Brad Paisley to Play White House Lawn; New Rodney Hayden Record Planned for October; Album Releases

• Andy Griffith passed away at the age of 86. Here he is picking a few on (with a couple impressive backing bands) The Andy Griffith Show.

• WAMU’s Bluegrass Country is remembering Tom “Cat” Reeder at noon Eastern today – the program will be rebroadcast at 9 p.m. on WAMU 88.5 (folks outside of the DC area can listen here.) Artists sharing their memories of Reeder will include Connie Smith, Bill Anderson, Eddie Stubbs, and Bobby Osborne.

• The Singles Jukebox writers tackled the new Hank Jr.-Brad Paisley collaboration: Over the course of his 48 years in the business, Williams has gone from eerie imitation to wrangling with legacy to stepping out, and now he’s back to an achingly obsessive curation. 

• This month’s free Trail Mix from Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine features songs from MilkDrive, Billy Joe Shaver, Ron Block, and more.

• In baby news, Rachel Proctor and Joy Williams (The Civil Wars) both welcomed wee ones recently.

• Josh Thompson is July’s NRA Country Artist of the Month.

• GAC is counting down the top country mullets. And also the top patriotic country songs.

• Watch JD McPherson tear it up on NPR’s music blog.

• Bonnie Raitt’s Slipstream is available for $1.99 on Amazon today.

• This morning, Rodney Hayden tweeted: New album will be released in October it looks like. Features a duet w @KellyWRobison & co-writes with people w the last name of Strait.

• Tomorrow night, Brad Paisley will play a USO show on the White House South Lawn. It can be streamed on the White House web site starting at 8:10 p.m. Eastern.

• Check out “Don’t Change Your Plans,” a new song from Mic Harrison and The High Scores.

• There’s a free JD Souther EP available for download on NoiseTrade.

• Kelly Dearmore and a panel that includes Pat Green and Drew Kennedy chose the Top 15 Red Dirt songs of the past 15 years.

• Trailer Photoshopped a few album covers for Farce the Music’s Country Day.

• Sonny James is #51 on Country Universe’s 100 Greatest Men countdown.

• Diana Krall has teamed up with T Bone Burnett for a new album. Glad Rag Doll finds Krall reimagining “classic songs for the 21st century.”

• Rhonda Vincent is this month’s Spotlight Artist over at My Kind of Country.

• Terry Paul Roland of Turnstyled Junkpiled interviewed Americana singer-songwriter Melody Walker.

• Here’s an interesting Tennessean feature on the Nashville Symphony, which has collaborated with artists like Bela Fleck and Randy Travis, among others.

• This week’s album releases:

Keller Williams with The Travelin’ McCourys – Pick

Mic Harrison & The High Score – Still Wanna Fight

Lonesome River Band – Chronology, Vol. 2

Jeremy Fisher – Mint Juleps 

Johnny Hickman – Tilting

The Grateful Dead – The Grateful Dead Movie (2-DVD set)