance to do a good deed finally sparks the courage to exchange the life that’s expected of him for the life he’s always really wanted.

And in ‘Wanderlust,’ Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd star as a stressed-out couple who move in to a hippie commune, where the change of perspective could cause more problems than it solves.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Act of Valor

Directed by: Scott Waugh
Starring: Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Nestor Serrano, Jason Cottle, Rorke, Michael, Dave, Ajay, Sonny, Ray, Van O, Weimy, Emilio Rivera, Gonzalo Menendez
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Gone

Directed by: Heitor Dhalia
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds

Directed by: Tyler Perry
Starring: Tyler Perry, Thandie Newton, Gabrielle Union, Eddie Cibrian, Brian J. White, Jordenn Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Beverly Johnson, Rebecca Romijn, Jamie Kennedy, Andrew Masset
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Wanderlust

Directed by: David Wain
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Akerman
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Dennis, Flickr

In this economy, people are lucky just to have a job.

Which is perhaps why the majority of Americans would pick job security over higher pay, if given the choice.

The Pew Research Center asked 1,231 adults if, all other things being equal, they would prefer a job with higher pay or more job security. Overall, 58 percent opted for the job security, and 39 percent wanted the bigger bucks. The rest were undecided.

The only age demographic who would go for more money was 18-24-year olds, which is also the group that is likely to paid the least. And even among these youngest workers only 51 percent wanted the higher pay, whereas 48 percent favored job security.

[Pew Research Center]

Hulu/ABC

Jake Owen brought some serious twang to the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ indoor stage on Tuesday (Feb. 21). He performed the customary pair of songs, ripping through ‘Alone With You’ and ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night.’ The performance was a good enough reason to stay up late, but in case you missed it, you can watch footage of each song below.

For his late night TV appearance, Owen looked quite the part of a rocker, with his bright red guitar and his Steel Panther t-shirt. In case you’re not immediately familiar, Steel Panther are a throwback, glam rock, ’80s-style band. Perhaps the band will see that Owen sported their shirt and approach him about a duet? Stranger things have happened.

We love that Owen was able to start off his performance on a slow note and then turn up the rowdy factor when he closed out the show. It demonstrated his musical dynamics, which has garnered him many fans in his career.

When Owen stripped off the guitar to perform ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night,’ the Kimmel lobby was transformed into a country bar. The audience was clapping and singing along, and Owen even gave a shout out to Jimmy Kimmel himself mid-song. He certainly upped the country ante on the stage.

Watch Jake Owen Perform ‘Alone With You’

Watch Jake Owen Perform ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Kevin Winter

Anytime you have two superstar musical or celebrity acts dating — or married, in this case (think Brad and Angelina or Faith and Tim) — it’s only a matter of time before that couple realizes the freedoms they have given up by being in the spotlight. While Miranda Lambert and her country hitmaker husband Blake Shelton have been well known for a couple of years now, Lambert admits that her husband’s standing appearance on ‘The Voice‘ has begun to change how normal their lives can be.

Now, because of the smash television show that has millions of viewers glued to the TV in their living rooms, Shelton has become a household name even with families that never turn their radio to the country station.

“I understand now why sometimes people that get largely famous and sort of become a little bit weird — it’s not because — you get trapped in your own world just a little bit, you know?” Lambert said, according to Country Music Is Love. “And I’m lucky I’m in country, so it’s not as bad, but some of these big stars, you can’t walk down the street. You can’t. And I’ve learned that with even Blake, with the last time we were in New York City.”

Lambert says the couple couldn’t get five feet — even in such a big city — because people kept noticing them. “And that’s New York City, and that’s not a country mecca,” she said. “Now that he’s this big network television star, things have changed, and we are exactly the same people we always were. We are, like, so down to earth and do not care about ‘the scene’ or havin’ this certain famous image, but then there’s this part that you are a star and that’s how people perceive you, so you have to always carry yourself that way.”

Lambert will be joining Team Blake on ‘The Voice’ as an advisor this season during the Battle Rounds, so she may start to experience the exact same reaction that fans are giving her husband right now. Catch the couple on NBC’s ‘The Voice,’ which airs Mondays at 8PM ET.

Source: TasteofCountry.com

yourdon, Flickr

When you talk on the phone, do you hold it up to your right ear or your left? Scientists say your preference could reveal a lot about you.

A new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found a strong link between brain dominance and the ear used to listen to a call. More than 70 percent of us hold our phones up to the ear on the same side as our dominant hand — in other words, right-handed people use their right ear, and vice versa.

