Keith Urban performs before the Daytona 500.

Credit: (AP Photo/J Pat Carter

Sugarland, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban will pay tribute to the King of Country, George Strait, who has been named the Academy of Country Music's artist of the decade.

Faith Hill, Toby Keith and Tim McGraw will also be part of the April 6 taping at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena, the show will air later this spring on CBS.

The artist of the decade has previously been presented as part of the Academy of Country Music Awards. This year marks the first time the award has been broken out into its own special. Previous artist of the decade honorees, who will also be feted in some fashion during Strait's special, are Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Alabama and Garth Brooks.

I interviewed Strait about the honor for M, the in-room magazine for the MGM Mirage hotel chain. He told me this honor stands apart from others he's received: "Well, the fact that it covers a whole decade is pretty special," Strait says. "It validates all of the work you've put into your records, concerts, and all of the other things that go into a music career. Knowing that you're being given this honor out of all of the other artists that are working just as hard, trying to make the very best music you can make for
the fans out there. It's pretty sweet."

There's a reason Strait has been one of country music's leading superstars for more than 25 years and has scored an astonishing 56 No. 1 songs (that's more than any artist on any chart): he has never forgotten his fans. He told M, "I've had an unbelievable career in country music and have been blessed
beyond my wildest expectations and dreams. My fans are the most loyal fans in the world. The best! Period. A lot of them who started coming to see my shows years ago are still coming today and now some of them are even bringing their kids with them. It just doesn't get any better than that. I love singing country music and to just still be a part of it at this level for so long is one big highlight in itself."

Tickets to the taping are available to the public through Ticketmaster and benefit the Academy of Country Music Charitable Fund.

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Joe Elliott of the rock group Def Leppard performs during the May, 2006 VH1 Rock Honors concert in Las Vegas.

Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Set the Wayback Machine to 1989. Def Leppard, Cheap Trick and Poison are headed out on a summer tour. Snicker all you want, we bet it sells tickets. Business is big for these acts because fans know they will hear hit after hit after hit. In these recessionary times, shows like this tend to be very competitively priced and are the biggest mystery is will Def Lep play "Pour Some Sugar On Me" in the main set or as an encore.

We saw it last year with Journey's tour, which, even though it was with a new lead singer who didn't sing on any of their classic hits, sold some of the biggest numbers in the band's career-or certainly since its hey day. There's power in provoking people's memories of a happier, easier time and acts like Def Leppard, Cheap Trick and Poison are selling that in spades. The 40-date tour starts June 23 in Camden, N.J. Tickets go on sale March 6.

We don't know what the tickets for the Def Lep tour cost, but we guarantee they can't be as cheap as the tickets for the Styx/REO Speedwagon/ 38 Special tour. Unbelievably, tickets in most markets are as low as $13.50 in most markets. Presented by VH1 Classic and Rock Band, the outing has been dubbed the "Rock ‘n Roll Stimulus Package." You almost can't afford not to go.

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Sugarland performing at the Grammy Awards earlier this month.

Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Hotter than hot country duo Sugarland starts a new leg of its Love on the Inside tour April 10 in the pair's hometown of Atlanta. The arena tour runs through Oct. 2, ending at the Eastern States Expo, in West Springfield, Mass.

It looks like there are quite a few country headliners hitting arenas or larger this summer, which is a great sign. Taylor Swift will be out, as will Rascal Flatts (other folks have reporting that RF's tour will include stadiums, which is really ambitious). We keep beating this drum, but if tickets are priced smartly and the acts are spread far enough apart in terms of routing so they're not coming through the same city the same month, they should be fine. People feel they are cutting back so severely now, but they still want to treat themselves and a night of good music can be perfect it it's priced right.

Interestingly, Sugarland is looking beyond country for openers on the tour. That makes sense since their popularity is expanding far beyond traditional country fans. Country artists Billy Currington and Jake Owen will appear on some dates, whereas adult alternative singer/songwriters Matt Nathanson and Eric Hutchinson will support on other shows.

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Kid Rock will appear at the Stagecoach Music Festival which runs April 25-26.

Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles

Get on your boots, as U2 sings. There's traveling to be done to hit some of the upcoming festivals. A lot are still holding back on announcing their lineups, and, sadly, some, like the Langerado Festival, cancelled outright this year. You can start with Coachella, which, as we've previously reported, is April 17-19 at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif. Top acts include Paul McCartney, TV on the Radio, Morrissey, Amy Winehouse, Leonard Cohen and the Cure. Then hang out in Cali until the next weekend, for Stagecoach, at the same site, April 25-26. Headliners are Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire, Kid Rock and Miranda Lambert.

Rest until Bonnaroo, which takes place June 11-14 in Manchester, Tenn. Headliners include Bruce Springsteen and a reunited Phish, who are performing both Friday and Sunday nights.

But today brings the announcement that three more festivals will continue this year, so mark your calendars.

