John Rich: Making local dreams come true!

When John Rich first came here as a teen-ager, he used to sneak into a well-worn Trinity Lane bar known as the Broken Spoke. And it wasn’t because he was getting served alcohol there.

Instead, there was a regular talent contest there, with a screener named Judi Martin, who used to pay actual cash prizes to the top three finishers. Folks like Tracy Byrd, Trace Adkins and Tracey Lawrence were among the competitors. (Apparently, you needed to have a certain first name to win there.) And some powerful Music Row types would watch.

Anyhoo, for some reason, it occured to John that there were no such beast in town anymore. So he’s starting his own, called “Get Rich Talent Search.” (Get it?)

“There’s probably a kid parking cars somewhere that’s like, he knows he’s a superstar, but he doesn’t know the first thing about how he’s gonna get there,” John told me.

Well now here’s a path.

Starting March 31, John is gonna line up 10 folks to compete the final Monday of every month at 12th & Porter. John’ll pick ‘em from whatever entries he gets when you e-mail GetRichTalentSearch@gmail.com. If you do that, you’ll get back info on where to send your CDs and pictures and bio info.

Top prize: $300. Not bad, yo! Second place is $200 and Third is $100.

John also promises to have powerful Music Row types there, the types who might sign you to a record deal or put you in touch with awesome songwriters and/or producers.

Reba to host ACM awards show, again

Looks like the two big-time country awards shows are changing places.

For years, the CMA Awards had Vince Gill as host and the ACM Awards show was either unhosted or always changing hosts.

Now it’s flipped. The CMAs had an unhosted show in the fall.

And today, the ACMs are announcing that Reba McEntire will be back, for a 10th time. And this’ll be, like, her fourth or fifth year in a row.

The ACMs happen May 18 in Las Vegas.

They’ll air on CBS.

Hannah Montana comes to CMT Awards

This morning, CMT announces that Miley Cyrus, a.k.a. Hannah Montana, will co-host the CMT Music Awards with her daddy, Billy Ray Cyrus.

The bad news: The show — April 14 at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University — is sold out, and has been since before Miley and Daddy were announced as hosts.

The good news: CMT says there will be some opportunities to get tix that’ll be announced next week.

We’ll keep ya posted.

Billy Ray and Miley also are set to do a performance during the show.

Already announced: Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, Taylor Swift and Toby Keith.

Carrie had a sweet Valentine in Hershey?

Here’s some more fuel for the Carrie-Underwood’s-dating-a-TV-hunk rumors.

I saw a picture of Chace Crawford that was purportedly taken at the Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban concert Thursday (Valentine’s Day) at an arena in Hershey, Pa.

Chace, from the CW network hit show, Gossip Girl, has, gossip has it, been Carrie’s not-so-secret boyfriend for several months.

Brad spies said Carrie smiled at Chace once during her set.

Chace and his buddies were sitting near the sound board, and Chace left after Carrie sang Before He Cheats.

So what does Carrie’s publicist say about this Chace spotting??

Uh, nothin’.

Vince’s Kanye crack: Not an ‘ounce of ill will’

Vince Gill tells me he didn’t mean anything by it when he zinged Kanye West at the Grammys.

See Vince’s crack and his reaction by clicking HERE.

If you missed it, Ringo Starr handed Vince a trophy, for best country album, and Vince said: “I just got an award given to me by a Beatle. Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?”

The crowd went bonkers, and Kanye smiled.

Vince said it was a response to something Kanye said earlier in the show when Kanye won best rap album.

Vince and Kanye were both up for the all-genre album of the year Grammy, as were Amy Winehouse, The Foo Fighters and Herbie Hancock.

When Kanye won for rap album, he said, in part: “For (Winehouse producer) Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse, if I don’t get to get up here for album of the year, you deserve it just as much as me. I deserve it too.”

That didn’t sit too well with Vince.

“I felt like that kinda slammed me and Herbie and the Foo Fighters,” he said.

