Gary Allan is on track to score his first #1 album on the overall Billboard 200 chart next week with Set You Free. Billboard cites industry insiders estimating the new project will sell between 80,000 and 90,000 copies in its first week. That number is driven by Gary’s latest hit, “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain).” The new chart will be revealed on Wednesday.

Gary has previously scored four top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 including his latest release, 2010’s Get Off on the Pain. Gary has been releasing music since 1996.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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Toby Keith is the latest star to unveil his own signature guitar.  Toby teamed with Takamine to develop the acoustic guitar to his exact specifications.  The instrument also features a silhouette of Toby on the headstock and his signature on the heel cap.  The model number is the EF250TK, and you can find out how to get your hands on one at Takamine.com.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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Grammy nominees Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert have been announced as performers at next month’s Grammy Awards, but the two will actually be performing together.

According to the Recording Academy, Dierks and Miranda will team up to deliver a “special” performance on the telecast, which airs February 10 on CBS.  This year, Miranda is up for Best Country Album for Four the Record, while Dierks is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance for “Home.”

Dierks is honored to represent country music on this year’s show. He says, “I feel like if someone’s going to represent it on something like that, I’d love to be the guy to do it. I feel like I know the history of it really well and respect it, that history and then trying to take it somewhere new at the same time.”

Carrie Underwood has also been announced as a performer on the show, as has Taylor Swift.  Taylor’s pal Ed Sheeran, with whom she duets on her current album Red, will also take the stage during the broadcast, in a special performance with Elton John.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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(AP) – This year is a special one for Lee Greenwood. He’s marking the 30th anniversary of “God Bless The U.S.A.” Greenwood wrote the song in 1983 in response to Russian authorities mistaking a Korean jet on its way from New York to Seoul for a spy plane and shooting it down with 269 passengers on board. Since then, it’s become an anthem during the Gulf War, after 9/11, during the Iraq War and after Hurricane Katrina. Greenwood says the song came so easily, it nearly wrote itself.

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Brantley Gilbert had quite a rock in his pocket when he proposed to fiancé Jana Kramer Sunday on the stage of Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.  

According to People, Brantley worked with Giador Fine Jewelry in Music City to design the custom five-carat diamond ring for Jana.  She says, “I’m in love with it.  I can’t stop looking at it!”

The diamond is round-cut and set in white gold with diamonds embedded in the band.  Brantley and Jana have been dating for about a year now.  No wedding date has been announced yet.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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Thou Shalt Not Lie 
 
       A minister was walking down the street when he came upon a group of about a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age.
      
      The group had surrounded a dog. Concerned lest the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked “What are you doing with that dog?”
      
      One of the boys replied, “This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we’ve decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog.”
      
      Of course, the reverend was taken aback. “You boys shouldn’t be having a contest telling lies!” he exclaimed. He then launched into a ten minute sermon against lying, beginning, “Don’t you boys know it’s a sin to lie,” and ending with, “Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie.”
      
      There was dead silence for about a minute.� Just as the reverend was beginning to think he’d gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, “All right, give him the dog.”

Miranda Lambert is an extremely vocal advocate for America’s shelter dogs, and now she’s teamed up with Pedigree to have an even bigger impact with the Pedigree Feeding Project. The initiative supplies pet shelters with 100 percent of their dog food needs at no cost. It’s already proven to be a big success in Nashville and Chicago, and now Miranda is asking people to nominate their community at Facebook.com/Pedigree to be the next city to benefit from the project.

Miranda says, “I’m amazed every day by the unconditional love I receive from all of my adopted dogs. That’s why it means so much to me to partner with Pedigree, a brand that truly believes in finding dogs loving homes as much as I do.”

Shelters benefiting from the Pedigree Feeding Project are able to redirect the money they would have spent on dog food to expanding their pet adoption programs.  The program also allows the shelters to make their facilities more like a home so the pets will be ready transition to life with a family when they are adopted.

The next communities to benefit from the Pedigree Feeding Project will be announced later this year.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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A pair of real-life country stars are invading the fictional world of ABC’s Nashville Wednesday night.  Brantley Gilbert and Chris Young guest star as themselves in a party scene on the show alongside Hayden Panettiere‘s character, country star Juliette Barnes.

Before taking on the acting role, Brantley consulted with his personal acting coach – – fiancé Jana Kramer. She starred in TV’s One Tree Hill before launching her country career, and Brantley says with a laugh, “She definitely had some pointers but, you know, the part was playing myself so it wasn’t all that hard.”

Brantley didn’t take his part on the show lightly though, and he came in well-prepared.

“You’ve got to get it right the first time around,” Brantley says. “They gotta reset every time you screw up, so thankfully I didn’t screw up.”

Like any video or TV shoot, Brantley and Chris had a lot of downtime on the Nashville set, but the guys took the opportunity to really bond over their music.

Says Brantley, “We had plenty of time to talk and get to know each other and even talked about getting together on a song sometime in the near future.”

The episode of Nashville featuring Brantley and Chris airs Wednesday night at 10 Eastern time on ABC.

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