They'll be jamming at the fifth annual Wanee Festival, June 5-6 in Live Oak, Fla. with headliners Allman Bros. Band, Drive-By Truckers, Derek Trucks Band, Gov't Mule, Doobie Bros., Little Feat, the Wailers and more. Snarky indie rockers unite for the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival will take place in Chicago's Union Park, July 17-19. Tickets go on sale March 13, by which time we're hoping they've announced some of the line up. Past performers include Vampire Weekend, Hold Steady, the Decemberists, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Spoon and Public Enemy.

Three weeks later, the much larger, and much more mainstream Lollapalooza will take place in Chicago's Grant Park. That line-up is also still top secret, but last year's headers included Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails.

New Orleans' Voodoo Experience will take place Oct. 30-Nov. 1. No announcement of headliners yet, but last year's event featured Lil Wayne, Nine inch Nails, REM and Stone Temple Pilots.Want more music news and analysis?

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Jack Ingram

Credit: Jim Cooper/AP

(I'm so inspired by my colleague Drew's ambitious rollout of new features that I'm debuting one of my own: Welcome to the inaugural "Ten Minutes With....," an occasional interview with someone in music that I spend 10 minutes with and then present an almost verbatim transcript of the conversation. Up first, country singer Jack Ingram).

Jack Ingram comes from the great Texas tradition of singer/songwriters. There's no area that breeds then like the Lone Star State-from Bob Wills to Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen and Rodney Crowell, the list goes on and on.

It was from the same fertile soil that Houston-born Ingram sprouted. He toiled around Texas, cultivating an audience who adored his storytelling and fresh, yet knowing voice.

He signed with Big Machine in 2005, the label best known now as the home to Taylor Swift. As successful as Swift is, Ingram holds one distinction she will never claim: he scored Big Machine's first No. 1 with "Wherever You Are." Several more top 20 hits followed, including a remake of Hinder's "Lips of an Angel. " "That's a Man," the first single from his new album, "Big Dreams, High Hopes," is already shaping up as another big hit for Ingram.

The singer performed an intimate, acoustic showcase at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in Beverly Hills yesterday for press, retail and radio, where he previewed a number of new songs from this summer's release. Afterwards, Hitfix chatted with him before he left to go do what singer/songwriters do: catch a flight to San Jose for a show that night.

Q: You talked on stage about why drives a performer to fly around the world, hoping for applause. It's a hard life, why do you do it?

A: Most people who do this start at an early age and they really have no idea what that need is-to be in front of people-that performance thing. I mean, this one common thread through most performing artists that I know, of any field of art, is they're a little bit wacky.

Q: Yes, but it's encouraged in artists, not in the rest of us.

A: You bring up a good point. The reason why I studied psychology in school and studied songwriting in the school of the world, I guess, is that I am continually interested in why we're all so screwed up.

Q: Have you come up with an answer yet?

A: No, but there's something very satisfying in asking the questions and letting other people know that I'm asking the questions.

Justin Timberlake

Credit: Tim DeCrow/AP

Justin Timberlake will join Jimmy Fallon on the comedian's premiere episode of  "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," next Monday, March 2. He jolns Robert DeNiro and Van Morrison for the first night. Man... it's going to be hard to top that one, won't it?

Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack  notes  that Fallon and Timberlake famously teamed to appear as two-thirds of  the Bee Gees when Timberlake hosted "Saturday Night Live."  Other music guest slated for Fallon's  first week include New York indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Santigold.

Kevin Rudolph

Credit: Matt York/AP

We have a confession to make: the first time we heard Kevin Rudolf's "Let It Rock," we thought it was the Jonas Bros. until we heard Lil Wayne's rap in the middle AND heard the line "make you come....alive." We didn't think boys recording for Disney and wearing purity rings would utter that line.

It's one of the catchiest singles of the year, as far as we're concerned (and, we have no idea if this is true, but has been played 77 million times on his myspace page. Is that even possible? ) The rest of his debut album, ‘In the City," has some other great cuts on it too (We're partial to "Scarred") . We have no idea how he'll develop as an artist, but it's an audacious start.

Rudolf is now heading out on his first headlining tour, which is pretty bold given that he's basically got one single to his credit. The Let It Rock tour (naturally) also features Hyper Crush, Cash Cash, the Audition and Go Crash Audio. The tour starts April 3 in Nashville and is promoted by Live Nation.

For a complete list of dates , check Forecast.

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Taylor Swift

Credit: Matt Sayles/AP

An Open Letter to Taylor Swift:

Dear Taylor,

For the love of God, make it stop! Please let someone else have a run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. I have nothing against you personally. I've interviewed you twice and you've been very lovely and incredibly poised. To be fair, you've been incredibly gracious about ceding the throne every so often to other artists like Bruce Springsteen, which showed respect for your elders, and the Fray, which displayed your ability to play well with others.

However, this week marks your TENTH non-consecutive week at No. 1. This means, according to Billboard, the last time an album spent more weeks at No. 1 was ten years ago when Santana's "Supernatural" spent 12 weeks at No. 1.

