Tracklisting Finalized for New George Strait Album; Free Compilation Record to Support Public Radio; Jean Shepard on a Boat

• Rolling Stone announces that an album of Hank Williams’ lyrics and unfinished songs (which were found in a briefcase after Williams’ death) will be released on October 4. Bob Dylan, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, and Norah Jones are just a few of the artists tasked with recording those songs.

• Taylor Swift hit up the Lincoln Memorial after one of her DC shows.

• Check out the track list for George Strait’s 39^th album Here for a Good Time (due out September 6). Songwriters include Strait, son Bubba, Dean Dillon, Chris Stapleton, and more.

Love’s Gonna Make it Alright
Drinkin’ Man
Shame on Me
Poison
Here for a Good Time
House Across the Bay
Lone Star Blues
A Showman’s Life
Three Nails and a Cross
Blue Marlin Blues
I’ll Always Remember You

• A week later, on September 13, Steve Holy will be releasing his third album, Love Don’t Run, on Curb Records.

• William Elliott Whitmore, Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, and more are on the free Raise Your Voice! compilation in support of public radio.

• Peter Cooper on co-writing, “the single biggest change in the past half-century of commercial music in Nashville:” Somewhere in Nashville today, someone is sitting by herself in a sad mood, pouring her emotions into something that rhymes, crafting a melody that is as revealing as the words she writes, hoping that her personal experiences will become universal. She is hoping her own pain will be assuaged when her song is on the lips of the masses and at the top of the radio countdowns, like Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down” or Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart.” That person is either Taylor Swift or a fool.

• Chris Klimek of the Washington Post reviewed Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ recent Bethesda show (it was a doozy).

• Miranda Lambert added some new tour dates.

• The Bluegrass Blog salutes bluegrass heroes and workhorses like Norman Wright.

• Jamey Johnson supports family farms.

• A fantastic interview with Ashton Shepherd for American Songwriter.  An excerpt: “I’ve never sat down like intentionally thinking ‘I’m gonna write a song for the women.’ I’m writing a song about myself, and then I play it back or hear it and it sort of turns into everybody’s song. I’m writing it for myself not realizing that I’m not the only one that feels like this. And that sounds really weird, because it’s probably the exact reverse of when they hear it; they’re probably thinking ‘Wow, Ashton Shepherd feels like this. I’m not the only one that feels like this.’”

• The Carolina Chocolate Drops are auctioning off an autographed banjo. Proceeds go to The Center for the Study of the American South, a research center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• Brit chanteuse Adele going grassy?

• Jean Shepard, Jan Howard, Mandy Barnett, and more will take to the high seas on the Opry Country Classics Cruise in late January 2012. Arrrr!

• Actress (and former Opryland performer) Kristin Chenoweth talks with The Boot about her upcoming country album.

• Keith Urban on his US tour and Elmo’s godlike status in the Urban-Kidman household.

• Louis Armstrong was born on this day in 1901. Here’s an appearance on The Johnny Cash Show.