Taylor Swift on 60 Minutes; Canadian Country and Bluegrass; Music Videos

• Taylor Swift took home the most hardware (again) last night at the American Music Awards. She won for Favorite Country Female Artist, Favorite Country Album and then took home the night’s biggest prize with the all-genre Favorite Artist. Blake Shelton was Favorite Country Male Artist and Lady Antebellum was Favorite Country Duo/Group.

• Danny Gokey lost his RCA Nashville record deal on Friday of last week. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wonders if his heart was really ever in the country music genre.

• Another American Idol alum, Bucky Covington, released his first new single in two years to country music radio called “I Wanna Be That Feeling.”

• Country music haiku Eli Young Band-style.

• AARP named their 2012 AARP The Magazine Inspire Award recipients and Toby Keith was named along other luminaries as Steve Jobs.

• Miranda Lambert was on Jimmy Kimmel’s show and Chelsea Lately last week.

• 60 Minutes profiled Taylor Swift and talked extensively with her about her responsibilities as an artist to her millions of young fans. The young lady has a really good head on her shoulders.

• Jack Ingram did a video interview for Texas Music Scene and then performed a full-band performance of a brand new song called “Religiously.”

• A brand new book celebrating the wit of Dolly Parton has come out in time for the holidays. It’s called The Quotable Dolly: A Collection of Rich Sayings to Live, Laugh and Love By from the Country Music Legend.

• Eric Church has a book coming out, this one mostly photographs of his life on tour. He talks about the project in a video here.

• Ty Herndon has released his first single “Stones” off of his yet-to-be named album off his new FUNL music label. You can listen to it here.

• Josh Thompson’s new song “Comin’ Around” is the first single off of his upcoming sophomore album.

• Carters Chord unveiled a new video of “Wild Together,” performed in their living room.

• Steel Magnolia’s Joshua Scott Jones finished his rehab stint and is back with fiancee Meghan Linsey. Says Linsey, ““He completed his program.  I think it’s a real brave thing. He’s done really well and stuck it out and did the whole thing. He’s got some other commitments to fulfill as part of that, but I’m proud of him. I’ve just tried to support him, and the fans and the label have been super supportive.”

• Connie Smith and Marty Stuart did a performance of “Blue Heartaches” for Music Fog. It’s super cool.

• Vince Gill performed “The Old Lucky Diamond Motel” on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show last week. Gill’s performance is at the 38-minute mark here.

• Stream the new holiday single from Joey+Rory “Let it Snow (Somewhere Else).”

• Keller Williams has a brand new album called Bass coming out 12/13 with one of the coolest covers in a while.

• A new Canadian duo named BullRush just entered the Great North’s Top 50 with a song called “Mine.” They are the second coming of The Kinleys.

• Another Canadian band, the bluegrass trio The Good Lovelies, is celebrating the US release of their new album Let the Rain Fall. The band blends “elements of folk, bluegrass, Americana and swing, coupled with exquisite three-part vocal harmonies.”

• The Oak Ridge Boys’ Duane Allen was interviewed about their new project for Cracker Barrel: “And it has been a wonderful trip for me. I love my partners. I’ve sung with three of the greatest bass singers on earth. May Herman Harper and Noel Fox rest in peace. Richard Sterban is our bass singer now, and he probably has the most famous bass line in the whole world of music. Everybody has heard of “oom papa mow mow.” I’ve gotten to sing with two tenors and two different baritones. I’ve just started my 46^th year, and quite honestly I don’t know how long it’s going to last because I’m a very regimented person. I really get involved in the business side of the Oak Ridge Boys. I plan everything real simply – one, two, three step strategies of how to do everything. I don’t usually get above the third step because it’s easy to remember, and you never have a tie if you stop on three. I plan everything we do before we do it, and I plan about a year and a half ahead. I already have dates booked in 2013.”

• Music videos from the past week:

Blue Moon Rising – “My Sittin’ Window”

Casey Driessen – “The Heartbeat Kid”

Sherrie Austin & Shane Stevens – “Naughty or Nice”

Corey Smith – “Maybe Next Year”

Sting & Vince Gill – “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You”

Catherine Britt – “Sweet Emmylou”

Tracy Lawrence – “Lonely”

Dolly Parton – “The Sacrifice”

Danny Widdicombe – “No One Else”

Camille and Stuie – “Things Change”

Mustered Courage – Money Mouth”

Francesca Battistelli – “This is the Stuff”

Matthew Mayfield – “Fire Escape”