Here's the thing: we know for sure that you won't be No. 1 for the next two weeks: Jonas Bros. (oops, we hope they're not a sore spot since your break-up with Joe) will knock you out next week with their concert CD, then U2 will come in at No. 1. The question is will you bounce back up as you have so many times before?

While you're reading this, we'll sure you'll want to congratulate other artists who had successful debuts on this week's chart, although we imagine Charlie Wilson is pretty pissed at you. He came in at No. 2 with "Uncle Charlie," selling only 4,000 fewer copies than you. That's close enough to hurt a little since he likely won't get another shot at the brass ring with this CD.

Last week, we predicted that Morrissey's "Years of Refusal" would debut in the Top 10 and we just missed it. He comes in at No. 11.
As Billboard notes, many albums go up on the chart, despite a decrease in sales. That's a normal occurrence after a big event that boosts sales-in this case, we have both the Grammy Awards and Valentine's Day in the same week. For example, Nickelback leaps from No. 11 to No. 4, but actually drops in the number of units sold.

One of the few artists who sees a jump in album sales is Lady Gaga, which means after digitally downloading "Just Dance," and the rising success of "Pokerface," people are deciding to invest in the whole CD. She moves to No. 10 as her sales rise 11% over last week.

Taylor, thanks for reading. We hope you enjoy your week at No. 1. Is this a good time to hit you up for tickets to your Los Angeles show at Staples Center that sold out in two minutes? You'll get back to us on that, right?

Cheers,
Melinda

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Chris Martin and Coldplay will be playing the Aussie Benefits concert for victims of the massive fires earlier this month.

Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Help from all quarters of the world is coming to Australia to raise money for victims of the massive bushfire and flood devastation that has hit Eastern portions of the country.

Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Jack Johnson and a reunited Midnight Oil and Split Enz will play the March 14 concerts that will take place simultaneously in Melbourne and Sydney.

The benefits, billed Sound Relief, were announced todayat the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the sites of the shows, according to Billboard.

lead the star-studded line-up for Australia's March 14 bushfire and flood benefit concerts, to be held simultaneously in Sydney and Melbourne under the Sound Relief tag-line. The other concert will take place at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Appearing in Melbourne will be Midnight Oil, whose leader Peter Garrett is now Australia's minister for the environment,  Kings of Leon,  Johnson and Gabriella Cilmi.

Sydney's headliners include Coldplay, performing an acoustic set, as well as the Presets and Icehouse.

Wolfmother and Jet will play both events.

Tickets, on sale March 4, are around $50 dollars (U.S.)

Proceeds will go to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal and Premier's Disaster Relief Fund Appeal.

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Franz Ferdinand join Duffy, Estelle and Beck on the benefit compilation album "War Child Presents Heroes."

Credit: AP Photo/Joel Ryan

Today's big CD release is "Music from the 3D Concert Experience," the soundtrack to the Jonas Bros. movie, which opens in theaters this Friday. It's a lock to come in at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart that comes out next Wednesday. Other releases of note include new albums from Lamb of God, Chris Isaak, Company of Thieves, B-Real and Green River Ordinance.

However, we consider the most interesting release out today to be "War Child Presents Heroes." Big names such as Beck, Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand, Duffy, Estelle and TV on the Radio remake songs from legendary artists such as The Clash, Bob Dylan, U2, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen at the request of the superstar. Can you imagine if you're Duffy and Paul McCartney picks you to remake "Live and Let Die?" I'd love to hear that phone call, if it ever took place. More likely, his people called her people or the label served as the intermediary. A portion of the proceeds from album sales goes to War Child, a humanitarian organization which provides assistance to children affected by war. According to War Child, 66% of all casualties of war are children.

As is always the case with these hodge podge collections, some entries fare better than others. In some cases, the artists go for slavish re-creation instead of reinvention: for example, The Hold Steady's remake of Springsteen's "Atlantic City" sounds like any cover band paying tribute to their idol, same with Franz Ferdinand's fairly faithful rendering of Blondie's "Call Me." In other cases, the original is so strong that the acolyte's version pales in comparison. Estelle's mannered cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition."

The more interesting takes are when the artist taking on the original has a compelling voice or version of his or her own. For example, Duffy's cover of "Live and Let Die" takes the song in a sultry direction, rather than follows McCartney's bombastic original. It more resembles how Shirley Bassey would have sung "Live & Let Die" if that had been her James Bond theme instead of "Goldfinger." Similarly, Scissor Sissors completely reinvent Roxy Music's "Do the Strand." In other cases, the artist takes the original and adds their own twist: Rufus Wainwright's dramatic voice compliments his medley of songs from Brian Wilson's ‘Smile" beautifully. Wilson's orchestrations (aided by Van Dyke Parks) are so lush and beautiful and Wainwright's mellifluous voice floats beautifully on top of them. It's hard to think of many people who can take on Iggy Pop, but the outrageous Peaches does him proud on "Search and Destroy." TV on the Radio's rhythmic take on Bowie's "Heroes" is growing on us... a lot.

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