Left-brain dominant people (whose speech and language center is on the left side of the brain) are more likely to be right-handed and to use their right ear for phone calls, even though the hearing there was found to be no better. The opposite is also true — right-brain dominant people tend to use their left hand to hold the phone in their left ear.

“Our findings have several implications, especially for mapping the language center of the brain,” says Dr. Michael Seidman, director of the division of otologic and neurotologic surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford.

He added that his work also adds to a growing body of evidence that finds no link between cell phone use and cancer — otherwise, he said, since most people are right-handed and tend to use their right ears for cell calls, tumors would almost always occur on the right side of the head or neck.

[Science Daily]

andjohan, Flickr

For job interviews, it used to be enough to just show up in a nice suit, answer some perfunctory questions and be on your way.

But these days, some companies have changed the interview process so much that candidates wind up feeling as though they’re trying out for a reality TV show instead of simply vying for a 9-5 paycheck.

The Los Angeles Times calls the trend “extreme interviewing,” and cites the example of one company that made internship hopefuls write 13 different 140-character messages on Twitter to illustrate why they should be chosen for the gig.

In addition, other interviewees are now often asked questions for which there is no right answer, like, “If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” or “On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?”

The popular Pinkberry chain even asks potential hires to act out fake commercials and come up with marketing plans for hypothetical new products — and that’s just for a job scooping frozen yogurt. In a statement, the company said such exercises “allow us to see immediate impact on team connectedness, demonstrate service and leadership skills and unveil entrepreneurial spirit.”

Bottom line: the next time you have an interview, keep in mind that while you probably won’t have to eat anything icky in ‘Fear Factor’ style, you may very well have to prove your worth in a variety of bizarre ways.

[Time]

Jason Merritt / Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images

Last week, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum‘s Hillary Scott and a handful of musical country femmes made it onto VH1‘s 1oo Greatest Women in Music list. The complete list debuted Feb. 13 in a one-hour special that kicked off a five-day series of similar specials. Topping the list as the greatest woman in music was Madonna, with Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Adele joining her in the top five.

Country women made quite the showing on the list as well, with Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott sitting at No. 89, Leann Rimes at 62, Miranda Lambert at 58, Taylor Swift landing at 43, the Dixie Chicks at 39, Faith Hill at 37, Shania Twain at 35 and Carrie Underwood as the highest-ranking country lady with a placement at No. 23.

The list features the best women in music in the past 20 years, and last week VH1 aired an hour-long segment talking about a different group of the women each night.

Underwood just released an in-studio video preview of her upcoming single ‘Good Girl’ for fans to enjoy. That single is expected to release Feb. 23, just a couple of weeks after Underwood made an appearance at the Grammys dueting with pop standard luminary Tony Bennett.

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Daniel Barry, Getty Images

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says wireless resources are not infinite.

In fact, the smartphones to which we’re all so addicted are gobbling so much bandwidth that as early as next year, we could be paying more for our service — not to mention seeing slower data speeds and an increase in dropped calls.

The FCC calls the issue “spectrum crunch” and officials there are worried it could be a very real problem, with one saying, “Network traffic is increasing … [Carriers] can manage it for the next couple years, but demand is inevitably going to exceed the available spectrum.”

Rory Altman, director of technology consultancy Altman Vilandrie & Co., added, “We got into this principally because technology and demand exploded at a rate that nobody had anticipated.”

The current wireless spectrum is distributed among companies and entities unevenly, with some having more than they need and others having too little. In early March, Congress is expected to vote on an FCC plan to hold incentive auctions that would help balance things out, something FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says would not only help to free up spectrum resources but would also greatly benefit the US Treasury.

[CNN Money]

Erika Goldring, Getty Images

Jason Aldean is on the verge of completing his highly-anticipated fifth studio album, the follow-up collection to his multi-platinum selling ‘My Kinda Party.’ While Aldean admits that the pressure was on to come up with a solid album that would outdo what ‘My Kinda Party’ did — which was spawn four consecutive No. 1 singles — he says that in the end, he stuck with music his fans love and have come to expect.

“One thing I didn’t want to go in and do was make ‘My Kinda Party II,’” Aldean tells Taste of Country. “But at the same time, and I think I said this on the last record, too, I don’t want to ever totally get away from what it is that got me to this point — that sound and hard-charging kind of thing that I’m known for, because that’s what I enjoy to play. At the same time, I think on the ‘My Kinda Party’ record we changed it up. We did the [duet] with Kelly [Clarkson], we did ‘Dirt Road Anthem’ … just little snippets of things like that that are kind of different and odd.”

