Crooked Still to Release Anniversary EP; Dierks Says No to Trump; New Music Videos

• A Ball State college student became the sixth fatality in the Indiana State Fair stage collapse right before Sugarland was to take the stage. Jennifer Haskell had been hospitalized for severe head injuries. Her best friend was one of the other five fatalities. A roof center plug might be to blame for making the tarp act like a sail, bringing down the entire stage.

• Jeff Bridges just might have another gig.

• Connie Smith is the subject of Peter Cooper’s most recent Tennessean piece, which includes a pretty excellent story about Smith’s first flight to Nashville: [W]aiting for [Bill] Anderson to pick her up and take her to the Opry, she saw a cop ticketing a convertible. Then she saw the convertible owner charm his way out of the ticket. “The guy whose car it was turned around, winked at me and drove off, and that was the first time I saw Marty Robbins,” she said.

• The HBO vampire series True Blood featured Taylor Swift’s “Haunted” during last night’s episode.

• Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson, the boys of Love and Theft, have a new home at RCA Nashville. The former trio became a duo following Brian Bandas’ departure just after Lyric Street Records closed. They also have a Bryan White co-write on their upcoming album.

• Crystal Shawanda, from the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Tribe in Canada, has a new single at country radio called “Love Enough.” You can stream it here.

• Whitney Duncan will be joining the next cast of Survivor: South Pacific. “My family thinks I’m absolutely nuts,” Duncan says. “I just love adventure. I am the one to do crazy things in my family.”

• Chely Wright got hitched this weekend.

• The bluegrass band Crooked Still will be releasing a new seven song EP on October 25^th called Friends of Fall to celebrate the band’s ten-year anniversary.

• Big & Rich are…uh… just like John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

• Check out this cool video of 18 hours of a Charlie Daniels Band concert condensed to one minute.

• Dierks Bentley has passed on appearing on Celebrity Apprentice.

• Season 7 American Idol contestant and folksinger Brooke White is following up her 2009 release of High Hopes and Heartbreak with a brand new folk-pop duo release under the band name Jack and White. Listen to their first single, “Gemini.”

• Uncle Kracker’s new album is indescribable.

• Late last week, Maroon 5 and Train were in Nashville performing at Bridgestone Arena when Martina McBride joined Train lead singer Pat Monahan for a duet of “Broken Wing.”

• GAC has named the top 50 videos of the 90s and Garth Brooks’ “The Dance” has taken the Number One slot. Is your favorite on there?

• Last month, Engine 145 had a concert review on an event inside the Cumberland Caverns called Bluegrass Underground. PBS has had film crews inside the cave for many of the shows over the last two years and will begin featuring the performances next month in a television series with the same name. (Actual times vary by PBS station, but most will be airing the first episode on Tuesday, September 13^th—set your DVR.) Artists scheduled to appear in this first season include Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Darrell Scott, 18 South, Mike Farris and The McCrary Sisters, Cherryholmes, Mountain Heart, John Cowan, and The Farewell Drifters.

• Last Thursday Tammy Wynette got a marker on the Mississippi Country Music Trail not far from where she was born.

• Last Monday’s news round-up had news of Jypsi coming to an end. This Monday, Jypsi member Lillie Mae Rische pops up in a brand new video in a duet with Kenneth Brian of the Kenneth Brian Band.

• If Blake Shelton was also playing with Billy Currington, Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen at the end of October, he could sing, “Kiss My Country Bass.”

• New (or new to you) music videos with a couple of cool live performances for good measure:

The Stellas — “Perfect”

Jeff Bridges — “What a Little Bit of Love Can Do”

Lindsay Bruce — “Stupid and Seventeen”

Colton James — “Date with Dixie”

Jessie Farrell — “Turn You Down”

Lucinda Williams — “Copenhagen”

Jake Clayton — “Kickin’ Up Dust”

Musikanto — “Every Which Way”

Corey Colum — “West Australian Woman”

Brett Eldredge — “Thirsty”

Wagons — “Willie Nelson” (Music Fog Live Performance)

The Trishas — “Why” (Music Fog Live Performance)

Joy Kills Sorrow — “Reservations”

Gabe Dixon — “My Favorite”

Keith Urban — “Long Hot Summer”

Haroula Rose — “Love Will Follow”

The Band Perry — “All Your Life”

Jimmy Rankin — The XM Sessions

Jeff Bridges — “Everything But Love” (studio)