Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter to Perform at CMA Awards; Audie Blaylock & Redline Will Perform Free Show; New Song From Gretchen Peters and Rodney Crowell

• Gillian Welch and David Rawlings stopped by Good Day L.A. to play a couple songs.

• Scotty McCreery debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Top Country Albums charts with Clear As Day, making him the youngest male in history to open at the top of the all-genre chart with a debut release.

• Americana acts are popping up on the mainstream radar, reports Jewly Hight in the Nashville Scene.

• Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter will perform “You and Tequila” at the CMA Awards this November.

• The Civil Wars were profiled in the Tennessean. Joy Williams, one half of the duo, on their fanbase: “I think that people love to discover music, and feel as though they’re one of the few that have stumbled across it,” she says. “Because we don’t have a marketing team with billboards and commercials, and it’s not a neon sign type of thing that we do, people get the chance to hear from friends, catch it on YouTube or stumble across it in other ways that make them feel invested. In turn, that makes John Paul and I that much more grateful, because our goal is to build lifelong relationships with listeners.”

• In fake news, the newest member of Rascal Flatts is none other than Hank Williams.

• Today, Beliefnet premiered “Dark Angel,” a duet with Rodney Crowell on Gretchen Peters’ upcoming album Hello Cruel World.

• Farce the Music analyzes Hank Jr.’s “Keep the Change.”

• Miranda Lambert has teamed up with iPhone photo app Hipstamatic for a contest in which people can enter to win an autographed guitar.

• Chris Stuart at Bluegrass Today thinks up some helpful bluegrass subgenres that bands can use to define their sound, like “Melodic Death Dobro.”

• Check out video of a SoundLand performance from Justin Townes Earle.

• Mineral, Virginia, the small town that was the epicenter of the August earthquake that affected the Mid-Atlantic area, won an Alan Jackson concert.

• Peter Cooper on Kenny Vaughan and his musical “multiple personality thing.”

• Cooper also chats with singer-songwriter Jon Byrd.

• Tim McGraw will be honored with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Applause Award for his “artistic achievements in music and film.”

• Audie Blaylock and Redline will play a free concert on November 3 at the Carter Family Fold. The show is sponsored by Bristol Virginia Utilities.

• Take a sneak peek at The Gathering, a folk and oldtime-influenced Christmas album featuring Carolina Chocolate Drop Rhiannon Giddens, Joe Newberry, Mike Compton, and more.

The Gathering. Laurelyn Dossett, Rhiannon Giddens, Mike Compton, Joe Newberry and Jason Sypher from Laurelyn Dossett on Vimeo.