“I think there’s some of that stuff on this new record,” he continues. “It’s going to be the kind of record that people are used to us making. It’s still going to be that hard-driving stuff and a couple of little surprises in there, too. It’s good … I think so, anyway.”

Fans will see some of the usual suspects behind the songs lyrics, including Neil Thrasher (‘Tattoos on This Town,’ ‘Fly Over States’), Jason Sellers (‘Don’t You Wanna Stay’), David Lee Murphy (‘Big Green Tractor’) and Wendell Mobley (‘Tattoos on This Town’), as well as some first-time writers like ASCAP’s Songwriter of the Year and Peach Picker, Ben Hayslip.

“The more success we have, the better the songs are that get pitched to us,” notes Aldean. “With every record we’re getting better and better songs. This record was no exception. We have some really great songs. I think a lot of writers are locked into what I’m doing. For whatever reason, I feel like the stuff they write is stuff that really fits what I do. They’ve gone in and wrote a lot of songs specifically for us, especially on the new album. There are certain guys who are just great writers, so when you’re looking for songs for a new album, obviously you’re going to want to go to those guys and see what they’ve got and if they’ve got anything that fits you. Those guys are kind of dialed into what I like. We’ve got a good run going with them right now.”

Aldean hopes the yet-to-be-titled new album will hit stores around October or November of this year. The hat-wearing hitmaker just released his fifth and final single from the ‘My Kinda Party’ album, ‘Fly Over States.’

Source: TasteofCountry.com

My Fox Atlanta

At Atlanta pizzeria is receiving both cheers — and jeers — for the notice it recently printed on its menus asking parents of noisy children to take their kids outside.

After Donnie Parmer, co-owner of Grant Central Pizza, got an abundance of complaints (both in person and on the review site Yelp) about screaming or unruly children in his restaurant, he added the following notice to the bottom of his menus:

Dear all present and future patrons: GCP is proud of its reputation as a family restaurant, a title that we will work to keep. Unfortunately a number of our diners have posted unpleasant experiences because of crying and unsupervised children. To ensure that all diners have an enjoyable lunch or dinner with us we respectfully ask that parents tend to their crying tots outside.”

Parmer says that while he likes kids and Grant Central Pizza is a family establishment, it’s not fair for little ones to disrupt the entire dining room. He cites an incident in which a child hit an adult patron in the head with a toy as the last straw that made him print the public notice.

While some parents are offended, saying “noise is just part of the experience in a family restaurant,” other customers applauded the gesture and said it’ll make them more likely to visit the restaurant.

[My Fox Atlanta]

consumerist, Flickr

Does your job make the world a better or worse place? That’s what 30,000 workers were asked last year — and their answers have given researchers a lot to talk about.

Salary comparison site PayScale conducted the survey in which people were asked the question and told to choose from the answer options of “very much so,” “yes,” “a little,” “no” and “My job may make the world a worse place.”

While only one percent picked the last answer, the New York Times was curious about what types of jobs those people had, so PayScale investigated further. Here are the top 10 occupations that had the highest shares of workers saying they thought their jobs made the world a worse place:

• Fast-Food Worker: 42.3 percent
• Bartender: 5.8 percent
• Senior Attorney: 4.9 percent
• Fashion Designer: 4.1 percent
• Associate – Investment Banking: 3.8 percent
• Legal Assistant: 3.6 percent
• Account Executive, Advertising: 3.4 percent
• Claims Adjuster / Examiner / Investigator: 3.3 percent
• Personal Banker: 3.2 percent
• Petroleum Engineer: 3.1 percent

Although a lot of people would take issue with bartenders thinking they don’t make the world a better place, analysts noted two of the 10 spots were banking professions — possibly a reflection of the economic downturn that happened largely at the hands of Wall Street executives.

Sorted by industry, here are the top 10 fields in which employees said their jobs make the world a worse place (the number one slot isn’t a terrible surprise):

• Tobacco Manufacturing: 15.9 percent
• Gambling Industries: 5 percent
• Gasoline Stations: 4.4 percent
• Limited-Service Eating Places (e.g., Fast-Food Restaurants): 2.8 percent
• Beer, Wine and Distilled Alcoholic Beverage Merchant Wholesalers: 2.1 percent
• Petroleum and Petroleum Products Merchant Wholesalers: 1.9 percent
• Legal Services: 1.8 percent
• Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing: 1.7 percent
• Jewelry, Luggage and Leather Goods Stores: 1.7 percent
• Advertising and Related Services: 1.6 percent

[The New York Times]

tpauly, Flickr

Despite what many a working stiff might think, men do not wear neckties to facilitate strangulation when their bosses are less than pleased with their work.

