Patsi Bale Cox Passes Away; Dolly on Ice; New Music Videos

• Music journalist Patsi Bale Cox passed away at the age of 66. She was credited with books on Loretta Lynn, Wynonna Judd, Ralph Emery, George Jones and more.

• A benefit concert being held by George Jones will fund the construction of a memorial in honor of country music star Tammy Wynette in Mississippi. It will include a walk-through replica of her childhood home.

• The Daily Comet in Louisiana catches up with longtime country songwriter Kent Westberry, who is enjoying retirement.

• Details are emerging on the new Faith Hill song that will premier at Wednesday night’s CMA Awards show. The new single will be called “Come Home” and it is a cover of a OneRepublic song. You can listen to the original version here.

• The always innovative Dolly Parton will be opening her very first ice-skating show this holiday season inside her theme park, Dollywood. It’ll be called “Christmas on Ice” and star six singers and a cast of professional ice skaters.

• Willie Nelson has had to cancel multiple shows due to an undisclosed illness.

• The songwriting on Miranda Lambert’s newest, Four the Record, is receiving pretty universal critical acclaim. Look no further than this performance by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to see and hear what drew Lambert to “Look at Miss Ohio.”

• Nearly a year after it hit Number One on the country charts, The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young” hit Number One on the Billboard Nielsen/BDS Adult Contemporary Chart.

• And more The Band Perry news. Each week, Billboard Magazine has a music act from one genre cover a song from another genre. This last week’s cover was The Band Perry doing Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.” 

• Valory Music Group has signed the son of singer/songwriter Rhett Akins, Thomas Rhett, to a music deal. He recently had a cut on Jason Aldean’s latest album called “I Ain’t Ready to Quit.”

• Grilled cheese inspires Alison Krauss.

• Valley Voice, a small hometown newspaper from Visalia, CA did a feature on Jean Shepard’s upbringing in the farming valley.

• Former SteelDrivers frontman Chris Stapleton has formed a Southern rock band called the Jompson Brothers.

• Manitoban folk/bluegrass group Oh My Darlings not only have a new album coming out this week called Sweet Nostalgia, a local brewer has made a beer in their honor called Sweet Nostalgi-Ale.

• Check out this cool, award-winning Grand Ole Opry Vidalia onion grocery store display.

• Dierks Bentley is a feature interview in this week’s Parade Magazine. On the Grand Ole Opry, “Country music is always changing but the Opry is always there to serve as a lighthouse for what country music really is. The past, present and future is all encompassed by not only the physical structure of the building but also the radio show. It always has been that thing that people have looked to for what is country music. The legends, the up and comers. When you go to the Opry for a show or hear it on the radio, you get the whole circle of country music.”

• LeAnn Rimes and Crystal Bowersox raised some money for the ACM Lifting Lives charity effort.

• Butter and Vinny, better known as Trailer Choir, have a new single out called “Love Me First.” You can listen to it here.

• Abigail Washburn and the Village will embark on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour in China in an effort to build cultural bridges by collaborating with local musicians.

• Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott is the cover girl of this month’s Redbook.

• It’s been a century for Roy Rogers. Taste of Country talked with Roy “Dusty” Rogers, Jr. on what would have been his father’s 100^th birthday.

• Brad Paisley was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart talking about his new book, Diary of a Player. Paisley also revealed that he was pulled over recently for a suspected DUI. He was only suffering from an ice cream sugar high.

• Billy Dean is joining Kenny Rogers out on a Christmas tour.  Vince Gill and Amy Grant are doing one together as well.

• New music videos from the past week with a handful of live performances as well:

Shane Nicholson – “Jimmie Rodgers Was a Vampire”

Miranda Lambert — “Baggage Claim” (Live on Regis & Kelly) 

Bob Schneider – “Honeypot”

Jason Michael Carroll – “Meet Me in the Barn”

Granger Smith – “Colorblind”

LeAnn Rimes – “The Bottle Let Me Down”

Carrie Rodriguez – “I Cry for Love” (Music Fog)

Guy Clark – “My Favorite Picture of You” (Music Fog)

Jeff Bridges — “Everything But Love”

Luke Dickens – “True Love Never Dies”

LiveWire – “Tater Fed”

Sarah Jarosz – “Broussard’s Lament”

High Valley — “On the Combine”