Stream New Junior Brown Song; JD Crowe to Receive Honorary Doctorate; Album Releases

• Matraca Berg’s new album, Love’s Truck Stop, is getting good reviews across the pond.

• The second annual Red River Songwriters Festival will be held January 24-26 in Red River, New Mexico. Artists scheduled to perform include Ray Wylie Hubbard, Walt Wilkins, Drew Kennedy, and more.

• Listen to new Junior Brown song, “Hang Up and Drive.”

• Dolly Parton has experienced a “boost in finances” following Whitney Houston’s death and the subsequent mass downloading of “I Will Always Love You.” Parton would also be open to being a judge on The Voice, she tells the Daily Star.

• Bill Anderson’s tour bus had a run-in with a moose over the weekend. Anderson and the band are fine; the moose, not so much.

• In December, JD Crowe will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Kentucky.

• Kathleen Edwards’ name for an all-lady, all-Canadian band: Modern Beaver.

• Steep Canyon Rangers share five unexpected career twists.

• There’s some Steve Forbert music available for download on NoiseTrade.

• Here’s a new Quotable Country.

• Jamey Johnson announced November and December tour dates.

• Cuts from Loretta Lynn, Mel McDaniel, and Richard Thompson made The A.V. Club’s list of “18 Songs About Awkward Sexual Encounters.”

• Vince Gill, The Oak Ridge Boys, and others celebrated Minnie Pearl’s legacy.

• Paste photographers shadowed Ryan Bingham for a night.

• Taylor Swift talks with CMT’s Craig Shelburne about her new album, Red.

• Also, being Taylor Swift’s psychic sounds like an easy gig. From Radar Online: Taylor was warned by her psychic…that she was about to be hurt and really disappointed by someone close in her life.

• Listen to “Walking Through Bethlehem” from the forthcoming Daughters of Bluegrass three-disc box set.

• Mikael Wood of the LA Times reviewed Brad Paisley’s show at the Hollywood Bowl.

• Holly Gleason wrote about the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on No Depression.

• In December, GAC will air a Lady Antebellum holiday concert.

• Brandi Carlile played “Keep Your Heart Young” for CMT Edge.

• Carlile, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucinda Williams, Old Crow Medicine Show, and more will appear on a John Denver tribute record that’s due to be released in February.

• Connie Gately of Connie & Babe and The Backwoods Boys passed away earlier this month.

• There was a recent NPR feature about Big Joe Turner.

• This week’s album releases:

Taylor Swift – Red

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson – Wreck and Ruin

Gary Clark, Jr. – Blak and Blu

Sweethearts of the Rodeo – Restless

Billy Ray Cyrus – Change My Mind

Donna Ulisse – All the Way to Bethlehem

Sammy Kershaw – A Sammy Klaus Christmas

Lady Antebellum – On This Winter’s Night

Elizabeth Mitchell & You Are My Flower – Blue Clouds