So, why do men wear this variable, often quite fashionable, and utterly useless piece of business attire?

The answer lies in history, and Europe’s Thirty Years’ War. The logistics of that 17^th century conflict are messy, to say the least, and the various alliances hard to follow. What is worth note here was the extensive use of Croatian mercenaries. Croatian soldiers, fashion innovators that they were, wore scarves around their necks as part of their uniforms, which were called kravatas.

French soldiers must have thought the Croats looked pretty smashing in their rustic scarves. Military personnel brought the idea of wearing neckties back to France, where King Louis XIV quickly introduced ‘la cravate’ to high society. Neckties soon became all the rage. Wearing a cravate allowed you to show off your individual style, by altering the size and length of the tie, as well as the colors and patterns swimming across the cloth.

The word ‘cravat,’ which owes its origins to ‘Croatian,’ eventually became ‘tie’ in English. While the design and manner of wearing a tie have evolved over the years, the ubiquity and cross-cultural relevance of this little strip of fabric simply prove that ties are here to stay.

[Time]

Courtesy of Curb Records

Hank Williams Jr. fans new and old will garner great appreciation for a new 22-track greatest hits album that will hit stores next month.

The retrospective collection, titled ‘Best of Hank Williams Jr. (All My Rowdy Friends),’ will be released by Nashville’s Curb Records and will feature the biggest and most memorable hits of Hank Jr.’s career, including ‘Family Tradition,’ ‘A Country Boy Can Survive,’ ‘Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,’ and of course, ‘All My Rowdy Friends Are Comin’ Over Tonight.’

The album will also feature the duet rendition Bocephus sang with the vocal track of his late and legendary father, Hank Williams, on the classic hit ‘There’s a Tear in My Beer.’ Other guest appearances on the collection of songs include Rehab, who lend their talents to Hank’s ‘Bartender Song (Sittin’ at the Bar).’

‘Best of Hank Williams Jr. (All My Rowdy Friends)’ will be released on Tuesday, March 27, exclusively at Walmart.

‘Best of Hank Williams Jr. (All My Rowdy Friends)’ Track Listing:

1. ‘Family Tradition’
2. ‘Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound’
3. ‘Women I’ve Never Had’
4. ‘Outlaw Women’
5. ‘Kaw-Liga’
6. ‘Old Habits’
7. ‘Dinosaur’
8. ‘The Blues Man’
9. ‘Texas Women’
10. ‘Dixie On My Mind’
11. ‘All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)’
12. ‘A Country Boy Can Survive’
13. ‘If Heaven Ain’t a Lot Like Dixie’
14. ‘The Conversation’
15. ‘All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight’
16. ‘Country State of Mind’
17. ‘Born to Boogie’
18. ‘If the South Woulda Won’
19. ‘There’s a Tear in My Beer’ (with Hank Williams)
20. ‘Red, White, and Pink-Slip Blues’
21. ‘Bartender Song (Sittin’ at the Bar)’ (with Rehab)
22. ‘All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming for Monday Night Football’

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Courtesy of Monarch Publicity

Craig Morgan has always enjoyed using his star power to do good deeds for others, so it came as no surprise that the singer made a generous donation to the music department of a local Tennessee school this week.

Tuesday morning (Feb. 21), Morgan delivered 15 new Dean acoustic guitars to Dickson Middle School, which is located an hour west of Nashville. While dropping off the gorgeous instruments, Morgan spent some time talking with Mr. Elston’s 8th grade class about the importance of music and the ways it has shaped his life and career. Morgan also treated the students to an impromptu guitar lesson, and even showed the class how ‘easy’ songwriting can be by hashing out a quick ditty with the students.

“Music has always been such an important part of my life,” says Morgan in a press release. “I’m happy to give back so that others can share in that experience.”

Those who were not included in Morgan’s special musical treat won’t have to wait too much longer for new music from the star, as his new album ‘This Ole Boy’ hits stores next week (Feb. 28). The album’s lead single is the title track, which was penned by Nashville’s hottest writing team, the Peach Pickers — Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip.

Source: TasteofCountry.com