But Vince said he wasn’t stewing about it, and Vince’s retort was “off the cuff” and meant to be funny.

“I saw that he was laughing after I said it. So I was grateful I wasn’t gonna get my butt whupped,” he said, laughing.

Vince said he went to find Kanye at an after party to “hug his neck,” but they never found each other.

“There wasn’t an ounce of ill will,” Vince said.

Emmylou, Tom T., Statlers to go in Hall

Congrats to Americana/folk hero Emmylou Harris, who is going into the Country Music Hall of Fame in the 1975 to present category.

She’ll be joined by singer/songwriter Tom T. Hall (perhaps most famous for the “I love little baby ducks” song).

Tom tied with the Statler Brothers for Hall entry in the WWII-to-1975 category.

Finally, the pre-WWII inductee will be Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman, a country and bluegrass pioneer who started his career in the 1920s.

You may not know him, but you might know one of his daughters, Roni Stoneman, from Hee-Haw.

The four inductees will officially become members of the Country Music Hall of Fame at a medallion ceremony in April, and they will be members 101-105.

Please spare me the Dolly jokes, but….

Dolly Parton had to postpone a concert tour because of a back problem.

I’m begging you, don’t do it. Resist the urge to make a crack about the cause of Dolly’s back problems. In other words, be a better person than many of my colleagues.

Dolly was supposed to kick off a 13-show tour Feb. 28 in Minnesota to support a new album, but doctors say she needs eight weeks to recover from this vague back injury.

Meanwhile, Dolly has her own joke on the subject.

“I know I have been breaking my neck and bending over backwards trying to get my new Backwoods Barbie CD and world tour together,” she said in a statement, “but I didn’t mean to hurt myself doing it.”

Kenny and Keith and Sammy — Oh my!

So you know that Kenny Chesney is bringing his latest stadium tour, Poets & Pirates Tour 2008, to L.P. Field July 5.

Here’s the latest –

Kenny’s buddy and frequent fellow Entertainer of the Year nominee Keith Urban has been added to that show.

Also on the bill for the July 5 concert — LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allan and rocker Sammy Hagar.

Almost sounds like a new VH1 reality show, doesn’t it?

Tix go on sale through Ticketmaster locations at 10 a.m. March 1.

Carrie now has best-selling ‘Idol’ album ever

And Carrie Underwood keeps on smashing them records.

The latest: Carrie now has the best-selling solo female country debut album in the history of life, and beyond.

Her debut album, Some Hearts, has reached 7 million in sales. Dang!

The previous country female solo debut record holder: LeAnn Rimes, who sold 6 million copies of her first album, Blue.

That also means Carrie has the single best-selling album of all American Idol alums in the history of life and infinity. Carrie surpassed Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 album, Breakaway.

Carrie is up for two Grammys this weekend, and she’s gonna perform on the show.

Turns out this was Kimberly’s first rally….

So you heard actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley was at last night’s Barak Obama rally at the Cannery.

Turns out it was an unusual sighting: Kimberly told News 2’s Scott Fralick it was her first ever appearance at a political rally.

In fact, she said:

“I have never been to a political rally before, I have never donated money to a political candidate before. I have never voted in a primary election before. But Sen. Obama has motivated me to do all these things.”

So you think her country singer hubby, Brad Paisley, is of the same mind? His publicist told me yesterday that Brad has made no public primary pronouncements.

As we’ll report in a story around 4:10 this afternoon, that’s not unusual for country artists, who traditionally stay far away from political endorsements, especially on the Democratic side. Many artists fear getting “Dixie Chick-ed”: Shunned by country radio and/or fans for political views.

John Rich of Big & Rich came out early for Fred Thompson, but John is the only country artist with a public endorsement this primary season.

Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry says you don’t want to be on the wrong side of fans — any fans.

“Especially if you’re right wing or left wing. If you go and pick one side, you alienate the other side,” Troy told me.

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